Selecting Plant Symbols

Accessing the Plant Symbol Libraries

Whether you want to work with the various plant symbols available for Trees, Shrubs, Shrub Areas, or Groundcovers, you can access the plant symbol library for each of these plant categories in the Plant Manager.

In the Plant Manager, select the option for the plant category whose plant symbol library you'd like to open. Select the plant of your choice in the list, then click the Edit button.

In this example, we've selected the Trees option.

 

We've then selected the tree Albution hybridium 'Albus' from the list of trees we've added to our project.

If you've selected a tree or shrub, clicking Edit will open the Plant Info dialog box for the selected plant.

 

 

 

 

Click the thumbnail image of the selected plant's Symbol at the bottom of the dialog box to open the plant symbol library for the selected plant category.

Shrub Areas and groundcovers are represented by hatch patterns, rather than true symbols. Although the process of accessing the hatch pattern libraries for these plant categories differs slightly from the process of accessing a tree or shrub symbol library, you will still access these hatch pattern libraries from the Plant Manager as indicated above. For more specific instructions on viewing hatch pattern libraries, see the Shrub Area and Ground Vocer sections below.

Tree Symbol Library

You'll see the following dialog box when you add or edit a tree.

1. Select from several tree symbol categories.

 

 

2. Thumbnail images of the tree symbols symbols in the currently selected category library appear in this pane, along with the symbol names. The thumbnail of the currently selected symbol will appear in a lighter color than the other thumbnails.

 

 

3. Use the scroll bar to scroll up and down through the tree symbol libraries.

 

 

4. After selecting a tree symbol's thumbnail image, you can click Edit to open the Plant Info dialog box. There, you can view and edit information about the selected tree.

Once you've selected a symbol for your tree, click OK to save your changes.

Tree Symbol Categories

Our default tree symbol library includes the following tree symbol categories:

• Simple: Essentially a circle around a trunk.

• Evergreen: Somewhat evergreen looking.

• Deciduous: Somewhat deciduous looking.

• Conifer: Somewhat conifer looking with a more pointed conifer shadow.

• Palm: Palm tree symbols.

• Diagrammatic: Simple, diagrammatic symbols that can be somewhat abstract. These symbols do not include shadows.

• Alphanumeric: Symbols with letters in the middle indicating each plant's “Code.” You can review or edit the code in the Plant Code field in the Plant Info dialog box (see Accessing the Plant Symbol Libraries above).

For more information, see our Alphanumeric Symbols documentation page.

• Remediation: We designed these symbols to denote trees to be removed or remediated

• Small Scale: Symbols intended to be drawn fairly small because of the scale of the drawing, such as 1”=100' or 1:1250 metric. These symbols have thinner lines and are simpler in shape

Note: We've grouped these symbol categories by appearance, but you can use symbols from any category for any tree you want. If you're selecting a symbol for a deciduous tree, for example, you DO NOT have to select a symbol from the Deciduous symbol library. The library names simply define the symbols for organizational purposes. Just choose the symbol that best fills your needs and preferences for each tree.

Shrub Symbol Library

You'll see the following dialog box when you add or edit a shrub.

1. Select from several shrub symbol categories.

 

 

2. Thumbnail images of the tree symbols symbols in the currently selected category library appear in this pane, along with the symbol names. The thumbnail of the currently selected symbol will appear in a lighter color than the other thumbnails.

 

 

3. Use the scroll bar to scroll up and down through the shrub symbol libraries.

 

 

5. After selecting a shrub symbol's thumbnail image, you can click Edit to open the Plant Info dialog box. There, you can view and edit information about the selected tree.

Once you've selected a symbol for your shrub, click OK to save your changes.

Shrub Symbol Categories

We offer the following shrub symbol categories:

• Large: Intended for a larger or salient shrub measuring 5 feet (1.5 meters) in diameter or larger, which you want to “pop” out from the other smaller plants. These symbols have relatively thick boundary lines. Do not use these symbols for small plants, as they will plot excessively dark.

• Small: Intended for a smaller or lower-growing shrub with a diameter of about about 3 feet (1.0 meters). These symbols have relatively thinner boundary lines.

