Land F/X provides a wide palette of tools, data, and symbols to make the creation of Planting Plans a quick and easy process. Selection of plants, symbols, sizes, locations, labels, and schedules is accomplished quickly and intuitively.

In This Section

• Planting Plan Outline Procedures outline the basic steps to creating a planting plan with Land F/X.

• Add plants to a Plant Palette to be used to create the planting design.

• Create a Planting Plan by placing plants with unique symbols and plant data attached to each plant.

• Label the plant with three different methods, and instantly check the plan for labeling errors.

• Edit a plant, the plant symbols or sizes, and instantly update the plan and all labels.

• Instant Plant Schedule generation, with a flexible variety of options for the layout.

The following is a guideline for the sequential steps necessary for developing a Planting Plan. While it is not necessary to follow these steps precisely, it is best for the User to follow this sequence until they are more familiar with the process of Land F/X.

• Start a new Land F/X project, or open an existing one, in order to be able to place planting information into that project, see Start a New Project.

• Setting the Land F/X scale will allow the program to correctly scale Land F/X entities that are placed into the drawing, such as callouts or symbols. See Set the Drawing Scale.

• Add plants to the project to develop a palette of plants from which to work from, see Adding Plants to a Project.

• Editing a plant that has been added to the project will define specific aspects of the plant and the symbol that represents the plant. This can be done at any time, or when you place the plant into the drawing. See Plant Info/Edit.

• Place the plants into the drawing in Model Space.

• Copy plants by Copy along a Line, Copy along an Arc, or Array with triangular or square arrays.

You CAN use the AutoCAD Copy command, as well as Land F/X commands, to copy a plant to multiple locations at any time. You should NOT use the AutoCAD Mirror command to mirror a group of plants, as the symbols’ shadows and labels will not appear correctly.

• Label the plants in the drawing.

• After completing the labeling of a plan, and before running the Plant Schedule, use the Verify Plant Labels function to verify the accuracy of the labeling, and to see if any plants are unlabeled or labeled more than once.

• If, at any time, you need to change a plant type, the symbol or symbol size, or any aspect of a plant, use the Redefine Plant function.

It is an optional choice if you wish the Plant Schedule to refer to a specific detail for each plant. To do so you would do the following:

• Open the Project Plant Manager to access the plant palette. Highlight any tree or shrub and click Default Detail to associate a detail with that group of plants. Edit those plants that are to have a different detail than the default one.

• Open the Project Detail Manager and place the details into a sheet within the project’s drawing set.

• Organize the Plant Schedule format from the Plant Schedule function, and place it into the drawing or into a spread sheet.

1	Plant Categories Trees, Shrubs, Shrub Areas, Ground Covers
2	Select Schedule to view only the plants that have been placed in drawing
3	Plants added to the project will be displayed in the central area
4	Add Plants to the project
5	With a plant selected, Highlight will show the Plant in the drawing
6	With a plant selected, clicking Photo will show you images of this plant
7	Edit will allow you to modify the plant in the Project Data
8	Copy will allow you to make a copy of the selected plant with a different container size
9	Delete will remove the selected plant from the project
10	Detail will allow you to associate a default detail to the plant

Project Plants are organized into four categories:

1. Trees
2. Shrubs
3. Shrub Areas
4. Ground Covers

When you click on the button next to one of these categories the plants selected for that category will be displayed. Each of these categories are divided into groups reflected in the drop down box below the planting categories.

The plant groups for the category “Trees”

The plant groups for the category “Shrubs”

If the designer wishes to, they can add their plant palette into these groups as required. When a Plant Schedule is run, the groups will be listed separated in the schedule. When placing plants into the drawing, the plants will also be grouped by any of the groupings used.

The groupings for any category are valuable if you specifically want those groups separate in the Plant Schedule. For example, if plants are added to the groupings of Trees as well as Palm Trees, then the Plant Schedule will first list the Trees, then will list the Palm Trees under that heading.

Groupings are also valuable if you want to make placing plants easier by dividing your plant palette into groupings. For example, your shrubs may have the bulk of plants under the Shrubs grouping, but certain areas of the project will have shade plants or native shrubs. When you go to place some of these plants, you can go to that grouping and only see the plants in question.

The View All button next to the group drop down listing will allow you to see all of the plants in all groups.

• Schedule If you have checked the Schedule button, only the plants that have been entered into the drawing, or have been edited and assigned a symbol, will be displayed.

• Add Adding a plant allows the user to type a few letters of the botanical name to make a selection from the genius, species, and varieties that apply to the entry. Once you get into the Add Plant window, you will have the options for Add from Project as well as Add From DWG.

• Highlight Plant The Highlight button will highlight the selected plant in the drawing, showing you where all of the selected plants are placed. There is more information about highlight plant here.

• Edit This function allows you to edit and refine the data related to the specific plant. The type of information you can edit includes Plant Name, Plant Code, Remarks, Rootball/Plant Size, Symbol type and size, and the Detail that applies to this plant.

• Copy Makes a duplicate of the currently selected plant, to allow multiple container sizes of the same plant – when doing so, the system will allow the plants to be assigned different container sizes, different symbol widths, and different remarks, while keeping all other data the same for all plants of the same code.

• Delete Remove the plant from the project’s plant palette.

• Detail The Detail button assigns a detail to all of the plants in the category grouping, such as for all Trees. If some of the plants require a different detail than was selected by Detail, select the Edit function and assign a different detail for that plant.

There are multiple ways to add plants to the project. They are listed below:

Add by Name

You can add plants individually by entering a few letters of the botanical name and clicking the Search button. Then select the proper Genus to view to options for Specie, and select a Specie to view the options for a particular Variety. Highlight the Variety in question and click the Add to Project button to add it to your project.

