Jean-Marc

I just downloaded version 10.1, anticipating that at last, I might be able to begin editing and working with my plant database. Back in December and January, I had added an additional 4000 plants to the prd via the utility. Due to bugs in the prd, I have been unable to access or edit approximately 2000 of the new plant entries - ones which I think were created with the "duplicate" rather than "create new" button in the utility. To my utter dismay, it would appear that the upgrade has not solved the problem. If I select one of these new plant entries, the last plant in the list is displayed. In other words, I am unable to select or edit approx. half of the new plants. The one improvement in the prd is that it would appear I can now add new plants from within the prd (but this is slight consolation if I have to reenter 2000 plants). Is there any way I can salvage the 2000+ plant entries that I cannot seem to access via the prd?

Thanks Robert, I'll give this a try.

The problem with pads is that they are planar objects. These can only generate flat (and sloped) surfaces, and are fine to render grading plans around, say, a patio or raised terrace. But what if, as I indicated in my question, I want to create undulating, curvilinear topography and organic landforms that are not related to any particular built surface or structure. I can easily draw a 2d contour plan to depict the topo that I want. Is there any way to convert this 2d plan into 3d polys that can somehow then be used to redraw the contours in my "proposed" DTM, so that I can calculate the cut and fill?

I am new to DTMs (v.10) and trying to get a grasp of the processor?s capabilities and limitations. I hope to generate a DTM for a project that will involve extensive earth sculpting and a large volume of imported soils. My primary concern in generating the DTM is to determine the amount of fill that will be required. Most of these earthworks are unrelated to any other site modifications such as roads, pads, or walls. Consequently, if I understand the User?s Guide correctly, none of the site modifiers can be used to create the topography I need. Is it possible for me to simply manually edit/add/delete contours in my proposed DTM symbol? I?ve tried this once on a DTM, and it would appear that I corrupted the model. If I cannot edit the DTM, is it possible for me to generate a new ?existing? DTM derived from my proposed contours, and then process the fill calculations by comparing the two ?existing? DTMs? Thanks.

When I say the program slows down, I mean that it takes several seconds to select a symbol, many more when I want to move or delete the symbol. When I click on the symbol to select it, there's a long delay before the handles appear. It gets much worse if I try to select more than one symbol. Also, panning and moving through zones with lots of symbols becomes painfully slow. FYI with regards to your suggestion, these symbols are not in any way linked to the plant catalogue; I placed them the old-fashion Vectorworks 8.5 way, with the place symbol tool using symbols provided in the Sitewk_Trees folder. Also, in case this makes any difference, I did edit some of the symbols. Thanks.

I don't mean to head off on a tangent here, but I'm new to the plant catalogue, and Robert, I tried to follow your instructions re: moving symbols from the 2d and 3d folders to the plant catalogue folder. When I move the plant symbols from the 2d and 3d folders to the plant catalogue folder, they disappear from the 2d symbol selections in the Define Plant dialogue box (i.e., symbols are no longer available for editing). If I don't move them into the plant catalogue folder, the symbols remain available for selection; however, when I attach one of these symbols to a new plant, it does not show up in the plant catalogue. Any idea what the problem is?

I've inserted about 100 or so plant symbols into a drawing, and now, the program has slowed down to a crawl, the point where I can't work on the drawing unless I shut of the plant classes. I'm running v10.0.1 on a PC (640mg ram); the drawing was originally drawn on v10.0.0. Any idea what is going on? I've encountered this problem in another document as well. Thanks.

I just copied the layer with my 3d contours into a new document to experiment a little, and to recreate the problem I had with the closed contours. I think I'm doing everything as I should, and yet, the resulting DTM is wonky. Some of my contour lines do seem to close in on themselves. As well, the model did not include 5 of the 9 contour lines.

Thanks Katie, 1. If I want to create a DTM, can I just save the document as a new document, or do I have to copy and paste the whole document into a new file? 2. Re: the enclosed contours: In my 2d topo map, I have 8 contour lines, all of which extend outside the site boundaries. In other words, none of the contours are closed. However, in the model, the contour lines did close in on themselves with a straight line that connects the opposite ends of each contour (it looks like the line follows the polygon fill area).

Further to my previous posting, I upgraded to VW 10.0.1, and was subsequently able to generate a DTM. However, in that first attempt, the 3d contour lines closed in on themselves and created some false topography. I deleted the first model, recreated my 3d contours, and tried again. Now, I get an error message indicating that NNA_DTM-Hidden Record could not be found. 1. How do I prevent contours from closing in on themselves? 2. What's up with the error message; there are no duplicate or overlapping contour lines in the layer.

