I am a landscape architect, and as such use the Plant Tool a lot. The way the plant symbol (2D, Plan View) control is set up now, I feel, is incredibly troublesome to use so much so I have considered not using VW. Because the plant symbol cannot be resized in the OIP, and because the plant information is directly associated with the plant symbol, a designer needs to have a separate and unique symbol for every single plant they could ever use at every possible size!! One quickly realizes this means having hundreds if not thousands of separate and unique symbols. Impossible.
What would much better, I feel, is this. When we used to hand-draft, we only used a limited set of symbols on our plans: a few each for deciduous shrubs and trees, coniferous shrubs and trees, herbaceous plants, ground covers, and a few specialty symbols. The total number required might be around 20 unique symbols. Beyond that, one cannot distinguish between them on a plan anyway.
So what is required is a basic set of around 20 symbols, which could differ for each designer.
A database of plant information would be built separately from the plant symbols.
When a designer uses the Plant Tool, they would locate a given symbol on the plan. Then through the OIP, they could set the size of the plant in question. One would not need, for instance, to have a separate symbol for an 2", 4" and 6" caliper Japanese maple.
Also through the OIP (or by double-clicking the plant symbol and bringing up a text box), the designer could either manually enter information about the plant (type in: Acer plamatum 'Bloodgood') or, by entering a alpha-numeric code, they could link the text box to the plant database and automatically infill that information.
In summary, my suggestion for a new Plant Tool is one that has these two features:
1) The size of the plant symbol can be modified through the OIP.
2) The plant information database would be separate from the plant symbol and linked through information entered in the Tag Text box.
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mpkeane
I am a landscape architect, and as such use the Plant Tool a lot. The way the plant symbol (2D, Plan View) control is set up now, I feel, is incredibly troublesome to use so much so I have considered not using VW. Because the plant symbol cannot be resized in the OIP, and because the plant information is directly associated with the plant symbol, a designer needs to have a separate and unique symbol for every single plant they could ever use at every possible size!! One quickly realizes this means having hundreds if not thousands of separate and unique symbols. Impossible.
What would much better, I feel, is this. When we used to hand-draft, we only used a limited set of symbols on our plans: a few each for deciduous shrubs and trees, coniferous shrubs and trees, herbaceous plants, ground covers, and a few specialty symbols. The total number required might be around 20 unique symbols. Beyond that, one cannot distinguish between them on a plan anyway.
So what is required is a basic set of around 20 symbols, which could differ for each designer.
A database of plant information would be built separately from the plant symbols.
When a designer uses the Plant Tool, they would locate a given symbol on the plan. Then through the OIP, they could set the size of the plant in question. One would not need, for instance, to have a separate symbol for an 2", 4" and 6" caliper Japanese maple.
Also through the OIP (or by double-clicking the plant symbol and bringing up a text box), the designer could either manually enter information about the plant (type in: Acer plamatum 'Bloodgood') or, by entering a alpha-numeric code, they could link the text box to the plant database and automatically infill that information.
In summary, my suggestion for a new Plant Tool is one that has these two features:
1) The size of the plant symbol can be modified through the OIP.
2) The plant information database would be separate from the plant symbol and linked through information entered in the Tag Text box.
Does anyone else agree with these suggestions?
Marc
Edited by mpkeaneLink to comment
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