The Land F/X 3D Connection (SketchUp, Rhino & Revit®)

Quick video

SketchUp Performance Tips

How to Get SketchUp, Rhino, and Revit
Supported Editions

Supported Revit Editions
Supported SketchUp Editions

How the 3D Connection Tool Works

Transferring a Design Between CAD and 3D

3D Connection Tool Overview
Send a Layer of Linework
Exporting Plants, Site Amenities, and Lighting Equipment from CAD to 3D
Importing Plants, Site Amenities, and Lighting Equipment from 3D to CAD
The 3D Connection and User Coordinated Systems (UCS)
Related Webinars
Troubleshooting

Your installation includes a seamless connection between CAD and the 3D modeling programs SketchUp, Rhino, and Revit through our 3D Connection tool. Accessed in CAD, this feature allows you to bring a CAD design and an associated Land F/X project into a 3D model. It also allows you to bring a 3D model, and an associated project, from SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit into CAD.

All Land F/X plugins use the same Planting F/X or Irrigation F/X licenses as CAD does. If you already have a license, no additional purchase is required (other than the desired 3D software to install our plugin onto). All licenses are floating, so your office will only need as many licenses as you will have people using the plugin at once. If you open CAD, SketchUp, Rhino, and Revit on the same computer, only one license will be pulled for the whole computer.

The units you set in your 3D model must match the units you've set in the associated Land F/X project and CAD drawing. For information on matching your units between CAD and SketchUp, see our Setting the Units in CAD & SketchUp documentation.

The 3D Connection now works with lighting equipment into SketchUp!

You can now send your lighting plans from CAD to SketchUp and back again. For information on using our software to specify lighting equipment, see our documentation on the Lighting Manager.

How to Get SketchUp, Rhino, and Revit

SketchUp, Rhino, and Revit are not part of your AutoCAD platform, nor are they part of our software. They are separate programs that you download and install on your computer. You'll then need to install the Land F/X plugin for SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit, which you'll need to do from within whichever of these platforms you choose to use:

Download SketchUp
Install the Planting F/X Plugin for SketchUp (You can also download our plugin for SketchUp from the 3D Connection dialog box in CAD, as described below.
Purchase and download Rhino
Install the Land F/X Rhino Plugin
Purchase and download Revit
Install the Planting F/X for Revit Plugin

Supported Editions

Quick video

Power Tip: The Planting F/X for Revit Plugin

Supported Revit Editions

Planting F/X for Revit is maintained on the latest three versions of Revit: 2024, 2023, and 2022. Version compatibility before 2022 is now discontinued due to the incompatibility of updated Planting F/X add-in features with these older versions of Revit. We apologize for the inconvenience and encourage planting design users to push their team for a project model version upgrade to use better BIM tools for all disciplines.

Planting F/X for Revit works on full versions of Revit for Windows, but not on Revit LT. Planting F/X is not compatible with Revit LT because LT doesn’t allow add-ons.

Supported SketchUp Editions

While no 3D software is "easy" to learn, SketchUp is considered by many to be the easiest to use of the available options. SketchUp also has a large support community of users. This means you have access to an ever-growing library of publicly available SketchUp 3D symbols. The Land F/X 3D Connection supports the following editions of Sketchup:

Pro
Studio
Classic – non-subscription pricing

We are only able to support these editions because our 3D Connection is based on the Ruby platform and requires an edition of Sketchup that supports the Core Ruby API and Extension Warehouse. We do not support the free version of SketchUp.

Please note that we no longer support SketchUp 8. We support SketchUp versions {jumi[*32]} and newer.

How the 3D Connection Works

The Land F/X 3D Connection is based on exporting and importing your site design. Before you can import your CAD design into 3D, you'll need to export it from CAD into the 3D Connection Cloud by following the steps below. Similarly, before you can import a 3D model into CAD, you'll first need to export it to the 3D COnnection Cloud from SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit.

The 3D Connection tool is a means of transferring two sets of information between CAD and your 3D models:

The data contained in a Land F/X project – that is, the plants and site amenities you've added to your project
The placement information from a CAD drawing showing where you've placed those items

Data from a Land F/X project

A Land F/X project is essentially a database that lists all items, such as plants and site amenities that you've added to that project. It also contains the information associated with each plant or site amenity in your project, such as plant's symbol and size.

This database DOES NOT contain information about the actual placement of your plants and site amenities in your drawing. (More on that below.)

