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It is almost impossible to create "real life terrain".
Slope goes trough the whole terrain. It would much better if you could select first area and then point from corner and show where slope goes inside that area. Also, it is impossible to make a ditch on side of the road as ditch cannot be steep enough. You have use SketchUp for ditches and roads and leave them outside of the terrain, but grass is not similar.
Hi Timoko and welcometo the forum,
The Terrain tools can be a little difficult to use and limited in funtionality (as you have found trying to get a narrow ditch). Rumour has it that a new terrain tool is being developed or the existing one enhanced, so I guess we will just have to wait.
As you said the Slope tool is the full Terrain width. I find the Plateau tool the most flexible. You can start drawing the 'top' of the plateau completely off the terrain and make it any shape, returning to the same point off the terrain (in effect you can follow contour lines). This will give you an inifintely variable shape of slope. You can also build on this by adding further plateaus if necessary. Remember though that these ADD to the total height. You can graduate the slope but using different slopes of the plateau so they reach the total height you require.
Is your roadside ditch just a rectangular channel (vertical sided gutter) or an irregular one? There are ways to do a gutter.
Allan
I tried to create terrain by putting terrain in the begining 1,2 m below zero level and then lift by plateu tool part of terrain up as L- shape. As sloping at each side is different, steep at the other and gently sloping the other, I tried to use slope tool and of course slope went trough my building and yard. Then I put terrain on zero level and used plateu level again, then what I would have wanted then was that I could have been able to edit those terrain lines, you can see at wire frame mode and transfer/edit them at one side steeper and one side gentle sloping.
Any way I as I made roads by SketchUp, I created them more or less so that I was able to overcome problem. Terrain at zero level and plateu so that sky is not shining though my street road. not quite right but any "outside" cannot see "what is wrong as I can shorten hedges to make then even on top.
Timoko
Hi Allan and Tmoko!
I have think abut this how to use the terrain tool and why it is difficult to use.
- We have difficult to see 3-d way on a 2-d surface
- We forget to see how nature build things up
- We beguine draw the building before the terrain
What we need to do is turn around this and draw the terrain first then the house then garden
Some tip I to make it not so difficult
1. use the grid in 2d and 3d
2. in 3D use pattern display mode if you turn on Rendered outline mode you can see + and - level against the grid
3. you can use the terrain tool draw outside terrain boundary in 3D
4. work in 3d-mode and you can see the changes you do direct
This is what I can think of now.
/Robert
Possibly the best alternative, if you have the tools & skills, is to use a 3rd party program.
You can export the terrain from TFP to use as a starting guide or start from scratch in the other program. Some 3D programs allow gray-sacle height maps or terrain data files....many available free from www.
The older version of TFP also allowed for adjusting point by point heights over the entire terrain and add/delete points.....so it was very versatile....and its exported object file such as .dxf or similar can be used in v15 of TFP. Old TFP should be near free...or you may already have it....look back to ver. before .bld file format....perhaps v10 or 11?
SketchUp may prove to be useful too for terrains with their "sandbox" tools.
It becomes a matter of how often and how detailed terrains you need as to how much learning and tools are needed.
Hi Timko,
I very rarely use Slopes.
Try Plateaus , set the Zenith to 0 (zero) = steep side walls. As you go deeper the 'ditch' becomes wider, so adjust depth accordingly. Also when you draw the 'rectangle' to create the Plateaus, zoom in on the center node of one side and drag that sides line 'tight' to the other line to reduce width. You end up with a very very narrow rectangle.
Once you have made the plateau narrow, it is very hard to select again, so practice ahead of time. Zoom is required.
Jack
from long ago (around 2006-2007) this technique works if you have a contour map (see attached example) to make your terrain... from the Envisioneer forum...search for contour, terrain, etc. and you can find some good leads....but seems like old files/images are no longer available.
If your contour levels are at 1 meter changes, adjust if your contour levels are different height changes....
"Use your plateau tool (set it to 1 meter with the slider all the way to the right). starting at the upper left corner, trace the line and run it out past your terrain in the model, continue the line across the bottom of the screen to the right, and back up to the top of the screen on the right, then back to the left where you started. Keep doing this for each line and you will have it."
(let the plateau run outside the plot boundary edges on the three sides that are straight lines)
I could not find my resulting terrain....I used a different 3D program for the final work...done in 2007.
Hi Timoko,
Like Jack I rarely use slopes, (unless it is just a simple slope and nothing else). I always use Plateaus, starting outside the terrain if appropriate, drawing along a contour as Doug mentions and this is usually works well.
Your problem of a different slope on the opposite sides of the plateau can make things difficult but I have always found that if you draw many plateaus, all not very high, you can achieve the effect. This works well if you can get hold of a contour map and then simply draw the plateaus to mimic the map (you can import it as trace layer).
If your contour map is at 500mm intervals you will find using much less (eg 250mm) and drawing inbetween the contours will reduce the stepped effect. In my examples below the height was set at 250mm and the Zenith to give the shallowest slope (extreme right). You get the steepness on the other side my having the contour lines very close together.
You can edit each plateau if necessary but the plateau lines are not necessarily exactly where the contour lines appear (depending on the display interval you have chosen). Drag the mouse over the terrain and the actaul plateas will highlight (Pale blue on image). You can then select each individually and adjust the height (right click Properties) and shape (drag the blue boxes and squares) to modify the shape. Use the Elevation or 3D Quick View (Top, Bottom, Left and Right arrows) tools to check out the shape or you can create Sections if desired for angled views.
I hope this helps to understand the concept of pleateaus.
Allan
I have had a lot of trouble understanding the terrain tools.
I don't understand the difference between using "slopes" vs. "plateaus". I keep reading that it is easier to use the "plateaus" tool but can't seem to grasp the concept.
It seems to me that slopes would be easier to understand. It falls xxx feet from "point A" to "point B".
And I still don't understand and/or follow how adding a 3' deep ditch at one edge of the site drops the whole site by 3' when the ditch is set up as a separate area.
Are there any videos that explain/show it in detail? I have seen one video but it didn't show or explain it in detail - it just show setting a plateau and outline of the house.
Hi Garry,
It can be a hard concept to grasp.
The problem with a slope is that it slopes the whole terrain width by the height you specify - you cannot gat a slope to 'turn corners'.
The plateau is like a set of disks with sloping sides that you can draw any shape and stack them on top of each other but build up the terrain.
The ditch in effect increases the tichkness of the terrain. Without any ditches or plateaus the terrain has no thickness at all. If you twist it down by a metre at one point, it is automatically now one metre thick. If you then add a 1 metre slope UP at the other end of the site it is now two metres in thickness. Similarly each plateau of a metre incleases the thickness of the terrain by another metre. To get graduated slopes you much use much lesser plateau heights than that.
Hope that helps with the concept.
Allan