Plant Reference Database

[Jean-Marc]

Further to previous discussions, I have encountered a number of serious problems with the plant reference database, most notably that I found the plant reference catagories and attributes inadequate for search purposes (you might recall my discussion regarding "Drought and Wet Feet".

Based on the various advice I recieved, I devised a custom solution to my problem (at least, I thought I did). My plan was to enter over 4000 new plants via the Plug-in Utility, in a one time effort, which I just completed. For the purposes of this exercise, I only entered plant names, types, and codes. THe next step in my process was going to be a revision of the selection of attributes for each plant catagory, by using the Vectorscript Plug-in Editor. Once attributes were edited, I was then going to assign all the pertinent plant data from within the plant database (rather than via the Utility, as I have no way of editing plant attributes from within the utility).

Unfortunately, my plan has come to a screeching halt without even getting to step # 2. After completing the entry of 4000 new plants, I imported the revised plant file into Vectorworks. Unfortunately, it would appear that I have just wasted many days of data entry time, unless you can help me figure out what has happened. Many of the new plant species, when viewed via the PRD, do not appear in the plant list, as they somehow ended up in the comments columns of other plants. As well, the name and data for one new plant listings (Zizia aurea aptera) keeps showing up, no matter what plant I select for editing.

I opened up the file in Excel to see if my new data somehow got misplaced in the wrong columns, but everything is where it should be.

Any suggestions on where I go from here?

[Robert Anderson]

Jean-marc, email a copy of your plant reference ASCII file to me at randerson@nemetschek.net. I'll try and diagnose the problem.