Planting Overview

Get started using Land F/X to enforce and even evolve your CAD standards.

 

View our Customization Overview section: Build your office standards from the ground up, or use our customization tools to enforce your existing office standards.

 

 

Set Your Preferences

• Planting Preferences: Select styles for your plant labels, plant codes, and more.
  This article includes a video.
• Plant Sizes Preferences: Control the contents of your Plant Schedules.
  This article includes a video.
• Text Styles (Fonts): Fine-tune the fonts and point sizes in your labels and schedules.
• Preference Set: Store and save your office standards in one central location, known as a Preference Set. Create a different Preference Set for each client, project type, region ... it's all up to you.
  This article includes a video.

 

Customize Your Plant Symbols and Groundcover Hatches

• Edit our default plant symbols to meet your standards.
  This article includes a video.
• Edit our default color plant symbols, adding your own linework and color specifications.
  This article includes a video.
• Add your custom plant symbols to our system to use in your drawings.
  This article includes a video.
• Edit our default hatch patterns to apply your groundcover standards to all your designs.
• Add your custom hatch patterns (PAT files) for even more groundcover customization.
  This article includes a video.
• Create and save your own custom linetype to use as a boundary for Shrub Areas.
• Customize plant symbol lineweights to make your plant lines as thin or thick as you want.
• Alphanumeric Plant Symbols: Want your plant symbols to include your plant codes? Here's how.
• Stipple hatch: Learn the ins and outs of our stipple hatch pattern (and some important considerations for using it).

 

Customize Your Plant Labels

• Edit our default plant label styles and make them your own.
  This article includes a video.
• Add your custom plant label styles to our system.
  This article includes a video.
• Define your standard for plant labels.
  This article includes a video.
• Add a background fill or mask to your plant labels.
  This article includes a video.
• Edit our Plant Callout Text Style to customize the font settings in your plant labels.
• Justify the fonts in your plant labels.
  This article includes a video.
• Change the insertion points of your plant labels.
  This article includes a video.
• Plant label attribute definition: Get even more advanced with the customization of dynamic text in your plant labels.
  This article includes a video.
• Updated plant label styles (2019): We updated our plant label styles, adding multileader (MLeader) styles to go along with our block styles, which we also updated. Here's how these label styles work, and how to get them.
  This article includes a video.
• Dual-language options for listing plants in a language other than English (or using local common names) in your plant labels.

 

Customize Your Plant Schedules

• Customize Plant Schedules by configuring your Text Styles, controlling the contents of your schedule, and more. 
  This article includes a video.
• Format your Plant Schedules exactly how you want them, and include as much or as little information as you like.
  This article includes a video.
• Plant Schedule examples: Get a sample of the variety of Plant Schedule formats you can generate.
  This article includes a video.
• Customize your schedule text: Configure the Schedule Title and Schedule Text styles to meet your standard for schedules.
• User-defined data fields: Create your own custom data columns for your Plant Schedules.
• Send schedules to a spreadsheet: Did you know you can send Plant Schedules to a spreadsheet for further editing? Here's how.
  This article includes a video.
• Schedules Uppercase: Choose whether or not your schedules will appear in all uppercase (capital) letters.
• Numeric Display: Configure how numerals appear in your drawings, including choosing a currency setting for monetary amounts.
• Schedule Integration: Use this tool to automatically send your Plant Schedules directly to another service provider – for instance, your company’s estimating and invoicing system.
• Dual-language options for listing plants in a language other than English (or using local common names) in your Plant Schedules.

 

Multiple Languages:

• Dual-language options for listing plants in a language other than English (or using local common names) in your plant labels and schedules.

 

 

And Don't Forget

• Add plants to our master database: Don't see the plant you want in our database? You can add it! 
  This article includes a video.
• Plant database nomenclature protocol: Find out exactly how to format your entries into our wiki-based plant database 
  This article includes a video.
• Customize your plotting styles: Ready to plot? We make it easy to achieve the exact look you want.
• Back up all your settings: Don't lose your standards. Back them up!
• Keyboard Commands: All our tools are available as keyboard commands, which you can customize to meet your needs.

