Tony Kostreski

Hey @kelly2026 There are a few new modes that will support your site modeling workflows: Hardscape Drape Mode (hardscapes that drape onto the surface of a site model) and Site Modifier Pathway Configuration. I would encourage you to take a look at the following videos.

Hey @cberg — You've hit on the right strategy with placing 3D loci (or stake objects) at strategic survey points — corners of buildings, tops of walls, ridges, high and low points, and other critical reference points. This is the most reliable approach. The key principle: more source points almost always produces a more accurate site model. There's rarely a scenario where you'll over-sample your data. Now, obviously you wouldn't want all points in a point cloud to be used as your source data. Watch this video I recorded a few years ago to see if any of it helps (fast-forward to 29:30 to begin). Beyond 3D loci, consider also using 3D polygons traced directly on the point cloud by snapping to key features in 3D space. These polygons can work in combination with your 3D loci points to feed into the terrain modeling process. This is also useful to mark a ridge line or swale. This hybrid approach of both survey points and traced feature lines often produces the cleanest results.

@FranAJA there is an option under Quick Preferences to turn off "Display Viewport Out-of-date Borders". This also turns off the red stripe for site models and hardscape objects. Hope that helps!

@DSmith2300 Within the landscape area settings you can input 'minimum number of plants' for each species. Would you mind trying this out and letting us know if that solves your request or if you are needing something different? Just note that if you have multiple landscape areas using the same style you might want to make this parameter 'by instance' instead of 'by style' so that you can input a different minimum for each.

Thanks for reporting this @ericjhberg. I am seeing the same issue with Vectorworks 2025 Update 5—Can you confirm this is the same version you are using? For internal—I've reported it VB-213789.

Hi @Sid2Neme I imported your file to investigate...Not sure what causes this exactly but sometimes contours will import into Vectorworks as polygons or polylines on a 3D plane instead of importing as 3D polygons. Luckily, the "z" information is still intact. Try following these steps: Use Select Similar tool with class and object type "checked" in the tool preferences. Select the minor and major contours. Modify>Convert to 3D polys Create Site Model Optional: Copy the boundary and use that as your crop within the Site Model Rey Land Site Model.vwx

Hey @Zachary Hubbard I think that's a great request! In the meantime would this marionette help?

Hi @Penelope1, Landscape areas only have the functionality of essentially "draping" onto a site model. I recommend placing a site modifier using planar pad configuration and setting that to the desired elevation. The Landscape Area can then drape to that once everything is updated.

Hi@Cristiano Alves—I did a test with your same process. One thing that might be different is starting in 2024 Update 2 you are required to log in to ArcGIS Online if you want to make use of satellite imagery otherwise the default is OpenStreetMap which is much lower quality and therefore not load if you are zoomed in to the project site. It's free to create an account with ArcGIS online to make use of their Basemaps and public feature layers. You can do that here https://www.arcgis.com/index.html The image will show an error if you are attempting to show the image at too high of a resolution so I would recommend starting with 1024 resolution. Hope this helps!

Hey @Bryce Gauthier I would agree with others that typically the workflow regarding grading would happen with Civil Engineers as they would provide a true TINN surface but this had me intrigued so I dove in. Site Models don't handle vertical sides or bridges well as source data. Here is one approach you could take: Remove Vertical Edges so you just have the true surface Convert to 3D polygons or even 3D loci Create Site Model Extract Faces of flat areas (some work here to remove the "bridges") Convert to Site Modifers with Retaining Edge. If you send to surface you can align edges with the existing site model Result The site model inside Vectorworks is a 2.5D object, not a 3D object therefore you cannot have bridges. Toposoloid import-tkostreski.vwx

Hey @Poot, It looks like you're on the right track with Landscape Area Name. Just add another 'Summarize Items' to the Botanical Name and you should be good. For values that need to be summed (usually Quantity), you'll also want to add a 'Sum Values'

@hollister design StudioA file would help nail down what's going on here but I noticed your attributes are set to "By Instance" which allows you to give different attributes to each hardscape object while using the same style. If you want the attributes to be the same, I would recommend changing this parameter to "By Style". You would set this parameter to "By Instance" if you want a different graphic/fill for how it appears in top/plan but want everything else to follow the 'by style' settings. I hope this helps!

@SthavyaK out of curiosity, is the Vectorworks file with trees saved in a rotated plan view? I've seen an issue on this with referenced files and I reported on it. If so, I would recommend saving the file with the Rotated Plan view set back to 0º.

Hi @Michal Zarzecki, I might recommend: Create a symbol of the house (mesh) if it's not already one Place a 3D locus point at a known elevation like FFE Use the Move 3D command and move all geometry so the locus point is at z=0 Exit the symbol and then you can set the z-value of the symbol to where you want knowing that it now represents FFE