From: london@SunSite.unc.edu (Larry London)
Subject: Re: Landscape design software query
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 18:01:29 GMT

       Shareware and Commercial Software For Landscape Design, 
       Garden Planning, Nursery and General Horticultural Use
       =======================================================

(List 1)

The following list with comments was supplied by Fred Christiansen:
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#       NAME                                    MY EXPERIENCE

$ 13    Expert Home Design by SoftSync    Limited functionality
$ 13    Expert Landscape by SoftSync
$ 25    FloorPlan by ComputerEasy
$ 30    ProShape for Windows (shareware)  Decent draw program
$ 37    Home: Bathroom by Generic
$ 37    Home: Home by Generic
$ 37    Home: Kitchen by Generic
$ 37    Home: Landscapes by Generic
$ 39    KeyCAD by Softkey                 Used to be shareware
$ 43    DYOH: Architecture by Abracadata  Good value!  Object-oriented
$ 45    DreamHouse Pro by ComputerEasy
$ 45    Home: Deck by Autodesk
$ 45    Home: Home by Autodesk
$ 45    Home: Landscape by Autodesk
$ 49    DYOH: Interiors by Abracadata
$ 49    DYOH: Landscape by Abracadata
$ 50    FloorPlan Plus by ComputerEasy    Decent but somewhat buggy
$ 75    TurboCAD by IMSI                  Harder to learn than I tolerate
$ 99    Windows Draw by MicroGrafx
$119    EasyCAD by Evolution              Harder to learn than I tolerate
$146    AutoSketch by Autodesk
$175    DesignCAD 2D by ASBC
$230    AutoSketch for Windows by Autodesk
$259    DrafixCAD by Foresight
$285    Generic CADD by Generic
$349    MacDraft for Windows by IDD       Excellent!  Object-oriented

Some of these, such as MacDraft, are good enough to produce drawings
suitable for submission to city building plan inspectors *IF* you can 
find a plotter.  I couldn't; it cost me $500 to have a draftsman copy 
my work onto 2'x3' vellum. Note that low end products are just suitable 
for reasonably precise drawings of your ideas to give to a real drafter.
If any software can save in DXF format, most blueprinters have AutoCAD
and can load and print. Sometimes they can accept HPGL print files.
Otherwise, tape 8.5x11's together and they can be blueprinted in two 
steps.

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(List 2)

Gardening/horticulture/landscaping/nursery software from HORTLINE BBS

   Directory AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR HORTICULTURE SCIENCE
 
 Number | File Directory Area Descriptions
        |
      1 | American Society for Horticultural Science Information
      6 | Graphics and Statistical Programs
      7 | Chemistry, Biochemistry and Genetic Files
      8 | Instrumentation, Interfacing and Data Collection
      9 | Horticulture (Ornamentals, Vegetables, Fruits)
     10 | Food, Nutrition, Exercise and Health
     11 | Education Programs and Foreign Language Tutorials
     12 | USER UPLOADS

        Directory 9 - Horticulture (Ornamentals, Vegetables, Fruits)

AGPRGS.ZIP 140818 11-05-88        Farm management (feed & livestock)
                                  Collection of miscellaneous IBM-Basic
                                  sub-routines 
DESIGN.ZIP 9999 01-19-88          Apple Production & Profitability  (BASIC)
                                  (HortScience 21:1176-1177 - L.L. Creasy)

EPITHET.ZIP 52773 08-27-88        Epithet finder for plant names. 
                                  A fast computer directory to Latin and
                                  Latinized plant epithets. (TCR shareware)

FASTKEY.ZIP 47995 08-27-88        Key out woody landscape plants quickly. 
                                  A quick key to woody landscape plants,
                                  using 4 vegetative (leaf)
                                  characteristics
                                  for identification.  (TCR shareware)

GARDEN.ZIP 3445 12-08m8>          Plan your garden -- BASIC program
                                  (crude but effective) 

GARDENER.ZIP 50073 04-28-88       Garden planning program (w/Pascal listing) 

GARDPRO.ZIP 47846 08-27-88        Calculate garden productivity. 
                                  A garden productivity calculator for
                                  determining the efficiency and
                                  productivity
                                  of vegetable & fruit gardens. 
                                  (TCR shareware) 

[some information on GPLAN and GASSLIB was lost due to line noise,
 entries reconstructed from memory and with guesswork]
      
GASSLIB.ZIP 170385 10-02-88       The Gardener's Assistant
                                  An interesting garden planning program
                                  which accounts for crops planted, 
                                  family size, garden size and geographical
                                  area.

