Placing Project Plants

 

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.

 

Trees

 

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.

 

If you select a group that has plants in it, only that group will be listed.

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

 

Shrubs

 

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.

 

Shrub Areas

 

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.

 

Ground Covers

 

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.

F Remember: 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.

F Remember: 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.