# Planted Tanks > Aquascaping >  AquaSketch - An Aquascape planning software

## ofridagan

Hi,
Just wanted to share with you my last project - *AquaSketch*
It's a nice tool designed to help you with your aquascaping - by making a *sketch* of your plans.
It's only the first version and it's going to improve, so please tell me what you think and make any comments or suggestions.

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## David Moses Heng

thanks for the tool! Can use it for my new tank. :Smile:

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## richietay

A very interesting site, thanks for sharing!

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## richietay

Had tried it out and is rather user-friendly. Would be better if there's an option to add hardscape, ie; woods and rocks.

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## Shadow

not bad, does it have drift wood or bog wood?  :Grin:  Am I ask to much?  :Wink:

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## AquaObsession

Was going to ask the same things... can it be modified to include rocks? sand? substrate? wood, even fishes? 

I think if we can do all these, some of them will be playing with that tool long hours to see if we can get what we want....

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## gummynut

COOL!! :Well done:  Thanks for your tool, certainly will help me in my next project.

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## Cacatuoides

Thumbs up for creating a useful tool for planted aquarist!!

Well done!!  :Well done:

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## ofridagan

Thanks for all the kind words, I need it to get myself to start working on the next version  :Laughing:  

Main additions to the next version will be:
Rocks and maybe driftwood.
Texture to choose for the substrate.
Some ability to save your work.

Any other ideas?

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## David Moses Heng

i notice that after you have "planted" your plants, there is no way to delete the wrongly plantd ones. you have to do a reset. maybe you can provide an option for them to be either replanted or removed. :Smile:

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## vinz

Err... can. The green text under the 'pot' map says "ctrl+click on a pot to remove it from the map".  :Grin:

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## vinz

> Thanks for all the kind words, I need it to get myself to start working on the next version  
> 
> Main additions to the next version will be:
> Rocks and maybe driftwood.
> Texture to choose for the substrate.
> Some ability to save your work.
> 
> Any other ideas?


Really cool. I've been thinking of a tool like that for some time, but never got round to it. I'm a Flash developer too. 

*Ideas*
Substrate:ability to change colourdepthslopeViews from the front, and sides.Drawing tool to allow users to draw in driftwood and rocks. You will need to allow users to 'send images to front' and 'send images to back' so they can compose the image correctly.

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## ofridagan

> Err... can. The green text under the 'pot' map says "ctrl+click on a pot to remove it from the map".


Thanks vinz.




> *Ideas*
> Substrate:ability to change colourdepthslopeViews from the front, and sides.Drawing tool to allow users to draw in driftwood and rocks. You will need to allow users to 'send images to front' and 'send images to back' so they can compose the image correctly.


1. How would you create a slope - it sounds pretty complicated.
What do you mean by depth?
2. Thats a good idea.
3. I'm not sure I understand. you mean you want to allow a user to load any image and use it in the aquarium?
What do you mean by 'send images to front/back'? inside the aquarium the order is determined by the distance from the viewer...

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## vinz

*1. Slopes
*If you are able to calculate the position of the plant images in the '3d' tank view, it should be quite easy for you to figure out how to draw lines to represent a sloped substrate. If you know the angle of the slope, you should be able to calculate how high to move the plant pictures depending on the position from the front or back of the tank.

By depth, I mean the thickness of the substrate. But if you decide not to do slopes, we can just set the tank height minus the thickness of our substrate.  :Smile: 

*3.
*If you have 2 movieclips in the same layer and you overlap them, one would be below the other. To make the bottom one appear on top of the top one, you would right-click the bottom mc and then select Arrange->Bring to Front. Same idea.

Yes, the position of the plant images is based on the distance from the viewer, but technically, the image is still 2D, as long as the co-ordinates of the images remain the same, the 3D effect will be retained. I'm just suggesting you allow the user some flexibility to change the z-order so they can compose a more accurate image with driftwood and rocks.

I agree potentially, the user could make a huge mess and get frustrated.  :Razz:

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## ofridagan

Well, that kind of linear slope can be done - I was thinking about round hills...

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## David Moses Heng

> Err... can. The green text under the 'pot' map says "ctrl+click on a pot to remove it from the map".


 :Laughing:   :Laughing:   :Laughing:  ok ok thanks. Think i'm getting old already... :Laughing:   :Laughing:

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## Aeon

I think MS Paint beats all of these.

