Future of Design Software

Design software manufacturers continually listen to customer feedback and then use those comments to plot the future of software development.

“People would like to see more report templates and faster ways to do things,” says Pete Lord, president, Drafix, Kansas City, Mo., adding that these kinds of improvements are continually pushed down the pipeline.

Now, however, even supplemental services, such as holiday lighting, have led to innovations in imaging software, according to Lord. “I could go into the image of a customer’s house and add icicle lights and put a Santa Claus on the roof,” he explains.

Additionally, “at night” features in some packages allow customers to see what properties can look like after dark, providing upsell-minded contractors with an “in” if illumination is included in their services.

Innovations also are also becoming relevant on the CAD side where a computer can improve on a hand-drawn plan by cleaning it up and boosting its aesthetics. Lord explains that some CAD software packages offer elements that can take a plan to the next level, by offering more color modes that include choices of watercolor, pastel and photo-realistic looks.

However, he also predicts that more complicated, cutting-edge technology, like global positioning satellite (GPS) systems, can be expected to make an even bigger splash in design software – eventually. “You would still have to go on site and measure, but you could use a GPS device that will tell you where you are,” Lord says. “You could walk from one point to 20 feet away and have it tell you the difference.”

Although this is a distinct possibility on the horizon, Lord admits that the technology is not yet fully developed. “It’s accuracy is still plus or minus 10 feet, and that’s great if you’re lost in the woods, but not very helpful when you’re drawing a 30-foot bed,” he says.

Meanwhile, contractor Web sites might bring interactivity to new levels with the incorporation of Web-based design tools, according to John Tilton, chief executive officer, Design Imaging Group, Holtsville, N.Y. Tilton describes an application that could be added to a contractor's Web site. “The customer could go to the contractor’s site with pictures of their own house that they’ve pulled off their hard drive, and landscape their house on the contractor’s site,” he explains. “Then they could e-mail their design to the contractor for a bid.”

“Designing on a computer is going to be ubiquitous,” predicts Dan Monaghan, director of marketing, Nemetschek North America, Columbia, Md., who points to the customer as one catalyst for making design technology more important than ever. “They’re going to continue to demand these types of capabilities. They’re going to continue to want a more realistic representation of what their design is going to look like.”

Meeting these customers’ needs ultimately will be left up to the software designers.

The author is a staff writer for Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at wnepper@lawnandlandscape.com.