Customizing Irrigation – What You Should Know

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
• Where Can You Customize?
  • Templates
  • Preference Sets
  • Blocks
  • Keyboard Commands
• Understanding Proper Practices Within Each Customizable Section
  • Templates
  • Preference Sets
  • Blocks

0:00 – 5:33: Intro/TOC

Understanding our terminology (3:08)

What you might be used to:

• Templates (.dwt)
  • Defined Text Styles
  • Defined DimStyles
  • Linetypes/layers
  • Equipment/schedules
• Blocks
• Keyboard commands

How we look at things

• Templates
  • Project content
  • CAD file (.dwt)
    • Units, layouts, LTScale
• Preference Sets
• Blocks
• Keyboard commands

5:34 – 27:09: Where Can You Customize?

Templates (7:20)

• Standard equipment used regularly
• Created and managed through a Land F/X project

Irrigation template functionality (8:05)

Includes updated:

• Flow (GPM)
• Radius

(Does not impact PSI loss chart)

Does not include updated:

• Symbols
• Models
• Descriptions
• New sizes
• New nozzle options
• Discontinuations

Best practices (9:40)

• Templates should be used with discretion.
• Audit templates regularly.
• Adding equipment as needed is recommended.

Preference Sets (11:27)

The Irrigation Preferences screen allows you to:

• Set your default valve callout
• Set your default spray symbols
• Set your default symbol sizes
• Create and manage Preference Sets
• Set pipe and unit defaults

Best practices:

• Preference Sets should be monitored and controlled by your CAD manager.
• Limit the number of Preference Sets in your office/firm.
• Once you’ve set a Preference Set to your desired standards, back them up and set them to Read Only.

Blocks (13:45)

Best practices:

• Review the default blocks in our Irrigation Getting Started Guide (GSG)
• Stick with the same/similar naming convention to ours when renaming and saving new blocks into the system.

Keyboard Commands (16:00)

Resources:

• Customize irrigation: documentation
• Customize shortcut keys
• Keyboard commands landing page
• Keyboard commands – irrigation
• F/X CAD keyboard shortcuts (2018 and newer)

Best practices:

• Great example of evaluating your standards:
  • Ex: Docked Irrigation Manager
  • Appreciate the new advances of the interface

Question: How often should I audit my irrigation project template? (18:40)

Answer: Definitely annually at most. You can build it from scratch, or use our Replace button (in the Irrigation Manager) to swap out equipment.

Irrigation customization resources (19:25)

• Customize irrigation: documentation
• Irrigation Getting Started Guide (GSG)
• Keyboard commands – irrigation

Adding/customizing a keyboard command using the Alias Editor (22:40)

Before customizing keyboard commands, it’s a good idea to know which commands are already available so you don’t overwrite an existing command.

Adding the new command to the list of commands (24:25)

Using the new keyboard command (25:28)

Pressing the K key when using certain Land F/X features (example: placing a head) to see the available keyboard commands within that feature (26:00)

27:10 – end: Understanding Proper Practices Within Each Customizable Section

Keep in mind that all sections are interconnected in some way.

Templates (27:10)

We recommend opening a blank drawing before creating and building a project or template. (You don’t need to save that drawing.) If you build a project or template with an existing irrigation plan open, you risk altering the data that’s currently in use in that drawing.  

Creating a project that will become a template (28:10)

Take care to name the template in such a way that users will know to not alter the data in that template.

Adding equipment to the project/template (30:43)

Don’t add everything you mightuse in projects based on this template – add items you think you’ll use most often.

Assigning symbols to equipment you add to a project (34:05)

Note that as you add equipment, the next available symbol for the relevant equipment type will be assigned to each component you add. If you want, you can rename the equipment source files to reflect your intended use for them.

Saving the project as a template (36:30)

Take care to assign the correct Preference Set to the template you’re creating. (37:15)

Making changes to a template (38:16)

Importing equipment from another project or template (39:10)

Preference Sets (40:05)

General Preferences (40:30)

Customizing Text Styles (40:30)

Customizing layer settings (41:00)

Creating multiple Preference Sets (41:24)

You can create different Preference Sets to match specific clients’ needs or styles, including which items will be on specific layers and which Text Styles/fonts will be applied to which applications.

Irrigation Preferences (41:58)

Valve callout styles (42:05)

You can add your own valve callout styles or modify our default styles, keeping in mind that you should still stick with our naming structure, which will allow the software to use the callout styles correctly.

Spray symbols (43:00)

If you choose to customize one of the spray symbol families, we recommend modifying either:

-A family that resembles the look you want, or

-A family you know you won’t otherwise use

Overview of our default symbol families (43:50)

Schedule symbols (45:15)

Just like the equipment symbols you’ll use in your drawings, schedule symbols have their own source files that you can update.

When adding rotor and rotary head symbols, you can adjust these symbols on the fly. (47:00)

Symbol scaling (50:05)

Pipe Data defaults (51:57)

Layer and linetype settings for pipes (54:00)

Blocks (55:30)

Source files for equipment, callouts, pipes, and other items (55:50)

The file and folder structure of the source files (56:30)

Customizing an equipment symbol (example: a valve symbol) (56:50)

Creating a slide for a customized piece of equipment using the MSLIDE command (59:00)

Any time you’ve customized our symbols and want to return to the default versions, just delete the source files from their folders within your LandFX folder. Because our default blocks are cloud based, the default versions will download as soon as you place those symbols in a drawing.