• Tropical: Drawn with a tropical or coarser foliage symbol. Drawn with relatively thick boundary lines, these symbols are intended for somewhat larger shrubs. For smaller tropical shrubs, we recommend selecting a Small symbol or altering a Tropical symbol with thinner boundary lines. You can then follow our instructions for Adding a New Plant Symbol to save the revised symbol in either the Small category or in a new category, such as Small Tropical.

• Vine: This category contains extremely diagrammatic symbols for a vine. Indicating the outline boundary spread of a vine can be quite difficult. Therefore, many vine symbols just show the location where the plant will be installed, and are not elaborate.

• Diagrammatic: Simple, diagrammatic symbols that can be somewhat abstract. These symbols do not include shadows.

• Alphanumeric: Symbols with letters in the middle indicating each plant's “Code.” You can review or edit the code in the Plant Code field in the Plant Info dialog box (see Accessing the Plant Symbol Libraries above).

For more information, see our Alphanumeric Symbols documentation page.

• Remediation: We designed these symbols to denote shrubs to be removed or remediated.

Shrub Areas define an area where a mass of shrubs will be planted at a set spacing. Shrub Areas are defined by a boundary linetype and an interior hatch pattern.

When you add or edit a Shrub Area, you'll first see the dialog box pictured to the right.

 

 

Here, you'll see several possible boundary styles for the Shrub Area.

 

 

Click the thumbnail image with the linetype you want for the Shrub Area.

We expanded our collection of Shrub Area boundaries as of October 2020, adding several new linetypes.

Once you select a boundary, you'll select an infill hatch pattern for the Shrub Area. You'll select this hatch pattern from the Groundcover symbol library.

You can edit the color (and thus plotted thickness) of the outline of a Shrub Area in the Planting Preferences screen.

Groundcover and Shrub Area Symbol Library

Like Shrub Areas, groundcovers are represented by hatch patterns. When you add or edit a Shrub Area or groundcover, you'll see the following dialog box.

1. Hatch pattern categories. The groundcover and Shrub area hatch patterns are organized within the Groundcover category and visible when the Groundcover tab is selected.

 

2. Our hatch pattern types are now organized into subcategories. Select a hatch subcategory to view and select hatch patterns within that category. For information on our updated hatch pattern organization system, see our article on how our updated hatch pattern system works.

 

3. Thumbnail images of the groundcover hatches appear in this pane, along with the hatch names. These hatch infills are actual hatch patterns ranging from lines to grids to patterns that resemble grass, gravel, etc.

 

4. Use the scroll bar to scroll up and down through the hatch library.

5. After selecting a hatch pattern's thumbnail image, you can click Edit to open the Plant Info dialog box. There, you can view and edit information about the selected groundcover or Shrub Area.

Once you've selected a hatch, click OK to save your changes.

Editing a Hatch Pattern & Saving Custom Hatches

Want to customize a hatch pattern? See our documentation on:

• Editing our default hatch patterns
• Saving your custom hatch patterns into our system

Menu for Extra Plant Categories

The Planting dialog box is only wide enough to display a handful of plant symbol categories.

 

 

 

If you create your own plant symbols or edit ours, you might choose to create extra plant symbol folders in one of the plant category subfolders (as pictured to the right.

If the list of visible plant symbol categories across the top of the Planting dialog box is spaced strangely and you can't access the menu pictured above, you might be experiencing an issue caused by a corrupt font. More information

Troubleshooting

Question: Can I use the same symbol for different plants?

Issue: Can I change the font size in an alphanumeric plant symbol after I have already placed it in my drawing?

Issue: Groundcover hatch or plant symbol preview slides (thumbnails) are incorrect – several slides are identical but have different names

Issue: Blocks or hatches are not available when I try to select a symbol

Issue: Your plants are rotated at a strange angle when placed in a drawing

Issue: You are experiencing a significant delay when attempting to add or place plants

Issue: Your hatch library is blank when you attempt to select a hatch for a groundcover or Shrub Area, or all the thumbnail previews are missing in the Hatch dialog box

Issue: You're trying to edit the scale of a hatch for a groundcover, but the scale is grayed out and you're unable to change the scale

Issue: You are unable to change the rotation of a hatch pattern

Issue: A placed Land F/X hatch looks fragmented or isn't joined like it should be