Replacing Circles with Scaled Symbol

[fsmlandscape]

Hi everyone,

 

I've been trying to figure out a workflow to convert a load of differently sized circles to a symbol/symbols, for this purpose trees, each with the radii of the circle it was generated from. If there are any workarounds known here that would be brilliant. 

 

Thanks!

[Pat Stanford]

There are several scripts floating around for replacing objects with other objects. 

 

I think the bigger question in your case is how to know what size to scale the symbols to based on the size of the circle. A sample file is probably appropriate showing what you want to happen and how the script should know what circles to replace with what symbols.

[Sam Jones]

The script might try dividing the bounding boxes of the circles by the bounding boxes of the symbols?  Maybe subtract an arbitrary number to be sure the result is small enough?  Maybe not.

 

 

[fsmlandscape]

16 hours ago, Pat Stanford said:

There are several scripts floating around for replacing objects with other objects. 

 

I think the bigger question in your case is how to know what size to scale the symbols to based on the size of the circle. A sample file is probably appropriate showing what you want to happen and how the script should know what circles to replace with what symbols.

That does sound like what I'm trying to achieve. Attached is a file with the circles I'm trying to convert. I have created them from the national tree survey data, which is below the circles.

 

I'm sure there are various scripts around, I'm just completely inept at writing them. If anyone could point me in the direction of one they know of that would be great, as I have been scouring the forums and can't find anything so far.

 

In an ideal world, those circles would be replaced with tree symbols that match the approximate size of each circle.

 

Thanks everyone!

Circle to Scaled Symbol Test File.vwx

[Sam Jones]

There are no symbols to use too replace the circles in the file you sent.

 

[fsmlandscape]

21 minutes ago, Sam Jones said:

There are no symbols to use too replace the circles in the file you sent.

 

Apologies! I've included one of the BIM tree symbols in the below file, and a 1m red circle saved as a symbol. I thought the 1m circle would be easier to use scale-wise. Any symbol would do really as long as they are all proportionately scaled, but trees would be ideal as this is for an illustrative shadow study.

Circle to Scaled Symbol Test File.vwx

[Sam Jones]

What you provided was a "Plant" plug-in object (PIO), not a symbol.  I do not have Landmark.  I have the Design Suite.  The instance you have in the drawing has all its Spread and Height parameters set by class.  So we're not placing a symbol, but a PIO.  Different kettle of fish; not rocket science, but more involved.  It would seem one would need to place an instance of a Plant PIO with the VS function "CreateCustomObject", get its bounding box and the bounding box of the circle, and determine the scale ratio; then scale the "Spread" and "Height" parameters by the scale ratio.  I don't have time to play with this, but maybe @Pat Stanford would like a diversion.  Seems like it would be a useful script for Landscape users.

 

[Jeff Prince]

On 2/12/2024 at 7:09 AM, fsmlandscape said:

Hi everyone,

 

I've been trying to figure out a workflow to convert a load of differently sized circles to a symbol/symbols, for this purpose trees, each with the radii of the circle it was generated from. If there are any workarounds known here that would be brilliant. 

 

Thanks!

 

You can achieve this easily and quickly without any custom scripts

Use a Worksheet + Landmark's Existing Tree workflow.

 

1. Create a worksheet which queries the circles you are interested in for the following: "x center", "y center", and "Width"

2. Export that worksheet to Excel format

3. Clean up the worksheet by deleting the title and summary rows at the top, save in Excel format.

4. Use the Import Tree Survey Tool to create the trees from your excel file.

               The x and y centers will be used to position the existing tree symbol

                "width" is used for the minimum canopy.

5. Wait a few seconds for Vectoroworks to chew on it.

 

The results...  You have actual Existing Tree objects instead of circles or Plant Objects.

They are individually numbered, can be used for reports, and can be displayed in 3D, much better than a plant object or circle 🙂

 

If you want to get super tricky and do not have tree height data, you could fake it...

Make a worksheet column for height and populate it with a formula that derives height as a calculated value from the width you have.  This will vary the height in a somewhat realistic way and can quickly develop an interesting 3D look.

 

If you have a site model, you can grab the Existing Trees and use "send to surface" to get them to follow the terrain because they don't do this automatically compared to a Plant Object.

 

 

 

 

 

[fsmlandscape]

@Jeff Prince You are a hero. Wish I had known about this workflow years ago! Many thanks!

[Piotr Karczewski]

On 2/15/2024 at 5:30 PM, Jeff Prince said:

 

You can achieve this easily and quickly without any custom scripts

Use a Worksheet + Landmark's Existing Tree workflow.

 

1. Create a worksheet which queries the circles you are interested in for the following: "x center", "y center", and "Width"

2. Export that worksheet to Excel format

3. Clean up the worksheet by deleting the title and summary rows at the top, save in Excel format.

4. Use the Import Tree Survey Tool to create the trees from your excel file.

               The x and y centers will be used to position the existing tree symbol

                "width" is used for the minimum canopy.

5. Wait a few seconds for Vectoroworks to chew on it.

 

The results...  You have actual Existing Tree objects instead of circles or Plant Objects.

They are individually numbered, can be used for reports, and can be displayed in 3D, much better than a plant object or circle 🙂

 

If you want to get super tricky and do not have tree height data, you could fake it...

Make a worksheet column for height and populate it with a formula that derives height as a calculated value from the width you have.  This will vary the height in a somewhat realistic way and can quickly develop an interesting 3D look.

 

If you have a site model, you can grab the Existing Trees and use "send to surface" to get them to follow the terrain because they don't do this automatically compared to a Plant Object.

 

I'm not using Existing tree very often, but I'm impressed with Your method. 👊

[Jeff Prince]

On 2/18/2024 at 4:40 AM, fsmlandscape said:

@Jeff Prince You are a hero. Wish I had known about this workflow years ago! Many thanks!

 

2 hours ago, Piotr Karczewski said:

I'm not using Existing tree very often, but I'm impressed with Your method. 👊

Glad you both found it to be helpful.