planning stages

I tried once to do it that way.. Kept movng things around too much.  Got tired of redrawing and ran out of eraser. Even tried using Visio.  I pretty much mapped the 'yard' by using the visulizer in Aurora. Since the picture of the house I used  was pretty much from the same place an angle that folks would be seeing things I got a pretty good idea of what things might look like from the visitors point of view. But there were still a few elements that took most of the month+ long show to fine the exact place for them in the '08 display. Plus the 'extras' that got added when things went on sale that weren't originally planned.

The voices in my head tell me where to put the lights.

I get a little anal about mine and take a panoramic pic of the yard/house with survey flags placed every 5' at the front/middle/back of the yard for locating various "props"; then add things via photoshop. Also use graph paper for an "aerial" view".

I recreated my display on a 2 feet by 4 feet board. Each set of light is recreated by putting a regular C7 lightbulb. They are all plugged in my controllers. That way, I have a better visual idea of what will go on once I go "live".