Thanks Robert. This may sound like a "novice" question, but will downloading the 10.0.1 updater affect my new plant entries in the PRD Utility, or my new plant attribute strings in the VW Plant Reference Database?

By the way, the script error # is 139-58

To check whether the problem was with the file I was working on, I set up a new document with just 4 2d polygons. I then converted these to 3D loci, as per manual instructions. However, once again, when I tried to set up the model, I got the same "that menu item is not authorized for this application" message. I also noticed that the at my first attempt at creating the model, the model dialogue box gave me a choice to select "Create proposed site model", but pre-selected the option to Create an Existing model (checked and grayed, as it should be). When I tried a second time, I was then given an option to edit both the proposed and existing models, as though a model had in fact been created. However, I see no evidence of a model in my simple 2 layer drawing. [ 02-05-2003, 08:43 AM: Message edited by: Jean-Marc ]

I am using version 10.0.0, with Windows 98 (640mgs RAM).

I am trying to create my first DTM in version 10 (never managed to create one in v.8). I started with 8/ 2d polygons, which I then converted to contours using the "2d poly to 3d contour" function. The new DTM source data went into a new layer. When I try to create a model using this data, I get the message "that menu item is not authorized for use in this application". WHen I click OK, I get a second message reading "A Vectorscript error has occured; Refer to file Error Output for an explanation". Where have I gone wrong? Incidently, I am also confused by the Site Model Dialogue box, which gives me the option to either "create a proposed site model" or "update existing site model". The manual suggests the second selection should actually read "create existing site model". If I am trying to create an existing site model, do I select "update existing site model?

Further to previous discussions, I have encountered a number of serious problems with the plant reference database, most notably that I found the plant reference catagories and attributes inadequate for search purposes (you might recall my discussion regarding "Drought and Wet Feet". Based on the various advice I recieved, I devised a custom solution to my problem (at least, I thought I did). My plan was to enter over 4000 new plants via the Plug-in Utility, in a one time effort, which I just completed. For the purposes of this exercise, I only entered plant names, types, and codes. THe next step in my process was going to be a revision of the selection of attributes for each plant catagory, by using the Vectorscript Plug-in Editor. Once attributes were edited, I was then going to assign all the pertinent plant data from within the plant database (rather than via the Utility, as I have no way of editing plant attributes from within the utility). Unfortunately, my plan has come to a screeching halt without even getting to step # 2. After completing the entry of 4000 new plants, I imported the revised plant file into Vectorworks. Unfortunately, it would appear that I have just wasted many days of data entry time, unless you can help me figure out what has happened. Many of the new plant species, when viewed via the PRD, do not appear in the plant list, as they somehow ended up in the comments columns of other plants. As well, the name and data for one new plant listings (Zizia aurea aptera) keeps showing up, no matter what plant I select for editing. I opened up the file in Excel to see if my new data somehow got misplaced in the wrong columns, but everything is where it should be. Any suggestions on where I go from here?

True enough, there are definite advantages to having the plant reference list linked to the plant catalogue. However, the fact remains that a key function of the program does not work properly, and I may very well have to go out and purchase a plant database anyway. My primary concerns are with the Soils, Water, and Light Ranges. If you cannot revise the program to accept multiple value selections, then you will need combination values. In terms of soils, you should include the following catagories : 1) sand; 2)loam (rather than "sandy loam" and "clay loam"); 3) clay; 4) organic 5) sand, loam; 6) sand, loam, clay; 7) sand, loam, clay, organic; 8) loam, clay. Including "well-drained" and "light" soils would be helpful if I could perform multiple value selections. Since I can't, these values, in my opinion, are for the most part not of much use, as soil type must take priority. In terms of Water (or "soil moisture levels"), the values should include: 1) dry, 2)intermediate 3) moist 4) wet 5) dry, intermediate 6) dry, intermediate, moist 7)dry, intermediate, moist, wet; 8)wet, moist 9) wet, moist, intermediate. In terms of Light, you mostly have all the right values, except that you need to insert "partial" shade" in the "sun to shade" value. Otherwise, plants that are assigned this value will not show up via the custom filter (using "includes") if the site for which one is preparing a plant list is partially shaded. I should also point out that there are also problems with the Plant Zone catagory. It is useless to input values such as "4 to 7". If I live in zone 6 and do a custom search for plants suited to that zone, only those plants with the actual number 6 will appear. In order for this catagory to work in a search, you need to spell out each zone number. So, "4 to 7" should read "4, 5, 6, 7". The fact that I can't input multiple values also causes problems for catagores such as "landscape use" and "tolerances", as previously discussed. And with these catagories, combination values are not as effective, as the possible combinations depend on individual plant species, and are endless.

