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Plant tool question from a beginner...


Kevin R

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Hey all. I'm pulling my hair out here. I've found yet another instance of selecting a command, having it not function, with no error/message as to why. After placing a plant group, then drawing a line, then reselecting the plant tool, it won't activate, it just jumps over to the 2D selection tool. I'm sure this is a great platform once I break my acad habits, but at the moment vworks is seeming quite quirky. Thanks in advance...

Kevin

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Just an added note. I know I'm new, and I'm sure that I'll see the light as I learn the ropes, but after my first project effectively froze up (see prior thread. I got past this by STARTING OVER assuming it was perhaps a corrupted file) and am now unable to access the place plant tool as I try to begin my first vectorworks planting plan.

Where is the moderator from earlier? You kind of dissapeared during my freeze up problem...

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Kevin

As an ex-autocad user, it is very frustrating learning VW / Landmark. Do not give up. I had to fight through some of the same things you are going through. It will be worth it.

It is hard to unlearn the autocad way of thinking. It takes time to reteach your brain logic.

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I agree with tvetter Kevin, stick at it it will be worth it, although I must say I too was very [Confused] when I was having to not only learn a new program but at the same time having to overcome bugs in the software, this was very frustrating.

I am the first to acknowledge that I am no expert at CAD programs but it can be disheartening when one has to combat both bugs and a long learning curve.

Still like tvetter says once you get vectorworks working properly it is a joy and definately worth the effort.

ps. Again though I must say reading some of your problems, particularly with the place plant tool ( which is the most important function for me), my upgrading to 11 is getting put back by the day [Eek!]

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Reinstall? This is my first VW project. :-/ Geforce 5200.

What about the plant tool issue I mentioned above? I just started a new project and let the other sit, everything was great until I placed my first plant group. I double clicked to end the command, the plants disappeared, and now again I can't activate the place plant tool.

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Hey Robert,

Restarting fixed it. It's happened in 3 different files today though. Is this a known bug with that command?

Also, in my earlier question about things being dramatically slowed down inexplicably, I may have found the source of that too. A hedge drawn with a plant line with a solid fill deleted from each of two designs sped things up again. Is that a known bug/ram sapper?

Thanks for your patience while I get my VW groove...

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quote:

Originally posted by Kevin R:

Thanks for the encouragement! But Viper, to play devil's advocate, you just swore the virtues of landmark and said you're unwilling to upgrade to my version in the same statement! :-)

Yes it does look as though I am encouraging you over a cliff [big Grin] but my journey with VW10 shows that after a couple of updates the program settles down so I expect the same will happen with 11.

This is little help to you at present ( as was the same for me in the early days of 10) though I admit, thankfully through Robert, Katie and others we can get some feedback on the problems we are having, without this help board I can say for definate that I would have jumped off VW on more than one occassion.

Something I think should be instigated is a sticky topic in each forum that lists all the bugs as they are found so that people don't have to go through the agony each time of having problems, wasting hours trying to fix it only to later find out it was an already indentified bug.

The topic should also list any work arounds available at the same time and a time frame for when the bug is likely to be fixed.

This would help enormously.

For example the plant width setting bug you have just stumbled across should not have to be found over and over by others, if we had a sticky topic of "known bugs" then when we encountered problems we can first look there and save everyone a lot of angst.

Is this possible please Robert ?

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Cheers, Viper. Once setting spread, you should only have to specify a CUSTOM spread whenever placing that plant.

Also, more of a interface comment here, but maybe there's a way to change it. Can I see full plant names in the catalog? I've got 50+ species in the design I'm in, and the assigned codes are Greek to me. I'm having to go into the edit box to read what's what.

Thanks to Katie, Robert, Viper for getting me up and running yesterday.

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Kevin

When you are in the Define Plant dialogue box as you setup your plant catlogue, you can change the code to something that makes sense to you. You still need to go through all the symbols to select the plant you want, instead of being able to scroll a list of plants through a dialogue box "read - this is a dig, Robert".

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quote:

Originally posted by tvetter:

Kevin

When you are in the Define Plant dialogue box as you setup your plant catlogue, you can change the code to something that makes sense to you. You still need to go through all the symbols to select the plant you want, instead of being able to scroll a list of plants through a dialogue box "read - this is a dig, Robert".

I also agree that a drop down of botanical names would be a much easier option than the present codes, when you have hundreds of plants it is impossible to remember which is what.

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I have go through all of KevinR's dramas with the plant placement tool and more. I am a new user but have been a power user of GIS and graphic software for years. The issues that I have had with the plant placement tool are:

- multiplant placement tool locks up when esc is pressed (don't use escape - use delete);

- symbols in the plant catalogue disappear;

- plant symbols include elements that belong to more than one class.

- plant symbols sometimes end up in the none class when the active class is something else.

- plant symbols sometimes include stipples (bloats pdf files)

- plant catalog sometimes put hash symbols in plant names.

I am frustrated enough that I am making my own plant symbol library and accessing it directly, not via the plant placement tool.

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Glad to hear it's not just me. I was beginning to feel like a rookie pain in the a#$...

Robert, if you're still following this thread, thanks much for the examples, but new issue. Clicking "show/hide plant styles shows some, hides others, shows some elements within 1 symbol while hiding others, etc. Any experience with this?

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