How CAD blocks become symbols, and how to name the plants they stand for.
Blocks exported with the Keep as Symbol treatment are matched against the
library by name, so TREE-OAK-24 becomes an oak, BENCH-6FT a bench
and WB-67 a tractor-trailer. Insertion point and rotation come from the drawing.
A block stands for what it names rather than stating its size, so its symbol draws at the
library's size: the frame its art states (a tree's cited spread, a vehicle's length) through
the scale of its viewport.
A tree comes in at the size and season you set, not one its block decides: the Symbols from CAD box that follows an import reports how the symbols came in, block by block (how many are Planted, Medium and Mature, their size, and which kept their size in CAD and why: art that states no size, or an export that does not record the drawing's unit), and under the report two boxes, Show trees as and Season, hold your default.
Change them and every tree whose block rule names no size or season takes the new choice before the box closes, and the choice is remembered as your default for the next drawing (Planted and Summer until you set it). A tree without that art draws Mature, or in summer.
A symbol smaller than the smallest one draws (0.05 in on the sheet) is drawn at that size, and the report says so. A legend's copies on the sheet keep their size in CAD.
To draw a block at its size in CAD (for an office that draws canopies to size) or at a size in feet across, set it in Plant Symbols or in the block's rule in CAD Mappings; the choice is remembered for the block, with its tree size, season and colour.
An Update from CAD keeps the size of every symbol already in the drawing. Only a symbol drawn at its size in CAD takes the block's new size, as do the symbols of a drawing styled before sizes were recorded; inserts new to the drawing come in by the block's rule. In a drawing styled before sizes were recorded, a new insert of a block already there comes in like that block's symbols instead (their tree size, season, colour and size), so one block does not show two sizes; what you saved for the block still applies.
The same holds in any drawing where every symbol of a block is drawn one way that is not what the block's rule gives (a recipe applied for this drawing only, or every insert swapped by hand): a new insert comes in like them, symbol, tree size, season, colour, size and plant, and the report says it came in like the others. Where the block's symbols are drawn more than one way, a new insert comes in by the rule.
A symbol you size by hand keeps that size, recorded in feet, whatever later changes its art. So does a symbol at the library's size whose new art states no size: it keeps the size it draws at.
The library carries no utility, parking or accessibility symbols (a manhole, a hydrant, a light pole, an accessible stall, a bollard, a pavement arrow): a civil plan draws those itself, so export such blocks exploded and their drafting comes through as drawn.
A name that does not resolve is drawn as a placeholder marker. Fix that either by adding a rule in SITE ▸ CAD Mappings pointing the name at a library symbol, or by re-exporting that block with the Explode treatment so its own linework comes across. See CAD Auto-Mapping.
SITE ▸ Plant Symbols matches the plant blocks of a planting plan to library symbols, whatever your office calls them. It finds the blocks the export exploded into linework, gathering each insert's pieces back together, and the blocks kept as symbols, and reads each one's name from the legend beside its copy on the sheet. An exploded block with no legend goes by its CAD block name, and a block whose name says it is a plant (Tree, Ornamental, a species) counts as a symbol even when it draws as one small circle, as a land plan often draws its trees.
It also opens by itself after an import when it has something to suggest, or when a kept block draws only because a word in its name matched a library symbol and no rule of yours names it. Every office names its blocks its own way, so such a match is a guess, and you check it once.
A symbol put in place of an exploded block keeps its place through an Update from CAD: it moves where the block sits now, and goes when the block is deleted in CAD.
Each row is one block: how it was drawn, its name, how many times the plan places it, its size in CAD, the symbol to draw in its place, its tree size, season and colour (where the library paints the symbol in more than one: the crepe myrtle in red as delivered, or white), and the size it draws at: the library's size (given in feet for the symbol and tree size chosen), as drawn in CAD, or a size in feet across.
The row shows the first of the block's symbols that draw what most of them draw, and its size and colour reach the others only when you change them: a new symbol, tree size or season leaves each symbol at its own size setting and colour, so one you sized by hand keeps its size.
Studio suggests a symbol from the block's name, then the legend's; a block's size does not say what it is. A plant the library has no species for stays as drawn rather than becoming a species the plan never named, and the dialog says so. So does a plant the legend does not name, since the library has no generic tree or shrub to draw it as.
Any row can be set to any tree or planting symbol, or kept as drawn.
Replace with finds the symbol by name: click it and type part
of the name (holly lists the four hollies, each with its thumbnail), then Enter
or a click picks, and Escape leaves the row as it was.
A block that a mapping rule already draws is listed too, set to the symbol it draws as today, so a wrong match can be put right here instead of hunted down. So is a block whose symbols were given another symbol before, here or by a swap: it is listed under its name in CAD, set to the symbol most of its symbols draw as.