Add from Project

When adding a plant, click the Add from Project button to view a list of currently active projects and templates. Select a template or project and view the plants available for your category (trees, shrubs, ground covers). name, or click on Add from Project to add from different projects or templates.

Do This:

From any AutoCAD drawing, either open your project or start a new one. Review the topic Project Plant Manager, and open the function for your project.

Review the topic Adding Plants to a Project. Add a palette of trees, shrubs, and ground covers to your project.

Theory:

In adding plants, feel free to add plants and defer judgment as to whether you are going to use the plant or not. You are simply building a palette, much like a painters palette of colors, you don't have to use every plant, just the ones you decide to end up using. The palette of plants you add will, of course, reflect the climate, soils, water use, etc. of the project you are designing for.

You do have a chance in the Project Plant Manager to group plants together as you may wish with the Sub-Category option for each major category, such as Shrubs then Grasses. This will group them together for ease of locating them for placement, and the Plant Schedule will reflect the groupings when it is run, (i.e., the Schedule will list the Shrubs, and then any sub-categories such as the Grasses.). If you only want the Schedule to list the main categories, don't use the sub-categories to group plants.

If you are basing your project on one where you created a Concept Plan from the Land F/X Landscape Concept Plan, those plants will already be added to the project, and will be ready to edit and assign a symbol to.

Template Usage

The Land F/X project management system allows you to create a project and base it on a template (a template being a previous project you created that you felt applied to future projects, so you saved it as a template when you were finished with it).

This is especially useful with planting, as you can instantly bring in all of the plants, and their symbols and specifications, from your template into the new project you are creating. This is a great way to hit the ground running when you are starting a project.

The downside to template usage is when your template contains a great number of plants, such as all of the plants you would ever use. If you add this large amount of data to every project your system may start to slow down simply because of the massive amount of unused data in every project. It is fine to have a template that has virtually every plant you would expect to ever use, just don't use this template to as a base for every new project. Instead, start a new project without a template, and then when you add plants click Add from Project, and go to the template and pick and chose the plants you need for your new project. This way you get the benefit of quickly adding the desired plants, and they come over with pre-determined symbols, specifications, and even detail references.

You could also make templates that limit themselves to the realistic scope of a specific intended project, and base the new project on a more specific and limited scope.

Open the Project Plant Manager and select the appropriate category group, either Trees, Shrubs, or Ground Cover. Select the Add by Name button to add plants to the project by their names.

As an example, select the Shrubs category group and click on the Add button.

Add by Name dialog box before entering any information. Type one or more letters in the “Partial genus name” box and click on “Search”.

Notice that you can select “Filter by Data” to filter the Land F/X database to either access all plants in the Land F/X database, or limit your selection to those attributes selected.

In this case lets demonstrate the Add By Name function.

“pi” was entered and all genus starting with “pi” are listed. Select “Pittosporum” and all of the Pittosporum species are listed. Select a species, in this case “tobira” and all of the varieties are listed. Select a specific variety, in this case ‘Variegata’ is selected, and then click on “Add to Project” and that plant is added to the Project Plant Manager. Either add more plants or select “Exit” to return to the Project Plant Manager.

The plant selected is placed into the Project Plant Manager. You will see a confirmation that the plant is added at the bottom right of the screen.

Once you hit “Done” you will see the plant selected is placed into the Project Plant Manager.

Continue to add plants as required to the different category groups. You can stop at any time and place plants into the drawing, or leave the drawing entirely. At any time when the project is active, return to the Project Plant Manager and add more plants as necessary.

You can add the same plant multiple times, if you want the same plant but with different root ball or caliper sizes. The difference between multiple plant additions will be in the Plant Code, which will add a number to the code. For example, Rhaphiolepis indica will have a Plant Code of RHA IND for the first plant, and RHA IN2 for the second, and so on.

Adding plants from another Project or a Template has the advantage of using a plant palette that has been previously thought out and has related symbols already selected and sized.

• Previous projects are a good source of data that has already been established that the user is confident will be appropriate for the current project. An example of this might be a project that has extensive use of native plants, or has an ocean exposure, or has a certain plant list that a client, such as a school district, is comfortable with.

• Templates are created by saving a Project as a Template within the Project Files dialog box. Templates are different from previous projects as they may be added to and further developed by the user over time.

To add plants from a Project or Template from the Project Plant Manager:

• Select the Add button in the Plant Manager

• Select the Add from Project button on the top right of the screen.

• A list of current active projects will be displayed, followed by a line separator, and then ending with a list of Templates.

• Select one of the Projects or Templates.

• A list of plants related to that Project or Template will be displayed.

• Highlight some or all of the plants on the list and select Add to Project.

• The plants selected will automatically be added to the current project, and placed in the appropriate category such as Tree, Shrub, or Ground Cover. Data from the Project or Template, such as the symbol type and size for each plant and rootball size, will be carried over into the current project.

Confirmation of DWG Scan

• Add from DWG The Add from DWG button can assist in recreating a plant palette where only the DWG exists. This is most common for an older plan, where the project data is missing, or has been mistakenly changed and/or deleted, leaving only the DWG. This button will scan the drawing, and recreate the plant palette as best as possible.

When you add from another project or a template, data such as the symbol type and size, rootball size, and comments, will be carried over into the current project.

The Plant Palette is quickly created without slowing down the user with having to make decisions on detail aspects of each plant. When feature decisions of the plant need to be made, select the Edit button to edit the plant information.

With the Project Plant Manager open, select the Edit button when a plant is highlighted to access the Plant Info dialog box. In this example the plant Pittosporum tobira ‘Variegata’ was highlighted when Edit was selected.

