Doug L

Why does the Plant Report's spacing for a certain plant not update? I've changed it from 2' to 1' in EACH of the following: 1. Place Plant Preferences/Spacing 2. Place Plant Preferences/Spacing/Edit Definitions/Spread (should not matter) 3. Place Plant Preferences/Spacing/Edit Definitions/Default Prefs/Placement Spacing 4. Landmark Plant Database/Spread (should not matter) 5. In Plant Area tool, was initially set to 1' o.c. A. Try Plant Report/Recalculate, it remains unchanged. b. Delete the Plant Report and drag it from the Resource Browser /Worksheet/Plant Report, still remains unchanged. C. Close the file, reopen, still unchanged. What else can be done???

Pat, could you clarify what gets set to shrubs? After I select the More Choices button, the options are Record, Plant Record, Present, Type, Is, 2D Locus. None of these pop-up menus has "shrubs". Or do I type that in after selecting something else? Thanks.

Not aware of this. Does anyone else know? It would be a great feature. You could post that in the features request forum. However, In VW Landmark 2009, there is a Plant Area Tool that I've used for large fill areas or groundcovers, or multiple species of plants in the same area. Even though it doesn't show individual plants (like the plant Array Mode Tools as far as I can tell), you can change the plant quantities very easily. Either by stretching the boundary line of the area, or by changing the plant spacing Rate number. It updates the tag and the plant list quantities automatically. This is the main reason I updated from Landmark 2008 to 2009.

Peter thanks for your help. For the benefit of others: 1. With a sheet layer active, Page Setup has Show Page Boundary checked but grayed out and unchangeable. If you go to the design layer and then Page Setup, you can unchecked Show Page Boundary there, and then back in the sheet layer and Page Setup, Show Page Boundary is no longer checked. 2. The real culprit with my file was that I used VW to create the Drawing Border. Unknown to me, it also created a Page Boundary line that prints around the Drawing Border. And it still printed after doing item #1 above. The solution was to draw my own rectangle for use as a border and then delete the VW Drawing Border.

Yes you can: Right click on the plant label. Select Edit. Select Definition, OK. Select Default Prefs. Select Tag Top. You will find there various options for the plant labels names. Alternatively, you can click on the plant preferences icon in the tool bar, select the plant you want to edit, then select Edit, etc. These method appears to change all instances of just that specific plant species. You will need to do the same procedure for each plant species. (If there is a way to do this globally for all plants species, I haven't found that yet!).

Thanks Peter. The culprit appears to be a sheet area boundary line that won't go away. In image #1, the Page Setup dialogue box, Show Page Boundary is checked and grayed out and I'm unable to uncheck it. If you place your cursor over that Show Page Boundary text, the detail text below says "Check the check box to show the page boundary on design layers. The page and print boundary are always drawn on sheet layers." So maybe I'm stuck with it? In image #2 the print preview shows an extra boundary line around my drawings border line. In image #3, I printed a viewport on top of my 7 x 9.38 border, and changed the page set up to match that. This extra line is more visible in this view when the image is pushed to the left and up. Is there a way to turn these page border lines off, even though in Print/Layout/Border, None is selected per image 4? Or will I have to resort to Photoshop image editng to remove extra boundary lines? /Users/douglee/Desktop/Image 1.png /Users/douglee/Desktop/Image 2.png /Users/douglee/Desktop/Image 3.png /Users/douglee/Desktop/Image 4.png

Thanks Peter for your reply. Option 1 will only be screen resolution, not suitable for printing. I tried Option 2 and still have problems with unwanted borders printing, even though I select Print/Layout/Border/NONE. I realize that an 8.5 x 11 sheet layer will not print onto the same size of paper due to margins. The drawing is set up with a 1/2" border per VW border tool. And so per your suggestion, I created a viewport which matches the border size of 7" wide x 9.38" high. This should fit on an 8.5 x 11 sheet. However, the print result is my border is cramped tight to the top and left of the page, and another thin line appears at the right and bottom of the page. Looks like a cut line or edge of paper line 1/2" away from my borders (when page set up is set to 7" x 9.38"). (If page setup is set to 8" x 10.38", the extra lines appears at the top and right instead). How do I make those extra lines to go away and print the image centered on the page instead? It looks very unprofessional. Thanks.

