Marietta

If your viewport is rotated in relation to the drawing layers, is there any way you can make the plant tags rotate the same way? I am working on a base drawing given by others, which has north to the top of the page, but the viewport has the main elements rotated so they are parallel to the drawing layout. I don't want to have to rotate the base drawing.

I found that using the export PDF function produces smaller pdf files than using the pdf option in the print dialogue box, which is great when sending over the email. One issue I found is that white fills are printed with a grey tone instead of white. I normally use this as a fill with text. How can I get around this?

Thanks Katie. I figured it had to be something simple.

That works for the new plants, but the ones I already placed stay the same. I guess this would work if you put a separate class for the plant tag and assign them when you make your default plants. So for plans already done, this seems very tedious, unless I'm missing something.

In version 12, I find that I can only rotate text so that it faces right side up or to the right (unless you rotate part of 90 or 180 degrees). How can you rotate so that the text is upside down or to the left? There should be some preference somewhere for this.

I didn't realize at first that I can't change the line weight for the plant tags the way I did in version 11 - which is to go to the strings under VectorScript Plug-in Editor. The same strings are there, but it doesn't change the line weights. How do you change them in version 12?

See my querie just below yours. This is as far as I got. You need to edit the files in the default folder. You can import your plant worksheets from VW11 and they should work fine. I also made a plant list organized into plant categories - I don't know if there is a limit to the amount of categories you can use. The other option is to have two plant lists - one for trees and shrubs, and one for perennials and annuals. This would also cut down on the recalculating times in each plant list. refer also to my posting 'Plant List Sorting', June 20, 2005.

Sounds like a lot of fun! Would you need a G5 to run this? I have a G4 with 700MB Ram

I foinally did find these items in the help menu. I guess the help menu wasn't working properly at first. I am still wondering why I get some plants listed as invalid plants and why sometimes when I click on the plant data, I get data for a different plant?

Thanks Viper. I can't really use VW12 until this is sorted out or explained better so that we don't get frustrated and lose the proper plant definitions. We need to know how to move over the items we developed in VW11 to VW12 easily. It appears that we need to update the default files first and make sure they are running properly before starting on new projects- and then hopefully we don't get freezes and crashes. There are aspects of VW12 that seem great, if we can feel confident in using them. Andrew, can you clarify these and maybe set up guidelines for updating for everyone?

I have been adding some plant symbols that I have used in VW11 to the default 2D plants file, and that seems toi work fine, but when I am adding plants to the default plant symbol file as discussed above, it is behgaving weirdly. I have added plants I have used from other projects (VW11). Just thinking, if these plants are not in the plant reference data file first before placing them in the plant symbol file, does that cause these plants not to be valid, or the name of the plants to change in the plant selection box? Some were imported from original VW11 files and the plants were not in the new plant reference data. Would the plant reference data file update automatically when you import from another file? What would be the best way to deal with this?

Yes, or they do not turn gray at all.

I forgot to ask - is there a way to edit the Id or name once you have created that plant? Also is there a way to change the plant symbol connected to the plant once on the drawing? If you change the symbol in the plant settings, it does not update the plants on the drawing and I can't find anything in the object info box where you can do this. I would have to replace the plant and reselect the same plant with the new symbol.

THANKS. That explains a lot. The manuals didn't seem to address the change from VW11. It seems that I should make a default file with the plants I like to use and put it in the Libraries folder. When I click on the plant data button for plants that I have added, they do not always refer to the plant I am editing, so that sounds like a bug. A lot of times, it seems to be the plant that either I edited previously, or the plant I previously selected.

Has anybody else been having problems with the program freezing and/or crashing? This seems to happen most when I am editing plants on the drawing. The latest freeze was when the save drawing box comes up (autosave). I clicked on 'save' and the program froze. Also, adding plants to the data base (under place plant settings) is quite slow - I have only added four so far.

In VW 12 - When I turned one layer to gray visibility, not all of its elements show up grayed. The amount that are grayed seems to change when you pan the drawing or regen the drawing. Anyone else come across this?

