LANDSCAPING SOFTWARE please help!!!!!

[Jay123]

I am looking into buying a landscaping software so i can show a potential customer what the job will look like before i even start i been looking into a couple one was by pro landscape its a little expensive and another one was realtime landscape plus i am having trouble deciding what one to go with just wondering if anyone is using any and which one is a good one thanks for the help i appreciate it..

[FloridaBoy]

Lawn care business tips

Good software programs that give you all the options you need to provide a real nice proposal is quite an expense if you dont use it very often. If landscaping is your primary line of work then definately spend the money.if not, you have to ask yourself if the profit from the job is worth purchasing the software.

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[jklawncare]

im very skilled in photoshop so i will just be using that

if you want

you could even get an arial shot of there home and plan it out right off of that

it would be as close to acurate as it could get in my opinion. Plus you can use it to design flyers, web pages, etc etc.

[psparaco]

Well for landscaping I would suggest using autocad civil 3D. This software costs in the ballpark of $4000-$6000 per license. Another one is Bentley's Microstation Version 8 is the latest i last used about 3 years ago. Nto sure on its price but its about the same as autocad civil 3D.

Since your not a consulting landscape engineering firm. I would highly suggest either using photoshop as JKlawncare mentioned. Me personally I would print out an aerial photo of the person's property on graph paper. That way you can measure things properly.

Most of your potential customer won't care if you use something classy or graph paper. If they wanted something classy and had the extra money. They would first hire a landscaping engineering consultant. Have that firm's design team design their landscape. Then they would select a group of landscapers such as you and I who would then bid on the project. My previous line of work was Mechanical Engineering. I did that for 12 years til i was laid off due to the economy in 2009. I do own a basic copy of autocad. But i dont use it for landscaping. The same amount of time I could layout your front yard. I could have sketched it up by hand and had the work half done.

[Steve]

How do you find the customers react to hand sketches? Do you feel that holds you back at all or do they appreciate the added craftsmanship of it?