LIVE COURSE

Intermediate Vectorworks (1st & 2nd October 2026)

Course style: Live, taught via Zoom
Date: 1st and 2nd October 2026
Time: From 9.30am till 12.45pm GMT each day
Students: Maximum of six people
Software required: Vectorworks Landmark

About this course:

This comprehensive one-day online course is designed to expand your existing knowledge and improve your efficiency with the software. The two main areas it covers are data-driven tools like Plants, Hardscapes and Landscape Areas, as well as introducing hybrid 2D and 3D elements in order to start your journey into creating elements in three dimensions. These include building houses - walls, doors, windows and even roofs - as well as applying textures to them. We also look at steps and ramps, fences and railings.

In order to effectively use these tools, we take a deep dive into the Resource Manager right at the start, and ensure you're able to find and organise the resources in your files, including saving things to your user library so you can use them again and again (no more digging through old projects to find stuff to copy out!).

A significant part of this course covers planting - creating your own plants, placing them into a planting plan and then generating a plant list for a nursery.

We'll also teach you how to report on data-driven elements like Hardscapes, for example building a porcelain paving area then building a report to tell you exactly how much Dpt. Type 1, mortar and paving you'll need.

The day is structured around a series of detailed tutor demonstrations followed by practical class exercises where you'll get a chance to use the tools yourself. For a full syllabus please see below.


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Course Objectives:

  • Understand the Resource Manager
  • Use the Landscape Area and Hardscape tools
  • Create fences and railings
  • Draw and customise steps and ramps
  • Import and geo-reference DWGs
  • Draw and customise walls, doors, windows
  • Draw existing trees and hedgerows
  • Create your own plants
  • Use pre-formatted reports
  • Export to DWG
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Is this course right for me?

  • "I'm comfortable drawing and transforming a variety of shapes in Vectorworks and am looking increase the complexity of my drawings"

    Perfect! That's exactly the level this is aimed at - people who are getting on well drawing plans and construction drawings but want to dig deeper into what it can do.

  • "I’ve been thinking about looking at 3D but am not sure where to start"

    This course introduces 3D drawing elements starting at a very simple place - 2D/3D hybrid objects. It shows you how to create elements that you can view in both 3D and plan views, starting you on the path of creating simple visualisations.

  • "I want to know how to create things like plants, hatches and gradients and store them in my own library so I can use them every time I create a new file"

    This is one of the first things we cover - understanding the Resource Manager and knowing how to save things to your personal User Library will mean you never have to copy and paste from old files ever again.

  • "I'm not very confident creating planting plans"

    We'll be starting from the beginning here, teaching you how to make your own plants, place them on your drawing and create a spreadsheet to give to the nursery to order.

Course Syllabus

1: The Resource Manager

  • What is the Resource Manager?
  • Resource Manager layout
  • Taking resources out of the Resource Manager
  • User & Workgroup Libraries
  • Saving to the User/Workgroup Libraries
  • Quick exercise

2: Creating resources


  • Hatches 
  • Gradients 
  • Creating symbols 
  • Quick exercise 
  • Navigate the model space with Orbit, Pan and Zoom
    Understand SketchUp basics: edges, faces, inference, and axis locking
  • Use the essential drawing tools to create clean 2D shapes ready for 3D modelling
  • Complete a short example project to start building confidence

3: Landscape Area Tool


  • What is a landscape area? 
  • The Landscape Area Tool Bar 
  • Draw a new landscape area 
  • Convert an existing shape to a landscape area 
  • Create your own landscape area styles 
  • Special Note: Style parameters 
  • Landscape area style parameters 
  • Quick exercise

4: Hardscape & Curb Tools 


  • What are hardscapes & curbs? 
  • The Hardscape tool bar 
  • Draw a new hardscape area 
  • Convert an existing shape to a hardscape 
  • Create your own hardscape styles 
  • Hardscape style parameters 
  • The Curb Tool 
  • Draw a new curb 
  • Create your own curb styles 
  • Quick exercise 

5: Fences & Railings 


  • The Fence Tool Bar 
  • Draw a new fence 
  • Create your own fence styles 
  • Fence style parameters 
  • Adding gates 
  • The Railing Tool 
  • Draw a new railing 
  • Create your own railing styles 
  • Quick exercise

6: Steps & Ramps


  • Stair Tools 
  • The Simple Stair Tool 
  • Simple stair preferences 
  • Drawing steps 
  • The Ramp Tool 
  • Ramp preferences 
  • Drawing ramps 
  • Quick exercise

7: Walls, doors, windows and roofs


  • Wall Tool 
  • Draw a new wall 
  • Create your own wall styles 
  • Wall style parameters 
  • Door Tool 
  • Draw a new door 
  • Window Tool 
  • Draw a new window
  • Simple roofs
  • Quick exercise

8: Import/export DWGs and geolocation


  • Import a single DWG 
  • Import multiple DWGs 
  • Visibility Tool 
  • Quick exercise 
  • Geolocate your site 
  • The Geolocate Tool
  • Export to DWG

9: Trees & Hedgerows


  • The Existing Tree Tool 
  • Existing tree tool preferences 
  • Adding tree dimensions 
  • Creating existing trees 
  • The Hedgerow Tool 
  • Hedgerow tool preferences 
  • Creating hedgerows 
  • Quick exercise

10: The Plant Tools


  • Plant Catalogs 
  • Plant Database
  • The Plant Tool 
  • What is a plant 
  • The Plant tool bar 
  • Drawing plants 
  • Edit a plant group layout 
  • Creating new plant styles
    1. Create a new plant from scratch
    2. Duplicate an existing style
    3. Use Data Mode selection tool 
    4. Create Plant Styles From List 
  • Plant style parameters 
  • Labelling plants - Method 1: Tags (The old-fashioned way!) 
  • Labelling plants - Method 2: Data Tags 
  • The Plant Style Manager 
  • Exercise

11: Reports


  • What are they? 
  • Creating a simple plant schedule 
  • Creating a landscape area report 
  • Formatting reports 
  • Pre-formatted reports
  • Recalculate quantities
  • Exporting reports 
  • Saving reports for repeated use

Testimonials

At last, VW help and training that is relevant and evolved to work for us, correct our errors, expand our knowledge and make us more efficient in an understandable and easy way. Thank you, we're looking forward to coming back for more nuggets of wisdom and practical tips and planning future courses with you both.
HARRIET PARSONS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
We used Digital Landscapes to develop our Vectorworks skills under the excellent tutorship of Fiona. Her flexible approach and deep technical knowledge proved invaluable to our bespoke requirements. Thank you Fiona!
GEORGIA @ LANDSCAPE ASSOCIATES
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