Paving Design Expert

Paving a street or a sidewalk can significantly increase its visual effect and, if properly performed might even attract tourists. However, any such undertaking has to start from a drawing-board and Paving Design Expert provides just such a solution for anyone wishing to pave a local walkway with tiles.

Although it could presumably be used for professional usage, the application rather leaves the impression of a decent tool for more casual projects, such as paving a garden walkway. The tool comes with a useful gridded display, in which one can place tiles of varying shapes and sizes. Several built-in items are available for use, including cube and cobble-type models and users not satisfied with the rather limited range of choices can free-form draw their own stones.

Specially intended for such cases, the program comes with a “Tiles Editor”, where users can work separately on individual brick items. Once satisfied with their prototype model, the work can be transferred to the main “Paving Design Expert” window.

Another module is the “Patterns Editor”, where one can design pavement patterns. What's more, several tiles can be combined into complex figures, which allows users to create walkways with advanced designs.

The orientation of individual items can be adjusted and, once satisfied with their projects, users can export their work to BMP format. Although the application stands out for its high degree of customization, more sample tiles would have been a great addition.

All things considered, Paving Design Expert comes across as a basic tool for anyone in need of drawing-board aids for building cobblestone walkways. The utility features few samples, but does allow users a high degree of freedom by providing them the ability to create their own tiles and patterns against a gridded backdrop.