Is FreeCAD suitable for landscape garden design?

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growdigital
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Is FreeCAD suitable for landscape garden design?

Post by growdigital »

I come from a graphics background (Inkscape, SVG, Illustrator etc) and as a total CAD newbie, I'm looking for a suitable tool for garden design. Inkscape is excellent for what it does but I need a bit more accuracy in measuring and positioning objects on a plan.

Is FreeCAD suitable for garden design? I have seen the thread on Civil Engineering Design, and I'm thinking FreeCAD may possibly be too complex for my needs but was wondering if other people have used it successfully? I do like the idea of being able to create a 3D model and possibly include sunlight data. My other option is to go for a simpler 2D program like LibreCAD.

many thanks, Jake
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DeepSOIC
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Re: Is FreeCAD suitable for landscape garden design?

Post by DeepSOIC »

Hi!
You may get around in FreeCAD. FreeCAD even has Arch (architecture) workbench that may have some tools related to this, and some add-on modules (someone is/was working with sunlight stuff).

But I recommend you try SketchUp (not sure if its license fits your needs...). It is user-friendly, supports textures, and rendering with shadows, which seem to be of importance for you, but are almost lacking in FreeCAD. FreeCAD is more aimed at engineering. There might be better tools around for your puspose than SketchUp (e.g., maybe Blender), it's just something I've used.
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yorik
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Re: Is FreeCAD suitable for landscape garden design?

Post by yorik »

I think it depends. If you want mostly to work in 2D, drop a lot of symbols, etc... Then you might be better with LibreCAD or QCAD. You will be able to work much faster there than in FreeCAD, where the 2D tools are still more rudimentary.

However, if you need more complex stuff like study earth movements or other ground work, do details in 3D, etc... Then FreeCAD might become interesting. There is nothing built in FreeCAD to study sun exposure yet, but it's super easy to export a FreeCAD 3D model to other apps that can do it.

But like always in the open-source software world, the best path is always to use several applications together. I would start with 2D in LibreCAD/QCAD, then try to import that in FreeCAD, see how it works producing SVG Drawing sheets out of it, refine the results in inkscape, etc.
growdigital
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Re: Is FreeCAD suitable for landscape garden design?

Post by growdigital »

Thank you both for your replies, much appreciated.

The most pressing need is accurate 2D drawing, so that I can get measurements quickly and so that what's happening in the plan is a true reflection of what's happening on the ground. Surveying land with GPS and adding contours, and then calculating sun angles, would all be nice but secondary.

I think I'll take my first steps with some simple 2D drawings in LibreCAD or equivalent, and then look at FreeCAD and Sketchup once I'm up and running.

many thanks, Jake
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bitacovir
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Re: Is FreeCAD suitable for landscape garden design?

Post by bitacovir »

growdigital wrote:Thank you both for your replies, much appreciated.

The most pressing need is accurate 2D drawing, so that I can get measurements quickly and so that what's happening in the plan is a true reflection of what's happening on the ground. Surveying land with GPS and adding contours, and then calculating sun angles, would all be nice but secondary.

I think I'll take my first steps with some simple 2D drawings in LibreCAD or equivalent, and then look at FreeCAD and Sketchup once I'm up and running.

many thanks, Jake

I think you could try SweetHome3D www.sweethome3d.com . Based on what you described, you can use this program to work on a snapshot from Googlemap and use it as base for your design. There are libraries with models of plants and you can create your own library importing obj objects. SweetHome3D produces plan views with anotation, simbols and dimensions; and 3D renders at the same time.
And it can simulate sunlight path http://www.sweethome3d.com/blog/2014/11 ... ation.html
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Kunda1
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Re: Is FreeCAD suitable for landscape garden design?

Post by Kunda1 »

A presentation on how to design (though it's very slim on the details) a Forest Garden using QCAD.

https://www.forestgarden.wales/wildlife ... en/plan/#1

I wonder if there is a way to automate some of the dimensional calculations between the sattelite imagery and FreeCAD (perhaps using geomatics?)

Related:
Videos: https://vimeo.com/forestgardenwales
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Kunda1
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Re: Is FreeCAD suitable for landscape garden design?

Post by Kunda1 »

Anybody willing to create a tutorial on using Draft WB to create a landscape garden?
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growdigital
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Re: Is FreeCAD suitable for landscape garden design?

Post by growdigital »

Kunda1 wrote: Mon Dec 30, 2019 1:57 pm A presentation on how to design (though it's very slim on the details) a Forest Garden using QCAD.

https://www.forestgarden.wales/wildlife ... en/plan/#1
This was me, 2 years later! URL has changed, it's now:
https://www.natureworks.org.uk//plan/

I started using QCAD, very good for 2D but I'd like to revisit 3d modelling :)
growdigital
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Re: Is FreeCAD suitable for landscape garden design?

Post by growdigital »

bitacovir wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2016 1:27 am I think you could try SweetHome3D www.sweethome3d.com .
Thank you, it took me a while to get back to these messages! I will give SweetHome3D a spin, it just needs to be simple shapes & rendering really
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