Mimic: Planting F/X for Revit® Plugin
Quick video
- Mimic Overview
- Mimicking Groundcovers
- Mimicking to a Non-Planting F/X Object
- Special Considerations for Mimic
- Related Webinars
- Troubleshooting
Our Mimic tool applies the properties of one plant (the source plant) to one or more other plants (the destination plants). The destination plants will be assigned the source plant's genus and species, symbol, size, and other associated data.
Mimic provides a quick and easy way to convert an old AutoCAD planting plan into a LandF/X planting plan with "smart" symbols.
Hoping to copy a plant in your drawing to locations where you don't have a plant yet? Our Clone tool allows you to re-create an existing plant, along with its symbol and all its data, in new locations in your drawing.
Use the Planting F/X Mimic tool instead of the native Revit Match Properties tool for Planting F/X plants. This tool brings over more essential data and changes than basic Revit can.
Mimic Overview
Open the Mimic tool:
Planting F/X ribbon, Mimic flyout
Click a plant to select it as the "source" plant. This plant's properties will be applied to other plants in your drawing, effectively turning those plants into the original "source" plant.
In this example, we'll select one of the coniferous trees as our source plant.
The Revit Status Bar will now prompt you to Select destination object(s), or "pick a plant to apply the new properties to".
Click another plant in your drawing. That plant will take on the symbol and data assigned to the source plant.
You can continue to click individual plants to assign them with the source plant's properties.
Mimicking Groundcovers
To mimic a groundcover, select a choose a floor, a toposolid, or a toposolid subdivision after selecting the Mimic tool from the ribbon. Note that toposolid objects are only available in Revit 2024 or newer.
This is not a Land F/X Plant error
If you see this error, it because either:
- The floor or toposolid you selected doesn't have the LAFX Object Type parameter set to PLANT, or
- The LAFX Plant Code, LAFX Symbol Group or LAFX Concept Plant Group may also be blank
Planting F/X uses these items to recognize our plants. Use our troubleshooting steps for this error if you believe this object should be a Land F/X plant, but you can use the Mimic button in the Plant Manager instead to bypass the error.
After selecting a groundcover species, either in the model or in the Plant Manager, you'll be prompted to pick a plan to assign with the new properties. Select another floor, toposolid or toposolid subdivision.
You'll see the confirmation Groundcover properties matched.
If our Color Render tool is turned on, Mimic will not immediately apply color. Use Color Render again to run the steps needed for Planting F/X to change the material for the Color Render view.
Mimicking to a Non-Planting F/X Object
It's possible to use mimic to turn your old families, floors, and toposolids into Planting F/X plants. Select any family, floor, or toposolid as the destination object, and Planting F/X will change it to the correct symbol and parameter data based on the data set in your Plant Manager.
This technique will be useful for new Planting F/X for Revit users who have already started a design in Revit and just want to upgrade it quickly to use our simpler tools for documentation such as Group Labels, Verify Labels, schedules, Color Render, rootballs for clash detection, Highlight, and our tool for exporting the planting design to SketchUp, Rhino, or AutoCAD. This method can save days of time as opoosed to replacing the families manually or continuing the design without Planting F/X – especially once edits to the design are needed.
Special Considerations for Mimic
Are you unable to Mimic between a family symbol and a floor or toposolid symbol? Remember to Mimic between trees/shrubs only or between groundcovers only.
- If using Mimic on a tree or shrub source plant, the destination plant can only be a family object.
- If using Mimic on a groundcover source plant, the destination can only be a floor or toposolid.
Related Webinars
- Planting F/X Revit Tools: Take a refreshed look at how the tools in this plugin work! We'll cover the latest changes such as type parameters, current roadmap, and the basics of how Planting F/X streamlines the process of starting and finishing a planting plan. (1 hr 1 min)
- Getting Started with Planting F/X for Revit: Start your journey with Revit and our Planting F/X plugin. We also present our roadmap for future development and show off some new features such as automatic rootball placement and some recent additions to our collections of families and label styles. (1 hr 22 min)
- Intro to Planting F/X for Revit Plugin: As always, our goal with this plugin is to bring the planting design learning curve as low as possible. We cover installation, Planting F/X projects, the Plant Manager, plant placement as families or floors, group labels, Verify Labels, instant schedules, and rendering options with our default family library. (1 hr 12 min)
- Revit for Planting Design: We focus on more tools and show how to tackle more complex workflows in Revit with Planting F/X. We go over customizing the defaults, implementing some labeling strategies, editing floor types, and working with multiple views. We also showcase some new tools and review our most recent development progress. (1 hr 3 min)
- Importing Plans into Revit: If you're being asked to bring your design into Revit and you're a landscape architect or irrigation designer, this webinar is for you. We'll cover first steps, basic orientation of Revit, the pros and cons of certain strategies, importing the DWG linework either 2D or Civil 3D and making toposurfaces and floors, and first-step methods for importing your landscape and irrigation plans. (1 hr 5 min)
Troubleshooting
Issue: LandFX: Your license is invalid and this product has not been activated properly on this system
Revit® is a restricted trademark of Autodesk®.
Contact
- Land F/X
Our software tailors AutoCAD®, Revit®, SketchUp®, and Rhino® to the needs of landscape architects, irrigation designers, and other professionals. We automate your most tedious tasks and ensure accuracy, giving you more time to design.