VectorWorks Plants

Placing Plants 

Plants can be placed using the Place Plant tool, can create plants using: 

• Single Plant Placement 
  
• Poly-Vertex Placement 
  
• Poly-Edge Spaced 
  
• Rectangular Array 
  
• Triangular Array 

The following properties are important in Plant preferences dialog box: 

• Spread: the plant spread diameter (the maximum width of the mature plant, as drawn) 
  
• Height: the typical mature plant height 
  
• Spacing: Indicates the plant spacing distance for the Poly-Edge Spaced, Rectangular Array, and Triangular Array cluster placement methods 
  
• Polygon display: For multiple plant placements, selects the display type of the boundary or center polygon defining the plant cluster shape. 
  

Editing Plants 

You can use the Place Plant Preferences dialog box to edit plants definitions, by clicking on Duplicate and using the Edit Plant Definition dialog to set plant settings. 

Creating new Plants 

New plants can be created from duplicating previous plants and editing the changing parts only, or you can select any 2D geometry and selecting AEC -> Plants -> Create New Plant, this will open the Edit Plant Definition dialog with blank parameters where you can set the plant settings, then after clicking OK, a plant will be created in place of the first symbol. 

You can later Edit the plant 2D geometry and 3D geometry by selecting the plant symbol in the Resource Browser, right clicking on it and selecting Edit, this will show the Edit Plant dialog where you can edit: 

• 2D Graphics: that you started the plant with 
  
• 3D Graphics: where is initially have a 3D locus that you can consider as the lower center of the plant 
  
• Plant Definition: to open the Edit Plant definition dialog 
  

Alternatively you can right click on any instance of the plant in the active layer and selecting Edit to show the Edit Plant dialog. 

2D Plant Styles

The Render tab in the Plant definition dialog provide some advanced effects to set the 2D plant styles, these effects display in Plan view only.

These effects control plant shadows, mass overlapping plants and vector outline controlling.
They can be turned on after placement for selected plants by choosing Enable 2D Plant Rendering from the Object Info palette, or for all plants by selecting View -> Show -> Show/Hide Plant Styles.

Replacing Plants 

Plants can be replaced in the design process to better reflect your design decisions at every level of the design. 

To replace a selected plant or all plants with a single Plant-ID, select the plant and select Replace Plant from the plant context menu. 

Plant Clusters 

Plants placed in a multiple placement mode of the Place Plant tool are associated as a cluster.

The cluster moves together, and parameter changes affect all plants in the cluster. However, it is possible to dissociate the cluster to make individual plant changes. 

Clustering identical plants which are in close proximity can be desirable for labeling and identification purposes.

To disassociate a single cluster into multiple plants or group multiple plants into a single plant by selecting AEC -> Plants -> Change Plant Grouping (a remark about the cluster order is that plants are clustered based on their drawing order. If the joining polygon of the resulting plant is not as expected, change the drawing order of the plants prior to joining them)

Plant Lines

The Plant Line command creates a freehand plant line along a line, polyline, or polygon. It can be used to represent a single plant, line of plants, or general plant mass (it is not a plant symbol, but rather a 2D polygon).

To create a plant line select the object (line, polyline, or polygon), and select AEC -> Plants -> Plant Line

The Plant Line dialog box opens, the suggested values are based on the selection’s perimeter, most notably:

• Segment Length: Maximum length of each plant line segment; longer segments create a rougher plant line appearance
  
• Thickness: Maximum perpendicular distance of each segment; a higher thickness value results in a rougher plant line appearance

Plant List Worksheets

You can add Plant List Worksheets to any design by opening [VectorWorks]\Libraries\Defaults\Reports~Schedules\Plant Lists.vwx from the Resource Browser. Four types of worksheets are included (Basic, Colors, Costing, and Simple).

Select one of the worksheet symbols and choose Make Active from the Resources menu. Click to place the symbol in the drawing, and again to set the symbol rotation.

The worksheet, populated with information from the plants in the current drawing, is automatically created (Plants to be included in the Plant List must have On Plant List selected in the Object Info palette).