Patio Software

[LerchBros]

Has anyone seen software for estimating or designing patios? One of our blue stone suppliers told us that a company was using software for designing irregular patios. The dimensions are entered and the program tells you what size to put where, it makes the guess work a little less time consuming. We were wondering if the programs could also be used for concrete pavers. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

[Stonehenge]

When you say 'what size to put where' do you mean the software gave input as to what kind of sonte/paver would look good, or just gave you the area of the space?

If you're looking for a fast (but not inexpensive) way to find areas of irregular patios you're designing (or even patios someone else is designing that you're bidding on), a digitizer will do this for you. I don't have one; I looked into getting one last year or the year before, and chatted with Paul about it (he does have one). Just click-click-click around the perimeter of the patio and >poof< you have your area. Or measure the lineal feet of landscape edging to have to put in, or estimate mulch or decorative stone, etc.

This is the kind of thing I'm talking about: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2577861924&category=4660

[Lanelle]

I use my 2-D cad program to design the patio shape. Then the calculator tool figures the area and perimeter. I can also scan plans by others, trace the important elements and use the calculator tool. This is a less-elegant solution than Paul's digitizer.

[Stonehenge]

Lanelle, do you import the scanned image into CAD, then calculate?

[Lanelle]

Yup, import into cad program, trace and 'measure'.

[Stonehenge]

Cool. I'm kinda ticked because I have so much other stuff to do, that I wonder whether I'll have time to even dig into my CAD package I bought last winter... :rrr:

[LerchBros]

Thanks for the replies. I'll have to look into the CAD programs. Is there any way to input the sizes of stones into the program, so that it can create the pattern? Our random blue stone comes in 5 different sizes, but all of the pieces are the same size in each specific size!?! I guess what i am saying is that they are all uniform in size. Anyway, i might just have to start snooping around the competition, maybe they are on to something. Thanks

[Stonehenge]

If you can't find what you're looking for, there's a low-tech solution you can tackle with most any image editor program. I did this a few years ago:

Take a digital picture of the different sizes together in the start of a pattern. In an image editor, delete everything outside of that stone pattern, then copy the stone pattern several times, and assemble it digitally so it is a much larger area.

Now scan in your design. Delete everything but the outline. Overlay the stones, and crop off the stuff that goes outside the lines in the design.

Now open up a pic of the site where the patio will be installed. Using a persepctive tool, resize it to look like a photographed patio, and slide it into the location where the patio will go. >voila<

I will warn you in advance, this will take some time, and should probably be tackled only if you have some extra time or really want the job.

[Paul]

Back in my old Auto-cad days I would adjust the hatch patterns of the type of paver that I needed, basically writing the pattern that I needed. Now Unilock has the hatch patterns on their CD-Rom disk, so if the Cad package you are using uses Auto-Cad or something that accepts Auto-cad hatch files, you can use them.

[Will Pacala]

I've always used the old fashion way (pencil and paper). Never any problems. If one style or shape doesn't work erase and redo. I would like to check out the computer software though.