Setting Your Land F/X Up for Success
April 4, 2025
Presented by: Jesse Conner
Webinar Contents:
Note: The following catalog of content covered in this webinar is time stamped to allow you to follow along or skip to sections of the video that are relevant to your questions. You can also search for content on this page using the FIND command in your browser (CTRL + F in Windows, Command + F in Mac OS.)
- Intro/TOC
- Presentation
- Project Organization
- Preferences
- Detail Folders
- Project Templates
- Demonstration
- Using Project Organization
- Detail Explorer
- Make New / Restore Preference Set
- Setting Schedule Standards
- Using Project Templates
- Questions
0:00 – 3:26: Intro/TOC
3:27 – 28:43: Presentation
Project Organization (3:27)
- Displays projects broken down into designations.
- The designations are folders of details.
- Directly reflected in Detail Explorer.
- Find projects more easily.
- Collapse trees to minimize list.
- Allowed four levels of hierarchy.
Project organization example methods (5:45)
Preferences (6:37)
- Preferences are the look and feel of your Land F/X.
- A Preference Set is tied to a project.
- Preference Sets are shared by everyone on an office server or shared online folder.
- Preference Sets are assigned to projects at creation – always double-check!
- The list sorts alphabetically – use this to reduce chance of incorrect assignment.
- Begin the most current Preference Set with a hyphen (-), letter A, or number 1 so it is first in the list by default.
- Incorrect Preference Sets can be corrected in the Project Manager and Preferences dialog boxes.
- Caution! Preference Set switches and changes mid-project can mess up a lot.
- Even the smallest callout point size changes from 8 to 10 point.
- Up to new schedule defaults, different plant fields, and different detail library locations.
Preferences – best practices (9:12)
- One Preference Set for each unique set of standards – not one Preference Set for each real-world job. Examples:
- A Preference Set for Riverside County
- Preference Sets for job owners/leads such as engineering firms
- 2024 Company Standards
- 2019 Company Standards
- 2024 Company Metric Standards
- Test changes in a test Preference Set, not an active one.
- Preference might seem scary. Take time to explore them, and use documentation.
Preferences – notable settings (10:19)
- License information
- Text Styles
- Layers and block layer settings
- Numeric display
- Language strings
- Saved DimStyle
Details Preferences – detail folders (12:46)
- Details Preferences include important settings tied to your project detail folders.
- Detail library location.
- Copy details to project folder.
- Prompts for folder if needed.
- Highly recommended.
- Add details referenced in callouts.
- Set numeric division for all details.
- Requires use of standard details and CSI divisions.
Detail Folders (17:18)
- The Detail Explorer is an interface that connects CAD to the detail folders in your detail library.
- Add folders, edit folder titles, delete folders, import and export folders, BatchMan connection.
- Preview, open, edit, delete, and print individual details within the folders.
- Drag and drop copy/move folders and details.
- Details = general categorization.
- Standard = Construction Specifications Institution system.
Detail folders – projects (19:19)
- Projects should be given project-specific detail folders.
- The Copy details to project folder option forces this.
- When using Project Organization to start projects, the detail folder is auto-assigned.
- The project detail folder can be set and managed in the New Project or Project Manager dialog box.
Detail folders – special considerations (19:58)
- Having your own detail library should be a goal.
- Even if it's just your most-used Land F/X details.
- Moving/copying individual details and whole folders works through drag and drop.
- Moving details to more correct locations is often sufficient.
- Moving or copying entire folders is only necessary for largescale restructuring.
- A detail folder can only be moved to retain all references for projects in which they may be used.
Detail folders – backups (20:45)
- Backups are managed in the Detail explorer using the Export tool.
- Details are not backed up via any other Land F/X tool.
- Example: highlighting the highest detail category is as pictured allows you to export the entire folder.
- Allows for easy exporting from CAD onto a hard drive or another location.
Project Templates (22:14)
- Central inventory of your most-used Land F/X data.
- Save yourself from continuously creating items newly.
- Save yourself from remembering which project has what.
- Templates begin as projects, saved as templates.
- Templates are updated by editing the origin/source project and overwriting the template.
Project templates – best practices (23:08)
- Templates work best when importing items as necessary.
- Rather than basing new projects entirely on templates.
- Create a new project strictly to become a template.
- Name it as such. (Use Project Organization for a templates folder.)
- Then import everything necessary from other projects.
- Perfect and standardize all data, then save as template.
- Templates reflect what they hold. They need attention!
- Ensure all real-world equipment (site furnishings, irrigation equipment, lighting products) are still available.
- If pricing is tied to items, ensure pricing is kept up to date.
Project templates – ideas (24:39)
- Planting templates.
- Regional natives, office standards, by nursery.
- Concept Planting templates.
- By seed distributor, restoration, erosion control.
- Lighting templates.
- Irrigation templates.
- Reference Note templates.
- Site furnishings.
-
- All categories of detailing can be made into templates.
- Not necessarily better than pulling copies from detail folders.
Why project details are not archived when a project is archived (26:42)
28:44 – end: Demonstration
Using Project Organization (28:55)
Detail Explorer (35:26)
Exporting and importing details (38:46)
Make New / Restore Preference Set (40:42)
Setting Schedule Standards (44:10)
Text Styles (48:50)
Using Project Templates (50:59)
Folder permissions (55:25)
Questions
Question: When you Archive a LandFX Project in the Project Tab, does this archive the project details in the details window?
Answer: It does not. The assumption is that details have a value and importance beyond even the project. So a project will be archived and long forgotten, but the details should still remain perfectly searchable and findable for ease of access and reuse.
Question: It seems like the drag and drop feature can be sensitive when moving in the detail folder.
Answer: Indeed. We are looking to upgrade this dialog box as soon as this year, primarily to address this one issue.
Question: What is your recommendation when folks load in way more details into the detail manager for a project?;
Answer: The Detail Manager supports selecting more than one detail at a time, making it easy to delete multiple details at once. Note that it will not delete details that have been placed, so you can safely select all and delete to only delete unplaced details.
Question: Can you review how we might lock a company standard detail from editing?
Answer: Absolutely. Once a project is marked as Read Only, the system will not allow overwriting any of its details. You can also simply address this via Windows file permissions, and mark folders within the detail library as Read Only for certain users.
Also note that Standard details, with CSI numbering, will all be locked for editing if the Preference Set is set to Read Only.
So you have multiple ways of accomplishing this depending on your needs.
Question: So in this example that Jesse is doing would I need to make a "company standard details" project, mark it as Read Only in organization, and move the detail folder to it in order to lock it?
Answer: Once you mark a project Read Only, it will not allow you to drag any additional details into its detail folder.
Question: When changing Schedule colors, layers, fonts, etc, can tose be saved program wide or just for a project. I need to consolidate our firms CTB with LandFx for plotting purposes. Thanks.
Answer: Live answered at 59:45