GPLAN.ZIP 86067 08-27-88          The Garden Planner
                                  Plan your garden/nursery/greenhouse space. 
                                  Garden Planner provides over 60 easy to
                                  learn commands to draw vegetable gardens
                                  and other row crops.  (TCR shareware)

SHORT.ZIP 39075 08-27-88          sHORThand (tm) program to create job lists. 
                                  sHORThand is used to produce job lists of
                                  horticultural activities.  A useful tool
                                  for research supervisors, landscape foremen,
                                  farm managers, and curators. 
                                  (TCR shareware)   

TREELAB.ZIP 100776 08-27-88       Tree Trivia GTREE TRIVIA GAME
                                  has over 400 questions on
                                  plants, people, places and facts on
                                  culti[vars] <info lost to line noise>

DELUXE HORTICULTURAL LABELER      is a 2-line label printing program with a 
                                  built-in database of 200 woody plant
                                  scientific names & 200 common names. 
                                  (USDA zones 2-7). (TCR shareware) 

Welcome to the HortLine BBS!  
The American Society for Horticultural Science BBS
300/1200/2400 bps - (703) 836-2418 
113 South West Street, Suite 400,
Alexandria, VA, 22314-2824

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(List 3)

Shareware:  
(many of these programs are available for download from the
Agricultural Library Forum BBS at the National Agricultural Library)

PLAN-IT.ZIP 
GPLAN.ZIP 
GARDASST.ZIP 
GARDENER.ZIP 
PLANTMAN.ZIP
LNDSCPMN.ZIP 

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(List 4)

Commercial:  

1) for IBM and older Macs(OS 4.5 or earlier): 
"The Garden Manager" Garden Manager Jeff Ball and Gary Gack.  P.O. Box 338
Springfield, Pa., 19064 I think this is the one also available from Ortho
as:  "Ortho's Computerized Gardening" from:  Chevron Chemical Co.  6001
Bollinger Canyon Rd.  San Ramon, Ca., 94583 

2) for IBM and Mac "Hortis Opis", 
plant finder & reference list J. Mendoza Gardens, Inc.  18 East
16th St.  New York, N.Y., 10003 

3) for Apple/Mac "Mum's the Word",
planning tool with drawing program (scaled drawings) & information
database Terrace Software P.O. Box 1236 Cambridge, Mass., 02238 

4) for IBM
"The Plant Database Library", computerized plant encyclopedia, landscape
plant selector, & garden notebook Taxonomic Computer Research P.O. Box
12011 Raleigh, N.C., 27605 

5) operating system unknown "Just the Right
Rose", database of 600 roses, old and new varieties.  Rosebud 3707 SW
Coronado St.  Portland, Oregon, 97219 

6) for IBM "Infopoint Software
Finder", basic database of plant and bulb information, cultural data, &
mailorder sources Infopoint Software P.O. Box 83 Arcola, MO, 65603 

7) for IBM 
"Gardenview", garden planning and design program;  3-dimensional color
graphics, 380-plant database, "Time Display" feature displays plant growth
changes during the seasons of the year and at times in the future. Other
features: ability to change viewing angle in drawing, edit and add to
database, save or print drawings.  SOURCE UNKNOWN 

8) freeware for MAC
"Garden Stack", freeware Garden Stack designed by Frank Grimes, simple and
elegant little garden organizer:  First Card, the Database, and the Garden
Card.  Educorp 531 Stevens Ave.#B Solana Beach, CA, 92075 Request:
"Productivity Stack #7406" 

For more information see:  "The Growing Edge" Magazine Vol.2 #1, Fall
1990, see pps. 28-35 $4.95, The Growing Edge, New Moon Publishing, Inc. 
215 SW 2nd St., Suite #201, Corvallis, Oregon, 97333 503-757-0027;
published quarterly 

The Agricultural Library Forum (ALF) BBS sponsored by
the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Md. makes most of the
shareware listed above available for download. They can be reached at
these numbers 24 hours @ 1200-2400-9600 baud.  

Landscape Plant Manager
Version 1.00 Plant Information System by Robert W. Boufford Feris State
College Ornamental Horticulture Technology program Department of
Biological Sciences Big Rapids, MI 49307 The Landscape Plant Manager is a
specialized computer information management program for use in
horticulture education programs and the landscaping industry.  The prime
goal of LPM is to be a plant selector to assist you in the selection of
plants based on design criteria.  LPM was developed as an alternative to
constantly paging through nursery catalogs and plant manuals when trying
to find plants for a particular landscape situation.  The Landscape Plant
Manager will allow you to:  -Add, delete and modify information about
plants used in the landscape.  -Search for plants based on scientific name
or common name.  -Search for plants matching one or more design criteria
for use in the landscape 

TCR GARDEN PLANNER 
Horticultural Shareware from TAXONOMIC COMPUTER RESEARCH 
This program is being distributed as
shareware.  If you find it useful, please send $39.00 to:  Taxonomic
Computer Research P.O. Box 5747 Raleigh, North Carolina 27650-5747 TCR
Garden Planner provides over 60 easy to learn commands to draw vegetable
gardens and other row crops.  It allows full use of multiple color
combinations/monochrome tones and most ASCII symbols for maximum contrast. 
Many commands operate from function keys and all have plain English names
like plant, delete, path, bed, wall, label, titleblock, grid, color, etc. 
It has also been useful for drawing nursery fields and greenhouse space. 

