The program has a library of about 18,000 plants, trees and other elements.
#DRAFIX PRO LANDSCAPE SOFTWARE SOFTWARE#
Other information the software provides includes the estimated cost of items, a materials list and plant information to help create a bid.ĭavid Sloan, sales manager for PRO Landscape, says the software is updated yearly, adding new plants, materials and tools. “You don’t want to order plants, have them arrive and hear a client say, ‘Oh, that’s what you meant? Well, I don’t like those,’” Pickering says. For example, a client says, “I want a palm tree here.” With about 2,600 species of palm trees available, it’s easy to see how a designer and a client might find themselves not quite on the same page. Pickering Design Service LLC, Dallas, says software minimizes the potential for miscommunication. “I can take my laptop, and if the customer says he doesn’t want that row of bushes, I just click and it’s gone,” Fisher says.īob Pickering of R. He can drop in specific plants, trees, bushes, grasses and hardscape elements (the program uses SketchUp for this) and get a client’s approval before any materials are ordered. The design software he uses, PRO Landscape, a product of Drafix Software Inc., Kansas City, Missouri, like some similar products, creates an accurate 3-D rendering and helps clients visualize how a design will look when completed. “This saves a lot of time (not to mention back strain).” “I used to carry around a bunch of books so I could show clients photographs, or I’d look images up on the internet,” Fisher says. Before he began using it, the process of explaining to a client how a finished design would look was much more cumbersome. That’s just one of the benefits of using software, Fisher says. “If the clients aren’t just tire-kickers who are just asking questions, I’ll sell a job to each and every one of them,” he says. Before he started using it, his rate was only 50 percent. He says that using software has enabled him to close nearly 100 percent of his business proposals. Richard Fisher of Fisher’s Landscape Design in Clermont, Florida, has been in business for 35 years, and has used landscape design software for about 20 of them.
It’s become a powerful tool for time-pressed designers who appreciate it not only for the efficiencies it provides, but also for its value as a client communications tool. If you’ve checked out landscape design software recently, you know that it keeps evolving constantly, adding ever-more options and functionalities.
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