5TH EDITION TUTORIAL MANUAL | WRITTEN WITH VERSION 2015

JONATHAN PICKUP

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VECTORWORKS LANDMARK

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VECTORWORKS LANDMARK
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TUTORIAL MANUAL
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Jonathan Pickup | fifth edition

written with version 2015
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Archoncad
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Architecture on CAD, Ltd.
10 Laws Place
Napier, New Zealand
T +64 217 43470
jon@archoncad.co.nz
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© 2015 Jonathan Pickup - Archoncad

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, faxing, emailing, posting online or by any information storage and
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retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher. Published in the United States.

Vectorworks is a registered trademark of Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., in the United States and other countries.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. Macintosh is a
trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Adobe, Acrobat, and Reader
are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems in the United States and other countries.

The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been
taken in the preparation of this book, neither the author nor Nemetschek Vectorworks shall have any liability to any
person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the infor-
mation contained in this book or by the computer software described in it.

For more Vectorworks training information, or to purchase more copies of this book, please visit
www.vectorworks.net/training, or call us at (410) 290-5114.

There are several people I would like to thank: Steve Scaysbrook, Roger Williams, Bill Vincent, and my good friend
Allan Baggett. Without them, none of my manuals would be as good as they are.

A big thank you to my wife, Marie, and my kids. I need your support and understanding to spend the hours needed
to create these manuals.

Jonathan Pickup, January 2015.

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................... iii

Project 1: Landscape Area Analysis ...............................................1

Project 2: Quick Domestic Project ................................................15

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Project 3: Domestic Project ..........................................................33
Step 1 Document Setup...............................................................................................33
Step 2 Layer Setup ......................................................................................................41
Step 3
Step 4
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Importing a Scanned Image .............................................................................44
Planting ............................................................................................................46
Step 5 Hardscape ........................................................................................................62
Step 6 Plant Counting ..................................................................................................66
Step 7 Drawings and Annotation .................................................................................70
Step 8 Editing Plant Placement ...................................................................................73
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Step 9 Editing Plant Graphics ......................................................................................76
Step 10 Change Plant Grouping ....................................................................................86

Project 4: Simple Commercial Project ..........................................91

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Step 1 Document Setup...............................................................................................91

Step 2 Importing DXF/DWG File (Architect’s Plan)......................................................93
Step 3 Placing the Landscape Areas ...........................................................................98
Step 4 Vectorworks Plant Database .......................................................................... 114

Project 5: Simple Park Drawing ..................................................128

Step 1 Importing a Survey Drawing ...........................................................................128
Step 2 Checking the Imported Drawing .....................................................................131
Step 3 Creating the Landscape Layer .......................................................................133
Step 4 Edit the Imported Drawing ..............................................................................134
Step 5 Drawing the Paths ..........................................................................................138
Step 6 Adding the Lawn.............................................................................................145
Step 7 Car Parking ....................................................................................................148
Step 8 Placing Plants.................................................................................................152
Step 9 Counting Plants ..............................................................................................156
Step 10 Creating a Drawing.........................................................................................158

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Project 6: Commercial Park Drawing..........................................168
Create a New File .................................................................................................................168
Importing a Survey Drawing .................................................................................................168
Check the Imported Drawing ................................................................................................170
Create the Landscape Information .......................................................................................176
Create Car Parking ...............................................................................................................176
Count the Car Parking ..........................................................................................................182
Scheduling the Planting ........................................................................................................192
Scheduling Hardscape Areas ...............................................................................................194
Exporting the Drawing ..........................................................................................................205
Revisions from the Consultant..............................................................................................206

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ii Vectorworks Landmark Tutorial Manual | ©2015 Jonathan Pickup

Project 1: Landscape Area Analysis
We can use one of the Landmark tools (Landscape Area) to analyze the landscape areas and
to provide a budget price. This has a couple of advantages: it is quick, and you can make sure
you are within the budget.

At the very early stage of a project, the client may not want to pay you for a lot of work they
cannot afford. Creating a quick concept with a budget figure will let you know in a few minutes
if the client can afford your design.

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• Open the file Project_1.sta from
the exercise folder. This file is a
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Vectorworks template file. It has
some drawn information already
on it, so all we have to do is add
the areas we want to the plan.
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• Go to the Site Planning tool set.

• Choose the Landscape Area tool.

• Go to the Tool bar.

• Click on the Preferences… button.

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This opens the dialog box where you
can add plants, choose the look of
the area, and so on. Later on, we will
look at this dialog box in detail.

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• Type in a Name for the
landscape area.
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• Click on the Tag Display
pop-up menu.
• Choose On. This will show the
name of each landscape area
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as we add it.
• Click on the OK button.

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• Zoom in to make it easier to see
the plan. You can use the scroll
wheel on the mouse, or you can
use the Zoom tool on the Basic
tool palette.

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• Move to the top-left corner
of the site.
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• Click once to start the
landscape area.
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• Move the cursor down the
left-hand boundary, near
the house.
• Click once.
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• Move the cursor across the face

of the house, just a small amount.
• Click once.

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• Move the cursor up to
the boundary.
• Click once.

• Move the cursor back to the

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start point.
• Click once. PL
The landscape area has been
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created. Because of the choices
we made on the Landscape Area
Preferences, we have the name of
the landscape area, and we also
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have the actual plan area shown.

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The Object Info palette now
displays the information about the
Landscape Area.

