massed plants to "drifts"

[toonau69]

Hi,

You answered an earlier question of another user regarding the changing of massed plants to look like single drifts.

Thanks for the solution, i.e. "Look at the Set Plant Style command. If you choose "No Sketch" and enable styling on a plant group, it will be "merged" if the circles are overlapping."

However the merging is inconsistent and varies and I am finding that it depends on the symbol used (correct?).

I have spent some time trying to determine what differences are causing the overlap to occur or NOT occur but cant figure it out.

Can you help?

thanks

[mike m oz]

You have had more success than me - I can't get drifts to work at all.

I know there must be something simple I am missing but i am blowed if I can find it. Help!

[Marietta]

I don't understand the part about enabling styling on a plant group so that the group will look merged as if the circles are overlapping - all I get is the overlapping circles. What I have done inj some of my projects is what I described below:

What I do is use a 'very' small circle, dot, or cross as the plant symbol - much smaller than the spacing of your plants - fill in your area for that plant type using the place plant tool and with none in the polygon display (Object Info palette). Then I draw an polygon outline and use the plant line tool to suggest the plant bed. This works well for perennials or shrub beds on drawings with a small scale (1:500 for example). Make sure the symbol is as simple as possible. I hope this helps.