I agree 100% and then some. I considered my options long and hard before finally deciding to go ahead with Landmark - Vectorworks 8.5 was working just fine, thankyou - and am now regretting my decision. I could have bought a standalone, fully customizable plant database (say Horticopia or Plantmaster) for much less money, headaches and hairloss (from pulling it out). I really really hope that NNA will address these problems very soon (and I will be very annoyed if I have to fork out more money for a future release just to get what I just paid for - a functional plant database).

Maybe I'm missing something here (I really hope I am, because I'm getting more miserable about the PRD every minute). Seems to me if there is a field for soil types, then that's the field that I should be using, not the comments field (which I'd already planned to use for other plant parametres not included in the PRD). Shasta, how would you deal with a species such Wild Geranium, as an example (amongst many others). It can thrive in sand, loam, or clay; sun, part shade, or full shade; and does well in sand, clay, or loam. Since I can only select one value per attribute, I will be missing a great deal of plant info. The only way I can ensure that the plant comes up in a custom filter search is to create combination range values, which I did. For instance, I created a value "sand, clay, loam" under soil types, to ensure that Wild Geranium and other similarly versatile species get listed when I do a custom filter search (using "containing") for a sandy site. That way, all the plants with the term "sand" in the values - be it "sand", or "sand-clay-loam" - will be listed. The only way this will work using the comments fields is if I make sure to put all soil data for every plant in the same comments field, thereby rendering the actual soil range field useless.

Excel (my version at least) does not offer the option of saving in Filemaker format, and in any case, it appears to me that the problems began when I went from FIlemaker to Excel (the Excel file doesn't seem to acknowledge all of the new attribute values that I created in the PRD).

Hold the presses! Upon closer inspection, it turns out the Excel solution isn't working, and I am now more confused than ever... I've made some significant changes to the PRD attribute values (edited existing + added new ones). Unfortunately, it would appear that Excel doesn't support the new/edited values, or at least, has some trouble recognizing them all. All the original plants in the list show up with the old value definitions, despite the fact I edited them. When I saved back to the Database from Excel, I lost many attribute value selections I'd made prior to opening up in Excel (not to mention that now, for some reason, I've lost all the "light range" values for all the plants in the database. As well, when I added a new plant via Excel (name only, other columns left blank), it showed up in the PRD with the record of another species whose name appeared in Comments # 1; that species no longer shows up in the plant list. At this point, I would be thrilled to just be able to input "onesies" and "twosies" via the PRD. Unfortunately, I can't seem to even do that. IF I try to add a new plant by selecting "New", I am provided only with a partially cleared plant file - pH and plant zone values for the plant that happens to be highlighted on the list when I clicked "new" sticks to the new plant file. I then make my value selections for the new listing, and click OK. When I go back into the PRD, the new listing has replaced the plant that was highlighted in the list when I clicked "new", and no longer shows up in the plant list. Unlike Viper, the new plant name doesn't show up at the top or bottom of the list. Any idea what gives, Robert?

Thanks Robert. I just tried out some editing via Excel, and it worked. To do mass plant entries, I will enter only the new species names via excel, to save me the trouble of opening and closing the PRD each time I want to add a new plant. I will then go to the PRD to select the appropriate attributes for each new plant, as this would be a cumbersone task in excel.

Thanks Robert. I just tried out some editing via Excel, and it worked. To do mass plant entries, I will enter only the new species names via excel, to save me the trouble of opening and closing the PRD each time I want to add a new plant. I will then go to the PRD to select the appropriate attributes for each new plant, as this would be a cumbersone task in excel.

From my perspective, this whole discussion re: the PRD vs the Utility is now moot. In order for the PRD to be of use to me, I've had to make some significant changes to the plant attribute values. As Robert has explained, I can make those changes from within Vectorworks. As it turns out, I unfortunately now cannot synchronize the Utility with the PRD, as I do not have the capability to make the value edits unless I purchase and learn Filemaker. This means I will have to enter new plants in PRD one by one, exiting the PRD each time a new plant is entered, so as to not lose the previous entry. This is really grossly inefficient, and I hope this problem will be rectified in a new release. As well, I still need to know how I can save and back-up my revised PRD (in case I ever have to reload Landmark).

Since it appears that I will have to perform all my edits from within the Plant Reference Database rather than the Utility, it would be helpful to know which plant list file I should save as a backup so that I don't lose everything should I ever have to reload Landmark.