Deck Design Tutorial for Realtime Landscaping Pro

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Deck Design Tutorial

Overview

This tutorial will walk you through the fundamentals of deck design in Realtime Landscaping Pro.

Building a house

The place to start with any deck design is with a house, and to get a house we will need to create one. To build a house, select the “house” button that is located under the “building” tab and place your first point somewhere in the middle of the landscape. Continue placing points until you have a plain square house that is 32 feet (9.75 meters) on all sides.

House Design

Adding a deck

Now that we have a simple house, we can focus on our deck design. To build a deck, select the “deck” button that is located under the “building” tab and place one point at both corners of one side of the house. Now proceed to complete a rectangular shape that projects 8 feet (2.44 meters) from the house. When the deck is created, raise the deck to 2 feet (.61 meters) by dragging the “elevation” slider that is found to the right of the screen when the deck is selected.

Simple Deck Design

Changing deck railing

Now we have a nice deck that is ready to be customized to our needs. The first thing that you will notice is that there is an unwanted railing along the edge of the house. To remove this railing without removing the railing around the rest of the deck, first select your deck and click edit points. Now that you have the points of the deck visible, select the points that are along the wall of the house by holding shift, and then click the “railing” text that is displayed directly below the “edit points” button.

Deck Railing

Changing the board direction

I find that with any deck design, the direction of the boards can have a huge impact on the overall look of the deck. For our deck we are going to slant our boards diagonally to contrast the lateral boards of the house walls. To slant the boards, select the deck and edit the “board direction” slider that is found to the right of the screen until it reads 61 degrees.

Deck Boards

Changing deck material

We can further customize our deck design by modifying the wood material. Changing the material has a huge effect on the overall look of the deck, and many materials to choose from allows for many options. Change the deck material to “wood10” which can be found by clicking the material preview that is located to the right of the screen when you have the deck selected.

Deck Boards

Adding deck stairs

Now we need to add stairs to our deck design. To add stairs, click the “deck stairs” button that is found under the “building” tab and place the stairs on the edge of the deck that is opposite the house. Once the stairs are placed, you may select and move them until they are centered along the edge of the deck.

Deck Stairs

Widening the deck stairs

While the stairs we added would satisfy some homeowners, a wider stairway would be much more appealing. To widen the stairs, select them and drag the “total width” slider (found to the right of the screen) until it displays 20 feet (6.1 meters). Now we have a stairway that is more practical and better compliments the look of our deck design.

Wide Deck Stairs

Completing the tutorial

Congratulations! You have completed the deck design tutorial. If you have any questions or comments about this tutorial, please contact me and I will be happy to assist you further.

Contact information:

Justin Napier
Idea Spectrum, Inc.
E-mail: Support@IdeaSpectrum.com
Toll free: 1-866-894-4332