1	Botanical Name
2	Common Name
3	Code assigned to this plant
4	The Group Assigned to this plant
5	After plant group has a detail assigned, this will assign a plant specific detail
6	Plant Sizes fields. These can be customized from the Preferences screen
7	Plant Symbol selection field
8	Apply to all will update all plants with this data. Uncheck this to modify this plant only

Plant Name

The botanical genius, species, and variety as well as the common name of the plant selected is displayed. This can be changed or edited as desired, for example, a different variety and common name entered.

Plant Code

The default code assigned to this plant is displayed. All of the plants in the Land F/X database have a unique code automatically assigned to them. This can be edited in this dialog box, effecting on this project plant which will affect that plants code for all projects. The Plant Code will assign a code to the plants in one of two methods:

• GEN SPE: or the first three letters of the Genus, and the first three letters of the Species.

• GS: or the first letter of the Genus, and the first letter of the Species.

You can assign which form of plant code you wish by going to the Preferences section of Configuration and Preferences.

Change Plant

If at any time, even after the plant has been placed into the drawing many times, the user desires a different plant to replace the original plant selected, choose Change Plant. The Add by Name dialog box will appear allowing you to select a new name to replace the previous name. If the plant was previously placed into the drawing, the drawing will automatically update and the new plant will be associated with the symbol.

Remarks

Any remarks pertaining to the selected plant will appear on a line just below the plant name on the Plant Schedule.

Detail

If a default detail was added to the plant category, such as Shrubs, it will be listed here. If this plant will require a different detail than the default one, select Set Detail to select a different one for this plant.

Container/Rootball Size

Select the installation rootball or plant caliper size for the plant selected. These can be gallon or box size, B&B for ball and burlap, or you can select Add New to add a size not listed.

Container drop down sizes as listed for “Shrubs”

The Container/Rootball Sizes would be metric if you has set the drawings scale to metric.

The container size will be the default size if you do not set it.

Caliper

If you wish to, you can define a caliper for a the plant, or you can select Add New to add a caliper not listed.

Caliper drop down sizes as listed for “Shrubs”

The Caliper sizes would be metric if you has set the drawings scale to metric.

Size Range

If you wish to, you can define the size range for the plant.

Symbol width (feet)

This controls the width of the symbol as it is placed into the drawing. The default symbol sizes are 20 feet diameter for Trees, and 4 feet diameter for Shrubs. If the scale set were metric, the size would be in meters.

Symbol

The symbol selected for this plant is indicated in the box. As no symbol has been selected in this example, the box is empty. If you wish to assign a symbol to the plant, click anywhere inside the box.

Apply to All

If you are editing a plant type that has already been placed into a drawing, clicking OK after editing the plant information will change all of that plant type in the drawing to reflect your changes. If you want to only change a limited number of that plant type in the drawing to reflect the changes, uncheck the Apply to All option. You will be able to select any number of the type of plant edited with the standard AutoCAD selection types: window, crossing, fence, pickbox selection, etc. If you select window, only the plant in question will be selected in a group of plants.

This is valuable in changing only a few of a plant that you want to edit, for instance, to change a handful of a number of street trees to a different type or container size.

Insert Remember image:

If you want to add Custom Fields this can be done in Preferences, Plant Sizes

The Plant Info dialog box for Shrub Areas or Ground Covers is different from Trees and Shrubs in that it allows you to define the spacing between plants.

Container/Rootball Size

The sizes in the Container/Rootball Size drop down box include an “@” symbol after the size to signify the container size is planted at a certain spacing.

Container drop down sizes as listed for Ground Covers	Container drop down sizes as listed for Shrub Areas

Plant Spacing O.C.

Instead of a Symbol Width box as is located at Trees and Shrubs, a Plant Spacing O.C. box occurs with Shrub Areas and Ground Covers.

Plant spacing o.c. box at Shrub Areas and Ground Covers

Manually fill in a number for the spacing as required for this plant. This is automatically considered inch units for imperial, and mm units for metric.

A plant’s symbol can be assigned to the plant when it is added to the project while creating the Plant Palette, or at any time during the planting design process. Again, this is to allow the Plant Palette creation to be a quick process.

When you select Edit on a highlighted plant from the Project Plant Manager, the Plant Info dialog box appears. If a symbol has previously been assigned to this plant it will appear in the Symbol box. If no symbol has yet been assigned, this box will be empty.

Click on the Symbol box and the Plant Symbols Library dialog box will open allowing the user to select a symbol and determine its graphic size. The symbols library will be appropriate for the Tree, Shrub or Ground Cover category of the highlighted plant.

If you place a plant into the drawing that has not yet had a symbol assigned to it, the Plant Symbols Library dialog box will open to allow you to select a symbol and determine its graphic size. This allows symbol selection to be accomplished “on the fly”.

Plant Symbol Library for Trees. Notice the sub-categories in the upper left corner. Click on one of these categories to view the symbol library associated with that sub-category.

The Tree Symbol Library has sub-categories of:

• Simple: symbols with variations of a simple outline.
• Evergreen: symbols with fill or foliage texture.
• Deciduous: symbols with variations of line work representing branching.
• Conifer: symbols that can represent a fine textured plant.
• Palm: symbols that could represent a palm tree or tropical plant.
• Diagrammatic: symbols that are diagrammatic in nature.
• Small Scale: symbols used when drawing a plan with a very small scale, such as 1”=100’.

Plant Symbol Library for Shrubs. Notice the sub-categories in the upper left corner. Click on one of these categories to view the symbol library associated with that sub-category.

The Shrub Library has sub-categories of:

• Large: symbols drawn with a line color that will print with a somewhat thicker line, to be used for larger shrubs of about 5 feet diameter or larger.
• Small: symbols drawn with a line color that will print with a somewhat thinner line, to be used for smaller shrubs or shrub masses of about 1 to 4 feet in diameter.
• Tropical: symbols with course bladed or foliage plants.
• Vine: symbols for vines or espalier plans.
• Diagrammatic: symbols that are diagrammatic in nature.

