Pros for a landscape architect, is that with CAD on a computer, they can overlay files, or share the files among different trades.
Some changes can be done instantaneous on a computer.
But in general, I find the hand drawn to be totally fine. It really matters where the dot is. No matter how fancy or textured it looks, it all comes down to the dot and the name of a dot.
I know some tricks to cut drawing time, even with templates.
For example, if a group of 50 daylilies will be in an area, I find no need to draw 50 dots or shrub icons. I just write an "ID" letter like "R" with the number...
R x 50
And then I draw lines with arrows outward from it showing it's region, that "R" fills that gap between other shrubs. The small plants are going to fall to the installer's placement disgression anyhow.
Here's a photo of one of my more basic designs plans - note: no frills. And you can see two areas toward the lower left where arrows radiate from an ID letter.
If a purple beech tree is to go in a spot, it won't matter whether the symbol is a circle, a pastel sketch or an artistic arrangement of lines. Wherever the dot goes, there will be a beech tree.
So the quality of a design plan resides totally in what the designer sees, and places on an X / Y grid. Whether it's CAD, handdrawn or sketched is irrelevent for quality.
The latter really matter if a certain kind of presentation needs to be made. |