Information from your CAD drawing or 3D model

While a Land F/X project is a database, a CAD drawing or 3D model is an actual file on your desktop or server. (Specifically, a CAD drawing is a DWG file, a SketchUp model is an SKP file, and a Rhino model is a 3DS file. Revit has several possible file types.) A SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit file contains the information about what you actually see in the drawing or model: the symbols you place and the locations where you place them.

When you add a plant to a Land F/X project and then place it in a CAD drawing or 3D model, the file contains the information on the actual placement of that plant. Any further data about the plant you see in your drawing – the type and size of that plant, as well as that plant's symbol – is stored in the above-mentioned Land F/X project database.

Transferring a Design Between CAD and 3D

The file containing your CAD drawing or 3D model "reads" the Land F/X project's database to determine which plants and site amenities you have placed in that project. However, it's important to understand that the hard data associated with that plant (such as its genus, species, and variety) is stored in our database – not in the DWG file, and not in the SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit file.

That's where the 3D Connection tool comes in. When you use this feature to transfer a design between CAD and 3D, you're first grabbing and transferring both sets of information – the data from the project database, as well as the placement information, as well as any linework, into what we call the 3D Connection Cloud. You'll then import all this data from the 3D Connection Cloud into your 3D model. When you want to transfer the data back into CAD, you'll do the reverse.

You can also transfer one layer at a time in the SketchUp plugin only.

Transferring a design between 3D And CAD, diagram

Remember: You won't be able to import a design into either CAD or 3D until you've exported it from the other program into the 3D Connection Cloud.

3D Connection Tool Overview

Create your drawings in 3D and move them into CAD – or vice versa – using the 3D Connection. Our software provides an amazing connection between AutoCAD and your 3D modeling software, to automate bringing your AutoCAD site drawing into 3D, and to visualize your planting design or site elements within a 3D model.

You can start the design process in AutoCAD, or start in your 3D model. Either way, the 3D Connection provides a direct link between CAD and SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit for 3D visualization.

Open the 3D Connection from an open CAD drawing:

F/X Planting ribbon, 3D Connection flyout

F/X Planting and F/X Site ribbons, 3D Connection flyout

(F/X Planting ribbon shown)

Plant Render toolbar

Planting toolbar

F/X Planting and F/X Site menus, 3D Connection option (F/X Planting menu pictured)

or type: fx_Plant3DExport (for plants) or fx_Site3DExport (for site amenities) in the Command line

The 3D Connection dialog box will open.

1. Check this area to ensure that you are exporting from the correct project and that your units and user coordinate system (UCS) are set correctly.

2. Send Layer: With a CAD drawing open, click this button to export a layer of linework from that drawing to the 3D Connection Cloud.

The Send Layer features is currently only available for SketchUp – not Rhino or Revit.

3. Export: With a CAD drawing open, click this button to export the placement of plants and other blocks, such as site amenities, from that drawing into the 3D Conncetion Cloud. In doing so, you'll also export the Land F/X project associated with the current CAD drawing.

4. Import: Import a 3D model, along with an associated Land F/X project, into CAD from the 3D Connection Cloud. Before using the Import feature, you'll need to export the 3D model from SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit into the 3D Connection Cloud.

5. Checkboxes to determine which objects will be affected by your import or export. You can choose Trees, Shrubs, and/or Amenities.

Currently, site amenities can only be exported to SketchUp – not Rhino or Revit.

6. Options to download and install the Land F/X plugins for SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit. The system will take you through a series of steps to complete the download.

Send a Layer of Linework

To export a layer of linework from your CAD drawing, click the Send Layer button in the 3D Connection dialog box.

The Send Layer feature is for sending layers of linework into 3D. To send your plants, site amenities, and other blocks into 3D, use the Export button instead.

The Send Layer feature is currently only available for SketchUp – not Rhino or Revit.

Some exported objects are an extremely far distance from the origin error

Some exported objects are an extremely far distance from the origin. This can be an issue in some 3D programs. Use the New UCS tool to resolve this.

Would you like to see more information?

Did you see this error message at this point? If so, here's what to do.

A pickbox will appear in place of the cursor, and the Command line will prompt you to Select Source Object.

Click an object in your CAD drawing that is on the layer you want to export to 3D.

You'll receive a message that the layer has been exported. Click OK.

Your layer has been exported into the 3D Connection Cloud and you're now ready to import it into your 3D model.

You can continue to select additional layers to export from CAD. Press the Space bar to reopen the 3D Connection dialog box, click Send Layer, and select an additional layer.