Only use the “Large” shrub symbols for plants indicated on the drawing at about 5 or 6 ft in diameter or greater. For plants of a smaller diameter, use on of the “Small” library plants. This will avoid having very small plants with a thick outline, and thus plotting too dark or as a “blob”

Shrub Areas allow you to define an area where a mass of shrubs will be planted at a set spacing. The shrub areas are defined by a boundary linetype and an interior hatch pattern.

When you edit a shrub area after adding it to a project, you will first be required to select a linetype to represent that shrub area.

Shrub Area linetype library to select a linetype from.

After selecting a linetype, you will be required to select an infill hatch pattern.

Shrub Area infill hatch pattern library.

You may select a hatch pattern, or the first pattern of “NONE” if you want no pattern. After selecting the linetype and hatch pattern to represent your shrub area, you will be brought back to the Plant Info dialog box.

Plant Info dialog box for a shrub area indicating the symbol selected.

The color (and thus plotted thickness) of the outline of a Shrub Area is controlled in the Planting tab of the Preferences dialog box.

Ground covers are indicated with hatch patterns. When you click on the Symbol box in the Plant Info dialog box, you will be presented with the Ground Cover hatch pattern library.

Ground Cover hatch pattern library

To associate a detail with the selected plant, click on the Default Detail button for a highlighted plant in the Project Plant Manager. The Detail Select dialog box will appear and have the appropriate category active, such as 02910 Tree Planting or 02920 Shrub Planting.

See Associating Details for associating planting details with the Plant Manager.

Placing plant symbols into the drawing is a simple process with the Project Plants toolbar.

Selecting the Project Plants button will result in a floating toolbar with icons for Trees, Shrubs, and Ground Cover, as well as labeling options and plant info. This allows a quick and easy method of accessing the Project Plant data and symbols.

Place Project Plants floating toolbar. The floating toolbar can be closed at any time by clicking on the ‘X’ in the upper right hand corner. To reactivate, select the Project Plants icon as above.

Select the Tree icon for Project Trees.

Project Trees dialog box.

Trees that have been placed into the drawing, or “Schedule” trees, have symbols assigned to them and are at the top of the list to the left, with the symbols indicated to the right. Trees that have had no symbol assigned to them, or “Palette” trees, are at the bottom of the list to the left.

The trees you have entered into the Plant Manager will now be displayed. If you have already placed the tree into a drawing, or have edited the plant within the Plant Manager, it will be listed under the Schedule list at the top, and the symbol will be indicated at the thumbnails to the right. Trees you have not placed into a drawing will be indicated under the Palette list. As you place Palette plants into the drawing you will be asked to select a symbol to represent that plant, as you have not done so yet.

Select a plant name on the left column or a plant symbol from the thumbnails to the left, in this example Alnus cordata, and place the plant into the drawing. A “target” the size of the plants symbol will appear, allowing you a preview of the size of the symbol before you place it. Click any number of times where you want the plant to appear.

Place the tree as many times as required into the drawing.

Notice the target at the cross hairs that is the size of the tree symbol.

If you had put plants into groups within a category, select the drop down box at the top to view the groups.

The drop down box for the groups of Trees.

The Trees group will show all trees and will break up sub sections. If you select a group that has plants in it such as Palm Trees, only that group will be listed.

The group “Palm Trees” was selected, indicating the plants within that group.

Shrubs are placed in the same manner as trees, click on the icon of the Project Plants floating toolbar and select the desired shrubs to place.

Project Shrubs dialog box, with a similar layout of “Schedule” plants and “Palette” plants.

If you had put plants into groups within a category, select the drop down box at the top to view the groups.

The drop down box for the groups of Shrubs. Only the groups actually used will be listed.

When you select Shrub Areas from the Place Plant floating toolbar, you will be presented with a plant library for that category.

Place Shrub Areas selection library.

Click on either the name of the plant to the left, or the linetype image to the right, and an AutoCAD pic box will appear. Select a previously drawn area defined by a closed polyline (on any layer), and the area will be converted to a shrub area.

Draw an area to be represented by a Shrub Area, on any layer, with a closed polyline

After selecting the desired shrub area to insert from above, use the AutoCAD pic box to select the polyline area. The border linetype will be changed, and the appropriate hatch pattern added.

The shrub area will then be associated with the selected hatch, with the number of related plants representing the spacing you selected when you added the plant to the shrub area category, at a triangular spacing. You can now label this shrub area if desired.

The added shrub area labeled.

The Land F/X convention for ground covers is to place a hatch pattern where the ground cover is going. This allows a clear definition of the limits of the ground cover, and allows Land F/X to accurately determine the square foot area for each ground cover for placement in the Plant Schedule.

Draw a polyline with one of the non-plot line types around the perimeter of the areas where the ground cover is going.

Select the Ground Cover icon on the Place Plant floating toolbar.

Project Ground Covers dialog box.

In this example select Turf Sod or the symbol for turf sod.

Select the polyline around the turf sod area and the hatch pattern is inserted.

When you place a plant, the layer that the plant symbol block is placed on will automatically be controlled, no matter what layer is active when you place the plants. Thus the active layer for trees will be “L-TREE”, for shrubs will be “L-SHRB”, for ground cover “L-PATT-GDCV”, for turf “L-PATT-TURF”, and for shrub areas the hatch pattern will be on “L-SHAR-PATT” and the border line will be on “L-PLANT-GROUP”. These layers will automatically be created if they did not already exist. In this manner, you can “freeze” one of the layers to control how the plants are viewed.

By clicking the ”«” button when placing plants, you can switch to a slimmer dialog box that does not include the symbols of each plant. This will remain the default place plant dialog box until you click the ”»” button.