 

Webinars

• Planting F/X Setup: If you're trying to make Planting F/X work with your firm's existing style standards, this webinar is for you. (58 min)
• Setting Your Land F/X Up for Success: etting Your Land F/X Up for Success means making the software work for you. We'll explore best practices for project templates, Preference Sets, detail folders, and other key tools for optimizing your workflow that will help make your design experience more efficient – and more fun. (1 hr 1 min)
• Hatches We dive into the Land F/X hatch libraries, take a look at how Land F/X manages hatches, and show you how to integrate your own custom hatches and develop a better understanding of the inner workings of the Land F/X hatch system as a whole. (58 min)
• Deep Dive into the Land F/X Portal: The Land F/X Portal provides a powerful central location where you can view your custom plants, access your Land F/X licenses, use our technical support system, manage your payments, and much more. Take a look around. (48 min)
• Working with Blocks: We go over the role played by blocks within our software, showing the various types of blocks you have access to and how they all function. We'll also show you how to integrate your personal set of custom blocks into our system. (51 min)
• Making Your Own Fonts: Creating your own custom font can infuse each of your plans with a one-of-a-kind look and feel. Join us as we delve into the process of putting together your own custom fonts. (59 min)
• Mastering TrueType Fonts: We'll give you everything you need to make the switch from SXH to far-superior TrueTypes, including tips on sourcing, installation, and troubleshooting. (1 hr 3 min)
• Making Text Work in CAD: Join us to learn the essentials of how to use letters, numbers, and other characters effectively in CAD, including how to work with Text Styles and the Text Manager. (1 hr 4 min)
• Plant Schedules: Land F/X provides a wide range of options for configuring a Plant Schedule for your landscape design. We’ll show you how to organize your columns and include or omit elements such as plant symbols, codes, cost estimates, spacing, and plants from your Xrefs. Join us to explore these choices and pick up valuable insights for crafting your ideal schedule. (1 hr 5 min)
• Rock Out With Your Block Out: We’ve formulated a workflow that incorporates Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator along with AutoCAD to create custom block content. Learn how to transform an image into a polished, optimized, and unique block for your library. (1 hr 5 min)
• Transitioning to Land F/X: If you’re thinking about introducing Land F/X into your office, this webinar is the perfect place to start. We'll show you how to set up your first design project and how to use our software to improve your office standards. (1 hr 2 min)
• Planting F/X Setup for a Multi-Office Firm: Wondering how to acquaint your office with our planting tools? Michael Bain, CAD manager at Boffa Miskell Limited, walks through his introduction of Land F/X into the New Zealand firm with 7 offices and 70+ landscape architects. Michael shows how easy it was to get the firm's standards into the software, and provides real numbers showing the time savings they experienced right away. (1 hr)
• Customize for Office Color Standards: This webinar covers the necessary tools and techniques for a black belt in the art of office standards – from CTB plotting files to valuable Land F/X tools that enable instant layer color conversions and office color setup. (1 hr 2 min)
• Customizing Land F/X: Learn how to work with specific blocks, layer names, sheet protocols, and other distinct elements that make up your firm’s practices and preferences. (1 hr 3 min)
• Setting up Templates and Preferences for Repeat Clients: To save time and increase your accuracy, learn how to deliver a consistent drawing package for your repeat clients by setting up project templates and Preference Sets. (50 min)
• Browse our planting webinars

 

It's important to set up a new project for each new job you start.

 

 

Articles

• Starting a new Land F/X project: Your first step when using Land F/X.
  This article includes a video.
• Setting the scale: Your second step when using Land F/X. We make it incredibly easy!
  This article includes a video.
• Drawing and sheet setup: Using multiple drawings in a sheet set? Do it the right way.
  This article includes a video.
• Clean your drawings: Drawing corruption can ruin your day. Prevent it by keeping your drawings clean.
  This article includes a video.

 

Webinars

• Setting Your Land F/X Up for Success: etting Your Land F/X Up for Success means making the software work for you. We'll explore best practices for project templates, Preference Sets, detail folders, and other key tools for optimizing your workflow that will help make your design experience more efficient – and more fun. (1 hr 1 min)
• Land F/X Admin & Setup: This webinar will show you what you need to know about Land F/X admin processes and project setup. (1 hr 1 min)
• Transitioning to Land F/X: If you’re thinking about introducing Land F/X into your office, this webinar is the perfect place to start. We'll show you how to set up your first design project and how to use our software to improve your office standards. (1 hr 2 min)
• Working With Scale: Proper scale practice is not only essential to Land F/X but to the entire fields of landscape and irrigation design. In this webinar, we do some scale troubleshooting and show you when and how to use scaling techniques such as splitting your drawing into different scales, scaling details, and changing the scale of your entire drawing. (1 hr 4 min)
• Browse our planting webinars

 

 

Choose from more than 24,000 plants. Add plants you your Land F/X project, and assign data to your plant symbol blocks.

