Plant Catalog and Plant Database CHANGES!! in 2019 - boo!!!!!

[jberlin]

Until 2019, Plant Catalog updates were also automatically sent to the Plant Database for updates.  Now they are two separate features, and now you must either choose the catalog or the database, and only the feature you chose can be automatically updated.  In other words: This is how I use to add a new variety.

Open a Plant Definition (now called Style), click on Get Plant Data, choose All Plant Data, in the left field with the long list of plant names - start typing the plant - and a list of plant names begins to show up, choose the plant with the closest name you are looking for and that information migrates to your Plant Definition / Style. Now change the name of the old variety to the name of the new variety, click OK. If the automatic update was checked, the PLANT DATABASE app would open and the database would update that plant. You might even get a message saying "waiting on plant database......Do you want to insert a new record for it".    This was brilliant because both the data set and the database would be essentially synchronized.     Now they are separate. You can export the whole data set to the database, but not just the one new style to the database.  Oh and the feature of having photos in the dataset sucks, since none of the photos in your database are in this 2019 plant data set / plant catalog. 

 

If the developers at Vectorworks, or if anyone has a workaround, please let me know.  Otherwise, Vectorworks PLEASE allow synchronization between the plant data set / plant catalog, and the plant database

[Jeff Prince]

This is frustrating. I've been playing with the new Plant Catalogs feature and discovered than none of the new plants I added in this way exists in my custom database using the filemaker pro method.  Fortunately, I caught this before getting too deep into data entry.

 

This is a problem for a multitude of reasons, I use the plant database, not Plant Catalogs, to organized my plant information for workflows inside AND outside Vectorworks.

Here are things I can do with my customized Filemaker Pro plant database that can't be done with Plant Catalogs:

 

1. put it on my ipad and collect data in the field.  Take pictures directly into the database, add notes, etc

2. drag and drop plant images from the database into other programs like photoshop, email, word processing, etc

3. print plant sheets for my clients, specifications, and reports

4. customized plant sheets to suit my needs graphically and information wise

5. import/export records with other databases

 

The data we put into a Plant Catalog seems to exist solely for the use of Vectorworks.  The integrated plant database with filemaker customization was a deciding factor on moving to vectorworks for me.  A large part of my work and sanity is reliant on keeping my plant information and resources well organized.  These new Plant Catalogs do not tick all the boxes and I am very worried if Vectorworks drops the filemaker side of this, I'll be back to square one maintaining plant information in a disconnected database or even files and folders.