Plant symbols nonsense - or not?

[jeremyb]

I know that there have been other posts around this subject but I haven't been able to glean any definite answer from them, so... When I use Place Plant Tool I pick a suitable plant symbol, edit plant definition with details of the particular plant I wish to place on my plan, than place it. All fine. But if I then want to use that same symbol for another plant of similar size/type etc, as I do, then if I choose that same symbol and edit the plant definition with new plant details then this changes all other occasions that this symbol occurs on the plan and gives then the the new plant details. What is the point of that! This means that I have to use and rename a symbol for each plant species on my plan which might be up to 200 odd plants and so 200 symbols! I cannot see the sense of this. Certainly when I have created my own plant symbols and linked text to record formats then I can use same symbol for any number of plant species. Am I missing something here - please someone tell me I am?!

[Ray Libby]

That is the definition of a symbol. Change one instance and all others change of that symbol. Wouldn't you want a library of all your plants? Organize them into folders in the recourse browser and it will be manageable.

[Mikael]

I use the duplicate command on place plant tool and give the new plant its definitions. I save the new edited plants to a certain file, that I have added to favourite files in resource browser.

I mostly use the same plants so it's easy to pick them up... I only use about 10 different symbols for plants.

[IanH]

I have requested a hierarchical plant structure with NNA which may help you.

It becomes unmanageable having a different plant symbol for every different species.

The irony is that the plant symbol is converted to a group on placement. It would, IMHO, be far more elegant if, as in real life, plants were based on parent properties. So if you had a mix of plants of same genus but different species, cultivar etc , then, depending on how you organised the hierarchy the placed plants would use the same parent symbol and properties but the placed plant would only differ in name or some other property such as container size.

Until then, if you use the Vectorworks plant tool, you are going to have one symbol for every species/container size that you have to create.

[jeremyb]

Thanks for the responses. I see the point about the definition of symbols. So I suppose I should/will have to have a library of all the plants that I use, available in Resource Browser. But, and apologies in advance if this is a dumb question but I am very new to VW, how do I set up this in RB?

Edited October 4, 2008 by jeremyb

[jeremyb]

Further to the above - ok I have used some limited initiative and have created a new Symbol folder in current file called Plnts JB, and even created a sub folder called Shrubs JB, then I moved my newly created plant symbols into the new folders. Then saved the file. Trouble is when I open a new file I cannot find these new Symbol Folders?? I suspect that this is very simple, but then so am I.

[IanH]

The symbols stay with the file that they are created in rather than a global area available to all. To make the symbols available to all future projects, you can either add them to your default template where they will be automatically included when you create a new file, or, probably better, put them in a plant symbol file on their own. You can get easy access to this file by including it as a favourite.

You may want to check out the locations of the user folders area - check under the tools menu for options/vectorworks preferences/user folder. If you click on the explore button, you will get a list of folders. Any file that you store (best saved as a template) under libraries/favourites will appear as a favourite in the resource browser next time you open VW. Alternatively, you can add favorites via the resource browser - the triangle next to files at the top.

Hope this helps