Customize Irrigation Schedule Symbols

• Editing Our Default Spray Schedule Symbols
• Editing Our Default Valve Callout Schedule Symbols
  • Opening and Editing the Source File
• Creating a New Valve Callout Schedule Symbol
• Re-Creating Your Custom Schedule Symbols Using Our Default Blocks
• Related Webinars

When you place an Irrigation Schedule in a drawing, it includes Symbol column identifying the various irrigation components in the drawing. Examples include heads, valves, pipes, and even your valve callouts. These symbols, called Schedule Symbols, are stored as block drawings in the folder Blocks/Graphics/Irrigation/schedule_symbols within your LandFX folder.

We also have schedule symbols for all our default valve callout styles. If you edit any of our valve callout styles, you'll also want to edit the corresponding schedule symbol file to match your edits in the callout file.

Like all our default blocks, the irrigation schedule symbols are fully customizable. This means you're free to open the block drawings in this folder and edit them to your liking.

Editing Our Default Spray Schedule Symbols

A schedule symbol for a spray head will appear in the Irrigation Schedule to represent options for that head if its symbol range is grouped in the schedule. For example, if you place 10' radius shrub spray heads and want the schedule to show the spray heads by group, the schedule symbol will be a line of 10' spray heads, with the arc options available from quarter to full.

Some manufacturers' options for spray heads of this radius might be four nozzles (quarter, third, half, full), and some may be six nozzles (adding a two third and three quarter). The range of nozzles symbols would be listed, with a letter below the symbol denoting what it is – e.g.,Q, T, H, TT, TQ, F. Run an Irrigation Schedule on a project with some spray heads in the plan two ways, with Group and then By Nozzle selected as the option, to clearly see both conditions.

If you edit one of the families of head symbols, be sure to determine where that family of symbols is reflected in the schedule symbols, and replace those symbols to match your revised or new symbol types.

If you're creating a new symbol family with Family X, look at those schedule symbols and review the manufacturers that apply to the different symbol groups. You only need to save and overwrite the schedule symbols for the manufacturers you plan to use.

Editing Our Default Valve Callout Schedule Symbols

The schedule symbols for valve callouts act a little differently from the others. In this example, we'll edit the Valve Callout schedule symbol shown in the Irrigation Schedule below.

Note that the Symbol column contains schedule symbols for all irrigation components in the drawing. All these symbols are editable.

To edit a Valve Callout schedule symbol, locate and open the callout's source file.

You can find out the name of the source file you need to edit by opening the Irrigation Preferences screen and clicking the Valve Callout thumbnail.

The Irrigation dialog box will open.

Here, you can see all the thumbnail slides for the available valve callouts.

 

 

The name of the schedule symbol block drawing appears beneath the slide for the corresponding callout style.

 

 

In our case, we know we're using the callout with the drawing file VALVECO_SS.

These steps will allow you to make changes to the valve callout schedule symbol – not the callouts themselves. As with other callout blocks, the valve callouts files are stored in the folder LandFX/Blocks/Graphics/Callouts. For more information, visit our Customize: Valve Callouts documentation.

Opening and Editing the Source File

We can now make your desired changes to the schedule symbol. In this case, just for fun, we'll change the color of our valve callout symbol's linework and text.

 p

Save the changes you make to the block. Don't forget to create a new thumbnail slide for the edited schedule symbol using the MSLIDE command. Here's how.

Now, when you place a new Irrigation Schedule, your changes will be reflected in the schedule symbol you edited. In our example, the schedule symbol will have our new colors.

Creating a New Valve Callout Schedule Symbol

Navigate to the following folder:

LandFX/Blocks/Graphics/Irrigation/schedule_symbols

 

Open the source file you'd like to edit.

 

The Valve Callout schedule symbols are named according to the following format: LAFX-VALVECO(number)_SS.dwg.

 

 

For example, the file LAFX-VALVECO1_SS.dwg contains the Schedule Symbol for Valve Callout 1.

Each of these blocks includes an appropriate insertion point for the schedule, as well as labeled descriptions of the locations of the Valve Number, Valve Flow, and Valve Size.

Bring in your revised valve callout, and replace the existing one.

Using our Save Block tool, save this new drawing into the Schedule_Symbols folder, named VALVECO(number)_SS to match the number of the valve callout it represents.

If Save Block does not create an acceptable slide automatically, use our Best Practices for Creating the Thumbnail Slide to create a slide manually.

Open the block, zoom in according to the Best Practices, and type MSLIDE in the Command line and press Enter.

Save your slide into the schedule_symbols subfolder.

Re-Creating Your Custom Schedule Symbols Using Our Default Blocks

Quick video

x

Power Tip: Re-Creating Custom Blocks from Default Blocks

Has something gone wrong with any of your custom schedule symbol blocks? We recommend using our default blocks as a basis for your custom blocks, as they're already set up correctly for best performance in CAD. Use them to repair or re-create your custom blocks.

See our Re-Creating Custom Blocks from Default Blocks Power Tip, linked to the right, for more information and instructions.

Related Webinars

• Irrigation Customization: We cover the Irrigation Preferences, including what to consider as you’re setting up your office standards, and what will and won’t change on the fly when you modify these settings, as well as customizing irrigation symbols. (1 hr 2 min)
• Implementing Your Office CAD Standards: Find out how easily you can adapt your own office standards to Land F/X – and how effectively the software will then apply them to your projects. (1 hr 2 min)
• Dotting Your Irrigation I's: Each client will have different styles and requirements, but the concept is the same: You should feel comfortable matching any client’s standards. We'll show you how. (1 hr 1 min)
• Working With Blocks: Take a broad look into the role of blocks within Land F/X and how to integrate your personal set of blocks into our system. (1 hour 4 min)
• Customizing Irrigation – What You Need to Know: Join us for a discussion on the "need-to-knows" of making the software work with your office standards. We'll show you the different ways you can customize, and you'll pick up some valuable tips for setting up the software to meet your office standards. (1 hr 1 min)