Land F/X Admin & Setup

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
• Typical Design Workflow Process
  • Why We Do What We Do
• Starting a Project
  • The Project List
  • Project Permissions
  • Project Templates
  • Backing Up and Restoring
  • Project Sharing
• Adding to Projects
  • Importing from Another Project
  • Copying from Other Projects
• Preferences
  • Preference Sets

0:00 – 5:05: Intro/TOC

5:06 – 11:04: Typical Design Workflow Process

“The old way” (the physical way): Copying blocks, drawing from scratch, building each project to match your researched products. (5:06)

Each CAD file is typically called a “project.” We alter that terminology a bit: We refer to a CAD file as a “drawing” or “design.” In our lexicon, a “project” is a data file that holds all equipment and products for a design.

Why We Do What We Do (8:55)

The Land F/X Way: Same concept but with everything organized within the software – a one-stop shop for all projects and corresponding data. (8:55)

• Everything in CAD is CAD.
• You get to start right into your design.
• Data is now assigned to blocks.

11:05 – 46:19: Starting a Project

The three components of Land F/X software (11:20)

• Cloud content libraries: Database of plants, as well as irrigation and site manufacturers’ equipment: 20,000+ CAD blocks
• LandFX folder: Stores your blocks, details, admin & CTB files, as well as files that allow the software to work
• Database (Cloud or Local): Project list, Project Managers associating data with your CAD blocks

Will CAD users who don’t have Land F/X be able to open drawings where it’s been used? Absolutely.

Important note: You’ll still need to store the DWG files you use. We do not manage your working drawings or any custom blocks you create.

The F/X Admin ribbon tab (15:25)

Here, you’ll find all general or administrative tools that don’t pertain directly to planting, site, irrigation, or details.

The Project List (16:30)

Starting a project (17:30)

It’s important to start a new project for each new design/job. Do not reuse projects for different drawings/designs/jobs. Why? Because something might need to change in the project, which would affect all other drawings that are assigned to it.

If you have multiple DWGs for the same site job, you can use the same Land F/X projects for those DWGs because the plant palette and amenity/equipment inventories will be the same throughout.

Giving the new project a number and name (19:10)

Each of your projects needs to have a unique number. We suggest having a unique name for each project, but it’s not necessary.

The Project Manager dialog box (20:07)

Project Permissions (21:00)

Note that our dialog boxes include a “More info” link that sends you to the relevant documentation page. (21:30)

Project Templates (23:30)

You can set up project templates with all the plants and other items you commonly use, and then base future projects on the appropriate template.

Backing Up and Restoring (25:30)

The Land F/X folder (25:55)

This folder, which our installer creates automatically on your computer or server, contains all the CAD blocks and other content used by our software, as well as several files required for the software to function.

The backup folders within the folder LandFX/Data (26:08)

We’ve built in a safeguard that prevents you from deleting a Land F/X project without backing it up. So if you delete a project from the list, you will always be able to find a backup of it within the Data folder.

How to tell whether a DWG has a project assigned to it (27:27)

If a project doesn’t yet have a project assigned to it, all Land F/X tools will open the list of projects. Once you’ve assigned a project to a drawing, you will be able to use the Land F/X tools.

Restoring/importing a backed-up project (30:20)

We also recommend backing up to a flash drive, external hard drive, online folder location, etc.

Question: Can I reassign project names or numbers once I’ve started working on the file? (32:17)

Answer: Yes. You can change project information such as names and numbers in the Project Manager.

Question: Each time I get a prompt to update Land F/X, I also see an option to back up all projects. What does that option do? (34:00)

Answer: The Backup All Projects option in the Update dialog box backs up all projects that are not marked Read-Only in the project list, as well as all templates and Preference Sets.

Note that if you try to associate a project with a drawing that already has a project assigned, you’ll see a warning that the drawing is already associated with the other project. (37:07)

If you click past the warning and assign the new project to the drawing, you will cause problems with the data associated with objects in the drawing. If you re-assign the correct project to the drawing, the data will be corrected.

Unassigning a project from a drawing (40:00)

Project Sharing (42:00)

If you ever have to send us a drawing for technical support purposes, note that we’ll also need the associated Land F/X project. You can easily send both using our Support tool directly from the software. It’s available from the Help flyout menu on each of the Land F/X ribbons. You can use this tool to share your project with anyone who has Land F/X.

Restoring a backed-up project and making it Read-Only (44:10)

46:20 – 51:14: Adding to Projects

Importing from Another Project (46:50)

Importing is a great way to get the plants you commonly use into your new projects. The Import tool grabs plants from existing projects or templates – including all data you’ve assigned to those plants – and adds them to the current project. We recommend using this tool with a new project for each new design, rather than reusing an existing project.

Copying from Other Projects (48:40)

Copying plant blocks with embedded data (48:40)

51:15 – end: Preferences

Preference Sets (51:50)

Starting a new Preference Set based on the active one (54:10)

If you feel that you have too many backup project files, you can absolutely clean them out periodically, making sure to at least leave the most recent one or two backed-up versions of each of your projects of Preference Sets (as long as you’re careful about starting a new Land F/X project for each new job/site design). However, your total project backups generally won’t take up much more than a gigabyte. (57:15)