Cloud Based Landscape Design Tool

A landscape plan is highly significant to complete a landscape project successfully. It helps in visualizing exactly how will your landscape look like after construction. Also, it enables you to estimate the type and quantity of the material required in the construction and estimated costs relating to it. The landscape plan is also required to seek approval from local authorities or landowners before construction starts.

Earlier, when technology was not so prevalent, people used to prepare landscape design plans manually using pencil, ruler, and papers. But, now in this digital era, landscape design software is used to design landscapes professionally. You can get a better visualization using the software. With virtual objects and 2D and 3D effects, and your digitally prepared landscape design becomes much more comprehensive than a manual design in which circles and squares represent patios, statues, trees, gazebos, etc.

A landscape design software simplifies the job of creating landscape plans and help garden designers, DIY landscape owners, and landscape architects in presenting their ideas in a professional manner before converting them into reality.

As per the statistical report by IBIS World, the Landscape Design Industry in the United States, consisting of designers and architects specializing in preparing digital plans for landscapes, and other outdoor areas are growing since 2013. You can refer the below image to understand the same.

Parallel to the growth of the landscape design industry, the digital methods of designing landscapes are also evolving. Many advanced landscape designing software available, help in saving costs and time associated with landscape and outdoor construction.

Significance of Landscape Design Software

While designing a landscape, sometimes we know exact design specifications, but many times we are clueless about how to start with it. A landscape design software even helps in generating ideas which we can execute in our landscape design. Many times, it also happens that the idea we have is not feasible with the landscape area. In such a situation, a landscape design software can help you in checking whether your design idea is compatible with the landscape area or not. With the help of a landscape design software, you can create a landscape of your dreams without leaving your chair.

Whether you are the owner and want to design your landscape yourself, or a professional landscape architect, you require a good landscape design software for estimating costs, checking feasibility, and preparing digital plans. Moreover, your landscape design software can integrate with other CAD software and BIM software to create wonderful designs for the properties.

Benefits of Using Landscape Design Software

The fundamental reason for using best landscape design software is to save time, resources, material and cost. The overall process of landscape designing can be tedious without the software. The software helps in visualizing the elements which would make your landscape look beautiful before the construction. Also, the software enables you to predict the quantity of the material required to build your landscape and whether the entire cost of building the landscape fits into your budget or not. Precisely, the software helps you in converting your imaginations into reality keeping all the constraints in mind.

Some of the benefits related to landscape design software include -

The entire landscape project is digitally on hand before the construction
Highly accurate and efficient landscape designs planned in advance
Budget planning is possible with the help of the software
Helps in enhancing productivity and keeps updated with the latest trends in landscape designing
The chances of any construction activity going wrong are very minimal.
The software helps the landscape designers to visualize the entire project quickly and easily.

Above all, it gets easier to understand your landscape much before the actual construction.

How Does a Landscape Design Software Work?

The process of landscape design consists of two phases - design and construction. The landscape design software helps you in the first phase, and that is designing. Before you start designing the landscape, you need to have some design ideas and the area dimensions of your landscape.

You can start with choosing the template design that suits to your area dimensions, or you can upload a picture of your landscape area.
Add elements in your landscape like plants, swimming pool, waterfall, gazebo, lightings, etc. available in the objects library of your landscape design software.
You can manipulate the objects added until you get the look and feel you require in your landscape area.
You can even explore different possibilities in design by adding new elements or deleting the existing ones, and changing their colors.
Add shadow & lighting effects to the landscape design, and make your presentation aesthetically beautiful.
Create a walkthrough effect on your landscape design and view the area from different angles to get a better idea about the design.
Export the completed design in the format of your choice, or print the presentation. (Depending on the landscape design features & limitations).

Most of the landscape design software comes with a huge database of plants, and objects used in creating attractive presentations. With hands-on experience with the software, you can come up with wonderful landscape designs from the comfort of your home or office.

Choosing The Best Landscape Design Software

There are many landscape design software available that can help you design with just your system and the mouse. Just get rid of your pencils and papers! Selection of the right landscape design software depends on the features you require.

Most of the landscape design software comes with the feature of scanning the picture of the landscape and allowing you to drag and drop plants and other objects like plants, trees, gazebo, patio, swimming pool, etc. on that picture. This helps you in determining, how will your landscape look like after designing it the way you require. You can make infinite changes till you get the exact look you require.

Many landscaping software also comes with the feature which shows how will your landscape look like when the plants grow up. The advanced features of the software include 3D effects with a virtual tour providing an experience as if you are actually walking through the landscape.