 

 

Articles

• Plant Manager: Your one-stop shop for adding, editing, and placing plants.
  This article includes a video.
• Undock and Dock the Plant Manager: Our Plant Manager is now a docked palette by default. Check out all your docking and undocking options.
• Add plants to a Land F/X project: To specify the plants you'll use in a design, add each of those plants to your project as a single species. Remember: Use a different Land F/X project for each of your designs.
  This article includes a video.
• Add seed mixes to a Land F/X project: Our plant database now includes seed mixes, organized and listed by the supplier who sells them, allowing you to add them to your projects as you would a single plant species.
• Add plants to our master database: Don't see the plant you want? You can add it to our database. 
  This article includes a video.
• Plant database nomenclature protocol: Find out exactly how to format your entries into our wiki-based plant database. 
  This article includes a video.
• Add plants from the following third-party plant databases instead of our default plant database:
• PlantFile: Australia-based online plant database.
  This article includes a video.
• PlantMaster: An online plant database for presenatations and reports.
• Our plant data tagging system: Fine-tune your project plants with the help of our plant data tags indicating everything from water use and soil tolerance to bloom color. You can even filter plant searches based on tags, as well as create custom tags. 
  This article includes a video.
• Same plant, different sizes, codes, or symbols: Need to add different versions of the same plant? Here's how.
• Select plant symbols: Assign each of your project plants with its own symbol block to represent it in your drawing.
  This article includes a video.
• Flats, sods, and seeds: Spec your groundcovers in the exact form you need for each project. 
  This article includes a video.
• Edit plants: Make changes to the data assigned to any of your plants.
  This article includes a video.
• Natural Spacing: Learn about our unique mathematically formulated groundcover spacing pattern.
• Import plants: Do you find yourself using the same plants across multiple projects? Learn how to import plants from projects or templates.
  This article includes a video.
• Seed or plant mixes: Need to create a mix of seeds or plant species? Use our Concept Plant Manager.
  This article includes a video.

 

Webinars

• Planting F/X for Beginners: Wondering how to start including Planting F/X tools in your CAD workflow? We'll outline some key questions to ask yourself. (1 hr 16 min)
• Getting Started with Planting F/X: We'll give you a full tour of our F/X Planting ribbon, covering everything from adding, placing, and labeling plants to error checking, scheduling, and turning on our quick render tools. (1 hr)
• LandscapeHub and Land F/X: Follow along as we showcase our first integrated plant schedule export software, LandscapeHub. We'll go over some of its cost estimating and species availability features, which are tied directly to local nurseries, and show you how to use these tools to inform your plant species choices and design decisions. (48 min)
• Setting up Templates and Preferences for Repeat Clients: To save time and increase your accuracy, learn how to deliver a consistent drawing package for your repeat clients by setting up project templates and Preference Sets. (50 min)
• All About Templates: The word "template" can refer to several components in the AutoCAD and Land F/X systems. We break down the different types of templates available to you, including drawing templates (DWTs) and Land F/X project templates, and provide some helpful tips on using them to your advantage. (1 hr 4 min)
• Migrate an Existing Plan into Land F/X: Do you plan to make the switch to Land F/X and have an AutoCAD plan you need to convert? Watch how quickly you can transform your dumb CAD plan into a smart Land F/X plan. (54 min)
• Using PlantFile in Land F/X: PlantFile creator Peter Kirkland shows off what you can do with PlantFile – a powerful resource for botanical data – and how it connects to Land F/X. (1 hr 16 min)
• Using Plant Templates: Project templates are focused and reusable palettes of your most frequently specified plants. This intermediate-level webinar will cover the best workflow for customizing templates. (1 hr 1 min)
• Browse our planting webinars

 

If you want, you can sketch out your planting design before you even build your palette. Our Concept Planting tool allows you to place plants as conceptual "design groups" of trees, shrubs, and groundcovers. You can then transform your Concept Plants into actual plant varieties later. You can also use this tool to place seed, sod, and plant mixes.

