First Draft

My attempts to permanently associate plant database information with my custom plant symbols fail, then invariably cause VW to crash. Is it possible to set up my 2D plant symbol library so my custom symbols with their associated database information are available through the Place Plant Tool in all documents? How do other landscapers manage their plant libraries? Help appreciated, as always.

Low-tech works for me. This is a good solution which will meet my needs perfectly. Thanks so much. I would like to learn how to use workgroup referencing effectively, but I haven't mastered the process yet. Is it synonymous with AutoCAD xrefs?

I'm sure this is old hat to you experienced users: I have a rather large file of a subdivision with grading contours, streets, building pads, utilities, etc. This was a .dwg file which I imported into VW (12.5.1) then used to design common space landscaping. All is well with this part of the project. Next, I received separate .dwg files of each of four different condo designs, which I imported into VW and used as the bases for the individual unit landscape designs for the builder's models. So far so good. Now, I need to show these model footprints with their associated landscapes on their appropriate building pads in the master plan (which is already a very large file, incidentally). Since I will ultimately, over time, be drawing the landscape designs for each of some 80 duplex condominiums, I cannot realistically plan to keep adding individual landscape plans to this master plan file. Is there a way to "excise" only the section of the master plan that I need for each condo? Whew. Thanks for reading, and thanks even more for your advice. I hope I've explained my problem clearly enough.

Sorry if this post is redundant. It must have been addressed elsewhere, but I couldn't find just what I was looking for. Is there a way to permanently associate a plant definition with a particular plant symbol? I'd like to be consistent in the way I use graphics in my landscape designs. E.g., a globe blue spruce should be represented with the same graphic in every plan. My goal is to create a library of plant symbols sorted by type that I can quickly grab and place using the Place Plant Tool without having to assign plant information in an extra step. I'm trying to understand symbols and the resource library but have made little headway. I'm not new to CAD, just VW.

Outstanding. Problem solved. Thank you so much, dspearman.

Thanks to both you and Jonathan for addressing my scale question. It's resolved. Regarding xrefs, originally I did import a single file but made sure the two associated XREFs were in the same folder. To compare, I tried a batch import of the folder containing the main ACAD file with the two associated XREFs, and the objects from the referenced file are still classed together. Either way, I'm unable to select any of the individual objects in the xref class to assign them to a new class in VW so I can control their visibility. Thanks again for your additional insights.

I thought I was able to import a large DWG file successfully but now realize that the scale is half of what it should be. Also, all of the layers in the cross-referenced files are grouped into a class entitled "xref", so visibility is all or nothing. How can I deal with these two problems? And at the risk of revealing my ignorance, why would one want the scale in a design layer to be anything but 1:1? Help appreciated, as always.

I find that the angle constraint doesn't control the angle of plant tag leaders as I reposition them in an effort to make my drawing more legible. I also can't see a leader as I move it, so it takes several trials to find even the approximate angles that I want. I must be missing something obvious. Help would be so appreciated.