Select the icon Copy along a Line, and a pic box will appear. Select the plant you wish to copy along a line. The AutoCAD command line will indicate: “Spacing between plants <22>:” Either right click to accept the bracketed spacing (which defaults to the width of the symbol selected), or enter a number the plants are to be spaced at.

After either accepting the default or entering a number, the plant will be copied as you move your mouse, where you can see the amount of plants copied. Click on where you want the last plant in the line to be, and that plant will be copied at the spacing indicated, in a line from the first plant selected, to the last plant location selected.

Select “Copy along a Line”, and use the pick box The AutoCAD command line will want you to to select the plant to copy.

Indicate the spacing between plants, say 35 for 35 feet. As you move your mouse the plant will be copied at that spacing.

When you click on where you want the last plant copied to, and the plant will be copied at the spacing indicated between the two points selected.

Select the icon Copy along an Arc, and a pic box will appear. Select the plant you wish to copy along an arc. The AutoCAD command line will indicate: “Spacing between plants <22>:” Either right click to accept the bracketed spacing (which defaults to the width of the symbol selected), or enter a number the plants are to be spaced at.

After either accepting the default or entering a number, the command line will then ask: “Arc mid point:”. Select the mid-point for your arc pattern. The plant will be copied as you move your mouse, where you can see the amount of plants copied. Click on where you want the last plant in the arc to be, and that plant will be copied at the spacing indicated, in an arc from the first plant selected, to the last plant location selected, with the mid-point as selected.

Select “Copy along an Arc”, and use the pick box The AutoCAD command line will want you to to select the plant to copy

indicate the spacing between plants, say 35 for 35 feet. Then the command line will ask you to select the mid-point of the arc.

After selecting the mid-point of the arc, move the mouse and the plant will be copied as you move it at the spacing you selected,and with the arc mid-point you selected. Click on the location of the last plant, and the plants will be copied along the arc.

Select the icon for Triangular Array or Square Array, a pic box will appear for you to select your plant to array. The AutoCAD command line will indicate: “Spacing between plants <22>:” Either right click to accept the bracketed spacing (which defaults to the width of the symbol selected), or enter a number the plants are to be spaced at.

The AutoCAD command line will then ask: “Setting Snap angle – select entity, enter angle <0>, or click to specify:”. This will define the angle that the array is based upon, using the Land F/X Snap Angle function. Either select an entity to orient to (a line drawn or on an Xref), enter an angle (the default is “0”), or click two points (where a rubber band line will appear between the two).

After indicating the angle the array is to be based upon, as you move the mouse the plant will be copied at that array, at the spacing and angle specified. Move the mouse to the desired location, and click to array the plants.

Select “Triangular (or Square) Array”, and use the The AutoCAD command line will want you topic box to select the plant to copy

Indicate the spacing between plants, say 35 for 35 feet.Then the command line will ask you to Indicate the angle the array is to be based upon with the “Snap Angle” function. After indicating an angle, as you move your mouse the plant will be arrayed.

Click on the extent of the array desired, and the plant will be arrayed for the type of array, spacing, and angle you selected.

Label buttons on the Project Plants floating toolbar

Label some sample groups of plants by the following methods.

• Label by Group. Pick a sample plant in the group, and create a Window around the area of the plant which you want to be included in the label.

• Label by Connecting Line. Pick a type of plant, and then go from plant to plant to draw lines between them. While you are labeling by connecting lines, you can at any time hit the A key to place an arc, and then it will default back to lines.

• Label by Connecting Arc. Pick plants of the same type and select the midpoint of the connecting arc.

• Label Single Plant or Shrub Area. Label a single plant and then label a shrub area at the top of the project.

• Label a plant in Paper Space using a locked viewport. This would be used when you want to have the labels appear outside of the viewport area, and within the Paper Space of the drawing.

Theory:

Labeling is a construction communication tool. One argument against labeling your plans is that you don't need to label Planting Plans, just let the plants have unique symbols and the have the Schedule accurately reflect the plant quantity. This is a very weak argument that we feel should not be supported, and is generally based upon having to label plants manually, which is very prone to errors, and just giving up and leaving it up to the Contractor.

It is easy to see that labeling a plan accurately will mean a more precise installation, making the installation and construction review easier, and reducing the potential for liability and ill feelings with the Owner. The best possible time to label a plan is in the design phase, before going out to bid. The best way to label is with an automated system like Land F/X.

As far as the look of the label goes, the Land F/X Preferences offer a variety of options. Review those options and the example plans in the landfx.com Gallery section. Some considerations of labeling include:

• Make the labeling functional by thinking like the installer. Have enough labels throughout the plan to express how many plants go in one specific area or another.

• If a plan has a lot of labels, the labels themselves should be as physically small and efficient as possible. You simply may not have enough room to put in exotic or lengthy labels.

• Speed is often of the essence in an office situation, so how evenly spaced or lined up labels are may depend on how much time you want to spend on the look of the plan. Labeling is, after all, a functional communication of construction components.

• Select the Label by Group icon on the Plant Labels floating toolbar.

• The crosshair will become a pickbox, select any plant in the group you wish to label.

• The command line asks “First window point, <P>olygon:”. The selection method defaults to a window selection, or type P for to define by a irregular polygon (or fence).

• Window is the most common method of selection, thus it is the default. Place a Window selection around an area that includes the plants you want to label. Remember, the Window will only select the plant type you indicated, so you can select as large a window area as you wish, it will ignore all plants other than the one you selected.

• After placing a selection Window, a rubber band leader will appear from the plant that you originally selected. Click on where you want the label to appear (point 1), then click on which direction you want the label to be placed (point 2).

• The label appears with the Plant Code, Quantity, and Container Size.

