how do I grade this site

>>1090014

Google sketchup is a pretty good tool

>>1090026
Thanks! Do you know any resources that would teach me how to use sketchup for this particular task? grading, basic beginner stuff, etc.

>>1090014
hahahahahah look at the cute photoshop.

you need to learn to build a retaining wall, you can just google this

what the fuck do you mean graded, do you mean just make it flat, because you simply shift earths around

that the fuck do you mean by GRADING PLAN, you move shit around until it is flat

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>>1090030
it is cute and it does sell. my last design help sell a $23,800 backyard remodel.

I can build a retaining wall just fine but this a three tier project and I need to figure out a grading plan (actual term) the reflects the amount of dirt being moved around, how high the walls will need to be, etc.

Normally I'd just make the design and my team and I would do the job but this client is a civil engineer or something and needs to see a bunch of specs.

>pic related: grading plan

CAD Tech here, well I recommend some land elevations on Autocad. Photoshop is a great tool for render and design but thats pretty much it. Learn Autocad, its easy and there is alot of resources for it. BTW, dont use sketchup, it is a waste of time trust me.

>>1090078
uhhhh I just spent the last 5 hours doing tutorials and learning sketchup... been working on it since this post >>1090026

>>1090078
what tools in Autocad should I focus on to give me the exact specs needed to design this three tiered retaining wall backyard?

>>1090014
wow, that's like Eschers Relativity

>>1090036

you dont need a grading plan for a bloody back garden, just hand dawn indicative line will be fine, if you cant figure out by hand you have nothing to do with cad

i dont know what your problem is

do you know what you are doing, if no, figure it out, if yes, just draw the lines

or are you actually asking what a grading plan is and what those lines mean? wtf

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>>1090149
I know how to grade a slope and build a retaining wall. What I need to do is draft plans that depict the vertical change in grade throughout the yard, and the corresponding height of two separate retaining walls, I need to gather this data and present it to the client in a (autoCADish) design blueprint.

every other client would just say "build the wall" and I would, but this mother fucker is a civil engineer and wants specifications. before I start work.

I suppose I could just draw indicative lines.

what's the best way to figure out the specs? >line level

or

>survey transit...

It's a pretty steep slope in a 70ft long backyard.

>>1090148
My usual designs don't utilize perspective
>pic related

>>1090188
sketchup is free and among the most easy modeling programs. you can access tutorials from the help within the program. if you want to show a top view and side profile of your plan this will be fairly painless. if you want to insert some kind of textured 3d objects into the model it will be magnitudes harder. if i were you, i would probably model the basic lay of how you want it to look. you should also get used to idea of buying clean fill dirt. when you are making retaining walls you might have to dig down to and past clay layers and you cant use that as topsoil. so if your customer wants to to try to only use the ground you move to minimize costs you are gonna have a bad time. anyways, to keep it easy and within your skill set, after you have a basic 3d representation modeled take a screenshot of it and load it into photoshop and put in all your accents.

>>1090188
in photoshop, you can just draw some lines with the curve tool, saves you trouble learning cad

again, you can just draw it on a piece of paper with a pencil, if you cant do that, you shouldn't be doing any of this

the best way is to eyeball it, or find out the vertical difference between two points and then just draw lines in between

again do you even know what those lines are? do you know what they mean?

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>>1090201
on a map the contour line (pretty sure that's the name) indicate and elevation change.

In this project the elevation will change only twice.
>pic related

My question and reason for this thread is I need to know how to present the specifics of height and distance of the new grades in a professional way. One that will click with my client who as a civil engineer is surely used to looking at AutoCAD. I have no problems drawing by hand and I think I may need to for this job. I'd just like to see some examples of projects like this to know how to go about illustrating it like blueprints.

>>1090198
factoring how much ground needs to be extracted or added is another thing I'm not sure how to figure out and present on plans.

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>>1090216
>on a map the contour line (pretty sure that's the name) indicate and elevation change.
>In this project the elevation will change only twice.

...you don't need contour lines, you don't need any of this, you just need to write a number on top of each retaining wall e.g. +300mm +500mm +900mm, there is no slope, you don't draw any lines

Do it by hand, plot out the contours and integrate it

>>1090220
thank you based anon.

I've actually been designing landscapes for a few years but when confronted with a completely new problems the most obvious solutions don't always come to me easily.

any more based tips would be highly appreciated.

>techniques on how to survey this perhaps? .

>>1090232
i'm trying to do this pic
>>1090216

is that even possible?

>>1090235
>survey

i can't

this guy can't do anything

i can't

>be a landscaper
>a slope
>i never sloped b4
>wat do


does "vertical difference" and "horizontal distance" mean anything to you?

do you know how to do divisions (maths)?