 

 

Articles

• Concept Plant Manager: Add Concept Plants to your project.
  This article includes a video.
• Seed, sod, and plant mixes: Create a mix of multiple seeds, sods, or plant species.
  This article includes a video.
• Place Concept Plants or mixes: Ready to use your Concept Plants? Place them in your drawing.
  This article includes a video.
• Label your Concept Plants: Ready to label your concept plan? Just use our plant labeling tools.
• Concept Plant Schedule: List all your Concept Plants and mixes, complete with plant quantities or areas.
  This article includes a video.
• Create a modular planting mix: Use our Concept Planting tools to create a mix that will simplify this useful and cost-effective planting tecnhnique.
  This article includes a video.
• Convert Concept Plants into project plants: Ready to start building your actual plant palette? Don't start from scratch – replace Concept Plants in your drawing with the actual plants you want to use.
  This article includes a video.
• Import Concept Plants from a project or Template: You don't need to build the same palette of Concept Plants and mixes for each new project. Save time and tedium by importing them from other projects.
  This article includes a video.
• P-Hatch (PHATCH): Use this handy tool to modify or expand an existing Concept groundcover or Shrub Area hatch in your drawing. Plant quantities within the hatched region will update automatically based on its new square area. 
  This article includes a video.

 

Webinars

• Concept Planting Tools: Learn all about this valuable set of tools, which allow you to set up an initial planting plan – even before you’ve built your palette. (1 hr 1 min)
• Planting F/X for Beginners Part 2: In this second installment, we'll dive right into some of the tools you need to know about for the best experience and fastest workflow when starting with Land F/X planting plans. (1 hr 3 min)
• Migrate an Existing Plan into Land F/X: Do you plan to make the switch to Land F/X and have an AutoCAD plan you need to convert? Watch how quickly you can transform your dumb CAD plan into a smart Land F/X plan. (54 min)
• Modular Planting Design: If you’re trying to design with plant communities, have you tried using the plant mix tools in our Concept Plant Manager? Tune in to see how these tools simplify this planting design process dramatically – including the details. (1 hr 1 min)
• Getting Started with Planting F/X: We'll give you a full tour of our F/X Planting ribbon, covering everything from adding, placing, and labeling plants to error checking, scheduling, and turning on our quick render tools. (1 hr)
• Browse our planting webinars

 

Place your plants in seconds. 

 

 

Placing Plants: The Basics

• Plant Manager: Here's where to start. Browse through a list of the plants you've specified, and place each one.
  This article includes a video.
• Groundcover and Shrub Area spacing: Dial in the density of your groundcovers or Shrub Areas to achieve the plant quantity or area you want.
• Placing plants: Learn the essential steps and techniques for placing your project plants in your drawings.
  This article includes a video.
• Redefine Block: Does a plant not look quite right after you place it? Is the color or linework off, for example? That plant's source file may have been customized, but the plant is still defined as its old version in your drawing. Use this tool to transform the plant symbol to the correct saved version.

 

Specialized Tools for Placing Plants

We offer a variety of useful and time-saving tools for placing plants:

