Terrains

[keyboardman]

I just can't seem to figure out how to accomplish adding an angle to just a portion on the terrain.
I would like to have the driveway angled about 2 feet or so and the house and yard level. What
is the best way of doing this? (see photo)

[Jack Zimmer]

Use the Plateau tool set to depth needed. In this case -24". 
Start outside the terrain, go up the length needed for lower flat, then across to point where drive starts, up to depth of drive pitch, across to width of drive , back down to flat , then across to edge of terrain, then down to outer edge of terrain.

Basically an inverted 'T' shape with the lower part of the T being the drive pitch.

You will have a void behind the 'retaining wall' , so use the pad tool to fill in that portion making the grass look flat and meeting the backside of the wall.

Jack

[Allan Chesney]

Jack's suggestion is the proper way to do it but, since the property is otherwise flat, you may like to consider another option:  You could just lower the Terrain by 24" and add a 24" thick floor (by Picking Points) to act as the Terrain leaving a rectangular opening where the drive is and use the Ramp tool (from Stairs) to make the slope.
It will complain about setting a Floor texture to grass of course, but will still accept it.

You may want to set up a Location for this floor (or use the Foundation location with the Floor Height adjusted) so when you insert objects outside the house they will automatically sit on this floor (otherwise you would have a Elevate each item after insertion).

A varient of Jack's solution, that still uses the Terrain and Pads, is to just use the Slope tool to slope the edge of the Terrain all the way across, and use two Pads to make each side of the drive level again.

Allan

[keyboardman]

Okay all this is what I've got. I worked with Jack's instructions and it took me a moment to figure it all out. I believe
I've got it or I'm close to it. Initially when using the pad tool to fill in the voided grass portion, the pad would just
follow the plateau. I finally set the pad to not hug the terrain and adjusted the thickness. I tried to use a floor in place
of the pad with elevate which worked okay but went changing the properties to grass for some reason it would never
match. Anyway here's my sample. And once again, as usual I've got some roofing issues, I sure wish I can figure that
part out, but that's for another post

[Jack Zimmer]

Looks good !

You can adjust the pitch of the plateau / select it and in pop up, use the slider bar to increase or decrease pitch. Drive by terrain will automatically adjust.

Glad you found 'hug terrain option'... that would have been my next post :-)

Jack

[Allan Chesney]

I tried to use a floor in place of the pad with elevate which worked okay but went changing the properties to grass for some reason it would never match.

I think you may have misunderstood what I meant. The floor I suggested was to cover the WHOLE Terrain area, not just to fill the gap behind the wall. Done this way it would not have to match anything (other than the grass at the bottom of the wall). Anyway, no matter - you seem to have got it sorted using the Terrain method.

Allan

[keyboardman]

I would like to thank the both of you, Allan and Jack for all your help with this. On the next project
I will give your example a try Allan. I'm still not quite sure why with you use the for and change
the appearance to concrete it looks different. Anyway I'm still having trouble getting the roof
on the rear portion of the house to gable. I was able to do the front portion. See the attached
photo on my link. The roof over the garage is a hip but over the rear section only is gable.

https://picasaweb.google.com/108615520453907025015/TurbofloorPlan?authuser=0&feat=directlink