Tamsin Slatter

Hi I'm thinking obvious things first... check that you don't have classes set to invisible? Check in the Navigation palette... All the best

Hi Alexa You could probably retrieve your drawing by creating a new file and then creating a new layer. Instead of naming your new layer, import it from the old file checking the box to import layer objects at the same time. This should resolve it. Without seeing your file it's hard to diagnose how complex it is. But looking at your machine spec, it looks like it might struggle with using Renderworks.

Just install as usual - then VW will be able to see the font. You can set the default using the Text menu in VW.

If you 2009 or later, you can use the reshape handles on the plant tags to change the orientation of the text. Unfortunately, with 2008 you cannot do this. A workaround, if you are in Rotate Plan view, is to select your plants and change the angle in the rotation field in the Object Info palette to 0. This will cause your plant tags to move, but they will be aligned to the horizontal. All the best

Go for it Garden Girl! (Hi R!) T

Hi Maria Have you set an elevation on your texture bed? You should not need to set any elevation as it will sit directly in the surface of the model. Make sure you put the texture you want into a class and then directly assign that class to the texture bed.

I agree it's not pretty! But it is consistent across (most) of the application. So something that uses Style-1 in one object can be given the same texture in another object by applying Style-1 again and so on. There are also Style-Glazing classes which you can use in doors.

When you render, you should still get a sketchy outline round the individual plants... I will check, but I think it should still work. Thanks for the comments on the book! I am really glad you have found it useful. T

Within the hidden line render, you can set a smoothing angle which will help remove some of the lines.

It's a problem! I will look into it further. I had imagined that the Replace Plant button on the OIP would allow you to replace the instance with the same plant which would adopt the new definition. But it doesn't change the attributes. I will delve further.

Hi Mike This is because the plant data attached to the plant has nothing in the category field - or it says something that the worksheet is not setup to query.

The site model is now a single object which can display the existing terrain or the proposed terrain. The Site Modifier tools are used to propose changes. Update the model to reflect the changes (using the OIP) and then click Update Cut and Fill Calculations at the bottom of the OIP.

To have massed plants with a sketchy outline AND colour, do the following: Leave the Mass Overlapping Plants box UNCHECKED in your plant definition dialogue. Set a sketchy outline or two in the number of outlines. Set the plant to Use Rendering at Creation or not (your choice - I usually leave it switched off and render later using View>Show>Show or Hide Plant Styles as it saves my drawing re-rendering everytime I place a plant). Now, place your plants. Switch the following classes to invisible: Plants-Components-Outline Render the plants as above. You should now see a sketchy outline around the entire group, but not around each individual plant. You can also turn off colour using the classes with this method. It does depend on you using the symbols in the Plant Objects resource file as these are setup to work like this. If creating your own plant symbols they will need to adhere to these classing standards for this to work. Hope that helps!

Hi Chris The application of styles is only half the job I'm afraid. This creates classes with the names Style-1 thru Style-15. You now need to edit the classes to add appropriate 2D graphic styles and textures. Hope that helps!

Fantastic new features for garden designers and landscapers coming in 2010... New content libraries (always nice) Plants have default 3D views already embedded into them. Grade calculator for reporting on current grade, setting elevations for a proposed regrade, great for drainage etc. etc. Lovely new hardscape tool. DTM changes just to get you started...

You can do this easily using the Wall tool and then editing with the Fillet Edge tool from the 3D palette. It will no longer be a "wall" but a generic solid.

If you have access to Photoshop or similar its actually not too difficult to create image props from your own photographs. You need to be able to produce an image which has a transparent background or the background stored in the alpha channel. Once you've done that you can bring it into VW using the Model/Create Image Prop command. The can be useful for creating massed planted areas too without having to place individual plants.

The plant data which will ship with 2010 will have all plant data in the correct category making it much easier to create plant lists which list by category!

When setting up your master symbols, you can use the eyedropper tool to transfer the attributes of one to the other which should speed things up a little.

Site models in 2010 will be a lot easier to work with too. The same site modification tools but the model itself has changed and has some nice new usability features such as the ability to extend the model beyond its previous boundaries, add site modifiers without a fence (WITHOUT VW shouting at you).

Hi Mike Why not try the Landscape Area tool - this has different edge styles and can later have plant definitions inserted into them. Some cool stuff coming with Vectorworks 2010 soon on Landscape Areas too! Come to our event...

These are available within the XFrog libraries - but the files are called Artistic instead of Photorealistic! It's also quite easy to create your own if you have Photoshop and are able to create an image with a transparent background. These can then be made into image props using Model/Create Image Prop.]

Is this 2D plant rendering or 3D plant rendering that we are talking about?

They are shipped with Landmark and Renderworks - they are in the Install directory (program files/vectorworks2008/Libraries/Plants Hope that helps!

There are some shrubby x-frogs... unfortunately they are all mixed in with the trees so it's hard to find them. e.g. euonymus, salix, ligustrum, phillostachys. They need splitting out, but a bit of searching will find some that you can use. Also, if you are drawing a very formal hedge, you could consider modelling the hedge as a 3D object and then applying one of textures (from the X-frog libraries) to the object. You have to mess around with the scaling on the render, but you can get some good results with this...