• Generic Plants: Not ready to place "smart" plants yet? Sketch out your design with our generic plant symbol blocks, then use Mimic Plant tool (formerly known as Match Properties) to turn them into project plants later. 
  This article includes a video.
• Mimic Plant (Formerly Known as Match Properties): Pull the data associated with one plant and apply it to other plants in your drawing.
  This article includes a video.
• Plant Mirror: Place a mirror image of an existing group of plants.
  This article includes a video.
• Copy plants along a path: Choose a polyline, line, or arc, setting your desired spacing along the way.
  This article includes a video.
• XCOPY: Run the copy portion of the AutoCAD MOCORO command to copy a grouping of selected plants and/or labels and place duplicates of that grouping. 
  This article includes a video.
• XCORO: Run the copy and rotate portions of the AutoCAD MOCORO command to copy a grouping of selected plants and place duplicates of that grouping rotated to your needs. 
  This article includes a video.
• Drive game: Get on-the-road training on our keyboard commands for copying plants by playing this fun game from within any DWG drawing. 
  This article includes a video.
• Xhair Angle: "Snap" plants to a specific crosshair angle in your drawing.
  This article includes a video.
• Array Plants: Arrange plants in a triangular or square array.
  This article includes a video.
• Clone Plant (Formerly Known as Match Plant): Assign the data from one plant in your drawing to another.
  This article includes a video.
• Exclude Shrubs: Place a groundcover or Shrub Area hatch without adding the hatch to the individual trees or shrubs within that planting area.
  This article includes a video.
• Paint Mode: "Paint" multiple plants into your drawing at once with a sweep of your mouse.
  This article includes a video.
• Plant Shotgun: Achieve rapid-fire plant placement. Use keyboard commands to place specific numbers and patterns of plants, and toggle between several planting tools on the fly.
  This article includes a video.
• Drive game: Get on-the-road training on our keyboard commands for placing plants by playing this fun game from within any DWG drawing.
• Change Plant: Quickly swap out one plant for another in your drawing.
• Import CSV: Instantly place plants at the locations of given data points in your drawings using a comma separated values (CSV) file. 
  This article includes a video.
• P-Hatch (PHATCH): Use this handy tool to modify or expand an existing groundcover or Shrub Area hatch in your drawing. Plant quantities within the hatched region will update automatically based on its new square area. 
  This article includes a video.

 

Planting Design Techniques

• Design a vertical planter or living wall: See our recommended workflow, including steps for the planting, details, and irrigation components of the project. 
  This article includes a video.

 

Webinars

• Planting F/X for Beginners: Wondering how to start including Planting F/X tools in your CAD workflow? We'll outline some key questions to ask yourself. (1 hr 16 min)
• Getting Started with Planting F/X: We'll give you a full tour of our F/X Planting ribbon, covering everything from adding, placing, and labeling plants to error checking, scheduling, and turning on our quick render tools. (1 hr)
• Design a Vertical Planter: Learn how to create a legible planting plan for a vertical wall, with connected irrigation, that any contractor should be able to read, understand, and build exactly as intended. (1 hr 1 min)
• Landscape Carbon Calculation: Rick Taylor of Elder Creek Landscapes provides an introduction to, and tutorial on the use of, the Carbon Calculator – an important tool in the effort to combat climate change. (54 min)
• Browse our planting webinars

 

Label your plants with completely customizable callout styles. Match your office standards for font and label styles.  

 

 

Articles

• Label plants or Concept Plants in Model Space.
  This article includes a video.
• Quick tools for labeling plants or Concept Plants:
  • Label by Group
    This article includes a video.
  • Label by Connecting Line
    This article includes a video.
  • Label by Connecting Arc
    This article includes a video.
  • Label a Single Plant, Shrub Area, or Groundcover
    This article includes a video.
• Move plant labels after placing them. Learn the proper way to move your labels around without losing their associations with the plants they're calling out.
  This article includes a video.
• Updated plant label styles (2019): We updated our plant label styles, adding multileader (MLeader) styles to go along with our block styles, which we also updated. Here's how these label styles work, and how to get them.
  This article includes a video.
• Make plant labels invisible for one plant type for a presentation or another purpose. You can easily make them visible again.
• Verify Plant Labels: Error check your entire planting plan. It's our most popular tool!
  This article includes a video.
• Label Plants in Paper Space for an even more decluttered plan.
• Plant Photo Callouts: Fire an automatic online images search for a photo of a plant in your drawing, then call out that plant using the photo. You can also browse to your own plant photos to use in the callouts.
  This article includes a video.
• Redefine Block: Does a plant label not look quite right after you place it? Is the color or linework off, or does it have the wrong attributes, for example? That callout's source file may have been customized, but the callout is still defined as its old version in your drawing. Use this tool to transform the callout to the correct saved version.
• Label plants or Concept Plants in your Xrefs from your main drawing without having to open the Xref separately

 

Webinars

• Planting F/X for Beginners: Wondering how to start including Planting F/X tools in your CAD workflow? We'll outline some key questions to ask yourself. (1 hr 16 min)
• Getting Started with Planting F/X: We'll give you a full tour of our F/X Planting ribbon, covering everything from adding, placing, and labeling plants to error checking, scheduling, and turning on our quick render tools. (1 hr)
• Migrate an Existing Plan into Land F/X: Do you plan to make the switch to Land F/X and have an AutoCAD plan you need to convert? Watch how quickly you can transform your dumb CAD plan into a smart Land F/X plan, including the labeling process. (54 min)
• Browse our planting webinars

 

With our editing tools, revisions are quick, easy, and intuitive. Be right 100% of the time!