Let's look at what features you should look for before selecting a landscape design software.

Features of an Ideal Landscape Software

Landscape design software is expected to have the features which can help landscape architects to build stunning and scalable plans. It should facilitate the clients/landscape owners in visualizing ideas in the form of accurate digital drawings. Some of the easy-to-use tools of ideal landscape software include -

Integrated CAD Tool

The landscape design software with integrated CAD tool can help in designing planting details, irrigation systems, lighting, and other utilities for a specific landscape property. There is a symbol library available within the software for the landscape architecture objects like a plant, gazebo, fountain, swimming pool, etc. You can also create custom symbols using the software to make your presentation appealing.

Design Appearance

This tool allows you to select the design appearance you require for your presentation. You can create a sketch with the watercolor look or a vibrant landscape plan which includes a lot many graphical elements. You can experiment with new ideas using this tool and create an appealing design blending well with the requirements.

Plant Labels

You can provide labels to the plant symbols in your landscape design which can be its botanical name, size, quantity, etc. The layout and design of the plant labels can be modified suiting to the overall landscape design. The details of the plant labels can be even exported to excel for future modifications.

3D Graphics

Using 3D graphics feature you can add effects like flowing water, shadows, lighting, etc. to create lively presentations. Virtually walking through the landscaped property is possible using this feature.

House Wizard

This tool helps you in adding house to the landscape. The house can be pre-built, or you can create one as per your choice. You can easily create a house with walls, windows, doors, lights, etc. with few clicks of a mouse and your imagination.

Import Digital Photographs

You can import the digital photograph of the original house and design the landscape surrounding that house. This feature is quite useful if the quick design of a landscape design is required. Moreover, it gives a realistic effect to your presentation.

Customized Model Design

Want to insert a gazebo or a swing in your landscape? This feature allows you to show exact models at exact places in the landscape design giving you an accurate idea of how your landscape will look like after design completion.

Irrigation Designs

Landscape without proper irrigation system cannot be adequately maintained. Especially if it is a big landscape project, you need to have an appropriate irrigation system in place. Using landscape design software, you can create a virtual irrigation system including customized symbols for pipes, valves, etc. and create impressive presentations.

Material List and Cost Estimation

Using landscape design software, you can create the list of material required to build the landscape, the cost of the material, and labor, as well as the final budget of how much the overall landscape design project would cost.

The landscape design software consisting of advanced features many times may not fit in your budget. Thus, you need to choose a landscape design software having features which you are actually going to use; otherwise, you end up investing a higher amount unnecessarily.

Before investing in software, you can try free landscape design software and check whether it can match your requirements or not. If you need to go for highly advanced features which are not there in free software, you can try freemium version, so that you know whether the software is up to the standards you require or not before you invest a huge amount.

Here, we have come up with 7 best free and open source landscape design software and their features which can help you in determining which one can be the best as per your needs.

7 Best Free and Open Source Landscape Design Software

#1 Designor Buddy

Designor Buddy is a free and open source landscape design software for professionals. Designor Buddy is an "OpenOffice Draw" file which is one of the modules of OpenOffice suite. OpenOffice Suite is an excellent substitute to Microsoft Office.

OpenOffice Draw can help in creating simple diagrams and dynamic 3D illustrations. Designor Buddy is built using OpenOffice Draw program which facilitates users to integrate landscape images with 2D effects. Though Designor Buddy is used to prepare organization structures and home interiors, it can be customized and made landscape design friendly. It has layers tools which help you in moving plants around without disturbing other elements like a patio in your landscape design.

The two reasons for choosing "Designor Buddy" over other landscape design software are - it is totally free and customizable. This means you get advanced features available in an expensive landscape design software without burning a hole in your pocket if you are using "Designor Buddy."

(designorbuddy.com)

Features

Customizable software having scalability
Can place different objects in different layers (Similar to Photoshop)
Contains huge library of plants, materials, and hardscapes

Bottomline

Designor Buddy is a free to download customizable landscape design software which is easy to use and rich in features.

If you have already used Designor Buddy, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#2 ConceptDraw

ConceptDraw is an open source landscape design software showcasing your planted area and the compatibility of all the elements within the area. It has a huge library of objects like trees, ponds, bushes, outdoor furniture, patio, gazebo, etc. You can create your landscape plan within a few minutes using this library. Besides this library, you can also use already existing templates to create a unique landscape design as per your requirements.

