gCADPlus

gCADPlus logo

Use gCADPlus landscape design software to create professional landscape plans quickly. Generate high-quality CAD drawings efficiently with customizable templates. Send vivid concept plan images directly to clients via email, eliminating the need for printing. Incorporate photos and parts of previous designs to reduce drafting time. Obtain details such as mulch volume, plant species lists, and more directly from your CAD drawing. Enjoy collaborating with your client, and making real-time design modifications.

 Download a copy of gCADPlus for a free trial. Purchase gCADPlus with a one-time payment of USD 95.00.

User Guide
gCADPlus User Guide

  Digital design work contributes to paper and energy conservation.

Free e-book. About Landscape Design and CAD

Typical landscape designs created with gCADPlus

YouTube movie This movie showcases the application of gCADPlus in a metric setting to deliver comprehensive drawings for a childcare centre. It features a design for the areas surrounding a children’s outdoor play space, displayed on an A0 sheet. The layout sheet includes photographs of the plant species utilized in the design, a plant schedule, and enlarged views of specific areas of the design.

Professional Landscape Design Software

Tip: The images on the layout sheet are taken from SppDb, a plant database application designed to work with gCADPlus. Buy gCADPlus and get a free copy of SppDb.

A project for a design competition.

Section

gCADPlus in the Imperial design environment

Professional landscape design softwareHere, we look at landscape design using the USA (Imperial) setting, where distances are measured in decimal feet. The movie covers changing the design view, zooming, panning, calculating areas of garden beds, identifying plant symbols, switching to layout view, and adjusting the model’s view. Finally, we print the design using a PDF writer that is ready to send to the client. To view a PDF of the design shown in the video, click the image below.

USA example

More movies

Professional landscape design software This movie demonstrates how a landscape designer working on a project in Texas, USA, managed to save time by automating the creation of a plant schedule.

Working from a mud map Typically, designers begin with measurements obtained during a site visit. This movie illustrates the steps to transform a ‘mud map’ into a comprehensive base plan and landscape design using gCADPlus.

YouTube movie Many newcomers to gCADPlus are transitioning from manual drawing to CAD for drafting plans. This video demonstrates converting a hand-drawn landscape plan into a CAD design. “The featured garden space remains compact yet is filled with features.” It uses the line command for precise site definition, the block command to generate large pavers, a wooden bridge over a small pond with riparian plants, and a pergola angled at 45 degrees within the rectangular area, among other elements. It also includes a comparison of manual drafting to CAD drafting with gCADPlus.

Pricing

gCADPlus is cost-effective with no recurring charges. Get professional landscape CAD software for a one-time payment of $95.00. gCADPlus works with Windows, Mac, and Linux using emulator software. We encourage you to visit this website’s downloads page and download and try gCADPlus. We are not collecting your contact information; you are not obligated to purchase.

In summary

gCADPlus is a productivity tool designed for professional landscape and garden designers. Both individual designers and multi-person design studios worldwide utilize it. Professional landscape designers prefer gCADPlus for its high-quality design capabilities, complimentary upgrades, and extensive support. We can improve drafting efficiency with custom templates and site-specific plant databases tailored to your locality, among other services. Online and personalized training is available for your team,

What others say

“Botanica Garden Styling is a boutique landscape architecture business in Melbourne. Previously, plans were hand-drawn, and CAD work was outsourced when needed. However, since discovering gCADPlus landscape design software, things have changed. Although we were initially apprehensive about learning a new skill, having a landscape design software program tailored specifically for garden design work has proved to be fantastic.

I truly appreciate the value of this program and the exceptional support it provides. I often reach out to Keith with questions, and he promptly creates instructional videos for us on Facebook. The tutorials are top-notch, and thanks to them, we have progressed from having no knowledge of drawing or design programs to becoming proficient users. While we may not have explored all the features of the program yet, we have quickly grasped the basics and can now create accurate, attractive, and practical plans for clients and landscapers to use for quotes.”

“​For solo garden designers or small landscape design-build firms like mine, no other landscape CAD design package offers as many features in such a solid package for such a low cost. Spending $2,000+ on design software doesn’t make sense for small companies like ours, especially when that software comes with additional yearly or monthly maintenance fees that add hundreds of dollars more per year to that cost. ” 

Chris M – The GreenMan, Florida, USA”

I have been using gCADPlus since 2016. It has been a trusted and reliable partner for my landscape design business since the first day. It is simple to use and has great support tools available. The management has impressed me with a high level of support and super quick response to any inquiry over the years. I highly recommend it. – Theo A
 www.curvesld.com.au

About gCADPlus

gCADPlus was developed by three designers – two in Australia and one in the USA who are long-term AutoCAD users.

Tip: The gCADPlus application (aka GardenCAD Plus, gCAD Plus, gcad) is based on some earlier software called GardenCAD, a tool developed for groups of landscape design students at a local college. These students wanted a simple tool that they would use to create designs without the need to learn to use many complex CAD tools.

We wanted users to be able to produce designs quickly and focus on design, not on CAD techniques.

Where your money goes

The development of gCADPlus is a labour of love—every dollar raised from sales is used to pay programmers to improve and add features to the software. The first version of gCADPlus was published in 2012. Since then, more than 70 versions have been released, each adding features requested by users. We do not charge for upgrades. The current (2024 ) version of gCADPlus is version 12.1.

Links

Here is a link to some work by landscape designers who use gCADPlus.