 

 

Articles

• Verify Plant Labels: Do a complete error check of all labels in your plan. This tool will be your best friend.
  This article includes a video.
• Edit plant information using our Edit Plant tool.
  This article includes a video.
• Change Plant: Quickly swap out one plant for another.
• Highlight Plant: Locate all instances of a single plant variety in your drawing with one click.
  This article includes a video.
• POLYDIVIDE: Instantly divide a planting area into up to 10 equal sections. 
  This article includes a video.
• P-Hatch (PHATCH): Use this handy tool to modify or expand an existing groundcover or Shrub Area hatch in your drawing. Plant quantities within the hatched region will update automatically based on its new square area. 
  This article includes a video.

 

Webinars

• Common Land F/X Questions: This webinar covers some of our lesser-known tools, including Highlight Plant. (1 hr)
• Getting Started with Planting F/X: We'll give you a full tour of our F/X Planting ribbon, covering everything from adding, placing, and labeling plants to error checking, scheduling, and turning on our quick render tools. (1 hr)
• Browse our planting webinars

 

Create a schedule in three clicks! Our Plant Schedule tool offers a wide assortment of customization options.

 

 

Articles

• Plant Schedules: Learn everything you need to know about creating and placing a Plant Schedule.
  This article includes a video.
• Plant Schedule destination: Place a Plant Schedule directly in your drawing with plotting or non-plot gridlines, or in a spreadsheet.
  This article includes a video.
• Customize Plant Schedules by configuring your Text Styles, controlling the contents of your schedule, and more. 
  This article includes a video.
• Plant Schedule examples: See what the Plant Schedule will look like when you configure various combinations of settings.
  This article includes a video.
• Associate details with plants and list the details in your Plant Schedule.
• Work Areas: Create a "drawing within a drawing" so you can:
  This article includes a video.
  • Limit your Plant Schedule to one area of your plan, or
  • Place multiple schedules showing different areas or phases.
• Dual-language options for listing plants in a language other than English (or using local common names) in your Plant Schedules.
• Color Board (Bloom Schedule): Create a Gantt chart style schedule of all trees, shrubs, Shrub Areas, groundcovers and plant mixes you've placed in a drawing or added to a project.
  This article includes a video.
• Plant Portfolio: Compile the names of the plants you've added to a single Land F/X project into a printable PDF document.

 

Webinars

• Ask Us Anything! Spotlight on Plant Schedules Join us for the first "Ask Us Anything," which focused on Plant Schedules, including the massive 2023 update that overhauled the Plant Schedule dialog box and opened new possibilities for your Plant Schedules. (1 hr 7 min)
• Plant Schedules: Land F/X provides a wide range of options for configuring a Plant Schedule for your landscape design. We’ll show you how to organize your columns and include or omit elements such as plant symbols, codes, cost estimates, spacing, and plants from your Xrefs. Join us to explore these choices and pick up valuable insights for crafting your ideal schedule. (1 hr 5 min)
• Planting F/X for Beginners: Wondering how to start including Planting F/X tools in your CAD workflow? We'll outline some key questions to ask yourself. (1 hr 16 min)
• Planting F/X for Beginners Part 2: In this second installment, we'll dive right into some of the tools you need to know about for the best experience and fastest workflow when starting with Land F/X planting plans. (1 hr 3 min)
• LandscapeHub and Land F/X: Follow along as we showcase our first integrated plant schedule export software, LandscapeHub. We'll go over some of its cost estimating and species availability features, which are tied directly to local nurseries, and show you how to use these tools to inform your plant species choices and design decisions. (48 min)
• Using Work Areas: Whether you need to separate out phases in your schedules or show an area at a different scale and viewing angle, you need to know how to manipulate a Work Area. (1 hr 2 min)
• Excel With The Right Tools: No matter how much you can accomplish in AutoCAD, sometimes MS Excel can do the job better. We’ll give you some examples of how Excel can improve your design process by adding everything from shade analysis reports to MAWA calculations and in-depth watering schedules. (1 hr 5 min)
• Excel With The Right Tools Part 2: Now that we've gone over the basics of what MS Excel can do for you, join us for a more detailed look into the capabilities of this powerful application, including named ranges, templates and reusable macros, and more. (1 hr 5 min)
• Getting Started with Planting F/X: We'll give you a full tour of our F/X Planting ribbon, covering everything from adding, placing, and labeling plants to error checking, scheduling, and turning on our quick render tools. (1 hr)
• Browse our planting webinars

