2 years, 3 months ago
If we had to design landscapes manually every time, the world would be full of uninteresting plain-looking yards. It would be rare to see great lawns. That's why free landscape design software is highly crucial in today's industry.
Can you imagine creating a scale model of a garden with trees, plants, or worse, constructing plots and fences just to see how they'd look like in your outdoor space? That's why planning is essential in this field.
As you may know, landscaping has numerous ways to enhance the overall appearance of a place. From a practical standpoint, houses with good landscape designs have a higher selling rate of 5.5% to 12.7% compared to others. If your property's cost is $300,000, you can have an increased value of up to $38,100.
But it all begins with good landscape design software. We've compiled the best free landscape design software to decrease your time for searching for one.
Before we delve deeper into the free landscape design software, let's clarify a few pointers. There are different types of free:
A free version with pro upgrades,
free trial,
completely free, and
a premium product with a separate tool, thus making it free.
If you're a homeowner, professional, or business searching for a decent way to test various software before purchasing, the below list will do just that.
SketchUp Free is the lite version of the SketchUp solution, which is excellent for personal use. The 3D modeling tool can run on your browser without any download, and there are no special conditions or requirements. You can find the software on the Trimble website.
With SketchUp Free, you have enough room or liberty to create your ideas and bring them to life. When you register on the Trimble website, you'll have your storage on Trimble Connect, a Building Information management (BIM) software.
You can have a storage space of up to 10GB of plans, images, and any files you keep. That means every progress you make on your project is saved and backed up. It can be useful for designs that need multiple sessions to complete. And since the software is browser-based, you can access your projects from any device with no problems.
One of the notable features is the ability to access Trimble's 3D Warehouse, a massive library of shared 3D models for users and vendors. SketchUp Free provides basic yet satisfactory interoperability support.
The software can support STL, JPEG, SKP, PNG files and export STL, SKP, and PNG files. SketchUp Free supports SketchUp Viewer, meaning you can view your designs from your Android and iOS devices. It's one of the best free landscape design software to try out.
DreamPlan is another excellent free landscape design software you need to look into. And that's because it's easy to use and has handy design tools. If you're a beginner, you can comfortably use this software without wasting much time.
Besides being excellent in designing gardens and landscapes, it's highly capable of designing and remodeling rooms, interiors, and floor plans. You can also use it to develop models of decks and pools, backyard, gardens, etc.
DreamPlan doesn't just place objects on areas when designing outdoor landscape areas. It can reshape the actual terrain. You can raise, depress, or level the land according to your preference.
Besides that, the landscape design software can display gridlines even in 3D mode or view. It can be highly beneficial when you want to determine whether the walls, rooms, etc., can fit into an available space.
If you have, for example, a floor plan of your living room, you can import the images into the software. It will convert these images into a 3D model. Of course, you can update the converted image in the software, if necessary. Furthermore, you can download more expansion packages to acquire additional content that you can use to enhance outdoor living space.
DreamPlan provides a free version that you can use for non-commercial purposes.
Garden Planner is an ideal choice if you want a straightforward and easy-to-use garden and landscaping design tool to use. The software uses a drag and drop interface to arrange plants, trees, plants, buildings, and objects.
Garden Planner contains over 1,200 plants and object symbols to select from. And they are customizable, letting you change their size, color, and style. Thanks to this feature, you can show virtually any plants or objects for your landscape. All these garden layouts can be done in minutes.
The Garden Planner's recent version includes viewing plans in 3D, unlike the usual overhead 3D view. Additionally, the software has a new feature that lets you move around in the garden in 3D. They also have the Vegetable Patch Builder that utilizes a simple grid to help you create planting beds for your herbs and vegetables.
After creating, you can print the plan to include all the objects you used in your garden. It also implements a coded system that matches the lists' items with the plan's objects. That way, you can know where every item found on the list is situated in your layout.
Garden Planner provides a free browser-based application. However, it's an online demo, an older version of the software (Garden Planner 3.0). Take note that even though you can still design your garden and print it, changes won't be saved. That means you lose any progress when you close the browser.
The company provides a trial version. They give free licenses to non-profit organizations or charities, primary schools, or a community group. But if you decide to purchase the software, it would be a one-time payment. All further updates are free. It's one of the best free landscape design software to help you create the perfect garden.
Terragen is a comprehensive design tool that helps you create animation and render natural environments in a high-quality and photo-realistic fashion. You can easily create and manipulate with high-end realistic aspects.
The software allows you to replicate real-world terrain and alter them through this-party terrain editor. Terragen is an excellent tool for designing landscapes and greatly improves the visuals through intricate atmosphere control, astounding shading models, and flexible lighting.
Terragen offers a free version for non-commercial use. There's a trial for 30 days which is used for commercial evaluation.
Kerkythea is one of the best free landscape design software capable of generating high-quality renders. It does so by using physically accurate materials and lights for the best high-end outcome within a sufficient time frame.
The software makes the renders simple for you by giving you the essential tool to automate the scene setup. Kerkthea uses a real-life scale model, which means you should use actual size when developing your designs. The software is a powerful tool for Global Illumination rendering.
If you're a homeowner, a business, or a landscape designer searching for excellent software to design with, the aforementioned free landscape design software is the best place to start. Hopefully, you'll find the one that best suits your needs and situation. If you weren't able to select one, you can use each of them and decide. There's no risk involved since it's free. If you have any questions, let us know. We will help you out.