They have all looked like there have been 50 different people, all doing their own thing, different layers, names, aesthetics, etc. I’ve never seen a really good symbol library. Turn the shadow/canopy off and turn on the simplified canopy or turn off the everything except the trunk (center dot) to keep tree locations visible on an irrigation, lighting or paving plan where you wouldn’t want to confuse the drawing with canopy information. Turn the shadow off for a cleaner look (reveal more detail under tree).
This way you can use the same tree symbol with shadows for concepts/renderings. You could also have a different, simplified, canopy symbol on it’s own layer. for trees, you could have the branches/canopy on one layer, the trunck (center dot) on another layer and the shadow on it’s own layer. You could also have different aspects of the symbols on different layers. I’ve seen it done a lot of different ways… all within the same drawing! lol Then you place them on whatever layer they belong (trees, paving, etc. I like the idea of having all symbols (standards) on the zero layer.
your drawings are flat…no layer management. I thought you meant “everything” was on the zero layer! lol i.e. Oh, sorry, I misunderstood your first statement about everything being on the zero layer.