 

Need to present your design to a client? Dress up your planting plan using our powerful graphic and presentation tools.

 

 

Articles

• Plan Graphics: Choose generic site amenities from our extensive library of plan-view blocks.
  This article includes a video.
• Reference Notes: Use this powerful tool to place "smart" site amenities or hardscaping hatches.
  This article includes a video.
• Plant Photo Callouts: Take your labeling to the next level. This tool does an automatic image search online for photos of the plant you want to callout. Or browse to your own photos.
  This article includes a video.
• Color Render: Add color to your plant symbols and hatches.
  This article includes a video.
• Placing color rendered plants in your drawing correctly.
  This article includes a video.
• Plotting a colorized plan requires some additional steps and settings. Get all the info you need here.
  This article includes a video.
• Plant Outlines: Add definition to your planting areas.
  This article includes a video.
• Plant Shadows: Lend some depth to your planting design.
• 3D Connection: Bring your design from CAD to a 3D model and back again. Data stays attached to all your plants and site amenities.
  This article includes a video.

 

Webinars

• Getting Started with Planting F/X: We'll give you a full tour of our F/X Planting ribbon, covering everything from adding, placing, and labeling plants to error checking, scheduling, and turning on our quick render tools. (1 hr)
• Using Presentation Graphics: This webinar provides "from-the-basics" looks at some of our presentation graphics tools, such as Plant Color Render, Site Color, and 3D Connection. (58 min)
• Webinars covering presentation techniques using other software: We're always happy to provide helpful webinars on using Photoshop and other image rendering platforms in your design process to bring your plan to the next level. Here are a few:
• Digital Design Tools on the Go: Whether you need to travel, visit a job site, or meet with a client, you have myriad technological options that can make it immeasurably easier to make design decisions and show off your work. We’ll take a look at some phones and tablets, as well as a few pertinent applications. (56 min)
• Digital Design Tools on the Go Part 2: In Part 2, we guide you through the transition from your desktop computer to a tablet, including recommendations for preparing your drawings for pen and tablet rendering and moving your PDF sheets from computer to tablet. (1 hr 7 min)
• Landscape Design and Virtual Reality: Virtual reality can be an incredibly useful tool for professionals who design spaces. We go through what you need to know about virtual reality hardware, and show you a few tools you can use to bring your 3D models to virtual life. (55 min)
• Turn a 3D Render into a Video with Land F/X, Lumion, and Davinci Resolve: Join Pat Pabich from YTL, Inc. as he outlines his most important considerations for making a 3D video rendering. Pat goes over some helpful tools YTL uses to move from CAD to 3D and even further to a polished, color-corrected professional video. (1 hr 30 min)
• Creating Assets for Your Photoshop Library: The Photoshop library gives you the capability to save and organize objects you find yourself using repeatedly, allowing you to access and use them easily in any project. Harness the power of the library, and pick up some valuable techniques for creating items you’d want to save into it for frequent use. (1 hr 2 min)
• Creating an Exploded Isometric Projection: Exploded isometric projections are great tools for separating the different landscape layer elements while still conveying how they relate to each other. Join us for a workflow demonstration on creating these graphics so you can really impress anyone viewing your project. (48 min)
• Rock Out With Your Block Out: We’ve formulated a workflow that incorporates Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator along with AutoCAD to create custom block content. Learn how to transform an image into a polished, optimized, and unique block for your library. (1 hr 5 min)
• Digital Painting Techniques in Photoshop: We take a plain CAD drawing created with Land F/X and turn it into a rendered spectacle. Working with Photoshop and a drawing tablet, we make the plan look as if it were created using traditional art media such as watercolors and markers. (1 hr 15 min)
• Superimposing a Landscape Plan onto Existing Site Photos: Photoshop makes it easy to overlay your design within existing site photos. Check out this webinar for tips on how to create these photo mashups. (1 hr 5 min)
• Using Photoshop in Post-Production Renderings: We'll introduce you to the fine art of fine-tuning your drawing in Photoshop. (1 hr 12 min)
• Using Photoshop in Post-Production Renderings Part 2: We begin with a lesson on translating hand-drawn graphics into digital form, optimizing them for digital production in Photoshop on the way to creating your own library of custom symbols and graphics for use in your CAD plans. You’ll then learn some helpful techniques for using photos and textures to create a more realistic-looking plan. (58 min)
• Using Photoshop in Post-Production Renderings Part 3: Learn some essential techniques for rendering supplementary graphics for landscape design. We show you how to create an elevation drawing in Land F/X and enhance the graphics in Photoshop, then move on to a demonstration of how to set up a scene in SketchUp and then use it as a base for creating an effective perspective rendering with Photoshop. (1 hr 11 min)
• Using Photoshop in Post-Production Renderings Part 4: We revisit some of the techniques we presented in Part 2 of this series for creating a striking illustrative site plan using CAD, hand-drawn items, and Photoshop. We provide even more tips and approaches to post-production, applied to a whole new project. (59 min)
• Landscape Architecture Photography: Composition, Light and People: Follow along with guest presenter Sahar Coston-Hardy, a professional landscape architecture photographer who has worked for award-winning firms and been featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine, as she outlines the fundamentals of getting the perfect shot of your design. (1 hr)
• Creating Animations in Photoshop and SketchUp: Tune in to this week’s webinar for a demonstration on how you can set up your SketchUp model for an animated walkthrough. Additionally, we demonstrate setting up an animation in Photoshop to enhance the experience. (42 min)
• Intro to Landscape Design Photography Part 1: While a professional photographer can be worth the cost, you may be interested in taking dynamic photos of your own designs. We're here to help feed that DIY spirit. (47 min)
• Intro to Landscape Design Photography Part 2: Post Processing: Post process work is almost a necessity when it comes to modern digital photography. We'll dive into post processing techniques in Photoshop so that you can get the best from your photos. (59 min)
• SketchUp webinars: We also have a whole section of webinars on 3D design using SketchUp. Browse our SketchUp webinars.
• Browse our planting webinars