• A rubber band leader continues from point 1 to allow you to further define the group you selected, or you can right click to exit with one leader line.

Step 1	Step 2

Step 3	Step 4

Step 5	Step 6

• Select the Label by Connecting Line icon.

• The crosshairs become a pickbox and the command line asks, “Select first plant”.

• Use the pickbox to select each plant you want labeled. Clicking on any point of the plant symbol will select it.

• A connecting line is automatically drawn to the center of each plant as you select them. It will only let you select the type of plant you first picked.

• The system allows you to intersperse arcs within connecting lines, prompting for “Next plant, or <A>rc:” By pressing the “A” key, you can then select the next plant, and click on the midpoint of the arc; it will then default back to a connecting line. After placing a connecting arc, the function will automatically default back to label by line.

• When you have selected all of the plants you wish to label, right click to end the selection process. The pickbox becomes a rubber band leader to place the label.

• The command label asks, “Select label location”. Pick the point you want the label located (point 1), then select the direction of the label (point 2).

• The label is placed with the Plant Code, Quantity, and Container Size.

Step 1	Step 2

Step 3	Step 4

• Select Label by Connecting Arc.

• The crosshairs become a pickbox and the command line asks, “Select first plant”.

• Use the pickbox to select the first plant. The command line will ask, “Select next plant”. Clicking on any point of the plant symbol will select it.

• In order to draw the arc between the two plants the pickbox becomes a rubber band leader from the first plant and the command line asks, “ Arc mid point”. Select the mid point for the arc.

• A connecting arc is automatically drawn to the center of each plant. You may continue to select other plants or right click to place the label.

• When you right click to place the label, the pickbox becomes a rubber band leader to place the label.

• The command label asks, “Select label location”. Pick the point you want the label located (point 1), then select the direction of the label (point 2).

• The label is placed with the Plant Code, Quantity, and Container Size.

Step 1	Step 2

Step 3	Step 4

Use Label Single Plant to easily label one plant with a minimal of steps, and to label a Shrub Area, If you wish to label them.

Label a Single Plant

Click Label Single Plant, select the plant in question, and click where you want the label to be placed.

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3

Label a Shrub Area

Click Label Single Plant, select where on the Shrub Area you want the label to attach – to either point to the bounding line or to an interior point of the hatch – and then click the location of the label.

Step 1	Step 2

You can connect several Shrub Areas with one label, where upon Label by Connecting Arc might be the better choice of labeling function.

You can use any of the plant label options to place plant labels into Paper Space, and still perform all of the Land F/X error checking as if they were placed in Model Space.

The primary reason for placing labels into Paper Space is because the plan is very dense, like a virtual jungle, with virtually no negative space (such as a building, walk, or paving), and any labels will fall onto other plants, with the possibility of covering up vital information. In this situation you can place labels in areas outside of the boundaries of the viewport, into blank areas of the Paper Space sheet layout.

Another reason for using Paper Space for labeling is because it is a past tradition of the office, and you want to keep up that tradition. We have found that this argument has broken down as it is much faster, and in most situations more flexible, to label within Model Space, reserving Paper Space for the sheet layout only.

To label in Paper Space:

While within a Paper Space layout tab, select and highlight the viewport you are going to work in and go to AutoCAD Preferences. From then select enlarge the viewport with the grab points so that it is largerF

Labeling plants using Locked Viewport	After labeling boundary can be resized.

The Plant Photo Callout will search Google Image search and show a list of results. When you select the image you want to use it will insert the Photo Callout in the .DWG

The planting design and production document process needs to be fluid and flexible. It is common to have to change plant types, names, symbols, quantities, or container size at any point during the construction document process.

Land F/X Edit button on the Project Plant Manager dialog box

The View/Edit Plant function allows the user great flexibility in changing the Planting Plan at any time. All aspects of the planting information can be changed and the changes reflected automatically throughout the plan.

The View/Edit Plant function will ask, “Select plant” at the command line. Select the plant you wish to redefine and the Plant Info dialog box will appear.

Plant Info dialog box from the View/Edit Plant function.

Theory:

Editing occurs when you change your mind about some aspect of a plant, or are forced to make a change by the direction of others. You will find that you may want to change your mind about a symbol for a plant, or that symbol's size. It is not uncommon to place a plant into a drawing and immediately decide, That symbol is too large (or small) and want it changed. Or you will place a symbol and think, That looks too much like this other symbol, and I want a different one. Use the Plant Info/Edit button to do this quickly.

It may be that a project, after completing the design and cost estimate, needs to have the cost reduced. This is easily done by specifying smaller plant sizes, or downsizing. Using the Plant Info/Edit function will allow for all instances of a plant to be downsized, and the labels will automatically reflect the new container or plant sizes.

Change Plant

The Change Plant button assumes the user wants a completely different plant to replace the selected plant. Clicking on the Change Plant button will bring up a list of plants currently in the project for that plant code (i.e., trees). The process assumes your first choice to replace the edited plant is with another one from the project.

List of plants currently in the project.

If you want to change the plant to a plant not currently in the project, select the Add New button at the bottom of the above dialog box. This will take you to the Add by Name process, to add a plant to the project by name.

When you add a new plant you will see that plant’s Plant Info dialog box.

Plant add with the Add by Name process.

Review the plant information for this plant in the Plant Info dialog box, and select a symbol and symbol size for this new plant. Now click on one of the two buttons at the bottom of the Plant Info dialog box:

OK: When you click on OK, all of the plants within the drawing that you selected to edit will be changed to the new plant, with the new plant symbol, and any changed container size. The symbols throughout the drawing for the old plant will change to the new symbol selected, and any callouts for the old plant with be changed to a callout reflecting the new plant and the new plant container size.

