Customizing Land F/X

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
• Getting to Know the Preferences
  • Preference Sets
  • General Preferences
  • Text Styles / Fonts
  • Layers and Colors
  • Schedules
  • DimStyles
  • Refnotes Preferences – Quick Overview
  • Planting Preferences
  • Changing a Plant Callout
  • Hidden Land F/X Command: Text2Attrib
  • Customizing Plant Label Files
• Changing a Detail Template
• Saving Custom Plant Blocks
• Using BatchMan
• Layer States
• Creating a CAD Standards Binder
  • DimStyles
• Backing Your Stuff Up!
• Adjusting and Saving a Custom CTB File

0:00 – 7:15: Intro/TOC

7:16 – 17:44: Getting to Know the Preferences

Accessing the Preferences (7:50)

 

Preference Sets (8:30)

Note: Set up your Preference Sets before you start designing. Changes you make to your Preferences will not be reflected in existing drawings.

 

The default Preference Sets (Imperial or Metric) (9:10)

 

Creating a new Preference Set (9:55)

 

 

General Preferences (10:25)

 

Text Styles / Fonts (General Preferences) (10:25)

Adjusting the Text Styles (10:30)

 

Adding a new font to the system (10:53)

 

Layers and Colors (General Preferences) (11:30)

The Layers are fully editable. Remember that changes you make to layer names can affect processes such as pipe sizing. Be careful with the names you give the layers.

 

Changing the layer names and colors (12:20)

Note: It’s important to understand the difference between editing Layers (the layers Land F/X creates when you insert a specific item such as a leader, lines in schedules, etc.) and Block Colors (the layer colors within existing blocks that you insert in your drawing).

 

Schedules (General Preferences) (14:15)

Schedules in Upper Case option (14:15)

Customizing the Numeric Display (commas/periods, currency symbols) (14:20)

 

 

DimStyles (General Preferences) (14:40)

Creating and saving a Dimension Style (DimStyle) (14:40)

 

RefNotes Preferences – Quick Overview (18:07)

 

Planting Preferences (17:45 – 31:15)

 

Plant Code Styles (17:50)

 

Setting Shrub Areas as Plot or Non-Plot (17:55)

 

Automatically Excluding Shrubs from Groundcovers (18:05)

 

Setting the Plant Schedule Defaults (18:19)

 

Plant Callout Arrow Style (18:45)

 

Changing a Plant Callout (18:50)

 

Attribute Definitions for plant labels (19:50)

 

Right and Left Labels (20:35)

 

Editing the Label Files (20:50)

 

Hidden Land F/X Command: Text2Attrib (21:35)

Turning plant callout components into attributes (and thus turning callout files into “smart” Land F/X blocks) using the Text2Attrib command (21:35)

Note: Use single-line text – not multi-line text when using this command.

 

Customizing Plant Label Files (23:37)

Verifying the insertion point of the Plant Labels, including matching the right and left labels. (The insertion point should be at 0,0). (23:37)

 

Ensuring that the label text is justified correctly in both the right and left callouts (24:45)

 

Saving the customized label files into the folder Blocks/Graphics/Callouts (25:55)

 

Creating thumbnail slide of the customized label files using the MSLIDE command (26:55)

 

Selecting and further customizing the new labels in the Planting Preferences (29:00)

 

Placing the left and right labels in a drawing to ensure they match (29:30)

 

Reminder: If you ever notice that you don’t have the files that are referenced in a webinar, let us know; we can send you any Land F/X default files you need.  (30:15)

31:15 – 43:29: Changing a Detail Template

Detail Template settings in the Details Preferences (31:33)

 

Opening a detail template file (each Preference Set (32:15)

 

Navigating to and opening a Detail Template block file (33:10)

 

Making edits to a Detail Template (33:30)

 

Note that the text in a Detail Template does not consist of attributes. (34:15)

 

Justifying Detail Template text (34:50)

 

Changing the scale of the template (35:30)

 

Note: Once you’ve made changes to a Detail Template file, you need to make sure that the Detail Template width in the active Preference Set matches the width of the L brackets on the outside of the template itself. (35:55)

 

Saving the edited Detail Template (37:33)

 

Dropping the edited Detail Template into a drawing (37:40)

 

Note: As you make your Detail Templates, make sure that if your block looks correct but your colors look wrong, you’ll need to open the corresponding XML file and change a specific number in the code to anything but 3. (See example in webinar for the location of this number in the XML file.) (39:00)

 

Question: If I have my own custom Detail Template, can I change it? (42:07)

Answer: Absolutely! You’ll just need to follow a few specific rules in our software in order to make it work correctly. You’re also welcome to use our Tech Support tool to send us your template, and we can open it and tell you exactly what needs to change.

 

Be aware of the Detail Template block file naming standard and the importance of following it. (43:08)

43: 30 – 46:30: Saving Custom Plant Blocks

Overview of the available Land F/X plant symbols (43:42)

 

The plant symbol block folder structure (44:20)

 

Adding a folder of symbol blocks to the folder structure (45:00)

46:31 – 51:02: Using BatchMan

Note: BatchMan can only run with one file open (46:31)

 

Overview of the Land F/X BatchMan tool (BatchMan is a batch file processing tool that allows you to perform actions on several files, or even several folders worth of files, at once. (47:10)

 

Adding a folder in BatchMan (47:40)

 

Options available in BatchMan include the following: (47:50)

• Change layer names and colors
• Redefine blocks
• Change layer colors
• All ByLayer
• Purge+
• Zoom E (Zoom Extents)
• Make slide (create a thumbnail slide of a block)

 

Running BatchMan on a folder of files (example: changing layer names) (48:20)

51:02 – 53:36: Layer States

Loading and saving layer states (51:02)

53:37 – 57:39: Maintaining a CAD Standards Binder

Creating DimStyles (dimension styles) and saving them to your CAD Standards binder (54:20)

 

Editing a DimStyle using the DimStyle tool (55:20)

 

Setting a DimStyle for a specific Preference Set (56:25)

57:40 – 59:49: Backing Your Stuff Up!

Backing up using the Land F/X Backup/Restore tools (58:00)

Backing up to LandFX.com (58:16)

 

Backing up as an LFX file (58:30)

59:50 – end: Creating a Custom CTB File

Using the Plot Style Table Editor to create and save your own CTB file (color-based plotting file) (59:30)

 

Note: Do not overwrite the default CTB file.

 

Hidden Land F/X feature: When you start Land F/X, the software will automatically copy all CTB files from your LandFX/Admin folder to your individual computer’s Plot Style Table folder (typically on your C drive). (1:01:50)