I've already invested many hours on this, and haven't gotten too far. And, unless I am completely technically primitive, I have to basically design the entire INSIDE of my house before I can go to the yard. However, I only WANT to work on the yard. So, if you have beginner to moderate computer using skills like I do, expect to invest roughly (and literally) 20 times the number of hours you *think* it may take you to get comfortable with and begin designing your landscape using this software.