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## ofridagan

Hello,
Due to popular demand I decided to make a little update - Rocks and Woods!
(version 2.0 is comming soon...)

AquaSketch

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## tcy81

very nice aquasketch.
hope the update 2.0 will be done soon

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## ofridagan

I have just released version 2.0 of my little flash tool - AquaSketch
Well, it doesn't include all that I hoped (and promised), but it does include one important feature: *You can now share your aquascape plannings!*
I also added a few more plants, rocks and woods - which I'm going to continue.

Here are two examples of my first tries with the new saving feature:
Aquascape #1 - my small tank
Aquascape #2 - my big tank

Go ahead! experiment your aquascapes and... *share*.
Enjoy, ...and Let me know if you have any problems...

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## ofridagan

Hello,

Just wanted to let you know that the AquaSketcher now has a new home on TheAquaTools.com
TheAquaTools.com is my new project. It is actually a collection of tools for the aquarium-keeper.

Let me know what you think. Comments and suggestions are welcome!

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## torque6

hi ofridagan, thanks for the aquatools, i have used them about 5-6 weeks back when i designed my new 1FT.

However i noticed some bugs.
1- Some plants have fixed mini textures and cannot be further downsized.
2- The dimension which i designed the tank was 1FT by 1FT, but i got a rectangulish tank instead of a cube one.
3- The zoom in feature is great, but at times, i couldnt control them and my mouse made a pivoter on the tank centrally.

Overall, i find it really good and it did project the image i wanted for my future tank. Great work.

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## ofridagan

Thanks for the commments!

1- all plants have a minimum size... I decided the minimum for each plant. If you think some plant need to have a smaller minimum, tell me which one and I'll make it smaller.

2- did you enter the same number in all three dimensions and got a rectangle? that never happened to me... what is your screen resolution?

3- to tell you the truth, I didn't plan to have a zoom feature. it comes with flash player so I'm not surprised it doesn't work properly.

Again, thank you for the time you took to write your comments.

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## torque6

Hi ofridagan, yeah, i have entered the tank dimensions as CM, 30x30x30, but still got rectangular tanks.

Oh i see, the zoom feature is flash based, no wonder it was acting up.

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## ofridagan

Hello,

Just want to update you on a new, *major* addition to TheAquaTools.com - the AquaRank.
It's a place to create your own personal page to share your aquarium creations with the world. People can watch, comment and rate your aquariums.
Check out my AquaRank page: http://www.theaquatools.com/aquarank/Ofri-Dagan

The AquaRank is a new "tool" in TheAquaTools.com and it's still improving.
I hope you'll find it useful, post your aquarium and help the AquaRank in becoming a big source of aquarium pictures.
(you need to register to post your aquariums)
Have fun! 

Tell me what think.

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## newtank

> Hello,
> 
> Just wanted to let you know that the AquaSketcher now has a new home on TheAquaTools.com
> TheAquaTools.com is my new project. It is actually a collection of tools for the aquarium-keeper.
> 
> Let me know what you think. Comments and suggestions are welcome!


I remember seeing this last time and was searching for it the last 2 days and here it is!!!

I do not know how far you want to take this as the site seems to have much potential as a practical guide for hobbyist.

It will be great if you could include practical DIY guide for scaping and hardware alike, like diy fans, diy lights.

I have always looked at a picture of a scape and wonder with questions like,"How did he make that bush? just by trimming or is there any other secrets?" or i have seen some scape pictures tha have a very steep slope and wondered how they keep it that way without it levelling out?

Just thinking out loud

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## ofridagan

Thanks 'newtank' for the good suggestions!
I do intend on continue and develop the site, I try to add new tools that I think might be useful for us, aquarium-keepers.

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## cardinal

Wonderful. Good job! Thanks for the tool!!  :Well done:

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## ofridagan

> Wonderful. Good job! Thanks for the tool!!


Thanks.
I really hope this site will be useful for aquarium-keepers, and I'm very excited about the new tool that enables you to create a personal page for your tank(s).
Come on, start using it  :Smile:  I think this could become a great resource for aquascaping ideas, etc.
http://theaquatools.com/aquarank

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## zoombee

> Hi,
> Just wanted to share with you my last project - *AquaSketch*
> It's a nice tool designed to help you with your aquascaping - by making a *sketch* of your plans.
> It's only the first version and it's going to improve, so please tell me what you think and make any comments or suggestions.


great job....very useful tools

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