Landscape design increasingly takes place in a digital environment, but every project still begins with a physical site.
Before a concept can be developed, existing conditions need to be observed, measured, documented, and translated into information the designer can work from.
Traditionally, that means taking on-site measurements and field notes, relying on surveys, or using a combination of both before reconstructing that information digitally.
Moasure 2 PRO fits at this intersection between the physical site and the digital design process, capturing measurable site conditions as data that can move directly into the designer’s workflow.
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What Are the Phases of a Complete Landscape Design Workflow?
A professional landscape design workflow moves from understanding what exists, to determining what should exist, to documenting how the design will be constructed. While scope and deliverables vary by project, the process can generally be organized into four phases:
01 — Pre-Design + Site Documentation
Before design begins, the designer gathers information through client meetings, site observations, photography, available surveys, satellite imagery, GIS data, on-site measurements, site history, and topography to establish an accurate understanding of the property.
02 — Concept Design
Site information and project requirements are translated into initial design ideas, establishing program, spatial organization, circulation, grading relationships, and the overall design direction.
03 — Design Development + Documentation
The selected concept is progressively resolved through dimensions, grading, materials, planting, details, schedules, and coordinated drawings that communicate the design for construction.
04 — Construction + Implementation
The documented design returns to the physical site, where dimensions, elevations, materials, and designed elements are laid out, coordinated, and ultimately constructed.
Where Moasure Fits in the Landscape Design Workflow
Moasure 2 PRO is most relevant at the points where information needs to move between the physical site and the digital project environment.
Its primary role occurs during pre-design, but the data captured at that stage can directly influence the base information used throughout concept design, design development, and documentation.
Gathering Existing Site Information
Pre-design typically begins on site. Beyond understanding the client’s program and experiencing the property firsthand, the designer needs to document the physical conditions that will inform the design—from architecture and existing vegetation to hardscape, site features, and topography.
How Moasure Fits: Moasure becomes one of the tools used during this initial site documentation. Rather than recording every condition as an isolated dimension or field note, the designer can capture measurable site information digitally while moving through the property. Because Moasure uses motion-based measurement rather than GPS, measurements can also be taken around obstacles and across uneven terrain.
Measuring Existing Conditions
A usable base plan depends on understanding the location and relationship of existing features. Building corners, walls, pavement, steps, trees, planting edges, structures, and other relevant conditions may all need to be located before design begins—particularly when the site is irregular or the available survey does not document the level of detail required for landscape design.
How Moasure Fits: Moasure 2 PRO captures X, Y, and Z coordinates as measurement points are taken, allowing irregular perimeters and site features to be recorded as spatial geometry rather than reconstructed solely from individual dimensions. Multiple measurement layers can also be used to organize different areas or site conditions within a measurement.
Documenting Elevation + Topography
Landscape design is inherently three-dimensional. Elevation relationships influence drainage, slopes, retaining walls, steps, terraces, pools, accessible routes, and the connection between architecture and the surrounding landscape. Understanding grade during pre-design can therefore be just as important as understanding horizontal dimensions.
How Moasure Fits: Elevation is captured alongside horizontal position as the site is measured. From those points, Moasure can calculate elevation differences, slope, rise and run, and generate 2D, 3D, cross-section, surface, and contour information. This allows plan geometry and vertical site information to be gathered within the same field workflow rather than treated as entirely separate measurement exercises.
Building the Existing Conditions Plan
Once fieldwork is complete, site information needs to become a digital base from which design can begin. This is often where considerable labor occurs: interpreting field notes, transferring measurements, reconstructing geometry, coordinating survey information, and resolving the relationship between independently recorded dimensions.
How Moasure Fits: Captured measurements can be exported as 2D or 3D DXF/DWG files for CAD applications, while CSV exports retain X, Y, and Z coordinate data. Instead of manually rebuilding every measured condition from field notes, the designer can bring captured geometry and elevation data into the digital workspace and use it as part of the development of the existing-conditions plan.
Moving Into Concept Design
With existing conditions established, the project shifts from documenting what exists to designing what should exist. The base plan becomes the framework for testing circulation, spatial relationships, grading, planting, materials, program, and connections between landscape and architecture.
How Moasure Fits: At this point, Moasure 2 PRO has largely completed its primary role. The value of the tool is now embedded in the site information underlying the design: field measurements have been translated into digital information from which the landscape designer can develop the project in CAD, 3D modeling, or other design software.
Developing + Documenting the Design
As the project advances, conceptual decisions become increasingly precise. Dimensions are established, grading is resolved, planting and materials are coordinated, and drawings, details, schedules, and specifications are developed to communicate the project for pricing and construction.
How Moasure Fits: The site information captured during pre-design continues to serve as a reference throughout this process. More importantly, creating a direct path between field measurement and digital site information can reduce the manual reconstruction required before design begins, shifting professional time away from reproducing existing conditions and toward developing and documenting the proposed landscape.
Returning the Design to the Site
Construction often reveals conditions that could not be fully understood during pre-design. Excavation can uncover unexpected utilities, subsurface conditions, grade discrepancies, or existing elements that require the documented design to shift in response. When these conditions affect layout or coordination, the designer may need to revisit the site, document what has changed, and reconcile those conditions with the design already developed.
How Moasure Fits: Moasure 2 PRO can be brought back to the site to capture newly exposed or modified conditions as digital measurement data. That information can then be brought into CAD and overlaid with the existing design file, allowing the designer to compare what was designed with what is now physically present on site. This creates a more direct process for evaluating field changes, coordinating adjustments, and updating the design as construction progresses.
How Moasure Connects the Site Measurements to the Digital Design Process
Moasure’s role in the landscape design workflow is ultimately about creating a more direct connection between the physical site and the digital design environment.
By capturing site geometry and elevation as digital data in the field, designers can reduce the manual effort required to interpret measurements, reconstruct existing conditions, and prepare information for design.
That data can move into CAD and become part of the base information used throughout concept design, design development, and documentation. The result is a more efficient transition from measuring what exists on site to designing what comes next.
