Editing plant 2D graphics

[Richard T]

Why is it so hard to edit the 2d graphics of defined plants? Say for example a tree is defined with a spread of 4000mm. The tree was created from a symbol that had a diameter of 1000mm. When I go to edit the 2d graphics of the plant and select all the objects, they are at the size of the original symbol, even though it looks like I should be editing the full size plant. In this example, the objects for editing are 1/4 the size of what I expect.

Thus, if there is any fill/gradients, any editing becomes very painful, hit and miss, almost impossible, because you can't see what you're doing with any accuracy.

Conversely, if the original symbol is larger than the created plant, editing the plant you have graphics that are larger than what the display shows, and they're "invisible" so editing is extremely difficult.

Is this what everybody else is seeing? Or is it something odd going on with my system?

[Jonathan Pickup]

you can, if you want, make the plants exactly the right size. I don't bother. I use the plant editing area to design the graphic without worrying about the actual size

[Richard T]

I know you can do that - but we use the same base graphic for different plants of different sizes. I just can't understand how we're expected to be able to work with something where the graphical representation on the screen is completely different in size to the actual objects on screen as demonstrated by selecting them.

[Outlander]

Richard,

I'm having the exact same problem. I have to click blindly at areas on my screen hoping to hit the part of my symbol that I'm trying to edit. Hopefully they fix this real soon! Also, do you find the plant database has actually become worse? I used to use it all the time but now it takes so long to load the list and if they don't have the plant cultivar I'm looking for there's no duplicate and edit option so I just end up typing in the name on the original menu. Seems like they went a little backward with that one.

[Tamsin Slatter]

There is no reason why you shouldn't use the same base symbol for many plants. As follows:

1) Drag your chosen symbol onto the drawing.

2) Select and go to the Landmark menu.

3) Choose Create New Plant

4) Complete the details you need to complete including spread (this will resize your chosen symbol)

5) You can, if you wish, add plant data from one of your plant lists. Click OK to accept your changes.

6) Now for the next plant on the list, choose Place Plant.

7) The plant you just created should be visible in the drop down menu. Click on the Settings button and again ensure that your recently created plant is visible in the box.

8) Click on Duplicate.

9) Complete the 2nd plant details as required (attaching plant data if you wish as before). The change in Spread will resize the symbol.

So - no need to use the symbol editor.

Now - the database.

Yes - it's frustrating to have to load the entire list. The secret is to open the Filemaker Pro database and create lots of smaller lists based on your preferences. You can there edit plants and create duplicates of existing records. Any changes you make to the database will require you to update your VW plant lists (do this from the file menu on the database).

One thing to avoid is having a long plant list with a name that will be first alphabetically - choosing Get Plant Data is a bit of a pain as VW helpfully loads the first plant list it finds and if that has 5000 records in it, tough. I created a list called AAA with 1 plant in it. That gets round that problem. I have other lists with shortlists of my favourite perennials, small shrubs, larger shrubs etc.

What would be really nice though would be if VW could actually talk to the Filemaker Pro database. None of these intermediate lists would be necessary.

Hope some of this helps and that I haven't missed the point.

Cheers

[Richard T]

Tamsin, thanks for tips on database - I agree that it would be far superior for the FM database to be tightly integrated with VW. As for the rest, yes you missed the point - we're talking about editing the graphics of a plant once it's been created - it's horrendously difficult.

[Tamsin Slatter]

Why do you need to edit the graphics after the plant has been created? Surely you can just edit the spread via the Place Plant tool Settings button.

Sorry to have missed the point!

[Steve Z]

Tamsin,

We are updating our plants with additional classes so we have had to go into each plants' graphics to place parts of the plant into separate classes. We have used the Plant Objects.vwx file which ships with 2008 as a model.

When creating new plants we usually duplicate an existing one then edit the graphic to make it unique.

Many times plants are created in our office without the correct line weight or sometimes the line weight needs to be adjusted if you are working at 30 scale instead of 1/8 so we edit the graphic for these adjustments as well.

I do agree that once your plants are setup, if done correctly and how you want it from the start, then there is not as much need to edit them. For beginners or users who do not already have plant symbols there is a lot of trial and error editing of the 2d graphic before the final product is achieved.

[Tamsin Slatter]

Ah - I was missing the bit that each plant had to have a unique graphic.