>>1090243

How does "vertical difference" and "horizontal distance" apply to this?

>>1090254
ok

ok

ok

so

do you know what is a "slope"?

Test

>>1090256
the distance between two points on a graph right?

>>1090270
That's the length of a line segment.

>>1090014
If I was going to grade this site... I'd give it an A+ because of your post.

Holy Mary mother of christ, what the hell do you fucking want OP?! GIMME SITE PLAN METES AND BOUNDS, SITE ELEVATIONS AND PLOT INFORMATION. Your customer wants real CAD drawings not some shiet made in sketchup. Harbor freight tools is the equivilant of sketchup in regards of quality and usefullness. Ill help you out quick.

The truly fascinating aspect of all this, OP appears to be the brain behind the venture.

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>>1090273
kek
>>1090274
That's how I feel. What the fuck does my client want. He knows I'm not an architect, I just make pretty designs on photoshop then build them with my crew.

I appreciate the help. "metes, bounds, and plot" aren't technical terms used in my country. I'll post the site measurements (metes and bounds) when I measure the elevation tomorrow britishbro.

>pic related: sorry for the lack of metric

>>1090285
We do good work and my designs in photoshop ALWAYS sell our services. I collaborate with the clients to make sure they get the front or back yard they envisioned, Our last job was for 24k.

I never claimed to be an architect or do I advertise as such.

>>1090291
jist joshin you OP.. I actually like your 2.5D Photoshops, you've invented your own form of Down the Rabbithole Orthographic Projection here. I can also imagine, it confuses clients tho, and prob. looks better than the end product most of the time, as all good visualistions should.

but OnTopic, if the fuckers a civil engineer, worst idea ever to be trying bullshitting him into beleiving you be a fully-qualified CAD jocky, this a couple of weeks from now or whatever. Do whatever plan works for you, and tell him, he wants/needs CAD? - go visualise it himself.

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>>1090290
Look OP, I have a degree in CAD and you need to give me more info. This is what I got from what you posted.

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>>1090298
Hey thanks! Passing on this job is a card may play knowing that this client is going to be overshadowing our work and slowing us down. He even mentioned that contactor find him difficult to work which which is a huge red flag.

>>1090302
That's brilliant friend! There is a lot more info I need to grab and I will tomorrow. If there are any specs other than elevation you'd like me to record then let me know. I appreciate your skill.

I'll keep this thread alive since people seem to be interested.

>>1090306
Just get as much as you can.

>>1090306

look op, you have no knowledge of ANY of this works, you should go back and keep your business limited to clients that are on the same page as you i.e. clueless, any professional will be able to tell you are just a fucking ghetto gardener who knows a bit of 3yo photoshop and nothing else. your client is not fucking with you, he is confirming his suspicion that you are a low level labourer passing as something he isn't. and be absolutely certain that you won't be able to photoshop your way out of his suspicion.

i bet you have no idea or concept about drainage, foundations, or fireproofing, or any local and national codes at all. i bet you don't even know what a spirit level is for. you won't be able to grandma-look this out from this. any semi-competent person with any capacity of logic and critical reasoning will be able to tell you are way out of your league.

those colorful 3yo level photoshops is very telling you have no idea how 2D drawing works.

shit, you probably don't even know what 2D or 3D is.

that guy is a civil engineer and he is going to tell and call your bullshit with 200% certainty.

>client is going to be overshadowing our work and slowing us down
not even before work this guy is blaming the client for "slowing him down" by inspecting his progress. in his own fucking backgarden. so you can't bullshit your work and build a retaining wall that has no retaining strength. (i bet you don't have any idea about retaining walls either)


>contractor find him difficult to work with
yeah because he is a professional and expect professional level of shit. which most "contractors" lack.

because you don't become a contractor by passing some certain level of standards. in fact, you become a contractor precisely because you don't carry any standards. any pleb can advertise to do "jobs" on fucking craigslist or whatever. you are literally the equivalent of a 3-yo gorilla who can speak a bit of english, but have no idea what most difficult words mean.

