What digital permaculutre design tools are available?

Hi all,

what digital tools do people use to make their permaculture design?

As far as i have seen, there were only drawing/painting tools,
and manual search in a plant database as shown in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlzSbqhmQeE

Are there any better tools to use?

Maybe this is what you are looking for:

https://permies.com/t/71351/permaculture-projects/Free-Permaculture-Design-Analysis-Tool

I'm considering making standalone design software that automates the import of satellite data, creating 3D topology and with realtime lighting & fluid sim for shadow & flow studies. Probably something that can have its output embedded in a website for clients to see.
I have a LOT of tech already built from previous work but not started anything yet, if anyone wants to sponsor/fund software let me know.

Currently I do everything manually using Affinty Designer for 2D vector design and Unity for 3D environment design.

I have a thread on how to get Heightmap/topology data here: https://permies.com/t/156070/permaculture-projects/Resources-creating-representations-topography-LIDAR


and a thread on how to create 3D trees/plants here:  https://permies.com/t/156150/permaculture-projects/create-trees-plants-permaculture-landscape


both threads are full of links to other useful software.

Anne Miller wrote:Maybe this is what you are looking for:

https://permies.com/t/71351/permaculture-projects/Free-Permaculture-Design-Analysis-Tool

Hi anne,

correct me if i am wrong, but this thread just shows how to get the contour lines on a 3D-Goolge earth view?

Maybe that was not what you were looking for.  I found it at the top of the Permaculture Design Forum.

Look for the white box and maybe you will find something else that will work:

https://permies.com/f/123/permaculture-design

If you are looking for free tools there is one for 2D design: Garden Planner

If you are looking for something that uses augmented reality you can check out Better Homes & Gardens' app Plan a Garden

For 3D I recommend a using a game engine and checking out the threads I linked to in my above post.



The plant list in the video is paid but probably the best around. For free ones you can check out:

Permapeople

or look around for companion plant charts such as this one.

Ok cool thank you guys a lot.

I think the gardena garden planner comes closest to what i had in mind,
however it is not even close to the functionalities and degrees of freedom needed
for a serius permaculture desing tool. Actually it looks more like something that has been given
to a group of students to do for a semester.

So i think it's pen&paper for now, or the approach described in the video i posted.

Still if you find a more sophisticated tool, please let me know!