AutoCAD, Photoshop & Illustrator

[tdafashy]

Hello. I am a landscape architecture student and am trying to understand how AutoCAD, Photoshop and Illustrator are used in the field.

I am taking an AutoCAD course now so understand that this program is used to draw and modify existing drawings but am not familiar with Photoshop or Illustrator. What do these programs do? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of these three? Does one make up for deficiencies in the other or are their capabilities different and complementary? Are they used in combination? If so, would you please give an example?

Thanks so much!

[Mike.Perry]

Hi

Please note I've *moved* this thread from the ACAD 2005 General (http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=58) Forum to this one as I feel this particular Forum is a more appropriate place for such a topic.

Thanks, Mike

Forum Moderator

[Glenn Pope]

AutoCAD is a vector based drawing program. The entire drawing is based on mathematical equations. Making it very accurate. This allows you to design and draw up plans that can be used to build what ever you want.

Photoshop is a raster based drawing program. Every thing is drawn using pixels or dots. These makes it impossible to be accurate. Raster programs are used mainly for illustration only. They allow you to make a nice picture that can show what a project will look like when complete.

Not sure about Illustrator. Never used it.

[Tom Dorner]

Illustrator is a vector based page layout program. It is used by graphic artists for things like brochures, business cards etc. You can download a 30 day trial from www.adobe.com (http://www.adobe.com)

If you are looking around for other related programs to do landscaping with, you may want to also check out the following.

Revit (Autodesk product that we now use for architecture, but has some landscape ability) www.autodesk.com/revit (http://www.autodesk.com/revit)

SketchUp (3D sketch program used by some landscapers) www.sketchup.com (http://www.sketchup.com)

Tom