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Default Plant Tag Placement?


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Switching to VW 2020 from 2018 suddenly my default plant tag placement has changed and for the life of me I can't figure out how to reset it. When I place plants on a design as I am working up a concept for clients I want no plant tags. I add them in later when I am finalizing my plan by dragging over the plan and choosing which plants I want to have left or right labels. While working up a concept the labels are clutter that gets in my way. Since 2012 when I first started with Vectorworks I was able to set a default and now I have no idea how to get that back. It isn't just the left or right settings that have changed. A bubble has been added around plant quantities which I do not want and the label has switched to Latin Name when I want it to be plant ID. 

 

I assumed it would be in advanced plant placement but when I change the default tag info there it also resets all plants on the plan to have the exact same size and other settings of whatever plant is in the top/plan preview. What am I missing? What am I doing wrong? This shouldn't be so difficult and counterintuitive. Every time I upgrade I regret it because I have to relearn things and can't find an easy solution to fix what gets broken.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

The Plant Tag settings are determined by the settings within the document - not saved with the plant itself.

In your 2020 file, click the Plant tool and then click Plant Tool Preferences on the Tool bar. Here, you can set the defaults you want for the tag.

Now insert the plants.

 

Better still save a template which has the settings you want. Templates store resources, page setup, units, but also store your favourite tool preferences.

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  • 11 months later...
On 2/8/2020 at 11:28 AM, Tamsin Slatter said:

The Plant Tag settings are determined by the settings within the document - not saved with the plant itself.

In your 2020 file, click the Plant tool and then click Plant Tool Preferences on the Tool bar. Here, you can set the defaults you want for the tag.

Now insert the plants.

I've been trying to set my own plant database lately and now I'm at the point of trying to set these settings so, that my tags would be automatically set the right way I'd want them to be. And the process seems very frustrating. Few questions, if you'd manage to answer them:

 

First of all, can I somehow change the size of the tag/font? This is very frustrating as at the moment I'm working on a document set so, that the tags are way too big for the visualization. Only way I found out how to do this, was by creating a new class for the tag and selected "use at creation" and then selected text style from a very narrow list of options. The smallest font was 10pt and that is still way too big.

Secondly, I'd like the tag not to have any fill, only the letters. Then I thought, that with the class style I'd be able to do this as well! Well, I changed the class style as wanted and for a moment it worked out on an individual plant. Later on, I added another of the same plant and it still had a fill. I double-checked to see, that the tag is still assigned to it's class, which I already edited for my purposes. Checked also the class-style and "use at creation" is on and also so, that there should be no fill. Extremely frustrating!

Any ideas? Thanks for any help!

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Firstly, you can create your own text style - you are not limited to the examples that exist within the software.

Click on the Text menu and then Format Text. Here, you can set whatever you like for the text, and save your own style. The text style can then be referenced through the class you use for the Plant Tags.

To remove the background, locate the Text Style you created on the Resource Manager. Right click and edit it. Remove the background. 

 

Remember that the use of the tag class and the tag positioning are set by the Plant Tool Preferences in force at the time you insert plants from you library. These settings are not stored within the Plant Style. So, set up the preferences in the tool and then save them into a Vectorworks template to ensure it's how you want every time. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/21/2021 at 12:05 PM, Tamsin Slatter said:

Firstly, you can create your own text style - you are not limited to the examples that exist within the software.

Click on the Text menu and then Format Text. Here, you can set whatever you like for the text, and save your own style. The text style can then be referenced through the class you use for the Plant Tags.

To remove the background, locate the Text Style you created on the Resource Manager. Right click and edit it. Remove the background. 

 

Remember that the use of the tag class and the tag positioning are set by the Plant Tool Preferences in force at the time you insert plants from you library. These settings are not stored within the Plant Style. So, set up the preferences in the tool and then save them into a Vectorworks template to ensure it's how you want every time. 

Hello once again, since I'm again faced with a similar problem. This time with Landscape-areas. I managed to do the correct settings through single-plant placement, so the tag is always the same way. I tried, if this worked for a landscape area, that I created and it did not.

 

Now I have played countless times with this problems solutions through different classes and settings of these classes and saved landscape areas but nothing seems to work.

 

So my problem exactly: when I insert a single plant, my plant tag is correctly inserted, as the way I wanted it to be. When I insert a landscape area, which I have already defined and saved with correct class attributes, the font size is wrong, as a way "default" and I have to correct this every time. 

 

I just can't find the way to make this work after one hour of shuffling through the same procedures and setting changes of classes and everything. Any ideas?

 

Thanks again for any help!

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

I've just tested this and had no problem getting it to work. 

First step is to create the text style (Text > Format Text menu).

Then, edit the class you wish to use for the tags (I used Plants-Component-Tags), and assign the text style to the class.

 

Then, in either Landscape Area Tool Preference, or Plant Tool Preferences, choose the Tag style you want, and ensure that the tags will be placed in the class you edited above.

The text style is used for both sets of tags.

I've attached a small example, so you can examine the settings of both my plant and my landscape area.

Plant Tag Text Example.vwx

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I followed your instructions (one way which I had already tried) and managed to get out the wanted solution. BUT now I notice that the difference was that I was trying to save that Landscape Area with these settings to my Favorites and THEN when I tried to create a landscape area from that "template" it has the default of the tag as "none", even though I saved it with different settings. Well after the insertion I don't have to do anything else than go and check the settings for the tag to appear and it works with that one and the next ones which I create from that template. Still needs that tweak though.

Thank you once again Tamsin and have a great day!

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

The tag settings are determined by what is active in the Tool Preferences at the time you insert the plants or landscape area. Tool Preferences can be saved within the file template, so that they are always how you want them. 

Start a new file with your fave template, set the Tool Preferences how you want them, with class and pointer to Text Style. 
Then, File > Save as Template. Then, each you file you create from that template will behave as you desire!

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