Vectorworks 2010 Training days

2 very intense days of VectorWorks training with Tamsin Slatter of Vectorworks Training. FANTASTIC.

This is the first time I have used a CAD type package, well Sketch Up I suppose but this is really in a different league (as promised by TS!). Learning the whole thing from scratch is always daunting but it was a fascinating tour through the basics and a good level of repetition and trawling through functionality.

I feel fortunate to be in a group with 3 CAD experts, 2 interior designers and a Landscaper all of whom brought clarity to various elements, be it explanations of functions in AutoCAD through to the basics of real life wall building (a 101 for dummies like me!). Being with a group who are much better at something than I am makes me take a step up and try and match them. I love that!

TS sailed us through the exercises and knowledge with aplomb, not in the least phased by the vargaries of hardware, user foibles, OS's or anything else for that matter. She even helped me change my memory cards (from Crucial.com) in record time. I am now loving he double speed action of my new 4gb RAM.

Exhausting all this learning but very satisfying, now for the 30 mins a day to build the real foundations to work from.

And of course saving pennies for that iMac with 27" screen... totally green with envy over that

Vectorworks 2010 downloaded...FINALLY

After about 2 weeks of faffing about I have finally downloaded and installed the treasured package Vectorworks 2010.

Upon opening it it has decided to ask for more updates to be installed. Oh PLEASE!

After all that palaver, you think I am going to risk losing it with updates and file name changes and re-activations... I don't think so!

Also feeling a little smug about extending my Windows partition. I know small potatoes to most techies but a first for me. Gotta love Ubuntu Live CD - 8.10 Intrepid Ibex from which I resized... Windows itself makes the resize much harder.

Back to the Garden History timeline...

Full Time and then some

Funny really I thought a full time course would be just that but this Post Grad Dipl in Garden Design at Oxford College of Garden Design is a bit like being back at Graphic Design degree stage. I was the only person amongst school friends with more than about 10hrs a week in class. We had class 9-6, Mon to Fri and then of course there was homework too. OCGD is a bit like that, only 2 days a week in class but I seem to spend ALL of the rest of my time working on projects, that's a 'no weekends off' policy :).

Right now I have a set of designs, elevations, 3D model, mood boards to finish for next Friday, for this I also have to find and learn to use Transtext, a 3 x A3 page pictorial timeline (120 images and text) for Dec 10, I have to think up an essay title and write a plan for it, for Dec 15. Before the end of term we have another garden to design and hand in plans - we haven't seen it yet. Then in the 6 week xmas holidays (ho ho ho) we have approx 200 hrs of work to complete a Hard Landscape Portfolio.

Concurrently with this there are gardens to visit, seasonal images to be taken of borders and flowers/plants for the soft landscape portfolio and we need to learn Vector Works (a type of CAD). GULP

I thought it would be knowledge expanding, and it is, I didn't quite realise how time consuming it would be, nor how much planning it would require, nor how obsessive one can become about filling in background info - that would be reading the reading list books I have bought and the magazines I have subscribed to!

I am off to read the entry rules for igpoty Garden Photographer of the Year 2010, got to relax some how

Week VI, already

Busy week this week. Wednesday began with an early start, 04:30, to get over to Oxford in plenty of time for a 09:00 start on the SketchUp training day with Tamsin Slatter. An interesting day and certainly one where I learnt quite a few good short cuts and techniques to improve the existing drawings. Even attempted a spiral stair case successfully!

Thursday and Friday were filled with hand drawing techniques and an introduction to Chartpak Markers. I struggled with perspective drawing technicalities. Jo Chance passed on a good set of techniques but doing it by eye was far more successful for me than all the measuring and planning. No doubt with some practice I can make it work. Thankfully CK sat next to me both days and proved a fount of useful tips - she has taught this particular skill to interior design students for about 13 years apparently!

Rendering, or coloring in, was fun and some of the years of sketching through art A' level and a design degree, came flooding back. I really enjoyed this day, although the scent of acetone had most of us wild eyed and a tad headachey.

From My Pictures

Now I just have to knuckle down and get the UP1 design tweaked and humanly possible to build, re SketchUp'd, Rendered, Elevated and that'll be homework done ready for the next annihilation, sorry crit next week

Greystone Day

How industrious do we look?!

 

A good day, well half day but filled with information about Picasa, Editing, PPT, Vector Works and Sketch Up. A great deal to take in and I'm glad I spent time familiarising myself with at least some of it. Today encouraged a shift in gear to really get to know all the packages.

Rain stopped play in the garden photography front although walking down to cars thorugh the damp forest was heavenly.