Your choices carry to the next drawing. A row you change (its symbol, tree size, season, colour or size) is saved as a rule for the block's name in CAD Mappings; for a block the export exploded, the rule is for the legend's name, saved whenever its row puts a symbol in, a suggestion you accepted too. A block matched by a word in its name says Name match under its name, a guess to check; Replace saves it as your rule however you leave the row, so your next drawing with that name opens without asking.
Set a block a rule draws back to keep as drawn and Replace saves a “do not auto-map” rule for its name: its symbols stop drawing that symbol and show a placeholder until you pick one. Set an exploded block's suggestion to keep as drawn and the rule is for the legend's name, so the suggestion is not made again; Keep All as Drawn does the same for every suggested row, and the line beside Replace says how many.
A name your rules leave as drawn is settled: nothing is suggested for it again, from its name or the legend's, so it does not open the dialog on a later import. Other rows left as Studio set them are not saved, so the defaults keep applying, and a new choice for a name replaces what its old rule gave it.
The rules can be reviewed, edited and shared with the office there.
Plant name is the plant the block stands for, as a legend would call it: prefilled from the legend, or from what was remembered for the block, and yours to change or blank. It is put on the block's symbols and remembered with the rule. It matters most for a plant the library has no symbol of its own for: pick the nearest library symbol in Replace with, name the plant, and click Sizes to type its own spread and height in feet at each tree size (Mature, Medium, Planted), with a botanical name if you want one. A box left blank keeps the symbol's own size at that tree size; a size typed draws the symbol at that spread, stands it at that height for shadows and sections, and shows in the Size column as the library size.
A tree size the symbol has no art for (a stand-in with no planted render) is offered once a spread is typed for it, marked "(mature art)", and draws the mature art scaled to that spread.
The plant and its sizes are saved with your CAD mapping rules and in the drawing, go into the office rules export, and travel in a recipe, so the next drawing from the same office maps itself. Several blocks may name one plant: the sizes are typed once. The plants are listed, renamed and removed on the PLANTS tab of CAD Mappings, and a placed symbol's Plant row names one too.
A tree or shrub placed from the library, or any symbol already standing for a plant, has a Plant row on the Fill and Stroke tab. The list offers None, every plant of your own on file with its stand-in in words ("Texas Ash (live oak)"), and New plant..., which names one here, drawn with the selected symbol's own art, and saves it with your CAD mapping rules (see Plant name and Sizes).
Picking a plant puts its name on every selected symbol: one at the library's size draws at the plant's spread for its tree size, and one placed from the library whose symbol is not the plant's stand-in swaps to the stand-in; a symbol from CAD keeps the art its block's rule gives it. None takes the name off and puts the symbol back at its art's size. One undo step either way.
Sizes beside the list edits the plant's own spread and height, in your list and in this drawing's record of it; every symbol in the drawing standing for it at the library's size follows. The plants themselves are kept on the PLANTS tab of CAD Mappings.
The Sizes box also holds the size the plant is bought and planted at, as the plant schedule prints it.
Pick how it is measured, as ANSI Z60.1 grades nursery stock: caliper in inches for a shade tree, height in feet for an ornamental or multi-trunk tree, container in gallons for a shrub, clear trunk in feet for a palm, or pot in inches for a groundcover. Type the size (3) or a range (8-10), and any remarks (B&B, 3 canes min.); the line under the boxes shows what the schedule will print, such as 3" cal., B&B.
The install size is a specification. It never changes the spread or height the symbol draws at, and nothing fills it in for you, with one exception: where the drawing's legend writes a size with its measure beside a plant ("Eastern Red Cedar - 6' ht."), Plant Symbols starts that plant's record with the size and names the plant without it, for you to check before Replace.
For a tree, inches with no measure word are its caliper ("Live Oak - 4"" reads as a 4" caliper live oak); a row counts as a tree when the symbol it maps to, or the one suggested for it, is a library tree. For a shrub or a groundcover bare inches are not read, since they may be a pot size. A record already on file is never changed by a legend.
One plant at two install sizes is two plants, each with its own name; two legend rows naming one plant at two sizes therefore keep their whole labels as their names.
A drawing keeps its own copy of the record of each plant its symbols name, saved in the .asp file, and reads it ahead of your plant list. The drawing therefore sizes and stands its plants the same on any computer, including one whose plant list lacks them or says otherwise, and a recipe's plants stay with it after the recipe is applied.
Naming a plant or typing its sizes in Plant Symbols or on the Plant row, and saving a change to it on the PLANTS tab, change the open drawing's record as well as your list. Save Recipe carries the drawing's records.
When a drawing opens with a record that differs from your list's (you changed the list since the drawing was saved, or the drawing came from another office), Studio says so once, naming each plant and how it differs, and offers your list's record. Yes puts it in the drawing and resizes the symbols standing for those plants; No keeps the drawing's, and the drawing asks again only after your list's record changes.