Land Illustrator includes the tools necessary to complete a landscape design including plant placement, area/volume calculations and more.
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 Plant Placement
There are three methods of plant placement in Land Illustrator. You may place plants manually on the screen, automatically within a boundary line, or automatically along an existing or temporary line on the drawing screen. In addition, the Plant Search feature makes it easy to find the right plant for the job. While placing palnt symbols, you can temporally make changes to the plant canopy size with the Radius adjustment. The command allows for a temporary change to the Symbol assignment and Symbol Color settings. The command also displays both the Common and Botanical names and General Notes in the dialog box.
Show Plants
The Show Plants feature will allow you to limit the plant material available for selection in the Plant Placement dialog box. There are thousands of plant selections available in the Plants Database. Therefore, the choice of plants may become overwhelming. In some instances, you may want to limit the number of choices to use on a regular basis to speed up the selection process. For this feature to work properly, you must first adjust the Visible in Plant Placement setting for each nozzle in the Plants Database.
Plant Search
The Plant Search feature allows you to quickly find the right plant material. You can set the search criteria based on the Species Data for each plant as entered in the Plants Database. Simply click on the Search button and all plant material in each category that meet the requirements will be available for placement.
 Manual
Manual plant placement allows you to select a plant from a database of over 2,500 plant selections. The plant will appear on the design screen and you may immediately move it to the desired location. When you place the symbol on the screen, you can set a second point to rotate the symbol in any direction. You will see the symbol during the entire process allowing you to accurately place the plant.
If hatching is selected as the plant symbol, you can select from one of 123 different hatching patterns. Simply outline an area to fill with the selected pattern and press Enter.
Within a Boundary
You can place plant symbols automatically within a boundary line. Simply select a plant from the database and click on a boundary line. The plant symbols will be placed within the boundary based on the desired spacing and chosen pattern of square or triangular spacing. You may also place a specific quantity of plants in a random order to create a grove.
Along a Line or Curve
To place plant symbols along a line or curve, simply select a plant from the database and click on the line or curve on the design screen. You may accept the calculated spacing to evenly space the plant symbols along the line, or you may enter an exact spacing requirement. Set a second point to determine the side of the line on which the symbols will be drawn. If the symbol offset is set to zero, the plant symbols will appear directly on top of the line or curve.
Rotation Angle
When placing plant symbols on the design along an existing or temporary line or curve, you can have the symbols appear with the same rotation angle, rotate with the angle of the line, or rotate at a random angle.
Accessories
Simply choose an accessory from the database and place the symbol on the design screen. You will see each symbol as it appears on the screen. You can set a second point to rotate the symbol in the desired direction.
Quantity Label
In addition to the Symbol Label command, the Quantity Label indicates the number of selected plants, the common or botanical name, and the plant size.
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Area/Volume Calcs
Calculates an area and volume of fill material and stores the information for the material takeoff. There is no limit to the number of areas you may have per design. Simply enter a depth of fill material and select the material from the drop down menu. Outline an area or enter a value in the Area text box. The total cubic feet, yards and meters along with the total square feet, yards and meters will be displayed in the dialog box and stored for the material list. You can easily edit any of the information if necessary.
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Preferences
The Preferences command will allow you to enter specific information to avoid the repetitive input of data. Select the units of measurement for the design in either US Units or Metric Units. Select the Name Display Format of either Common or Botanical. The command displays the layer assignment for each category of plant material. The Symbol Color feature will allow you to use the actual colors in each symbol or to use the color assignment for the symbol as selected in the Plants Database.
Show Climate Zones
When placing plants on the design, you can limit the number of plant selections by climate zone settings.
Properties
The Plant Properties dialog box will allow you to adjust the properties of one or more plant symbols. You can adjust the size selection for the plant or the radius of the plant canopy. In addition, you can replace all of the selected plants with a new choice of material, replace all of the plants on the drawing of the selected type with a new choice, or delete all of the plants of the selected type from the design screen. Simply make the desired selections in the dialog box and click on the Apply button.
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The databases of include more than 2,500 individual plant listings divided into six different categories. In most of the database commands, you can enter the List Price for the material or equipment, the Discount Rate received from a supplier and the Labor Rate required for installation of the item. In addition, you can assign the material or equipment to an Equipment Code to allow for the quick adjustment of items such as the list price and more. In addition, you can enter a Part Number and select a Supplier Code and Tied Assembly.
The plant databases are now stored in a Microsoft Access format for increased stability.
Plants
The Plants Database will allow you to enter or edit information on the plant material such as the available sizes, the symbol assignment, the symbol color and the common and botanical name. You may assign a symbol to each plant from more than 350 current symbol selections or you may create your own symbols. Each plant may have its own set of available sizes.
View in Plant Placement
To limit the number of plant selections shown in the Plant Material command, disable the View in Plant Placement check box by clicking on the selection until the checkmark no longer appears in the box.
Species Data
The Species Data command will allow you to enter or edit species data such as the climate zone, foliage color, fall color and more for the selected plant material. This data is used to assist in plant selection using the Plant Search feature. The complete list of species data includes the Climate Zone, Flower Color, Foliage Color, Fall Color, Plant Type, Soil Preference, Flowering Season, Maximum Height, Maximum Diameter, Flower Size, Life Span, Growth Rate, Fragrance, Fire Resistance, Exposure and the Water Requirement.
General Notes
The General Notes command will allow you to enter or edit general information such as prunning tips and more for the selected plant material.
Fill Material
The Fill Material command will allow you to create a database of fill material such as top soil and bark mulch to be used in the Area/Volume Calcs command.
List Price and Labor Rate
The fill material can be set to specific units of measurement such as square feet, cubic feet, square yards, cubic yards, and more.
Accessories
The Landscape Accessories Database command will allow you to edit a database of landscape accessory equipment.
Tied Assemblies and Supplies
A Tied Assembly is the combination of supplies that are associated with the installation of a single piece of equipment or plant material. Each assembly may be assigned to one or more pieces of equipment or plant material in the database selections. All of the product in an assembly is counted in the Material/Estimate command.
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There are hundreds of symbols included in the program. There are 350 different symbols to represent plant material. You may assign any of these symbols to one or more plants in the database. You may create your own symbols or edit any of the symbols included in the program.
In addition to plant symbols, there are 123 different hatching patterns you may use to represent plant material. There are many different installation details as well as symbols to represent furniture, rocks, boulders, automobiles, north arrows, title blocks and more.
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