Terrain (Slopes)

[garystan]

   Question number 9,999...............

  When creating slopes, should they be drawn from the edge of the building(house) outward toward the boundary ?    Or just the opposite (from the boundary to the edge of the building) ?
    I want to make a downward slope away from the house.
    Or........as in  real life construction.....should it have bee done before the house was
 built (created) ?
                                                                                                      garystan

[Allan Chesney]

Hi garystan,

To answer your last question first, as in real life, siteworks are usually done before you build the house!!  Thankfully this is not real life(!) so there are ways around the problem if you have already built the house.

You will notice when you use the slope tool, it puts an arrow on the plan in the direction in which you drag it - this is the UPWARDS slope.  So, to get a slope down from the front of your existing house, you will have to drag the arrow TOWARDS THE HOUSE.  However as I said it draws the slope upwards - in other words it bends the existing terrain upwards to the point where you stop (just before the house) so the terrain where the house is and beyond it are raised to the top of the slope and hence it will BURY your house. Incidentally, in 3D view, if your camera is at ground level and near the house, it will actually be underneath the terrain, which will then be invisible, as you can see through the terrain from underneath (it only has an upper surface - no back surface).  If you raise the camera above the terrain you will probably see a hole in it and your house will be in the bottom of the hole.

To fix this you must either raise the whole house (all Locations) or, and much easier, LOWER THE TERRAIN. Go to Settings / Program Settings/ Terrain and set the  Base Level (normally zero) to a minus figure.  If you set the height of your slope to 3000mm (10') for example then you need to set the Terrain Base Level to -3000 (or -10').  This will drop the whole terrain and your house will now be on top of the terrain again.

Looking forward to question 10,000 !!!

Allan

[Doug.S]

also check that terrain is "cutout" around the house and basement if desired...in the terrain settings

[granteck]

Hi garystan,

To answer your last question first, as in real life, siteworks are usually done before you build the house!!  Thankfully this is not real life(!) so there are ways around the problem if you have already built the house.

You will notice when you use the slope tool, it puts an arrow on the plan in the direction in which you drag it - this is the UPWARDS slope.  So, to get a slope down from the front of your existing house, you will have to drag the arrow TOWARDS THE HOUSE.  However as I said it draws the slope upwards - in other words it bends the existing terrain upwards to the point where you stop (just before the house) so the terrain where the house is and beyond it are raised to the top of the slope and hence it will BURY your house. Incidentally, in 3D view, if your camera is at ground level and near the house, it will actually be underneath the terrain, which will then be invisible, as you can see through the terrain from underneath (it only has an upper surface - no back surface).  If you raise the camera above the terrain you will probably see a hole in it and your house will be in the bottom of the hole.

To fix this you must either raise the whole house (all Locations) or, and much easier, LOWER THE TERRAIN. Go to Settings / Program Settings/ Terrain and set the  Base Level (normally zero) to a minus figure.  If you set the height of your slope to 3000mm (10') for example then you need to set the Terrain Base Level to -3000 (or -10').  This will drop the whole terrain and your house will now be on top of the terrain again.

Looking forward to question 10,000 !!!

Allan

The other way that  I found was to use a negative value for the slope and then you can drag away from the house.
Grant

[Allan Chesney]

Good point Grant!

Thanks for mentioning that one - probably easier than fiddling around with the terrain height etc!
Most things will accept a negative figure and I had not thought about it in this case.

Allan