TCR Garden Planner consists of the following files:  
                                GPLAN.EXE TCR GARDEN PLANNER - 
                                60+ commands to draw
                                vegetable gardens, greenhouse beds,
                                nursery fields, and other row crops. 
                                Print manual below and type 'help'
                                in the program for list of commands. 
                                GPLAN.DOC ASCII format manual for above.
                                Load into any
                                wordprocessor as an ASCII, unformatted,
                                or non-document file. Repaginate, format
                                margins, format page length, and print. 
                                Can be printed from DOS: 
                                  A> type gplan.doc >prn COMMAND.GAR
                                sample garden plan that can be loaded with
                                gplan.exe. Shows basic commands. 
                                *.gar extension for plans saved by gplan.exe

GARDENVIEW 5.1 for EGA/VGA PCs.  Complete plant database plus 32,000
colour 3D design capability. $195.  Free information.  MINDSUN, RD2, Box
710, Andover, NJ, 07821 (201) 398-9557 

CHIP (Computerized Horitcultural
Information Planner) Over 5,000 plant profiles cross-referenced for your
needs for an "Achievable Paradise." Demo disk available for $25.  IBM
compatible Call or write for free brochure:  Paradise Information, Inc.,
P. O. Box 1701, East Hampton, NY 11937.  (516)324-2334 or (800)544-2721

MUM's THE WORD Integrated plant database and garden design software.
Symbol library, colour or B/W. FOR MACINTOSH.  
Terrace Software, P.O. Box 271, Medford, MA 02155 (617)396-0382

Gardenview ($195,IBM): This program has drawing and design function
and a 450-plant modifiable zoned plant list;features ed color drawings
of flowers vegies and landscape plants and shows the landscape changin
colors with the seasons. Mindsun 1-201-398-9557

LandDesigner $89,IBM) This design program has a modifiable zoned plant
list ($34 extra). I calculates how many plants are needed to fill an
area and the approx cost.  Green Thumb Software 1-303-460-8384.

Design Your Own Home Landscape ($99, Mac, IBM) Abracadata Ltd PO Box
2440 Eugene OR 97402

Mum's the Word Plus ($165, Mac) 600 plant database.  Terrace Software
1-617-396-0382. 

Hortis Opis ($250, IBM) A 2k plant nonmodifiable database and journal
program for trees, shrubs, vines and grasses.  J. Mendoza Gardens,
1-212-989-4253. 

Rosebud ($44, IBM) A 700-rose database that lets you search for 50
characteristics such as color, fragrance,size,thpe and disease
resistance.  Rosebug 1-503-245-0546

Perpetual Garden Journal and Reminder System ($29, IBM) A program for
keeping gardening notes. Complete with horticulture tips and a search
function.  Double_Pawed Software 432 Bigelow Hollow Rd. Eastford CT 06242

Plant Doctor ($64, IBM) Diagnoses vegetables, fruit and nut diseases.
Elemental Software 1-802-755-0701.

Gardenfind ($39, IBM) An index of the articles tipss and letters in
six gardening magazines from '89 to '91.  Gardenfind Magazine Index
1-206-743-6605.

To learn more about these products read the March/April issue of
National Gardening 1-802-863-1308.

Retyped from Thursday/May7/1992/STAR TRIBUNE, from the Cox News Service.
Green Thumb Software, Inc. of Boulder has announced LandDesigner-Pro, a
powerful CAD software program developed for landscape design. The tool 
enables landscaping professionals to quickly produce high-quality designs
for landscapes, gardens, walkways and sprinkler systems on a personal
computer. More than 300 pre-drawn symbols for plants and other landscaping
materials are included and 12 layers are available for use as overlays to
keep designs organized. Call 1-800-336-3127 for information.

When I was at MacWorld a couple of weeks ago, I saw a demonstration
of a package by Alias called UpFront.  This has to be the most useful
program I have ever seen (commercially available) for architecture.
It is so flexible, they call it the world's first 3D napkin!  It is
fast, and does shading and shadows.  The commercial price was about 
$800 list, with substancial educational discounts available also.
If you are not familiar with Alias, they are the leaders in 3d 
technology, and their programs are widely used to create special effects
in the film industry (examples being Terminator 2 and the Abyss)

There is also a new program for the Mac called "Sprout!".  I've seen
it for sale in MacWarehouse.  Here's the blurb:
        Sprout helps you plan your vegetable garden graphically
        on your Mac.  It comes with editable vegetable databases
        for seven regions, complete with information on planting
        and harvesting times, normal yields, preferred soil pH, 
        spacings for seeds, rows and plants, and cool vs. warm
        seasons.  A planting tool snaps to the correct row and
        plant spacings, then fills in the row with plant symbols.
        Rulers and guides in various scales simplify designing
        your garden.
Its from Abracadata, and it sells for $45.
Newsgroups: rec.gardens