Adding Plants to the Design

Placing Single or Multiple Plants

The Place Plant tool places a selected plant definition in a single or multiple arrangement on the drawing. Plants can also created by drawing a polyline and then selecting the Objects from Polyline command (see Creating Objects from Polylines).

Seven modes are available.

 

Mode	Description
Single Plant Placement	Places a single specified plant at each mouse click
Poly-Vertex Placement	Places plants at each clicked polygon vertex
Poly-Edge Spaced	Specify the Spacing distance in the plant definition or Object Info palette; plants are spaced along the user-entered polygon at the spacing distance specified
Rectangular Array	Specify the Spacing distance in the plant definition or Object Info palette; plants fill the polygon in a rectangular array at the spacing distance specified
Triangular Array	Specify the Spacing distance in the plant definition or Object Info palette; plants fill the polygon in a triangular array at the spacing distance specified
Pickup	Sets the default plant settings to match those of a selected existing plant
Settings	Opens the Place Plant Preferences dialog box, for specifying the plant to place, its placement options, and its definition
Plant ID	Selects a plant for placement by its ID

 

To place plants on the drawing:

1.	Click the Place Plant tool from the Site Planning tool set.

The Place Plant Preferences dialog box opens automatically if there are no plants in the Resource Browser. Otherwise, click Settings from the Tool bar to select the plant to place.

The plant to place can also be selected by its plant ID with the Plant ID list on the Tool bar. The plant resources in the active drawing display alphabetically at the top of the list; the remaining plants are from the default content resources.

Double-click a plant from the Resource Browser to activate the Place Plant tool and place the selected plant.

For rapid plant placement, select a plant symbol from the current file, or default content plant from the Plant list, specify the Spacing value, and click OK to begin placement. The plant can be defined or replaced at a later time. Alternatively, create a plant definition prior to placement. Plants are also defined from this dialog box, as described in Creating Plant Definitions.

 

Parameter	Description
Plant	Displays the currently selected plant name
Graphical plant list	Displays a graphical list of available plants, with the 2D symbol and the plant ID. The currently displayed plant is selected for placement.
Details	Summarizes the plant definition information (or default information, if the plant has not yet been defined) to help distinguish one plant from another
Latin/Common	Plants which have been defined display their Latin and common names
Spread	Displays the plant spread diameter (the maximum width of the mature plant, as drawn) for both single and multiple plant placement; the symbol is scaled by this parameter, along with the Height
Height	Displays a typical mature plant height; the symbol is scaled by this parameter, along with the Spread
Spacing	Indicates the plant spacing distance for the Poly-Edge Spaced, Rectangular Array, and Triangular Array cluster placement methods
Edit Definition	Edits the definition of the currently selected plant (see Creating Plant Definitions)
Duplicate	Creates a new plant definition based on the current plant symbol (see Creating Plant Definitions)

2.	Click OK. The Place Plant tool uses these settings until they are changed again by selecting a different plant ID from the Tool bar, clicking Settings from the Tool bar, or until Pickup mode is selected, which changes the default settings to those of a selected existing plant.

3.	Select the plant placement mode from the Tool bar. Depending on the placement method selected, either click in the drawing to place a single plant, or draw a polygon. As the Place Plant tool is clicked in the drawing, a preview of the plant spread is displayed to help with plant placement.

 

Placement	Preview
Single Plant
Poly-Vertex Placement
Poly-Edge Spaced
Rectangular/Triangular Array

4.	The specified plant symbol is placed in the drawing as indicated.

The Place Plant tool parameters are retained so that the successive placement of plants is easily accomplished.

For multi-plant placement options, edit the polygon defining the plant with the 2D Reshape tool if necessary, and the plant placement is automatically adjusted to fit the new shape.