Select: When you click on Select, an AutoCAD pic box will appear to allow you to use any AutoCAD selection process to pick some of the old plants that you want changed to the new one. Use this is you are only changing some but not all of the old plant.

Rootball/Plant Size and Symbol width

The rootball, or container size, can be changed to any larger or smaller size. The new size will automatically be updated on any plant labels already entered into the project.

Symbol

Click on the symbol in the box and the Plant Symbol Library for that plant type will appear. Select the new symbol and all existing symbols on the drawing will be updated when you press OK.

Select

Select allows you to select the individual plants of the plant type being edited. This might be advantageous if you are changing only a few of a certain plant type. When you click Select you will go to the standard AutoCAD selection methods, window, crossing, individual selection, etc. If you chose to select by window, only the plant type being edited will be considered in a mass planted area.

Select plant to be redefined.

Change the rootball size from 5 gallon to 15 gallon, and the symbol to a different symbol.

Select the new symbol from the Symbol Library. After changes select OK.

Selecting OK will change all of this plant in the drawing to the new symbol, and all of the callouts will be updated.|

Plant Symbol and label is automatically updated.

Highlight Plant is a valuable function to use while labeling. It will highlight all the instances of where a plant occurs in your design, to aid you in making a determination of the best method of labeling that particular plant.

Highlight a plant from the Project Plant Manager. Go to the Project Plant Manager and click on a plant you know has been placed into the design. Then click on the Highlight Plant button there to highlight that plant within the drawing.

Land F/X Highlight button on the Project Plant Manager dialog box.

Highlight Plant is used to indicate the locations of a selected plant are on a drawing, or of the plants that a callout points to.

Select Highlight Plant and then click on a callout. All of the plants that that callout is pointing to will be highlighted.

Select plant label to highlight the plants associated with that label

The plants associated with that label are highlighted.

Select Highlight Plant and then click on a single plant. All of that type of plant used in the drawing will be highlighted.

All of this type of plant in the drawing will be highlighted.

Theory:

Highlighting a plant before labeling is valuable because it gives you a clue as to the best way to label a plant. You might determine the type, number, and locations of labels just by seeing where the plant occurs in the drawing. Often a design might be very eclectic and could be an informal mix of a variety of plants. This is where Highlight Plant really shines to let you know where certain plants are in the mix.

Highlight plant is especially useful when you are labeling plants, to quickly determine what types and locations of labels you may need for certain plants.

The Match Properties command functions similarly to the AutoCAD Match Properties, enabling the user to easily make changes to a plan, changing plants to match the one selected.

The system will ask to select a Source plant, and then let you select any number of Destination objects to be converted to the source plant, Right Clicking to finish. The system will also set the Undo marker in between each change, so that you can easily exit the command and Undo back any number of individual changes.

Note that when operation on trees and shrubs, you can select any block to convert, which can be handy to convert a plan done without Land F/X installed.

The Verify Plant Labels function is a powerful tool to verify the accuracy of the plant labels and to update labels after changes to the drawing.

After selecting the button, the system will highlight any labeling or data errors, and notify you of what it has highlighted. It will first scan the drawing for any plants that are not in the database for the current project, meaning they would be unable to show up on the Schedule. If any of these plants are found, it will highlight them in Magenta, allowing you to use the View/Edit Plant button to rectify the problem. If all plants are in the database, it will then verify the labeling in the plan. Note that if no plants are labeled, it will not highlight anything. Likewise, if you have not labeled any trees or ground covers, it will assume this was your intention, and it will not highlight them as unlabeled. If a single tree or ground cover is labeled, it will then highlight any unlabeled ones as necessary. The only other type of labeling error is when more than one label is pointing to the same plant, in which case that will be highlighted in Yellow.

Before selecting Verify Plant Labels with some unlabeled plants, and some plants labeled more than once.

After selecting Verify Update Plant Labels, the unlabeled and/or plants labeled more than once will be highlighted with a thick line of the color as indicated.

There is no need to erase or turn off the highlight layer that is around the incorrectly labeled plants. If some of the plants are unlabeled or labeled more than once, make the required corrections and select Verify Plant Labels again. If all of the corrections are accurate, all of the highlighted areas will be gone.

In order to highlight the unlabeled plants the AutoCAD line weight is changed to Show Lineweight. After using the Verify Plant Labels function you may want to turn off the AutoCAD LWT command. Click the LWT button on the command bar icon.

The Verify Plant Labels function automatically makes updates to the plant labels as necessary to reflect changes made in the drawing. If the user needs to delete some plants that have already been labeled, select Verify Plant Labels and these changes will be reflected in the labels.

Four plants are deleted after being labeled. Notice that the “COR PUL” label has a quantity of 14.

After selecting Verify Plant Labels, the quantity is changed to 10.

Theory:

Verifying Plant Labels is one of the most important functions in Land F/X. To know your drawing is 100% accurate at the click of a button is beyond value. The time saved in error checking is enormous.

The objective of using Verify Labels is to not waste time being overly cautious and meticulous in labeling a plan and its plants. The objective is to label a plan very fast, not worry about accuracy, find out the errors with the click of a button, and then make the necessary corrections.

You can also define Work Areas around certain areas of the site, and do error checking (such as Verify Labels) within those Work Areas. I

Land F/X has developed a unique connection with Google’s SketchUpÒ 3-D visualization program to view your Land F/X design your did in AutoCAD with SketchUp. While no 3-D software is “easy” to learn, SketchUp is considered by many to be the easiest to use of the available options. SketchUp is also free, you do not need the Pro version of SketchUp in order to connect to Land F/X. SketchUp also has a large support community of users, making available an ever growing library of SketchUp 3-D symbols for the public.

Go to the SketchUp Connection section of the help file to see how to get 3-D visualizations of your designs.

The Land F/X convention is that the Plant Schedule is to appear in Paper Space, along with other notes and sheet border information.