• Go to the Object Info palette.

• Change the Name of the area
to Trees. This could be an area
of tree planting.

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• Scroll down the Object Info
palette to the Unit Price field.
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• Enter a budget price for the
planting, based on your area
settings. If you are using metric,
enter your price per square
meter. If you are using imperial,
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enter your price per square foot.

This is a very rough way of working,
but it will give us a very quick price.

The location of the area tag

(the name and area) will get in the
way of the other landscape areas
we want to create, but we can
relocate the tag.

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• Go to the Basic tool palette.
• Choose the Selection tool.

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• Go to the Tool bar.
• Ensure that the second mode
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is active. This will allow us to
relocate the Landscape area tag.

• Move the cursor to the blue

handle at the top left of the tag.
• The cursor should change
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to a double-headed arrow
(the interactive rescale cursor).
• Click once.
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• Move the cursor to a new location.

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• Click once.

The tag will be relocated. If this

location is not satisfactory, relocate
the tag.

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• Move the cursor to the blue
handle at the end of the tag.
• The cursor should change to
a double-headed arrow.
• Click once.
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• Move the cursor to a new location.
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• Click once.

The tag will be relocated.

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• Go to the Site Planning tool set.
• Choose the Landscape Area tool.

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• Move the cursor to the top-right
corner of the first landscape area.
• Click once to start the next
landscape area.
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• Move the cursor across the

boundary to the top-right corner.
• Click once.

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• Move the cursor down the
boundary, near the house.
• Click once.

• Keep drawing your area until

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you get back to the start point.
• Click once. PL
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The landscape area has
been created.
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The Object Info palette now displays

the information about the
Landscape area.

• Go to the Object Info palette.

Change the Name of the area to
Border Planting. This could be
an area of border shrubs or
ground cover.

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• Scroll down the
Object Info palette.
• Enter a budget price for the
planting, based on your area
settings. If you are using metric,
enter your price per square meter.
If you are using imperial, enter
your price per square foot.

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• Use the same technique to draw
an area for the lawn.
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• Enter the name for the lawn on
the Object Info palette, and enter
the budget price.
Don’t forget that you can use the
Attributes palette to change the look
of the areas in order to make it
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easier for the client to understand.
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• Go to the Menu bar.

• Choose Tools > Reports >
Create Report...

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This dialog box opens. We use this
to set up the options for the report.

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• Type in the name of the report
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at the top of the dialog box,
where it says Title.
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• Click on the pop-up menu,

Listing objects with record.
• Choose Landscape Area.

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• Scroll down the left side to find
the field called Name.
• Click on Name.
• Click on the Add >> button.
This will add the Name field to
our report. The order in which
you add the fields is important,
as it defines the order of the
budget report.

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• Scroll down the left side to
find the field called Area.
• Click on Area.
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• Click on the Add >> button.
This will add the Area field
to our report.
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• Scroll down the left side to find
the field called Unit Price.
• Click on Unit Price.
• Click on the Add >> button.

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• Click on the OK button.
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Vectorworks will search the file,
looking for all your landscape areas.
For each area you will see the name,
area, and unit price. The report will
be a worksheet (the Vectorworks
version of a spreadsheet).
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Your report opens in a new window.

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• Click on cell D2.
• Type in an equals sign (=).
• Click on cell B2.

• Type in a times sign (*).

• Click on cell C2.

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• Click on the green tick to
complete this formula.
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Vectorworks calculates the cost of
each area based on the areas you
drew and the unit price of each area.
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The total price is shown in cell D2.
If this is more than your client wants
to spend, you will have to adjust
your design by changing the areas
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or the prices.

There is a lot more we could do with

this worksheet, but as this is the first
exercise, I wanted to keep it simple.

For example, the worksheet could

be added to the drawing, and the
unit prices could be amended directly
on the worksheet to get the project
within budget.

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 Jonathan Pickup | fifth edition

VECTORWORKS LANDMARK
Tutorial Manual
written with version 2015

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jonathan Pickup is an architect trained in New Zealand and in the
United Kingdom with more than 25 years of experience. He received his Bachelor of Architecture
(BArch) degree from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He later spent more than eight years
in England where he learned to use several CAD packages, including MiniCad, and began teaching this
forerunner of Vectorworks. Upon returning to New Zealand in 1997, he established archoncad,
a Vectorworks training and consulting company. He has written several Vectorworks training manuals

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for architects, landscape architects, educators, and design students. Jonathan also organizes the
New Zealand Vectorworks User Group and provides its main direction.
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VECTORWORKS LANDMARK
Based on his successful Vectorworks Landmark course taught in New Zealand and online, Jonathan
Pickup’s training guide provides Landmark basics and gently leads the new user through the completion
of complex landscape plans. This tutorial offers advanced users guidance regarding the new features in
Vectorworks 2015 as well as instruction on fundamental Landmark concepts. The topics discussed apply
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to both residential and commercial projects.

The manual uses a series of exercises to reenforce the learning of Vectorworks Landmark program
features and workflow capabilities, starting with a very simple exercise on landscape budgeting. Content
and exercises build in complexity, and by the end of the manual the user will be able to
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• use the plant database.

• create custom plants.
• edit the plant graphics.
• import drawings from consultants.
• create planting plans.
• send the drawings back to a consultant.

NVM.VLM-2015 v1.0
Cover imagery courtesy of Jonathan Pickup