Landmark Workshops

Vectorworks Landmark is a Building Information Modeling (BIM) package (2D, 3D, and information) for landscape architects, landscape designers, architects, and contractors. The topic depends on the attendees. We will discuss the topics that are troubling attendees and choose the most important topics. If you want your topics covered, you must attend and tell us what you want help with.

Landmark October 2018

In this session, we looked at what is new with plants in Vectorworks 2019 and how to do a cut and fill calculation for just a portion of a site model.

Topics Covered:

• 00:12    We looked at what is new with plants in Vectorworks 2019. We began by putting some plants in the plant database. Opening up the Advanced Plant Preferences dialog box, we clicked on the Edit Plant Style button at the bottom, chose Schedule from the left window pane, and hit the Get Plant Data button—this process took us to the new dialog box. Vectorworks is gradually phasing out the Vectorworks Plant Database, which is a FileMaker file. In Vectorworks 2019, the plant list, or Plant Catalog, is reintroduced, but with the possibility of adding images. The Plant Catalog is supposed to be quicker and more reliable than the FileMaker database. It is now possible to use an Excel spreadsheet to add plants to Vectorworks. The spreadsheet has to use the Vectorworks column names (same names and same order) and must be saved as a text file in the Plant Database folder on your computer—otherwise, it won’t work. We demonstrated going through these steps by adding a cabbage tree to our Plant Catalog. You can still load images if they’re on your computer. The Plant Catalog is only the data for the plants. To make the plants, you still need to make the 2D and 3D images, input the settings, and create the spaces.
• 24:03    We marked our favorite plants in the Vectorworks Plant Database—by checking the “Mark as favorite item” option on each plant record—and tried exporting the records in the Tab-Separated Text Files (.tab) format with a text (.txt) filename. We had to match the order of the columns with the order required by the Vectorworks Plant Catalog. If you’ve been using a lot of plants from the Plant Database, this method should allow you to bring them into the new Plant Catalog. We also went over the Import Field Mapping command for bringing in records that you’ve added under previous versions of Vectorworks.
• 41:20    We finished the session by discussing how to obtain cut and fill data when you make changes to a site model. The challenge was obtaining fill data from only part of the model. We demonstrated creating a cut and fill record that we could attach to individual site modifiers. Then, we created a worksheet that could find those records and perform the cut and fill calculations for only the selected site modifiers. It’s crucial to carefully assign the Existing and Proposed parts of your site and to take care of any modifier conflicts—these items have a considerable effect on the cut and fill calculations. If you used a cut and fill worksheet, you can easily include soil expansion as part of the fill calculation!

Landmark September 2018

[This is an old webinar which I left open to the public so you can see the type type of webinar that we run every month. You will notice that I answer specific questions, I allow users to interrupt me, and I ensure that the users get the answers they need.]

In this session, we covered how to create the 2D and 3D parts of a plant object and discussed how Vectorworks 2019 allows you to import data from your plant supplier and attach that information to your created plant objects.

Topics Covered:

• 00:10    We opened a blank file and made a 2D plant shape using a couple of different methods. The simplest way is to use the Circle tool. You could also use the Freehand tool, especially if you’re tracing over a plant picture that you’ve imported into Vectorworks. We downloaded a picture of an Agapanthus and dragged it in. We traced the image freehand as the 2D image and then used the Create Plant Style From Selection command to turn that image into a plant object. In the Plant Style dialogue box, we went through the basics to turn our 2D sketch into a plant object. Next, we created an image prop, including adding a mask to it. To make it into a plant object, don’t forget to check the Create Symbol box. At this point, we went back into the Plant Style dialogue box to make a copy from the 3D symbol—this ties the 3D symbol of the image prop to our 2D plant object, giving our plant 2D and 3D looks. Our Agapanthus was floating up in space, so we cropped some of the blank space from the image border in a photo editor. Creating a new symbol from our trimmed image, we went dropped the elevation of the plant’s 3D component—no more hovering! In our image editor, we created a separate mask for an image of “Fred.” In Vectorworks, we compared the image props, one using a Vectorworks mask and the other a mask made on the image editor. We finished by making Fred partially see-through. Using this kind of image will make your landscapes look populated without having the people dominate your landscape. To review, we went back through how to attach the 3D symbol of the image prop to the 2D image of the plant object.
• 34:46     Vectorworks 2019 has the ability for you to import data from your plant supplier and to attach that information to the plant objects that you’ve created. Under Schedule in the Plant Style dialogue box, we clicked the Get Plant Data button and then scrolled down through the menu of various catalogs that are already available. You could add your supplier’s catalog to that list!