>>1090078
>Learn Autocad, its easy and there is alot of resources for it.
like what?

and i am not even angry with you, i just want you to understand your little photoshop doodles with some fucking shadow layer effect and spraypaint lines is very fucking obviously telling that you are literally a scam. you are even fooling yourself into thinking you can "design" just because you took small inconsequential jobs with those inconsequential photoshops, and one day your rich uncle paid you 50k to pave a garden with some expensive pebbles. guess what, those photoshops didn't help in all those accounts, they didn't had any relevance to the jobs you were taking. if i wanted a gardener to move some dirt from one corner to another, i wouldnt care less if he can show me a photoshop of his not to scale pile of dirt in the right corner of the not to scale drawing of the garden, because it doesnt fucking matter.

the REAL problem here, op, is you don't understand that you are living in a big lie, and everyone is too nice to point that out for you because of your cute photoshops. to take your dream away is too cruel for a person like you, who already is rather retarded. this whole thread is a bunch of nice guys not wanting to point this out. your uncle is too nice to point this out. your "friend" who is helping you out to help your "business" going is too nice to point this out. but someone, someday, has to tell you, that you are literally a retard who doesn't realize he is retarded.

also, this is no a problem of CAD at all. this is not a problem of a "grading plan" at all (which you have no idea what it means), this is not a problem of how to do a retaining wall, how to do a pavement, how to make a fireplace. those problems, /diy/ can help.

but /diy/ will only help you that much. beyond that, you can't do maths, you have precisely zero knowledge of ANY of these terminology means, you don't even know what a fucking slope is. the real problem in this thread, is you and your illusion of your "landscape company" is anything more than a village-idiot labourer.

so to fix any of those problems, i dont know, you should go back to school? if you don't know what a slope is, i wouldn't even know where to begin, or how deep this lack of education goes. not shitting you but you are way out of your league. way out. you don't even know what you are really facing. forget about this client, and re-evaluate your life.

do you know what "evaluate" means?

To do what you need op , you need a survey from a known point in the yard. You set your level and rock your pole all over the yard.

Then you take that data and make a topo of the yard.

Then you make a side elevation.

Plan your retaining walls, footings, drainange, and pressure reliefs.

If they are over 3ft tall you may need to pull permits.
The survey and site plane i would sub out to a regiatered land surveyor

>>1090356
>>1090355
>>1090349
OP here
I'm amusing this continuous rant is the same poster.

I'm not going to wonder why my OP made you so livid but I'm not a physiologist so I don't really care what your mental disorder is.

You seem assured I operate under a delusion when I literally keep saying all i do its draw pretty pictures that sell out services. I've said that like three times and believe me my cute little 3yo shoops sell 20k bids on the reg.

I also mentioned that I'm about of my depth and not an architect but I can sure build a retaining and pour concrete and everything else needed for this job physically, I just don't know all the "maths" SO I made a thread here.

Now lets talk about your delusion, you seem to think that I need to have attended the university of fucking Cambridge to hardscape a backyard. Must I graduate with honors to be able to construct a retaining was under the queens sun?

Here in America we have something called the free market. Where if a company shows adequate experience (our portfolio) and know how to construct basic backyard patios, sods, retaining walls, etc. then they stand a chance a at underbidding the company with the bigger overhead do their in-house architect. This construction isn't challenging surely you would agree the there are cable people in construction who haven't graduated Oxford.

What does challenge me is conveying the fact that I can built two retaining walls to someone who looks at autoCAD plans for a living. Worst case scenario is that learn how to present a plan on a more technical level, because I don't really care if we get this job or not, but that's not going to stop me from learning more skills... again I made this thread to learn.

Thanks for your long-winded replies to my thread. I should reply anymore but I'm sure you will.

>>1090383,

I thought about getting some surveyors in but that would cost $ and we're not guaranteed this job. I'm surprised the home owner didn't do that himself. he's clearly trying to have this work done cheaply which is why he's contacted my little company in the first place.

I've contemplated buying a survey transit for this project because it's be a good idea to own one anyways but I'm going to run a line level today and get the rise and run of the yard. If I can do this job without pulling permits for a 4ft wall (that's the limit here too) then I'll continue with planing this out.

thankyou for your post.

>>1090445
Not him

But the fact that you're asking 4chan is a clear sign that you're way in over your head

>Last job was 24k

So ? The last job my boss did was 300k and we're a crew of 4 including the boss.

Alright OP, CAD Tech here from yesterday. Did you get any measurments of the site plan? Ask you customer for plot information and metes & bounds. Forget what others say. Im gonna give you a step by step sheit on how to survey land.
> establish a benchmark wiyh a known elevation
> then with a measuring pole travel 10' from said benchmark.
> note the change in elevation in a paper.
>Continue doing so until you have a good set of numbers to create a topograpgical map.
> afterwards here in USA its is easy to contract a CAD guy for a commision
> tell here or him what you want and done.

Im a cad guy myself OP, and I can reasure you civil engineers dont know jack sheit of CAD drawings. They pretend they di but not really. Just get someone to go to your city hall and gather all the information from the subdivision tbis property is in and have them draft it in accordance to it.

>>1090445
>I'm not going to wonder why my OP made you so livid but I'm not a physiologist so I don't really care what your mental disorder is.

I keked. This is some next level trolling.

>>1090445
Jesus dude either you need to go back to middle school or that dude really rustled your bum, because you can't type for shit.