When I create a new plant description in the place plant settings, the symbol for this plant goes in the top level symbol folder. Shouldn't they go into the Plant catalogue folder under system? Should I move them there? I noticed the generic plant are not in this folder, or in any folder. One file did have the generic plants in the plant catalogue folder, so they doubled up in the place plant settings box.

In VW 11, you have a plant catalogue which only has plants listed that you are using in that file. IN VW12, this is no longer there. You get a different version of this when you click on the 'place plant tool' and the settings button. You automatically get the generic plants in this list, and you can add yours. Is there a way to delete plants you don't want to use to clean this up? can you make a default list without the generic plants to use in other files? Also, when you click on the Edit Current button, and then click on the Plant Data button, shouldn't you get the info on the particular plant you are editing? Sometimes, another plant is listed here?

A few things I can think of right away: - Speed using the plant list is very slow once you have all your plants done and you need to recalculate or change a value somewhere. - Customizing the plant list so that we have the plants separated into categories: trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals. I have done this myself, but found that with more than three categories, it doesn't seem to work. - Speed when you want to adjust the plant bed shape, etc. is very slow - it is usually faster to start a new plant bed than to adjust the existing. Sometimes I want to round the numbers off in a plant bed (put in 100 instead of 98 or 101). If there is a way to type in the number of plants you want and spacing and have the program place that number in a given area. - An easy way to flip back and forth between a coloured rendered version and a black & white version (with no fill in the plants). I use to do this using classes, with one class for black and white, and another for coloured with separate symbols for each class. Then when you switch between the classes, you would automatically get either a black & white or coloured version of your drawing. Maybe we can pick a colour plant symbol and a black & white plant symbol when creating the plant reference data. - I have never done much with the DTM's. The few times I tried I didn't get much luck, but would like to be more knowledgeable in this area. I am also waiting for version 12, and will comment more when I receive it.

VIPER X What about putting your plant symbols on a layer below your line work? Or putting your plant layer as an 'Overlay' in the transfer mode on your layer info box? This gives you some funny colours with the overlay sometimes, but can give you a neat effect.

Are you are adding new plants or adjusting plants to the plant catalogue dialogue box? When I have done this, the plants usually come out with wrong categories, etc. Add and adjust plants using the plant reference data base and then export to vectorworks. This seems to work fine. I know you can also access the plant reference data base through the program, but I'm not sure if this adjusts the plant reference data base for all files, or just the file you are working on. Refer to my topic 'plant list sorting', last post 06 09 2005 where I have tried to make a plant list that categorizes all plants in one list. This seems works as long as there are not too many categories in one list.

With the latest vectorworks, all groups are exported to autocad by 'naming or numbering' the groups. This causes problems when multiple vectorworks files are inserted in autocad drawings - having numerous blocks with the same name, but actually are different blocks. Katie mentioned that the exporting of groups have changed because autocad cannot edit anonymous blocks. Is there any way to have an option when exporting so that we can either name the groups or not name them depending on the circumstances? In a lot of instances, we don't want to xref every small file, especially when the client wants just one autocad file to contend with. Also, many of our details, etc. that we have been using for years have lots of groups within the file, which we find are easy to work with. Finding them would be time consuming, even if using a script. Adding this feature in the export would be greatly appreciated - right now we feel that we are going backwards when working back and forth with autocad.

Artemis How did you develope the plant list? I have gotten that problem before that the tree is listed as a Zinnia (it seems the plant data base likes zinnias). This happens when I edit a plant through the 'Edit Plant Catalogue' instead of the plant reference. I have to edit the plant again to get it right. It is best to edit the reference data itself then use it in your drawings. Hope this helps.

My drawing is fine. I guess I was asleep last week. The layers were turned to 'gray others'. Thanks.

Yes, everything looks fine in the original file. If I go to one of the referenced layers in the new file, it is not greyed. The layer visibilty is set to visible and the classes set to visible in both the referenced file and the new file. I can't work on the file with the referenced layers greyed. I was planning on working this way with the autocad files instead of importing all autocad files from one folder into one file. When importing this way, it seems that some of the files imported using the wrong units, but importing them separately works fine.