Digital Drawing for Landscape Architecture: Contemporary Techniques and Tools for Digital Representation in Site Design Review

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(More customer reviews)Bradley Cantrell and Wes Michaels have authored a concise and beautifully illustrated book. They know their stuff and it shows. The book presents a detailed overview of digital methods, graphics and tools used in landscape architecture and related design professions. The clearly written content encompasses varying software and graphic. The images are excellent representatives of the graphics and methods the book's content advocates.
The book focuses on the creation of graphics type and not just on specific graphic programs. The authors took into account the flexibility in which many designers create representative graphics. This smart approach allows the book to center on the creation of rich representations of the landscape, but still delve in to the specifics of the programs used by design students and professionals.
Each chapter and section demonstrates varying techniques. From using Photoshop to create sections and plan graphics, to scaling and working with aerials. The authors demonstrate how to integrate CAD with Adobe Illustrator in an easy but important workflow. The book reviews a variety of 3D modeling programs including 3D Max and SketchUp and the type of graphics these programs can generate. One favorite chapter includes a step-by-step tutorial on creating Photoshop Perspective Collage. And this is just a sampling of what the book contains. The comprehensive nature of the book is phenomenal.
The authors move the discussion beyond just `how to' and discuss digital theory. Of particular note is a dialogue on how current digital methods are directly informed by the tradition of ink, pen and paper which was the backbone of graphic representation for decades. Framing the book's methods in the long tradition of hand-drawn illustrations emphasizes why design practitioners must read and use this book; it's a milestone in bringing the design community up to date to the level that design should be represented and practiced.
The book's approach and theories on digital presentation will elevate professionals and students practicing landscape architecture and related fields.
Daniel Tal, author of Google SketchUp for Site Design: A guide to Modeling Site Plans, Terrain and Architecture

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For a hundred years, pencil, pen, markers, and watercolor have been the principal tools of representation for landscape architects and urban planners. Today, those hand-powered aids have been replaced by computers and Computer-aided design (CAD). Digital Drawing for Landscape Architects bridges the gap between the traditional analog and the new digital tools and shows you how to apply timeless concepts of representation to enhance your design work in digital media.
Building on the tried-and-true principles of analog representation, Digital Drawing for Landscape Architecture explores specific techniques for creating landscape design digitally. It explains the similarities and differences between analog and digital rendering, and then walks you through the steps of creating digitally rendered plans, perspectives, and diagrams. You'll explore:
Computing Basics

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Real World Google SketchUp 7 Review

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(More customer reviews)This is not the book you should buy to learn SketchUp. For that I recommend two others: Start with Google SketchUp 7 for Dummies; follow up with Google SketchUp Cookbook if you want/need to know the program more in depth, say for your work. In either case, it's then that you should definitely read Mike Tadros' excellent Real World Google SketchUp 7. This book extends your understanding of the power of the program.
Starting out with setting up your keyboard shortcuts and workspace and carrying on through using templates, scripts, and extensions, Mike covers the groundwork very well. For me, the core of the "real world" was dealing with site plans, importing CAD files, and building exteriors and interiors because that's part of my work. He also thoroughly goes through the creation and application of textures for the model, including how to build a model using a photograph, which is absolutely one of SketchUp's strengths.
Although I don't see myself creating dynamic components anytime soon, the author's section on this topic is more in-depth and clear than any I've read.
Mike carefully takes us through creating animations, adding dimensions, preparing your model for presentation and printing. Finally, the videos on the bonus CD are terrific, and are teasers for his superb website, and its hours of SketchUp training.

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Expert SketchUp instructor Mike Tadros shows you his techniques for using SketchUp in a professional, production-oriented environment, allowing you to finish drawings faster and get better results, whether you work alone or in a multiperson studio. Starting with customizing SketchUp preferences for maximum efficiency, Mike takes you through a professional SketchUp workflow--from setting up your workspace to installing Ruby scripts to importing CAD files and images to managing libraries to exporting your finished product.In Real World Google SketchUp you'll learn how to:
Turn your site plans, floor plans, and elevations into 3D SketchUp models
Import your own digital photos and hand-drawn imagery into SketchUp
Create animated fly-throroughs by saving scenes and exporting movie files
Use Google Earth to create site models and utilize the Google 3D Warehouse to add elements to your models
Get more out of SketchUp with bonus video tutorials on the included DVD

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Google SketchUp for Site Design: A Guide to Modeling Site Plans, Terrain and Architecture Review

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(More customer reviews)As a new sketchup user (going on 3 months) and a purchaser of four books on how to use Google's Sketchup, this book is without a doubt, the most comprehensive introduction to utilizing an amazing tool to design (in 3D) to your hearts desires.
Being a newbie to sketchup can be a daunting experience, such a powerful, yet easy to use tool can get one into all sorts of trouble and lead to many a sleepless night. Aidan Chopra's `Google sketchup 7 For Dummies' was a godsend, as were the numerous online tutorials on Youtube and various online sketchup forums.
Tal's book however has made all the difference, by offering a concise and easy to understand process of how to model effectively. He delivers it with an engaging style that makes all the difference when one is trying to learn something new. The book doesn't suffer the dryness that `Google sketchup 7 Bible' sadly offered. He makes it fun because it really is fun.
Daniel Tal's book is an altogether different beast. A guide book that encourages one to simplify ones approaches by getting organized from the outset, it's all about the process to get the most out of sketchup and ease up on the headaches and sleepless nights that can often entail- no small feat to accomplish in the written word, I can assure you.
The book is set up in four parts the first of which covers the rudimentary tools. The second is where Daniel's expertise and knowledge really start to unfold. On every page, for me at least, there were numerous A-ha moments. So, that's how it's done!!, it's all so easy when one knows how.
The other benefits of the book are the tutorials. These provide numerous exercises' to hone ones skills and climb the ladder to "Sketchup awareness". Part 3 offers an all too rare glimpse into the powerful tools that the `Sandbox' can provide (a feature that I understand Tal was instrumental in fine tuning with the people at Google) to create terrain and organic forms that can really add to ones models and offer endless possibilities. If you can imagine it, Tal's methods enable you to build it. Part four is perhaps the most important one, dealing with Sketchup's unique abilities to import CAD files and also how to greatly increase productivity and turnaround time by using the numerous `Ruby' scripts available.
This is more than just a beginner's book and it is more than just a landscape architects approach to using sketchup in his work. Whether you are an interior designer, a home builder, carpenter, student, an aspiring 3D artist, or a garden designer like me, this book is indispensable.

If you love to model in 3D, you will find this book to be of immense value. Words cannot convey the gratitude I have for this book. It has made me a better, wiser, calmer and happier modeler than even I thought was possible.
Two thumbs up and five stars all the way.


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Google SketchUp for Site Design illustrates a holistic approach to SketchUp: how it works and more importantly, what to do with it.
Filled with tutorials from front to back, the book focuses on the start and completion of projects that include rich detail and expression. Each part and chapter of the book builds on the previous chapters and tutorial.
You will learn how to approach modeling site plans, buildings and site elements: from modeling each of these exterior environment elements to piecing them together to generate a singular and expressive model.
The book culminates with tutorials demonstrating effective and simple ways to include grades and terrain using the Sandbox tools and how best to integrate the entire approach with AutoCAD and SketchUp.
Also included are links to supplemental on-line resources such as YouTube tutorials and free tutorial and example models from 3D Warehouse.
The book is useful for all SketchUp proficiency levels including beginners, hobbyists, and professionals.

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