Planting F/X is landscape architecture software that adapts AutoCAD to the needs of your profession. Design faster, with 100 percent accuracy, while still working within the CAD environment.

Every plant you can think of – at your fingertips

The real power of Planting F/X lies in our extensive collection of virtual plants. Any user can add any plant variety – including climate and character data – to our wiki-style database.

Don’t worry; our staff landscape architects review every submission for accuracy. After approval, each added plant is available for all users worldwide, allowing the community of Planting F/X users to help and be helped by each other.

Here’s how it works: Pick a plant genus, species, and variety from our vast database of trees, shrubs, and groundcovers. Don't see the plant you need? You can add it and use it right away. We'll see the new plant and add it for everybody else too!

Add your plant to your palette with a click. All plants in your palette are consolidated into a single dialog box, organized by four plant categories – Trees, Shrubs, Shrub Areas, and Groundcovers. The plants in each category are alphabetized by genus, allowing you to find each one quickly when you want to edit or place it.

Label by Group

Call out an entire group of the same plant variety with one label. It’s as easy as selecting a plant and drawing a window around the plants you want to label. The window will only recognize the plant variety you selected, meaning you can label several plants at once without having to select them individually. Set down the callout, place as many leaders as you want, and your plants are called out.

Label by Connecting Line

Connect the dots between several plants of the same variety, placing a single label that connects them all. It’s a simple, clean way to label a large number of plants that’s clear enough for the contractor to understand.

Label by Connecting Arc

This labeling tool operates on the same principal as Label by Connecting Line, except it uses arcs instead of lines. You can easily control the paths of the arcs, preventing confusion by avoiding intersections with other plant varieties.

Label a Single Plant

Labeling a single plant is the simplest of our labeling methods. Just select a plant and place the label.

Labeling a groundcover hatch? This labeling tool will automatically calculate the plant count or square footage based on the spacing you’ve set – even though you can’t even see the individual plants.

Labeling in Paper Space

Labeling plants in Paper Space, with the labels extending outside the viewport, is the preferred labeling method of many designers who want to clean up their plan, or who simply prefer the look. Our labeling tools work just as well in Paper Space as they do in Model Space, giving you the choice to label how you want (or how your office requires you to label).

Plant Photo Callout

Though technically a presentation tool, our Plant Photo Callout feature gives you the option of calling out a plant with a photo – right there in your design. Opening this tool and selecting a plant fires an automatic Web search for images of that plant. You can also browse to and place your own plant photos. Set the photo size, type a caption, and you’ve got yourself a vivid plant label. As an added bonus, Plant Photo Callout also works for site amenities and lighting equipment.

Revisions and moving

You get every part of your plan exactly right on the first try … right? No judgments here.

Even if you’ve placed and labeled all your plants correctly according to the original plan, clients and bosses change their minds, requiring revisions, recounts, and removals.

Relax. We’ve got you covered.

For example, we make it easy to move plant labels. Need to clear the way for more plants or an unexpected pathway? With our help, you can move those labels out of the way without disassociating them from the plants they’re calling out. Your labels are back in the correct locations, and your plant counts are still valid. Click, click, done.

Verify Labels

More than a decade in, and our Verify Labels tool is still Planting F/X users’ favorite button. Click it, and fix any labeling errors in seconds. What does Verify Labels help you fix? Any copied, unlabeled, and deleted plants. Anything it can’t fix automatically will be marked with a color-coded highlight for easy correction. Just find the bright highlights, and make the necessary corrections – no stress, no mistakes. This button will be your best friend.

Highlight Plant

Need to find everywhere you’ve placed a certain plant? Use our Highlight Plant tool. Find one instance of that plant and click it. All plants of the same variety are instantly highlighted in your drawing, allowing you to locate or even select them all. By the way, it also works with all smart blocks, including site amenities and irrigation equipment.

Match Properties

You painstakingly place a whole forest of Quercus acuminata, and the client decides they should all be Quercus agrifola instead. No need to pull up your roots – everything is oak-ay (get it?). Just use our handy Match Properties tool. Grab the variety you want, draw a selection window around all the trees you need to change, and the revision is made automatically, throughout the window.

Editing plant information

What if you just need to switch out a plant’s symbol, or change its cost, size, or any other pertinent information? Just use our Block Data tool. Click the plant symbol in your drawing, and you have access to all the info you need in dialog box. Make your changes, and close the box. Your edits will be applied to that plant everywhere you’ve placed it in your drawing.