PondTools

Design and proposals

Pond design software for contractors: what it needs to do

A pond contractor needs design software that starts from the customer's real yard and ends with numbers and a picture the customer can approve. That means an outline traced over a satellite or drone photo, the surface area and gallons that outline holds at the depths you plan to dig, a liner size, the pump's total head, a 3D view, and a proposal that carries all of it. Most programs that rank for "pond design software" are stormwater tools that size detention basins for storm runoff, and the landscape package that ranks draws an attractive pond without reporting what it holds. This page sets out what each kind of tool and each design service says it does, and where PondTools fits.

What the software and the design services say about themselves

The stormwater programs are civil engineering tools. HydroCAD calls itself "a Computer Aided Design tool used by Civil Engineers for modeling stormwater runoff." Hydrology Studio covers "pre- and post-development drainage studies with detention ponds," and Bentley says its OpenFlows Storm and PondPack tools "Model detention ponds and outlet structures to control post-development peak flows." Their inputs are design storms, hydrographs and outlet weirs. A backyard koi pond has none of those, and these programs have no liner, pump or rendering step.

The landscape package that ranks is Realtime Landscaping Architect from Idea Spectrum, listed at $599. Its product page says you can "Design ponds and streams of any shape and size, add rockery, waterfalls, fountains, and jumping jets," and "Present your designs to clients in real-time 3D, complete with flowing water, koi fish, and other effects." Its help page on adding a pond says to "Draw the outline of the pond by clicking the left mouse button to add points," and says you can "alter the water depth." Neither page mentions gallons, surface area, liner size or pump head.

Six of the seven design services below publish their fees. Most charge for a site visit and credit the fee back if you build, and the 3D packages cost more.

What pond design services say they charge, from their own pages
BusinessFee as statedWhat the client gets
Aquascape Creations, Bay Area, CA3D packages "start at $1,500" and "can run 2-3 times" that with complexity"Scaled plot plan showing accurate dimensions," still renderings, "A 3-minute video walkthrough"
Turpin Landscape Design, Downingtown, PA"a $1,500-5,000 design charge, depending upon the scope of the project and whether you'd like a 2D or 3D design"Consultation fee "credited toward the design and/or construction"
Cardinal Pond Design, Charleston, SC"on-site design consultation ($495 fee)"A construction plan; the fee "is credited toward your build"
California Waterscapes, Sun Valley, CA"$250 design fee is discounted toward your final contract total if the project is sold within 30 days""A hand drawn design sketch," plus an estimate and contract
California Aqua Pros, Discovery Bay, CA"The fee runs $150 to $250," credited toward the projectA "2D overhead design" hand drawn in the field
Garden State Koi, NY, NJ and PA"$250 consultation fee, credited toward your project"A yard visit
Natural Waterscapes, large ponds and lakesNo price publishedSoil evaluation, "hydrologic water balance, conceptual drawings, and site renderings"; "three-dimensional renderings of your pond including full, 360 degree HD video"

What contractors say about renderings and proposals

Max Taylor, writing in Pond Trade Magazine in 2019, used Structure Studios, which he said "costs $95 per month," because "I can build streams, pools and ponds. I can make water flow, change from day to night, draw the customer's house." He judged Realtime Landscaping Architect "worth the $399.99 price" but said it "does not have the same realism and detail I want in my water features" and is "a bit more challenging in the design phase to draw." He put the case for drawing at all this way: "Give the customer a picture of what you will be doing in their yard, and they will ask you how much to write the check for." He also wrote "Be sure to charge for your designs," and said that landscaping, hardscape and lighting added in the design go onto the proposal as line items.

Kent Wallace, in Pond Trade in 2015, used SketchUp and noted that "a backyard can be downloaded from Google Earth, allowing anyone to import a design directly into the space in proportion." He found that "Sending a 3D image of the equipment layout and location is very helpful" on jobs he could not visit often.

