Landscape Special Interest Group December (am) 2016

In this session we looked at how to add an image prop to a plant, how to create a plant, how to create and edit a custom workspace, how the plants connect to the Vectorworks plants database, how to use the Plants Database, and a quick introduction to using record formats in viewports.

Topics covered:

• 00:24    we have started out with a file that contains image props already and we want to use these to create a plant. The first step is to draw an object, and our case a simple circle, and then use that to create our plant.
• 00:35    some workspaces have the contextual menu (right click) set up so that you can create a plant directly. In this case the command was missing from the contextual menu, so we decided that we would add it. In order to create this command to our contextual menu, we need to edit our workspace, so it’s a good idea to create a copy of the standard Vectorworks workspace and name it so that it’s easy to see at your edited workspace. While were editing the workspace we also discussed techniques to make it easier to use.
• 07:48    now that we have edited our workspace, we can use our right click to create a new plant. We discussed the options on the dialogue box for creating new plant, ensuring that we understand the spacing, row spacing, naming, ID, et cetera.
• 11:30    while we are creating the new plant we may want to get the plant information from the Plant Database. When you click on the Update From Plant Database, it opens the plant database where you can search for this plant. Many users don’t understand how to use the plant database, so we had a discussion about how we can use this plant database, how we can search for plants, how we can add plants, and how the plants in the database connects to the plants in the drawings. When we return back to Vectorworks we can continue to create our plant.
• 22:37    we have created our plant and controlled all the aspects except for the 3D definition. In this case we have 3D image props that we want to add to our plants. So we went through the steps for changing the definition of the plant to add the image prop.
• 26:47    the Plants Database does not have all the plants that you might want to use. If you belong to the Vectorworks Service Select subscription you will have access to several plant databases that you can download and add to your plants database. In this part of the movie we went through the detail of finding the database files on the VSS website, downloading them, and then importing them into our plants database. This has to be done very carefully to ensure that the correct information is copied through to your plants database this is also been covered in detail in the manual SST_1402 Introduction to Plants and The Plant Database
• 55:23    finally, we looked at record formats and how they relate to plants. In particular, there is a manual that covers this in detail SST_0901 – Creating an Asset Database. This manual covers the basics of creating record formats, assigning the record formats to objects, and reporting them. At first glance this manual doesn’t seem to cover plants, but a careful look through the manual will show that the final chapter is all about creating your own record format to apply to plants. One of the interesting topics with plants is the ability to use the record format attached to the plants to change the graphic style of the plants in viewports, this is known as Data Visualisation. In the movie we weren’t sure whether we could change the graphic style of the plants using Data Visualisation, but a test after the session finished prove that it’s possible.

Landscape December 2016 am
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