When you import a layer into SketchUp, the 3D Connection will delete all objects stored on that layer. This way, you won't have to search through your layers to see which ones you've already imported.

Once you export one or more layers from CAD to the 3D Connection Cloud using this feature, you can import them into SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit.

Are your contour lines not exporting or importing properly from CAD to SketchUp? Here's what to do.

Exporting Plants, Site Amenities, and Lighting Equipment from CAD to 3D

To export your CAD design, and the Land F/X project associated with it, into the 3D Connection Cloud, open the CAD drawing you want to export. This tool will export your placement of plants, site amenities, plan graphics, lighting equipment, and other blocks in your drawing.

In this example, we'll export a tree layout.

This process won't just maintain the exact placements of the trees – it will also bring the data assigned to each tree into our 3D model.

Open the 3D Connection, and click Export.

The 3D Connection will ignore objects on frozen layers. Make sure all layers containing objects you want to export are unfrozen (thawed). If you want to exclude specific layers from your 3D model, you can simply freeze them before exporting. For information and instructions, see our documentation on freezing/thawing layers.

You'll receive a message that your design has been exported into 3D, and that you may run the Land F/X Import plugin on your base file.

Click OK to close the message.

Design has been exported into 3D message

The plants and other items you've added to the current Land F/X project have all been exported into the 3D Connection Cloud. The information reflecting the placement of the plants and other items has also been exported. You can now open the project in SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit, or import plants from the exported Land F/X project into 3D. Additional resources:

When we open the SketchUp version of our example CAD drawing, it will look like this:

Importing Plants, Site Amenities, and Lighting Equipment from 3D to CAD

Before you can import a 3D model into CAD, you'll need to export it from SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit back to the 3D Connection Cloud before importing it into CAD. Instructions:

In this example, we'll import a SketchUp model, and the Land F/X project associated with it, from the 3D Connection Cloud into CAD.

In a blank CAD drawing, open the Land F/X project associated with the 3D model you want to import.

Once you export the model and project from SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit, the project name and number will appear in your list of projects.

See our instructions for opening an existing project for more information.

Open the 3D Connection, and click Import.

You'll receive a message that the drawing has been updated to match the 3D model.

Your 3D model will be imported into your CAD drawing.

You should see your plants in the same layout in which they appear in 3D.

In our example, the CAD drawing will look like this after we import our SketchUp model:

Any plants you've added to your Land F/X project in 3D will now also be available in CAD. If you add and place plants to this drawing in CAD, you can export it to 3D to create an updated 3D version of your design.

The 3D Connection and User Coordinate Systems (UCS)

Quick video

Power Tip: Coordinate UCS between CAD, SketchUp, Rhino, and Revit

The 3D Connection tool will support a User Coordinate System (UCS) you create in CAD. You can use our UCS tool to create a realistic origin, snapping to a point that correlates with the desired (or actual) SketchUp origin, for example. This step in turn will prevent SketchUp from becoming unresponsive or crashing when you attempt to import.

Rhino follows the same rules as SketchUp, and you'll need to either move the model to the axes or export a DWG file with the axes location to CAD.

For Revit, you very likely should not consider moving the existing model in the Revit file, since it's probably set to a geographic location or site reference point, and will absolutely need to coordinate the UCS and AutoCAD.

For information about creating a UCS, see our User Coordinate System (UCS) documentation.

Related Webinars

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)
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)
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)
Land F/X in a BIM Workflow: Spenser Gruenenfelder of Perry-Becker Design, a landscape architecture firm based in Florida, shows you how to use Land F/X with other Building Information Modeling (BIM) software to coordinate with architects, engineers, and other professionals on large projects. (48 min)
Twilight Highlights: Learn how Land F/X and the Twilight Render plugin for SketchUp will streamline the rendering process for your lighting plan. We'll show you how to create realistic renders, using accurate models of landscape lighting manufacturers' light fixtures, in no time. (1 hr 1 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)
3D Modeling a Landscape Design in SketchUp & Lumion: 3D modeling is the future of design, and a great way to provide a striking preview of your intended design. Josh Webb from Stack Rock Group shows you how easy it can be to create an awesome visual for your clients in a surprisingly short time. (54 min)
Using Civil 3D with Land F/X for a BIM Workflow: We'll go over why BIM matters to you – even on a small project – and how you can ramp up your capabilities. You'll see which specific features will help make your workflow BIM compliant in an increasingly competitive industry with new regulations that require BIM. (1 hr)