Thanks Mike. I did try that and the notes and labels are not there. Maybe its because I didn't put the notes in Viewport Annotations, but simply on layer 0 in the planting plan's sheet layer! (I gave up on using Annotations because it seemed cumbersome so many extra clicks (5) to edit/move text on the drawing. So I tried to move the notes by copying them from the sheet layer and pasting them into the Annotations. But they are different coordinate systems and scales and didn't show up at their proper locations. Tried copying the entire planting plan sheet layer (select all) and pasting into the smaller sheet layer. Everything is there, but when I crop the planting viewport, the text and revision clouds remain overhang off the smaller sheet layer. I'll keep trying different methods.

Is it possible to print a user-defined window area of a drawing? In the print settings, there is a check box for "Print current view only", but I often don't want to print the screen view, or can't get the correct area I need by zooming, but want a certain customized rectangle or square shaped area. In AutoCAD you print any area bounded by an upper left corner click to a lower right corner click. Or vice versa. Thanks.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. All of the above methods worked. Apparently I was still thinking the AutoCAD way of doing things where you go to paperspace 1st (VW sheet layer) to draw the viewport rectangle, and then the model space (VW design layer) automatically appears within the rectangle. The advantage of the VW way appears that you can draw the boundaries of your proposed viewport first (in the design layer), and then make minor crop adjustments in the sheet layer if needed. However, when I created the new viewport and assigned it to my new smaller sheet layer, none of the text notes nor area labels showed up. That's not surprising since the text exists on layer 0 within the sheet layer, not the design layer. I suppose its a matter of copying those separately and pasting them in the new sheet layer separately. However, they don't align with the design layer (since I moved the sheet layer to 0,0 where the titleblock was, and fall outside of the boundaries of the new smaller viewport! I'll have to manually align and trim them to fit unless there is a better way. And will have to do this 5 times to fit all the revision areas onto separate 8x11 sheets. Or I could simply export one PDF file of the planting plan, crop the image 5 different times and import the new PDF's back into each 8x11 sheet layer. With this method, they are now image files and no longer update if the original design layer changes, but this may be a faster method for those who are proficient with Photoshop.

How do I create a new viewport on a new sheet layer? The 24x36 drawings were done awhile ago, now I need to create 8 1/2 x 11 addendum sheets. This was the process I used: 1. Create new sheet layer, set to 8.5" x 11". 2. Add drawing borders. 3. Add custom title block. 4. Draw a rectangle that will be the viewport. 5. With the rectangle still selected, went to Modify/Convert/Convert to Viewport. Nothing happens except for a system beep. No errors, but nothing is created either. 6. With the rectangle still selected, tried View/Create Viewport. Receive an error: "You have selected only one object or you have selected an already cropped viewport. Please select an uncropped viewport and a crop object to create a detail viewport." Yes, I selected only one object, the rectangle that I wanted to convert to the viewport. What's an already cropped viewport? I didn't crop anything. So how do I create the viewport, which is supposed to contain the planting design layer. Or it could contain a portion of the planting design sheet layer. Either way would work for me, if I could get it to work. I did it before, on the 24x36 sheet layers, but that was months ago! I have an AutoCAD background and creating viewports was very simple in AutoCAD. But I recall that to create viewports in Vectorworks was very unintuitive, and now its not working. I thought I followed the VW help steps creating sheet layer viewport by cropping, 1) make active the existing design layer or sheet layer that will display in the viewport (I have just a titleblock on the a blank new sheet layer), and 2) Create a 2D object such as a rectangle..... Thanks in advance for your help.

Thanks Pat, I really appreciate it. Your formula in the plant spacing column works much better. The other method, dragging the SUM icon over the spacing column, results in some strange things to the plant list when I temporarily remove the SUM icon from over the quantities column in order to show and check each row in the plant list spreadsheet.

Thanks Eric for following up with this and Andrew for your solution (copied below). However, what does "reset the Landscape Area object" mean and how do I do that? Will that also solve Ozzie's questions in the prior thread on this topic? "If you add plants to a Landscape Area object that have a price of 0, and then later on go and edit the price of that plant to something else (2.00 for example), and then go and create a plant list, the price of the plant will still show as 0 on the worksheet. However if you go and reset the Landscape Area object on the drawing, and then update the worksheet, it displays properly....The purging is actually handled so that the plant objects won't be deleted from the resource browser if there are some in the Landscape Area."

Why is it that for plants which are in a landscape area group, costs were not calculated in the plant list work sheet? I have verified that the plant costs were inputted in the Edit Plant Definition/Price for each individual plant of the group, AND also in the Object Info Palette/Unit Price for a landscape area object. Other non-landscape area plants' cost are totaled properly. Thanks.

