Hi @kipwood - My background is landscape architecture as well and I’ve been looking for solutions that reduce the dependency on CAD, similar to your request above. Here is an example where I embeded CAD symbols inside of a SketchUp plant component…laid out my planting plan…then set up a scene with a plan view for export and annotation in LayOut. Since I don’t do planting plans professionally anymore, I haven’t been able to test the practicality of the process but in theory, I think it’s sound.
Let me know if you have any questions about the process.
Alternatively, if you have CAD you can look into something like LandFX that has an integration plugin to go back and forth between the two programs.
*Edit: just wanted to followup about plant take offs/quantities. Two easy ways to do this - assuming the plant components have been named properly of course.
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Use Selection Toys extension to select all of the same component instances and then add a text callout inside of SketchUp (can be done in LayOut as well).
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Use the Generate Report function to export all the quantities to spreadsheet that can be shared with contractor or added to LayOut Plant legend. LayOut is great as is links to an Excel so you can update your planting plan/quantities report any time and it will stay current in LayOut.
