Master Plan Technics in PS

you need to rasterize the objects and use the marquee tool to copy to keep them on the same layer. 

You’re right – the flexibility of having the vectors to move them around and edit is nice, and of course they are more crisp than rasterized objects. 

I have two ways that I typically approach rendering master plan trees.  One method is to use a high-resolution plan tree image that I don’t anticipate needing to change and marquee tool it + alt to copy it as nca suggested above.  This puts all the tree images on one layer and I can apply a drop shadow to the layer.  Starting with one high res and copying it on the same layer takes up much less space than copying that layer hundreds of times.

The other is if I’m looking for a less-photo-realistic tree and more sketchy: I will create one tree layer and put a color overlay/texture/drop shadow on that layer.  Then I draw my circles with a white brush on that layer to whatever diameter is appropriate.  This allows me to easily edit the colors, opacities etc. of that layer after the fact.  And it’s easy with this method to just erase an area and re-space the trees by creating more white circles.  Then add depth and dimension on new layers if desired.

Good luck!

Hmm…. normally when I get to PS, design is pretty much complete, so maybe i’m missing something. Moving stuff around in P’S means I have to repeat the feat in Acad when going past planning level… and I have to keep track of more moving parts. Creating a separate PDF for each type of entity (canopy trees, evg trees, bldgs, cars, etc.) is not hard, just a bunch of tabs in Acad I have preloaded. Granted, each pdf is a raster image… but each is flat and not memory intensive. Straightforward to create with publish command; actual rendering time for a huge site is usually an hour or two if really complex, so even revisions go quick, and I get to maintain accurate info in Acad.
I haven’t yet seen a huge benefit with smart objects in P’S, but rarely change scales or symbols from the Acad plot. What is the purpose of using smart objects in a plan view rendering?

Obviously a different project type but tree-wise, similar enough example.  This is a tree symbol I use frequently – it is high enough resolution that when I zoom in, it’s still quite crisp.  They are all on one layer and copied around the page, shadow added to entire layer.  You could easily create 3-4 different similar layers if you wanted to vary the size of the trees/types while keeping the psd file size down.

Hi, have you tried the clone tool, I create master files of trees with shadows locked, then clone/stamp.

Our office uses a single layer for trees of one type. You essentially have a blank tree shape and use the blending tools to apply texture, shadow, depth, or outline depending on your needs. Then you use the marquee tool to copy the shape around the same layer. This minimizes your file size as well as joining outline so they don’t overlap as they would if you just copied layers. Put multiple kinds of trees (colored, different size) on different layers.

It depends on the scale of the plan. 100-200 trees I usually use Photoshop brush. The benefits of brush is to set up size and layout easily, especially for planning type project. And then apply texture, shadow, etc.