Aquascape Creations takes the opposite view on its own pricing page. It reserves 3D for "Large commercial builds, high-investment residential projects, or situations where formal approval is required," and writes that "The true design happens in the field. No computer model can replicate the feel of natural stone placement." California Aqua Pros prices from photos before it visits ("working from photos of your yard and a few rough dimensions") and then draws the plan by hand on site.

Where the sources differ and why it matters

The contractors disagree about how much a rendering is worth. Taylor sells with pictures, while Aquascape Creations and the hand-drawing firms treat the picture as secondary to stone placed on site. No source here measures how often a rendering wins a job, so Taylor's line about the check is his experience and should be read that way.

Prices in the trade articles have aged. Taylor's $399.99 for Realtime Landscaping Architect is now $599 on Idea Spectrum's own page, and his $95 a month for Structure Studios is a 2019 figure that this article has not confirmed.

The sources that raise the point agree that a picture cannot stand in for measurements. Aquascape Creations writes that "A 3D rendering is a guide, not a promise of the final product." PondTools says the same of its own AI images, in its guide: "generated scenery and details can differ from the measured geometry." Quote the liner, rock and pump from the measured plan, and use the picture to get the customer's approval of the look.

Scale matters too. A $1,500 3D package is a small share of a build in Pondscapes of Charlotte's published "Essential" pond range of "$15,000 - $35,000", and a large share of the cost of a 1,000 gallon pond. At 20,000 gallons and up, the soil and water balance work Natural Waterscapes lists becomes the real design question, and no drawing program does that work.

What to do

  1. Draw the pond before the site visit. In the PondTools app, start a project from satellite, search the address, frame the yard and choose Use this photo. The imagery sets the starting scale, and the guide says to check it against a known site measurement. Draw the rim, add ledges and the floor, and enter each depth in inches below the waterline, choosing shelf or slope for each. Volume, surface area and maximum depth update at the top as you edit. For a drone photo, you measure two spans on site to set the scale, as described in planning a pond from a drone photo.
  2. Where USGS 3DEP elevation data covers the site (at about 3 foot resolution), import LiDAR to see the ground slope around the pond in 3D. LiDAR describes the ground surface. Underwater depths still come from you.
  3. Size the liner with the PondTools liner calculator (also standalone). It takes the longest span, the widest span at right angles to it, maximum depth, overhang at each edge and a fold allowance (none, 4 inches or 8 inches), and fills the spans and depth from a traced pond. It sizes the liner from the maximum depth and does not add each shelf separately. Streams and waterfalls are sized as separate pieces of liner.
  4. Check the pump with the PondTools pump calculator (also standalone). It takes pond volume, static lift, pipe inside diameter, one-way pipe length, a flow to check and two points from a pump's curve, and returns the total head at that flow.
  5. Show the design in the PondTools studio, which opens the same measured pond in 3D with houses, decks, paths, planting beds and equipment around it. The studio can also render an AI image of the finished yard. Check that image against the plan before the customer sees it.
  6. Publish the proposal from Projects. It is a web page, with a print and PDF version, that shows water volume, overall size, deepest point and water surface, a scaled plan with its dimensions, a table of levels with depth and edge type, the parts list at list prices, your chosen images and videos, your business name and logo, and a contact form whose messages come back to you. Projects also holds customer records and status labels from New to Complete. Price the labor and stone using our guide to estimating and quoting a pond build.
  7. Do not quote from the picture, and do not dig to a satellite measurement you have not checked on the ground. Charge for the design, as Taylor advises, and credit it back if the customer builds, as most of the firms above do.

On the plans page, PondTools is free for one pond up to 5,000 gallons with three depth layers. The Homeowner plan is a one-time US $25 for one property. The Pro plan for contractors is US $50 a month or US $399 a year and covers multiple properties with $20 of AI credits each month. A credit is worth 10 cents. An AI picture uses 1 credit and an AI video uses 8. A 3,000 gallon design fits the free tier, while a 10,000 gallon design needs a paid plan.

Sources