Advanced Planting & Site Tools

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
• Calculate Lengths and Objects
• Exclude Trees/Shrubs in Groundcover Areas
• Excluding Islands in Shrub Areas
• Convert Survey Blocks for Tree Remediation
• Draw Hedges
  • New Land F/X Tool! Plant Shotgun!! (see further demonstration at 55:31 in this webinar)
• Selective Plant Outline
• Planting Restoration or Early Large Area (Large-Scale) Plant Quantities
• Smart Paper Space Location Grid
• Contextual “Picture-in-Picture” (PiP) Viewports
• Demonstration of the Plant Shotgun Tool

0:00 – 6:24: Intro/TOC

Reminder: Update Land F/X to the latest version. Don’t know how? We show you in the webinar. (5:25)

 

Set up your Update Options in the General Preferences, including automatically checking for updates (5:55)

6:25 – 13:35: Calculate Lengths and Objects

Placing a block in a drawing using the Plan Graphics tool, paying attention to the insertion point (8:00)

 

Using the Copy Along Line tool to copy the block multiple times along a line (8:40)

 

 

Using a Length Reference Note (RefNote) to calculate and record the length of a line (10:19)

Setting data such as cost and layer for the Length RefNote (11:00)

 

Placing the RefNote and placing the line on a new layer (11:30)

 

Using the Match Properties tool to make sure multiple lines are on the correct layer (12:00)

 

Placing a RefNotes Schedule (12:30)

The RefNotes Schedule shows the linear feet or meters calculated in the Length RefNote (12:50)

13:35 – 16:09: Excluding Trees/Shrubs in Groundcover Areas

Placing a groundcover and selecting the option to Exclude Shrubs (14:00)

 

The hatch is placed in a planting area but not within tree or shrub symbols!

Note: This tool is also valuable because the areas beneath the trees and shrubs in the planting area will not be calculated with the groundcover totals within that area. This results in a more accurate plant count.

 

16:10 ­– 19:19: Excluding Islands in Shrub Areas

Placing a Shrub Area and selecting M for Multiple (16:30)

 

This option allows you to select an outer boundary and then select multiple inner boundaries that the shrub area will not cover.

 

You can also place a different Shrub Area within one of the excluded island areas. (17:40)

 

Note: These Exclude tools can be found on the Plant Label toolbar.

19:20 – 28:20: Convert Survey Blocks for Tree Remediation

Opening the survey DWG (20:25)

 

Placing a Generic Plant symbol (21:18)

 

Using the Match Properties tool to replace all existing instances of a specific tree in the site (22:10)

 

 

Showing trees that need to be removed (24:00)

 

Creating and saving a new tree block showing trees to be removed in an Xref (24:20)

 

Remember to follow the naming conventions of the tree symbol blocks (any new tree symbol filename must begin with TREE-) (25:25)

 

Placing the removed tree symbols and using Match Properties to replace existing trees with the removal symbols (26:10)

 

Reloading the Xref (27:55)

28:21 – 36:19: Draw Hedges

Placing a shrub to form the basis of the hedge (28:30)

 

Setting the symbol width of the shrubs that will make up the hedge (29:55)

 

Using the Copy Along Polyline tool to copy the shrubs along a polyline and set the shrub spacing (30:15)

 

Setting the polyline to a non-plot layer (this allows you to keep the polyline in case you need to use it later). (30:58)

 

Turning on Plant Outlines to form the outline of the hedge (31:10)

 

 

What if you want your hedges, but not the rest of the shrubs in your drawing, to have Plant Outlines? (32:20)

 

Turning off Plant Outlines (32:40)

 

 

New Land F/X tool! Plant Shotgun!! (33:20) (See further demonstration at 55:30).

36:20 – 42:56: Selective Plant Outline

Selecting which plants to outline by freezing plants you don’t want to outline (36:20)

 

 

Creating a new layer in the Layer Properties panel (37:00)

 

 

Opening the Highlight Plant tool and selecting the shrubs making up the hedge, along with any other shrubs you want outlined (37:20)

 

 

Moving the selected shrubs to the new layer (37:50)

 

 

Freezing the layer containing the rest of the shrubs (39:25)

 

 

Turning Plant Outlines on (only the shrubs on the new layer will be outlined). (39:45)

 

 

Unfreezing the layer containing the rest of the shrubs (39:50)

 

 

It’s a good idea to create a few preset hedging symbols that are on a specific hedging layer. You can save these symbols using Save Block. Then place these symbols when you want to place a hedge. (40:24)

42:57 – 48:34: Planting Restoration or Early Large Area (Large-Scale) Plant Quantities

Using the Concept Plant Manager to create and place tree mixes (or shrub or seed mixes) (45:18)

 

 

Placing a Concept Schedule to show the planting mixes. The schedule shows percentages of each type of plant in the mix, as well as stats such as the square footage (or meters) of the planting areas, plant heights, etc. (47:05)

 

 

To show plant counts within these areas, you can combine this feature with a detail showing the plant counts (48:00)

48:35 – 51:19: Smart Paper Space Location Grid

Adding a Paper Space grid that shows real-world locations (49:00)

 

 

Selecting Northing/Easting Points from the Discipline Graphics/Callouts category, then placing these points in Paper Space as real-world coordinates (49:30)

 

 

Placing the same real-world coordinates in Model Space (50:45)

51:20 – 55:30: Contextual “Picture-in-Picture” (PiP) Viewports

The New Viewport tool (aka “Picture-in-Picture”) – a viewport within a viewport that shows a little more detail (51:20)

 

 

Creating a new Work Area, which will become the viewport (52:10)

 

 

Opening the New Viewport tool and selecting the Work Area (52:20)

 

The Work Area has become a new viewport within the existing viewport (52:40)

 

 

Note: You can change the layer colors and other details within each individual viewport to make it look exactly as you want. (53:10)

 

 

Note: Freezing some plant layers and performing actions on the others (as with Plant Outlines above) also works well for isolating specific plant species or areas when using other planting tools, such as the Plant Colorization tool, Plant Schedules, Plant Shadows, etc. (54:40)

 

55:31 – end: Demonstration of the Plant Shotgun Tool

For more information on Plant Shotgun, please see our Plant Shotgun documentation page.