This page has some detailed notes about how to do some common operations in your own CAD applications. CAD applications are NOT very intuitive or easy to use (in my opinion). And you could possible benefit from some proper training in your specific CAD application – see your CAD suppliers. But here are some notes anyway – your CAD application may be similar to the examples below.

AutoCAD – Importing a OTISS DXF file into a drawing.

Complete the survey and check all the data on the OTISS website.

  1. Goto the BS5837 page on the OTISS website. Press the Reports button at the top of the table.
  2. On the Reports dialog, generate a CAD DXF file with all the tree information.
  3. Open up your AutoCAD application.
  4. Use File-> Open to open the OTISS generated DXF file.
    • Select all the objects by (a) pressing CTRL-A key, or (b) use mouse to draw a rectangular selection area, or (c) SELALL command.
    • Copy all the selected objects by (a) pressing CTRL-C key or (b) use the Home-> Clipboard-> ‘Copy-Clip’ icon, or (c) COPYCLIP command.
  5. Use File-> Open to open the original site drawing.
    • The two drawings use the same coordinates, so its easy to copy objects from one to the other.
    • Paste the objects using the Home-> Clipboard-> Paste-> ‘Paste to Original Coordinates‘ icon (the PASTEORIG command).
  6. Now you can save the combined drawing and can start to produce the various Root Protection Plans and other drawings that you need.
  7. OTISS has created lots of layers for the trees and these have now been added to the original drawing. For different types of plan, you need to show/hide/modify the layers as required, and maybe adjust the RPA to suit the site conditions.

QCAD – Importing a OTISS DXF file into a drawing.

Complete the survey and check all the data on the OTISS website.

  1. Goto the BS5837 page on the OTISS website. Press the Reports button at the top of the table.
  2. On the Reports dialog, generate a CAD DXF file with all the tree information.
  3. Open up your QCAD application.
  4. Use the View-> Command Line to make sure you can see the command line window.
  5. Use File-> Open to open the original site drawing.
  6. Use File-> Import and select the OTISS generated DXF file.
  7. You will see a yellow/amber cross-hair lines on the drawing which follows the mouse around. QCAD is asking you to set the ‘target point’ for the imported drawing with the mouse or enter a coordinate in the command line. The target point corresponds to the absolute zero point of the imported drawing.
  8. Look at the command line window – it will be prompting you for a Position: for this ‘target point’.
  9. Click in the Command Line window and type “0,0” as the target position and press ENTER. This should import the trees generated by OTISS into the site drawing. Job done! But…
  10. But the QCAD Import command is allowing you to import the same file again (!), so it still shows the yellow/amber cross-hairs and a new Position prompt. You need to stop the Import command by clicking on the pointer icon located top left of the QCAD window. Then the cross-hairs and prompt will disappear.
  11. Now you can save the combined drawing and can start to produce the various Root Protection Plans and other drawings that you need.
  12. OTISS has created lots of layers for the trees and these have now been added to the original drawing. For different types of plan, you need to show/hide/modify the layers as required, and maybe adjust the RPA to suit the site conditions.