Plant symbols drawn according to a standard procedure
Each symbol is 1 meter wide (1000 mm) and carries hidden attributes for botanical name, common name, code and pot size.These can be entered using the DDATTE command after the symbol has been inserted
UplantSymbol01,
UplantSymbol02,
UplantSymbol03,
UplantSymbol04,
UplantSymbol05,
UplantSymbol06,
UplantSymbol07,
UplantSymbol08,
UplantSymbol09,
UplantSymbol10
The following standard for creating landscape symbols has been defined.
L-PLNT-CONSTRUCTION, L-PLNT-SYMBOL, L-PLNT-NAME
Set the drawing colour for each layer at BYLAYER. [You will however change the drawing colour as your draw - colouring various parts of the canopy and branches appropriately].
Tip: Make sure that you know how to make a layer current. You will want to move to a layer, (say L-PLNT-SYMBOL) and change the drawing colour to an appropriate shade of green or whatever to indicate the plant species that you are designing for. You need to be able to switch back to drawing by layer when you have finished this.
3. Place a circle on L-PLNT-CONSTRUCTION
Start by drawing a CIRCLE centred at Cartesian coordinate 0,0 on layer L-PLNT-CONSTRUCTION with a canopy diameter of 1000 units (radius 500 units). Draw another circle on the same layer with a radius of 15 units as the central indicator. Do not use a cross for this as the cross will be in an awkward position after a rotate. We recommend setting the line thickness of each circle to 0.5mm so the position of each new species stands out when plotted.
4. Now work on layer L-PLNT-SYMBOL
Here different colours are commonly used along with the PLINE (Polyline) command. We use the PLINE command to trace around the approximate circumference of the circle (using the circle on the L-CONSTRUCTION layer as a guide and then use the PEDIT (Properties in gardenCAD) command to change the 'fluidity' of the shape. This gives us a symbol which we can use to show the client a rough draft of the design - the full high coloured version comes next. In contrast to the circles on the construction layer, keep the line thicknesses here quite fine (certainly less than 0.5 mm).
Now use the PLINE command, the HATCH command to make small highly coloured blocks (called canopy1, canopy2 etc.). Stamp these into the drawing on this new layer. You might care to make a group coloured ligher and place these in the 0-90 degree arc to give the appearance of sun shining on the symbol.
Draw a couple of branches and make these into blocks (branch1, branch2 etc.) Again, stamp these over the circle to make the shape. Test the symbol both on the screen and when plotted to paper. Save the symbol in your own block library.