Plant Schedule dialog box.

Do This:

Review the topic Planting/Plant Schedules. Open a drawing with plants in it, such as 2.02 Verify Labels. Place several schedule options such as:

• A schedule with whatever default option that is set.

• Several schedules with different selections in the Schedule Options.

• Several schedules with different changes made to the categories of Trees through Ground Covers.

• Run a schedule with all of the plant categories, Trees through Ground Covers, set for Symbol. Turn on the Plant Shadows to some angle.

Note: After placing one Plant Schedule in the drawing, when you go to run another one, a dialog box will ask Re-generate the existing schedule? Select NO to place several schedules side by side to compare them. You would select YES if you were happy with the type and location already placed into the drawing, and you simply want to update it.

This determines where you want the Plant Schedule to be displayed or saved to.

Drawing: The Plant Schedule will be inserted into the drawing with the proper font type and titles.

Spreadsheet File: The Plant Schedule will be sent to Microsoft Excel, for additional editing, cost estimation, separate faxing/printing, or other uses.

Entire Palette: Place with one of the above methods the entire palette of plants you have selected for the project, whether you have used the plants or not. This was intended to review the palette of plants early in a project, to determine what may need to be added or deleted.

General options for the schedule.

Names in Separate Columns: If checked, the botanical and common names will not be listed together, but will be in separate columns. This makes for a wider schedule.

Remarks below Name: With this checked, any remarks will be placed below the plant name, to result in a narrower schedule. If unchecked, a separate column is created for remarks, resulting in a wider schedule.

Include Cost: Only available when sending the schedule to a spreadsheet, this will include basic cost figures for each container size, as indicating in the Preferences screen for Plant Sizes.

Space Between Plants: Toggles whether an empty space is inserted between each plant row.

Quantity before Name: When selected, the quantity appears just after the code and/or symbol, but before the Name; otherwise, it will appear after the container size.

Sort By: Allows sorting the schedule by either Botanical, Common, or Plant Code.

Options for how the plant information is displayed.

Category Check Box

There is a check box in front of each category. If the box is checked, that category will show up in the schedule. If you wish to isolate the types of plants you want to show up in the schedule, such as only trees, then only check the categories you want to be indicated on the schedule.

Check box in front of each category.

Symbol/Code

Controls how the plant will be referenced to the drawing from the schedule. Either by its symbol, the plant code, both symbol and code, or none.

Symbol/Code drop down dialog configuration.

Name Layout Options

Controls how the plant names will be displayed, based on botanical and common name.

Plant name display options.

Size, Quantity, Detail

The size, quantity, and detail will be displayed in the schedule if these are checked, and not displayed if unchecked.

Check boxes for Size, Quantity, and Detail display.

Save as Default

Arrange the Plant Schedule dialog box they way you prefer it as your default format, and click on Default to save that configuration for the next time the dialog is brought up. You can always arrange things differently and save as default again at a any later date.

Default button to save the configuration for the next time it is brought up.

Work Area Schedules

After selecting your schedule preference, if you have any work areas defined, you will be prompted to select one or all of them. If you are running the schedule on all work areas defined, and have chosen to include the Quantity column, the system will create a separate quantity column for each area.

In the following examples, Detail was not turned on for simplicity.

Trees and Ground Covers on the drawing are represented as unique symbols and are not labeled. The Shrubs on the plan are labeled and reference by the Plant Code. The Plant Schedule dialog is adjusted as follows:

• Names ns Separate Columns and Remarks below Name are both unchecked.

• Symbol is selected for Trees and Ground Covers, Code is selected for Shrubs.

• Size and Quantity are checked to be turned on. Area is checked for Ground Cover.

* Detail is unchecked to be turned off.

Example 1 Plant Schedule

Trees, Shrubs, and Ground Covers on the drawing are represented as unique symbols and are not labeled. The first column of each group to reflect this would be Symbol. The Plant Schedule dialog is adjusted as follows:

• Names ns Separate Columns and Remarks below Name are both unchecked.

• Symbol is selected for Trees, Shrubs, and Ground Covers.

• Size and Quantity are checked to be turned on. Area is checked for Ground Cover.

• Detail is unchecked to be turned off.

Example 2 Plant Schedule

Trees and Shrubs on the drawings are labeled and reference by the Plant Code, Ground Covers are represented by symbols. The Plant Schedule dialog is adjusted as follows:

• Names in Separate Columns is unchecked, and Remarks below Name is checked (so that the remarks for the Quercus agrifolia will be below the plant name for a narrower schedule).

• Code is selected for Trees, Shrubs, and Ground Covers.

• Size and Quantity are checked to be turned on. Area is checked for Ground Cover.

• Detail is unchecked to be turned off.

Example 3 Plant Schedule

The symbols to represent the plants, Names is separate columns, Remarks in a separate column, Common Name will be first then Botanical Name. The Plant Schedule dialog is adjusted as follows:

• Names in Separate Columns is checked, and Remarks below Name is unchecked.

• Symbol is selected for Trees, Shrubs, and Ground Covers.

• Size and Quantity are checked to be turned on. Area is checked for Ground Cover.

• Detail is unchecked to be turned off.

Example 4 Plant Schedule

If there are Work Areas in the drawing, the command line will ask, “Select Work Area or <All>:”. You will automatically go to Model Space, there click on a Work Area if you want the schedule only to reflect those plants, or right click for All to all the schedule to reflect all of the plants in the drawing.

Example 5 Plant Schedule with Work Areas and right clicking for “All”. Notice that the schedule will reflect the total quantity, and the quantity on each work area, i.e., sheet L-1, L-2, etc.

A Plant Schedule run on the same drawing as above, but this time the sheet border area for Sheet L-1 was selected.