Garden Design School is pleased to announce a brand new, 5-day short course, the first of its kind offering intensive, structured training in the use of the VectorWorks CAD program for garden design. Led by one of the UK’s foremost experts in garden design computer software, this is a practical, step-by-step workshop – for a maximum of 12 participants - which is likely to prove very popular.

WHY TAKE THIS COURSE?

Do you want to increase your productivity and profitability?

Do you sometimes find yourself drawing until the early hours to hit deadlines?

Are you frustrated by the fact that some drawings – construction details, for example - could easily be adapted rather than completely re-drawn, from scratch, for each project?

VectorWorks is a set of intelligent drawing tools which will help you to generate professional-looking plans and drawings while saving time and reducing your printing costs. And the software is flexible enough to allow you to retain your own, unique, graphic style in everything you produce.

WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM TAKING THE COURSE?

Practising garden designers who wish to acquire CAD skills to improve the efficiency and quality of their service. Also, recently graduated garden design students who haven’t covered CAD techniques in their previous training. We DO NOT recommend this course for people who are new to the garden design profession.

YOUR TUTOR

Tamsin Slatter is both a qualified, practising garden designer and highly regarded part-time lecturer at several leading UK garden design colleges. Prior to joining the profession, she spent 20 years in the Information Technology (IT) industry, developing and teaching a wide variety of courses.

Since then Tamsin has worked closely with hundreds of garden designers, helping them to harness the considerable practical and commercial benefits of CAD software programs.

COURSE SYLLABUS

1. Concepts, Getting Started and Configuring Landmark
The core concepts and terminology used in VectorWorks. Orientation and familiarisation with the drawing environment. VectorWorks settings and preferences for customising the system to your way of working. Page set-up and templates.

2. Basic Two Dimensional (2D) Drawing Concepts
Methods of drawing and editing 2D objects. Applying graphic attributes to objects. Creating basic construction drawings using simple 2D tools.

3. Drawing Up a Simple Plan including House and Boundary
Walls, symbols, creating your own symbols, hatches, fills and images. The Resource Browser and Resource Libraries. Importing a Surveyor’s file.

4. Adding Hard Landscaping
Hardscape and stipple tools. Text and dimensions. Creating symbols.

5. Adding Planting
Plant symbols and the Plant Place tool. Editing existing plant definitions. The Landmark plant reference database.

6. Organising the Drawing
Creating, editing and drawing with layers and classes. Using viewpoints and saved views.

7. Viewports and Sheets – Ready to Print
Creating different views of the same drawing. Arranging drawings for printing. Scale bars, title blocks and other sheet annotations. General notes: text you can re-use on your drawings.

8. Three Dimensional (3D) Drawing
Different 3D views. Converting 2D objects to 3D objects. Rendering.

9. Site Modelling
Working with 3D site data to model the terrain. Modifying the terrain and assessing cut and fill.

10. Workshop Session
Putting your learning into practise and re-drawing one of your hand-drawn projects.

LOCATION, DATES & TIMES:

The course takes place at Garden Design School’s training centre at Painshill Park, Cobham, Surrey (about 15 miles south west of London). For more information about the venue, including a map and travel details, please click on ‘Our Training Centre’ in the menu, left.

Course Dates: To be advised, please contact us on 01380 728788.

Course Times: 10.00hrs – 16.30hrs (each day)

Lunch and breaks: One hour at lunchtime, plus two 15-minute breaks, morning and afternoon.

COST: £725.00 (inclusive of VAT).

What’s Included & What Isn’t:

Tuition, Software & Course Notes: Fees include all tuition and the free use of VectorWorks demonstration software for a trial period of 30 days from installation. Participants who are currently registered on a professional garden design course have the option to purchase a student version of the software at a discounted price of £99.00 (+ P & P), prior to the course. A student licence is a fully-functioning version of the software which operates for one year from the date of purchase. It also produces a “VectorWorks Educational Version” watermark at the top and bottom of each page.

For those attending the course who are already in practice and haven’t yet bought the software, a special offer on a full commercial licence will be available at the time of the course. A comprehensive set of course notes is provided which includes exercises for students to take away to practice their new skills.

Equipment/Software: Students need their own laptop computers to undertake the course, equipped with a separate mouse, with wheel, as this makes drawing much easier than using a touchpad. To ensure that your computer will run VectorWorks 2008 effectively, we recommend that it meets or exceeds the specification outlined here. However, if you have any questions or concerns about your laptop’s suitability, please let us know.

Catering: Refreshments at break times are included. Lunch can be obtained at Painshill’s on-site restaurant or students may bring their own.

ENROLMENT:

Just 12 places are available on this unique new course. To find out the latest information on enrolment please contact Cheryl Williams on 01380 728788 or e-mail info@gardendesignschool.com