Display full version of the post: Insert tree blocks with different canopy/trunk

geocadguy
17.05.2014, 19:26

Hello,I have to insert about 1000 3d trees into a cad drawing. I can make a script file to insert the tree block I have created multiple times - that`s easy. What I`m trying to find out is how to insert multiple trees with different canopy and trunk sizes and tree height. The tree I`ve got is made up from a 3d solid sphere and a solid cylinder. Any help would be much appreciated.

John Connor
17.05.2014, 20:57
1000 trees of varying height/diameter all derived from one tree block?

geocadguy
17.05.2014, 21:18

Yes if that`s the easiest way of doing it. The trees will be surveyed individually so the tree height, canopy and trunk diameter of each one will be known. I am thinking to incorporate these dimensions into an automated block insertion task using only one (dynamic?)block.

John Connor
17.05.2014, 22:35
You cannot create a 3D dynamic block in AutoCAD that I know of.

msplcdykee69
18.05.2014, 06:33
you could do it some what similar to what I have done to sports fields dynamic block and a landscaping dynamic block for different size trees and shrubs but my number is set to a dozen and not so much a size but different shape and color... you would have all you number and canopy sizes in there and then just pick each time you needed it from one block...

John Connor
18.05.2014, 11:40
mspl: Yes, while you can create a 2D dynamic block just as you mention the OP wants to use a 3D block.  Unfortunately you cannot create a 3D dynamic block.

geocadguy
18.05.2014, 12:50

Thank you guys. I will try to create a lot of tree blocks as Shawn suggested.

John Connor
18.05.2014, 15:12
And what good will 2D tree blocks do you in a 3D drawing?

geocadguy
18.05.2014, 19:37

They all will be 3d with different dimensions and I am planning to write a script file to insert the ones I need automatically. 

msplcdykee69
18.05.2014, 22:20
John Connor you can create blocks in X, Y, Z directions and then import them into a dynamic block... I did it last night as a test with a few 3D trees I made.. Can be done just takes a little work.

John Connor
18.05.2014, 23:23
It's not as though I don't believe you but I'm from the "Show Me" state of Missouri so upload one.

John Connor2014-05-19 15:15:16

Kent Cooper
19.05.2014, 15:13
If the tree Block is one ordinary Block, then while you can vary the height easily enough with the Z scale of each insertion, the trunk diameter and canopy size, set by the X and Y scale factors, will always have the same relationship to each other.  That is, one insertion won't be able to have, say, twice the trunk diameter of another one but three times its canopy size.  If you want to specify each tree's trunk diameter and the canopy size separately, I think you're going to need one Block for the trunk and a different one for the canopy.  But you could at least Group them together to keep each tree as, in a sense, "one" thing.  [I'm not familiar enough yet with Dynamic Blocks to know whether they can get you around this issue.]Kent Cooper2014-05-19 15:15:57

John Connor
20.05.2014, 11:57
msplc: You going to upload one of your dynamic 3D blocks or not?

John Connor
21.05.2014, 23:58
I guess he isn't going to share.  Makes me wonder if he ever had such a block to begin with.