KeySCAPE In Detail
Planting Design
KeySCAPE’s Softworks ribbon contains every tool you could want to layout and envision your planting scheme. Insert plant material as individual specimens, hedges, planting beds and grass areas. Specify plants or plant mixes from a customisable database, pre-loaded with over 9,900 species or import your preferred plant lists from popular spreadsheet formats. Labels and schedules update automatically as your design evolves, allowing you to globally modify plant specifications and symbols as you progress from schematic design through construction documentation. Plant material can easily be placed at the correct z-elevation by linking a surface model and swap 2D for 3D blocks for visualisations.
Paving Design
Sometimes a hatch pattern isn’t enough to accurately communicate your paving design intent. KeySCAPE’s Paving ribbon allows you to delineate and specify continuous, brick, or modular unit paving intelligently. Use the area paving, edging, and pathway tools to automatically calculate quantities and to accurately communicate the layout. Report quantities as area, linear, or “number of units” takeoffs. Use standard laying patterns and brick sizes or add your own and share with your team by networking your KeySCAPE database.
Site Tools
A variety of site and layout tools exist in the KeySCAPE to aid in base drawing setup and site planning workflows. Create schematic designs with a library of symbols and annotation objects. Easily layout property lines based on legal descriptions. Quickly mock-up building massing in 3D or establish spatial requirements for parking, sports fields, or golf courses using intelligent tools.
Ground Modelling
Through years of experience you can visualise a site in your mind based on 2D contours and spot elevations, but what about your clients or design partners? Never mind trying to calculate cut/fill volumes by hand! KeySCAPE includes built-in ground modelling capability that can generate 3D representations of existing or proposed conditions. Any geometry with a z-elevation can inform your model: spot elevations, contours, or feature lines. Use volumetric calculation tools to quickly determine optimal finish floor elevations early in the site development process. Easily import and export surface data with your surveyor or engineer through DWG, point clouds, or LandXML formats.
Site Analysis
Get to grips with your site constrains quickly and early in the design process with KeySCAPE’s Site Analysis ribbon. Create a 3D surface from survey data, point clouds, or publicly available data then analyse for elevation, slope, and aspect. Determine flow lines and potential ponding areas for existing or proposed surfaces. Handy tools help you manage contour z-elevations, fix broken contours, or automatically create annotation.
Irrigation
Not every landscape design requires an irrigation design, but if you do, we’ve got you covered. Layout heads, pipes, and equipment from the database (or specify your preferred equipment) and let KeySCAPE do the rest. Automate zoning, pipe sizing, and watering schedules then generate a bill of materials. Any landscape irrigation project, from residential to golf course scale, can be designed with KeySCAPE’s irrigation ribbons. Even if you don’t do irrigation design in-house, use our irrigation tools to get a handle on project feasibility and costs.
Shared Database
Own your data! Unless you are a sole-trader you will inevitably want to share your custom database with your team. The KeySCAPE database contains your proprietary product data, CAD standards, symbol libraries, and detail libraries that are specific to your company’s needs. Place the KeySCAPE database on a shared, secured, backed-up network location and anyone in the office can design, create specification labels, and generate schedules all to your practice style. The KeySCAPE database is YOUR database to customise to support YOUR workflows within YOUR practice. And our support team is just an email or phone call away to help you work with your data as efficiently as possible.
Block and Detail Libraries
All the major KeySCAPE tool sets arrive out-of-the-box with pre-loaded default data, symbols, and specification styles. But, all these libraries are open to include your preferred information. For example, import your preferred plant symbols and create a unique menu for quick access for your design team. Or, utilise one of the open symbol libraries to store other symbols, notes, and detail blocks.
BIM Tools
The workflows enabled by KeySCAPE are inherently BIM capable. By creating relationships between data, geometry and graphic representation, you are already on your way to a BIM workflow. See, not so scary after all! Continue down your BIM journey by sharing your information internally (with your team) and externally with design partners, contractors, and owners. KeySCAPE enables this through exports to open formats such as IFC, LandXML, CSV, and SHP. Additional project collaboration formats include Export to BIM (DWG with blocks and attribute information) or the Keysoft-exclusive Export to Revit plugin.