 

Translate your 2D CAD designs into 3D SketchUp, Rhinoceros (Rhino), or Revit!

 

 

Articles

• Install our 3D plugin for the modeling program of your choice (included with your Planting F/X installation):
• Download and install our Land F/X SketchUp plugin to enable a connection between CAD and SketchUp.
  This article includes a video.
• Download and install the Land F/X Rhino plugin, which drops some essential tools into Rhinocerous (Rhino) and allows you to connect with CAD. 
  This article includes a video.
• Download and install the Land F/X Revit plugin, connecting CAD with Revit. 
  This article includes a video.
• Planting F/X Plugin for Revit: Just as Planting F/X adds a whole set of tools to your AutoCAD interface, our Planting F/X for Revit Revit plugin adds a familiar set of tools to Revit. Learn all about our Revit plugin and the tools it includes.  
  This article includes a video.
• SketchUp planting and site design tools: Everything you need to know about transferring your design between CAD and SketchUp.  
  This article includes a video.
• 3D Connection: Also included with your installation, this tool allows you to bring your design from CAD to SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit and back again. Data stays attached to all your plants and site amenities.
  This article includes a video.

 

Webinars

• 3D Connection Basics for SketchUp: This webinar will show you how to use the Land F/X 3D connection tool to integrate your CAD design into a working 3D model. (1 hr 3 min)
• SketchUp Basics: This webinar will introduce you to 3D modeling in SketchUp, giving you a basic understanding of some of the most important tools and concepts you need to use SketchUp for your designs. (1 hr 3 min)
• SketchUp Basics Part 2: In Part 2 of our SketchUp Basics webinar series, we go into the proper use of components and groups, right-click options, working with lines and dividing into segments, rotate and copy tools, and the paint and texture options. (1 hr 3 min)
• Browse our planting webinars