Having Shrubs and Shrub Areas show under the same "Shrubs" heading on schedules

They are separate because they can potentially have different fields, so the header needs to be repeated.

Also, the Shrub Area has an entirely different symbol, so it necessitates a different listing.

If both Shrubs and Shrub Areas are only listing a Code, and you have a group of "Shrubs" for your shrub areas, then they should list one right after the other, right?  If this is still unacceptable, your best solution would be to create a Concept Shrub Area, and you could then choose the schedule option to Include Concept Plants by Plant.

--J

Then a suggestion for schedule layout. Give us a check box that allows us to use our headings only and make the heading list visible in each of your 4 categories (Trees, Shrubs, Shrub Areas, Groundcovers).

It boils down to a Simpson's Stopper is a shrub that I will use a singular circle symbol for, but in front of it I might put Ficus Green Island. But instead of 120 little circles really cluttering up the plan, I would use the shrub area for a clean, easy to read look. They are both still shrubs though and it's confusing to municipal plan reviewers who may be an Arborist, Biologist, LA, or just a regular person who knows the code but nothing else to see "SHRUBS" and then a separate heading "SHRUB AREAS" when they are all just shrubs.

I already have one municipality that wants me to separate shrubs from tropical plants (philodendron), grasses or small growing palms because they ONLY allow "leafy shrubs" to be counted to their required shrub counts. To throw more at them means silly rejection comments all because I can't group the schedule like I should be able to.

As another example, specimen philodendron that will use singular symbols and be listed under the Shrubs category, but then massings of philodendron would use the Shrub Area category. However, I would list them both as Accent Plants. So now I have to have 2 Accent Plant headings possibly just listing 1 plant in each. Yes I could have Accent Plants and Mass Plantings or something like that, but again each one would potentially have just 1 plant in each heading instead of just allowing a single heading. Toss both types of grasses, and specialty palms in there... see how it can get problematic? We've got 6 headings where I could really get away with just 1 or 2 but I can't group them that way with your current system.

A shrub having a different symbol from a shrub area shouldn't have to mean they both don't count as shrubs. Just seems limited in scope to not be able to group plants how we want to group them. At least as far as the schedule goes. Beyond that, the system works quite well as it is set up.

There does not need to be a heading of "Shrub Areas" -- as you noted, if you create groups within Shrub Areas, then that will display instead -- "Accent Plants", etc.

As for merging them, there's a pretty basic reason it can't.  The way the schedule is designed, is so that regardless of whether you choose Symbol, Code, Both, or None for that first column, the schedule still generates the same, and matches what is in the Manager.

We do have a couple of users who have requested what you want, essentially to list a plant only once but to be able to place it as both a hatch and a block.  For this, I mentioned a workaround -- you can create a Concept Shrub Area, and then in your schedule choose the option to Include Concept Plants, by Plant.  This will most closely match what you are after.

--J

So I think you are missing what I'm saying as I just reread what you had typed (while trying to figure out how to do the Concept method you mentioned). I do not want to place the same plant as both a shrub and a shrub area. I want all shrubs to simply be listed as shrubs. Whether it is a shrub or a shrub area (i.e. an area made up of shrubs) they are still shrubs. Having 2 headings for groups of plants that are all just shrubs is what doesn't make logical sense. Also it's not that I want to rename shrub areas to accent plants, I want to call them what they are... shrubs. But then I would have 2 headings that both say shrubs, again doesn't make logical sense.

I'm also not sure I understand why you can't show the circle symbols mixed with the hatch symbols. They are all just values in a database. It doesn't matter what they look like to the computer, only to the person coding it. If the coder wants to put a picture of a circular shrub above to a box with a hatch in it and then the next item down has another circular shrub block... that is extremly easy to do. It's all just values in a database and no more difficult than putting one bit of text above another like you already do. Having coded webpages using databases myself I've done just that. Now, maybe AutoCAD has a limitation that keeps it from being as easy as in web design, but just throwing it out there that it doesn't sound like a reason why we can't group the schedules like we want to.

Sorry, not trying to be difficult, just frustrated that the things that should be the easiest to achieve using this software are turning out to be the most difficult. While the things that should be hard are a simple button click and poof it works like a charm.

So going back to your idea about using the Concept Manager instead, I still need to place the plants individually and can't use just 1 symbol to represent 6 different shrubs. So the only way to do that is by adding the plants that I set up in the Concept Plant Manager under their listings in the Plant Manager. Then once I add the schedule it still has the 2 headings Shrubs and Shrub Areas. So still not able to achieve just having 20 types of shrubs all simply listed under the heading SHRUBS and not 6 as SHRUBS and the other 14 as SHRUB AREAS.

Like I said, I'm not trying to be difficult, so if that's not possible to do I'll deal with it. But I would like to just offer it up to be put on the possible future feature list. Thanks.

I’m definitely not missing what you are after. We might add such an option in the future. What I am doing here, is trying to give you some workarounds.

Option 1, is to create a shrub area group called “Shrubs” (or whatever). With this, the worst that would happen, is that the word “Shrubs” might appear twice in a schedule — a schedule that was generated instantly, mind you.

Option 2, if that bugs you so much, requires only that you create a Concept Shrub Area, and place the hatched areas as such. Then, when you generate the schedule, choose the option for Include Concept Plants, By Plant — this will be EXACTLY the output that you are after. See this power tip video.

To reiterate why the current functionality is as such — we felt it more important for the schedule to match what the Manager is showing, hence the groupings of Tree, Shrub, Shrub Area, and Groundcover. Yes, it’s a database, and it is conceivably as easy as adding an option to the schedule dialog box, “Shrub Areas As Shrubs”, or something like that. But then you do have the issue of possibly differing Size columns, as well as the issue of hatches and symbols intermixed if you choose the Symbol option. So it is hardly a perfect solution.

But, this forum is a great venue for other users to chime in, and as I said, it is certainly something we could add in the future. 

—J