lawn jpg

[John Sanders]

What drawing program is recommended for creating lawn JPG and how is accessed by the controller?

[Andrew]

Hi John,
I had a long search and tried quite a few different apps. 
I settled on "Realtime Landscaping Plus 2014". 

I was able to draw a scaled 3D model of my house & block which is then viewable in plan view.
It has a huge library of plants and many other objects you might find in a garden.
See my attached image.

At ~$80, it might seem a bit pricey, but for me the results were worth it.

As a bonus, I now also have a good package to help me with my landscaping planning.

Andrew

[Canada_Guy]

Bluespray has a number of existing images on their site. One might work for you.  http://www.bluespray.net/lawns/


I ended up just using Paint (basic drawing program with Windows) to make mine. It's basic, but does the job.

I first outlined the property and major landmarks from a picture I printed from Google Maps or Bing Maps. Then I scanned it in as a JPG. Re sized to 800 x 600 (required size for BlueSpray). Then used Paint to clean up and add colours. It turned out OK for my purpose,

As for loading it to your controller, it needs to be hosted somewhere on the web (I use Photobucket). To link it to your controller, click the little wrench symbol (top left corner of the lawn image). Select "Use my own image" and enter the link to the image. Click SAVE.

Here's what my image looks like (yes a bit crude)

[bluespray_admin]

Google map doesn't work for you?
In the age of drone, how about flying on up and snap a hi def pic of your property?

[John Sanders]

lol....That might be more costly than the $80 program.

[Fholbert]

Google satellite view, crop the shot and import into BlueSpray.

[Canada_Guy]

Any suggestion on a photo hosting site to upload my lawn photo to?? Photobucket now blocks third party linking.

Article on Photobuckets new policy:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/4/15919224/photobucket-broken-images-amazon-ebay-etsy-paid-update

Thank.

[Canada_Guy]

I'm trying this one:

https://postimg.org

[bluespray_admin]

We've seen people using Google or Facebook just fine.  Just make sure your image is viewable by everyone and does not require login.

[auto_man]

I’ve found that using a drone shot of my property is the best representation for the irrigation layout.  I have a drone that makes that easy and not everyone does, but with all the drones around today, friends and neighbors may be able to provide.

[hummerado]

Using Google photos worked for me, here's what I did using a Mac but PC should be similar...
1. If you have a Google account go to Google Photos
2. Open another browser window, go to Google maps, look up your address, take a screen shot of the satellite image of your property
3. Go to the folder on your computer where your screen shots are stored and drag the screen shot into a Google Photos shared album
4. From Google Photos, click on your photo, select the "Share" icon upper right, then select "Create a link" at the lower left
5. Create an embed code by going to https://ctrlq.org/google/photos/ and pasting your photo link into the box and selecting "Generate Link"
6. Copy the link that appears in the "Direct Link" box at the bottom of the page
7. Open your BlueSpray page. Select the "Lawn View" tab
8. Select the wrench icon in the upper left corner of the lawn image window, which opens the "Lawn Settings" dialogue box
9. For "Lawn Image Preference", select "Use my own image"
10. Paste the embed link you created in the "Image URL" box
11. Hit "OK" and refresh the page