To start with ConceptDraw, you need to open the template suiting to the dimensions of your landscape area, after that you can set parameters like page size, measurement, scale, etc. After that, you can easily drag the objects from the library and arrange them as per your preferences. The entire process of designing a landscape becomes seamless and enjoyable by using this software.

ConceptDraw can also help you in creating your customized object and place it in the landscape design. Moreover, you can connect these objects as a group. The grouped objects can be moved together. For instance, a bush and patio can be grouped together if these objects are required to place together.

A landscape design created using ConceptDraw can be printed and exported to various formats like HTML, PDF, Powerpoint Presentations, etc.

(conceptdraw.com)

Features

Using ConceptDraw, you can create professional landscape designs even if you are not an artist.
Huge library of vector objects helps in designing quickly and easily.
Pre-designed templates included in this software help even non-professional designers to create wonderful designs.
You can easily rotate, flip, move, the objects. Moreover, the grouping of objects is also possible, so you can easily arrange them according to your specifications.
Personalize the presentations or give them a unique brand identity by using fonts and colors of your choice.

Bottomline

ConceptDraw is the landscape design software which allows you to create designs and presentations totally free for 21 days. If you wish to continue, you need to buy the license and create as many as projects you require.

If you have already used ConceptDraw, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#3 Kerkythea

Kerkythea is a free landscape design software which you can download for different operating systems and start creating appealing & professional designs without even spending a single penny.

It can help you in completing the high-quality landscape design projects using accurate materials, and lighting within a minimum time frame, simplifying your work but at the same time maintaining the quality.

It has a common interface which includes material editor, render settings, editors, real-time viewer, etc. thus providing with required tools to automate landscape design setup.

(kerkythea.net)

Features

This software provides "Getting Started Guide" which enables even non-professional designers to make the most out of it and create extremely professional designs.
It offers a powerful material editor system which helps in creating realistic presentations.
As it has a single interface for rendering, it becomes easy to create professional landscape designs quickly and seamlessly.

Bottomline

Although Kerkythea is a freeware software, it has no limitations in terms of creating professional landscape designs and thus can be used by experts, beginners, and even students.

If you have already used Kerkythea, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#4 Lands Design

Lands Design is a free landscape design software which can help in creating 2D and 3D presentation providing a realistic view of how exactly your landscape will look like after construction. You can even create virtual tours and walk through effects generating a better interpretation of the design in front of the clients.

It includes a detailed database of plant species with their characteristics and specifications of which atmosphere and terrain would suit these species. Based on this information, you can place the exact plant species in your landscape design to get exactly as per your requirements.

It has a huge library of different trees; thus you can place three-dimensional trees with shadows to give a real effect to the landscape design project. Moreover, you can customize the library to suit your specific needs. This software also helps in presenting the layout of the watering system like irrigation pipes, sprinklers, etc.in your landscape easing the job of explaining the entire project to clients & landscape owners.

It has the ability to create curves, surfaces, and solids, to provide freeform landscape modeling effect to the presentation.
It has more than 1800 plant species in its database, and so can display exact view of how the landscape will look like after construction.
Capable of displaying accurate surfaces representing terrains, boundaries, gaps, division, etc.
It also has a versatile library of urban furniture which helps in displaying your landscape plan in an appealing manner.
After creating the project in Lands Design, you can export it to AutoCAD.
Having easy to use interface, it enables people to create professional designs without technical knowledge.

Bottomline

Lands Design is an extremely user-friendly, and dynamic landscape design software as it includes versatile tools which enable users to create professional landscape designs within a comfortable time frame.

If you have already used Lands Design, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#5 SmartDraw

SmartDraw is a diagramming software helping in creating flowcharts, processes, maps, floor plans, landscape designs, project charts, network diagrams, etc. It is extremely powerful and user-friendly and is used by professionals as an alternative to Visio - a Microsoft application.

It provides automatic formatting and includes versatile templates, helping landscape architects to create appealing designs quickly. It can run on any internet connected device, and also can be downloaded for Windows platform.

You can integrate SmartDraw with several other tools like MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Moreover, it permits users to share visuals and drawings created with other users easily. It can help users in creating schematic, graph-based, and chart-based diagrams.

(smartdraw.com)

Features

SmartDraw has 34,000 symbols for different sectors like software, healthcare, engineering, etc. Also, it includes standard shapes which can be used organization charts, flowcharts, and other diagrams.
This software includes annotation layer similar to AutoCAD which resizes automatically to fit in a diagram.
It can import and export diagrams in Visio format (VSD & VSDX).
SmartDraw can run in the web browser using multiple devices and platforms.
It can integrate with various file-sharing programs like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
It includes 4,500 different templates for above 70 different diagram types.