Ozzie, yes it is and thanks for taking a look at it. I'm surprised others haven't had the same issue.....I will post a brand new issue in a new topic. Merry Christmas!

I just found the cause and a solution: It appears that the plant list work sheet is adding up the spacing distance from every grouping of the same plant! Here is the proof: in the plant list work sheet, when I remove the SUM symbol over column A, the plant ID, there are 4 line items of Mahonia aquifolium. 4 x 3' spacing = 12'!!! However, I need to use the SUM over the ID column to add up all the Mahonia plants (23). So how do I prevent adding up the spacings? Here is a solution: After dragging the SUM icon back over the ID column, also drag the SUM icon over the spacing column! This appears to "un-SUM" the spacing column! Now all the plants list the correct spacing in the plant list worksheet! Very strange, but it appears to work.

How do I update plant spacings which are listed incorrectly on the plant list work sheets? For example, in Edit Plant Definition, Placement Spacing, I typed in 3', but the result in the plant list worksheet is 12, regardless of what spacing I input. Several other plants also list the spacing incorrectly. Recently upgraded to VW2009 but this problem persists.

Thanks Pat, I appreciate it. That worked and all is well. Strange, I didn't intentionally change them to show Active Only!

When I'm in a design layer, why are all other design layers and 8 referenced design layers no longer visible, even if they are grayed or on in the Navigator and Organization palletes? They are now only visible when I'm in a sheet layer. All I did was save Saved Views in the Navigator for the 1st time. In the past, when I switch back and forth and between sheet layers and design layers, sometimes I had to use the View menu and select Align Layer Views so that all the layers become visible. That doesn't work anymore. Thanks.

Thanks Pat for the correction.

Try this: /Users/(your user name)/Library/Application Support/Vectorworks/2008/Settings. There you will find 3 text files: SavedSettings.xml, SavedSettingsUser.xml and Vectorworks Preferences.xml There is also this file but it does not appear to be user editable: /Users/(your user name)/Library/Preferences/net.nemetschek.vectorworks.plist

Thanks Ozzie for your help in troubleshooting the planting plan and plant list! I really appreciate it! Here is a summary for everyone's benefit: there are at least 3 ways to generate plant lists: 1. Per the Vectorworks manual, use one of the four defaults plant list worksheets via the resource browser and navigate your hard drive to: Applications/VectorWorks/2008/Libraries/Defaults/Reports~Schedules\Plant Lists.vwx 2. Per Alchemilla from another discussion thread, in the resource browser at the bottom of Plant Objects, there is a Plant List Working Drawings worksheet that sorts plants in the list by Evergreen Tree, Trees, Shrubs, etc. 3. Per Ozzie, go to the Tools menu/Reports/CreateReport/PlantRecord (not Plants). This gives you the option to select any of 40 data fields from the VW Plants database. This is a much easier way to create custom plant list worksheets instead of attempting to modify the 4 default plant list worksheets. NNA, option #2 and #3 above need to be included in the manual's index and in the online help. Many municipalities are requiring more data in plant lists for permit approval. Perhaps this is already documented/referenced in VW 2009? (which I've ordered due to the plant area tool and other great time-saving improvements)

Does anyone know why while grayed design layers to not print? This happens even if I put anything from 0 to 100% in the "Gray level for grayed layers and classes" option in the print settings on a Mac. Is something else cancelling out gray printing? Now this is strange: in Document preferences, if I check "black and white only", the gray design layer does print! But then I lose the color renderings of plants. The same thing happens if I use batch print and uncheck the color icon.

While trying to hatch groundcover areas, is there a way to globally adjust hatch pattern scales (as in AutoCAD) without having to individually edit each default hatch pattern? Under Export PDF (batch), if I check "Export patterns at on-screen resolution", the hatch patterns are the appropriate size, but the linework is screen resolution, heavily pixelated. If I uncheck "Export patterns at on-screen resolution", the hatch patterns are clean lines, but too dense. Needs to be enlarged 400% to be legible in the resulting PDF file.

The plant list form, that is somehow halving the sizes, originated as a copy of one of the four defaults, Plant List-Colors, at Applications/VectorWorks/2008/Libraries/Defaults/Reports~Schedules. I manually added columns and these to the database headers in the worksheet: ='Plant Record'.'Spacing' ='Plant Record'.'Height' ='Plant Record'.'Spread' Incidently, when I manually doubled the size numbers in the worksheet to get the correct numbers in the worksheet, the result was that the graphics sizes planting plan's symbols doubled! So this doesn't work as a work-around. Thanks for asking, Ozzie, I look forward to your reply.