[Planting / soft landscaping blocks]

Hi John

Have you check out the plant symbol library?

You can easily access this via the resource browser.

[VSS]

Personally I find the resources provided by the Service select package to be worthwhile. I access it each year and it continues to provide good value.

[Hardscape tool challenges]

The hardscape tool is very handy and behaves itself most of the time. I do have a little challenge with it when a border is added and some tight space results. You can see that a 6" border goes a muck when faced with certain angles. I'm hoping this gets addressed soon...

[Inserting Specific Plant Species into Drawing]

What I have done is create a document I call Office standards...all my plants are listed by type in the resource browser. Once you have a master document you can reference it at any time with your resource browser. Also when naming plants I use their botanical name which makes it really easy for me to sort. I also place font styles, scripts, title blocks a whole assortment of goodies. Hope that helps....using your resource browser correctly takes a bit of getting used to. I would search out some reference videos.

VW Utube videos

[How do I efficiently deal with Vectorworks Preferences]

This was very helpful as I'm going through the same thing right now...

[Inserting Specific Plant Species into Drawing]

Hi Adam

Here's what I do...(by the way if you can update your signature others can see the details of your system)

Using your resource browser(you'll be using this a lot in the future)look at the vw library and select one of the plant object files.

When you open this (in the resource browser) right click on the symbol you wish to use and select make active.

Then (assuming you have selected the place plant tool) you can select the plant tool preferences from the tool bar.

Press edit definition and then select get plant data. This is the interface between the vw plant data base and you symbol.

You can then select the data or plant you wish.

Once you have done this you'll see a number of other settings you can make. There is loads more to this, if your a Service Select member there are some excellent videos which go through this type of process.

Have fun

[Parking tool misbehaving in 3d]

Thanks Jim. After playing around I got it to work. Don't ask me how...Thank you again.

[Parking tool misbehaving in 3d]

I seem to have some challenges with the parking tool. I have a couple of view ports created to show a landscape and parking area. Parking lines have been colored white to show up on the asphalt. The asphalt is a hardscape object that is 1" thick, parking lines are set at 1.25". They show up in the 2d overhead and in the 3d viewport in open GL but not in either fast or final quality RW... Not sure if this is a 2015 bug?

[VWX 2015 Problem with "Basic tools" palette]

HI Riffus

Try clicking and holding the tool, then (while still holding the click)select the tool you wish and un-click.

[Rotating Entourage Vehicles in 3D]

Jim it would be great if you could 'Send to surface" a vehicle and it would position itself based on the current model.

[Rotating Entourage Vehicles in 3D]

I have run into this on numerous occasions Markvi. You can rotate your vehicle using the rotate tool, just position yourself in front,rear,left or right view, then select the tool and rotate the object as desired. It's a pain and I look forward to it being made easier.

[Change Document Units script]

Thanks MK that is fantastic....

Jamie

[Change Document Units script]

Hi All

MK was kind enough to provide this handy script which will allow me to easily switch between metric and standard units. I'm new to VW scripts and want to place a line or command that tells the metric units to read by decimal not fraction. Any ideas?

[Quick access to units]

Hi MK

Thank you very much for that...what a great idea.

I installed it as a script and then placed it into my workspace and assigned a shortcut. I've been using VW since VW 10.5 and have never used a script before...works well.

Your quite right when you toggle back and forth between say metric and feet and inches the units displayed in metric are example 1 1/8m, I can change this manually to show decimals but if anyone can tell me how to change the script to reflect this it would be handy. Thank you again MK.

[Quick access to units]

I'm switching between metric and standard for most drawings I do. I went to school during Canada's transition and I've never taken both feet out of either standard. I would be great if the units dialogue box was available via the top tool bar, or at least given an option to do so.

[Colour palette improvment]

I've always thought it would be nice when selecting colors from the color palette if the cursor would induce an enlargement of the selection. I find I really don't know the look of the selection until after when it's in use due to the small size preview.

[Swept Path Analysis Plug-In - Fully developed]

Good point....

I installed this in VW 2015 and it appears to be functioning...thanks Jim.

[Swept Path Analysis Plug-In - Fully developed]

Thanks Jim

It looks like you can use it in VW 2014, import it into 2015, it shows the curve and lists this in the OIP but it is not functional beyond this. Helpful tool...

[Swept Path Analysis Plug-In - Fully developed]

Thanks Jim

It looks like this is a VW 2013,2014 add on...any idea if a version for 2015 is coming?

[Swept Path Analysis Plug-In - Fully developed]

I don't see the vehicle sweep path Tool available within the VSS library, an someone direct me to the right location?

Please ignore...just found it. It's now called the driving curve tool.

[How to generate non-planer, texture-able, landscape areas?]

Another approach is to create a polyline then 'create objects from shape' > Hardscape or Landscape area. Both have 3d function and textures can be applied.

[Plant symbol bug?]

HI Ozzie

No, although I use this at times I did not have Mass Plants turned on when these plants became invisible.

[Plant symbol bug?]

Thank you Ozzie...that's great to know that there is another work around. I appreciate your comments and look forward to this been fixed in future sp or versions.

[Plant symbol bug?]

Had a very strange event happen which I luckily grabbed some screen shot of. I finished up a planting plan, sent it off to the printers, and sat down with my client yesterday to review it. During the meeting I was horrified to see some plants on the drawing had disappeared.

Here is what I observed...see images

Plants were missing but not all of one type..I clicked on a plant group and selected to modify the path...if I add a plant to the group all of the previously invisible plants appear.

This has happened to me on several occasions during the week with the same file...I initially thought it might be my error. Has anyone seen this?

[The use of stake objects as site modifiers]

Hello

Question about using stakes as site modifiers.

The first image shows some stakes-purple represents the actual model elevations the black are set as modifiers. This is a small pond with some of the fill going uphill to create a mound. I thought using stake objects might be the easiest approach. The results are not great as it seems a stake object has limited effect once you move away from it. The question is two fold:

A) is this a good approach in this situation

b) if yes then I imagine I need to space these stakes a certain distance to get a mound effect...if no then what would you suggest? Thanks

additional info: the pond is made up of two pads. Grade limits are well outside the pond and land area.