Bottomline

SmartDraw offers free trial software which can leave watermark on the diagrams. If you are designing professional landscape design presentations, the free version may not help you. But, you can try its free version to decide whether it suits your requirements or not before buying it.

If you have already used SmartDraw, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#6 DreamPlan Home Design

Whether it is about designing the interior of a room or a landscape design, DreamPlan Home Design can be of great help. It is an easy to use solution which can provide 2D, 3D and blueprint view to your presentations.

You can visualize your outdoor or landscape design before constructing it, and save your costs and time. You can even import 3D models to get a unique design for your landscape. Reshaping the terrain of your outdoor space, designing swimming pool, front gardens, and backyard sanctuaries are all tasks possible with the help of DreamPlan Home Design.

(nchsoftware.com)

Features

Decorate and shape your landscape area according to your preferences
Visualization of garden furniture and other objects like patios, gazebos, etc. to determine how it fits into space
Export 3D objects into your design
Select and export objects from the online content library to your landscape
Visualize your design in 2D, 3D and blueprint mode
Design your swimming pool and deck suiting to your property and space

Bottomline

DreamPlan Home Design is a completely free landscape design software with no limitations. It is available for Windows & Mac operating systems.

If you have already used DreamPlan, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#7 Terragen

Terragen is a highly professional landscape design software meant for very large landscapes. It is used to build, render, and animate realistic natural landscapes. Using this software, you can create wonderful outdoor spaces as per your imagination.

You can have complete control over the shades, and effects you use for weather, lakes, clouds, moon, sun, terrains, textures, and thus come up with highly appealing presentations to impress your clients. Also, you can place trees, plants, grass, wherever you want, and also other objects like garden furniture, patio, decks, etc. suited to your natural landscape.

Terragen is a proven software for visual effects, has been used in around 30 feature films, and many TV products, game development, museum exhibits, VR environments, documentaries, etc. Empowered with powerful displacement and atmospherics engines; this software helps in creating landscape designs accurately with detailed terrains, proper placement of objects, photo-realistic environments, and volumetric skies.

(planetside.co.uk)

Features

High control over visual effects is possible to create aesthetically beautiful presentations.
Different objects can be animated to give a realistic effect to the presentations
Includes graph editors which help in adding wonderful shades and textures.
You can add maps and height fields to the scenes.
Large and small scale detailing possible in the same scene is possible.
Includes more than 20 plant models helping to get started seamlessly.

Bottomline

Terragen is a highly interactive landscape design software with intuitive tools that helps in creating and exploring scenes quickly and easily. You can try its free version meant for a non-commercial purpose or 30 days of commercial evaluation.

If you have already used Terragen, please feel free to share your reviews here.

Didn't find the features you are looking for in these free landscape software? You can consider an interactive 3D landscaping software known as Vizterra. Yes, it requires investment, but it provides 15 days trial period, for you to determine whether it suits your landscaping design requirements or not.

Below are the details of this amazing landscape design software -

Vizterra

Vizterra is an easily customizable landscape design software offering a streamlined interface, magnificent tools, and an extensive 3D library. It can help you in drawing in 2D, transforming your ideas into 3D, to create highly interactive presentations which can be shared with your clients instantly. Using this software, create appealing outdoor living spaces, share with your clients, and inspire them.

(structurestudios.com)

Features

Can convert 2D designs into 3D with a single click
Can import real site maps and Autocad files
Facilitates to view 2D files in 3D
Allows map-related topography in 3D
Shows real dimensions of each object instantly
Can design wooden decks
Includes powerful library to access 3D objects
Can create attractive videos with immersive sounds

If you have already used Vizterra, please feel free to share your reviews here.

Similar to Vizterra, you can also have a look at the features of other freemium and paid landscape design software like Greenscapes, Pro Landscape, Realtime Landscaping Pro, DynaSCAPE, and Home Outside.

Conclusion

For landscape designers and DIY homeowners, the landscape design software mentioned above can help in visualizing their outdoor projects before the construction. When you go through the details of these landscape design software in-depth, you would be able to determine which features, and integrations you need and which ones are not so required. Based on that analysis, you can shortlist the free landscape design software based on your requirements.

When it comes to professional landscape design, many times, free software might not help. Thus, you can also consider freemium and paid landscape design software mentioned in this article, and select the one which suits your business requirements.

You can also go through this comprehensive list of landscape design software to get more options.

Are you looking out for information on other software as well? You can browse all software categories here.