ground too high??

[anon125]

i noticed when i put a patio slab down the patio door bottom was below it.
see the fron in the pic?
what have i done??

[Allan Chesney]

The walls are all controlled by the Location settings while the Terrain is set (at 0) in Settings / Program Settings / Terrain.

It sounds as though you may have the ground floor level set to 0 also and by default the wall has a 300mm drop face to cover the floor framing etc,

You could create a new Location to replace the Ground Floor with the right settings or it is probably simpler to just lower the Terrain by using a minus figure.

Allan

[anon125]

i had tried terrain cos the ground slopes about a foot.
so i must have gone up instead of down?
when i remove the slope the doors fit.
see attached with the slope still there.
update: i suspect i had the slope in twice - at least! probably when i duplicated a shrub.
see garden2
still the front door has no room for a step

[Allan Chesney]

I think that by default the Terrain does go up, so if you had a 12" slope then, depending where the house is on the slope, the terrain would potentially partially cover the door.  The simplest thing is to just lower the terrain by 2" or so and your step does appear, with no noticeable visual effect anywhere else (not that I could see anyway).

The other option is to cut the terrain away flat at that point which is probably what would happen in real life but the slope is so slight that in a 3D model such as this, it probably would not show anyway, so lowering the terrain (or raising the door by a couple of inches) would be all you need to do.

The garden design looks great - it will be interesting to see some rendered images when you are finished.

Allan

[anon125]

Thanks allan.
i don't see how to 'elevate' the terrain!

[Allan Chesney]

Settings / Program Settings / Terrain - see my first reply.

Allan

[anon125]

wow deep in the settings!
i usually stay well away from there!
thanks

[Allan Chesney]

Actually this is always the first place I go with any new version. I would suggest you read through every item on each section as they are all your default settings. You may not change much initially but you will find out what can be changed to suit how you want to work (eg. Automatic Floor or Background image - your place would look really good with a mountain scene).

Allan

[anon125]

mountain scene? well there is a mountain nearby but on the other side!
thanks

[Allan Chesney]

You could pretend you had mountains all around!  You can put your own photo in of course but mountains may be more inspiring!

Allan

[Doug.S]

another "trick", especially useful for interior scenes looking out a window....

use you own local photo of the outdoor view for that general direction.....insert a large mirror or similar rectangle (with your photo as a texture material) outside, so it is seen correctly from your camera view (you may need to angle it toward the camera like a photo-board)....then render for better realism.

You can do same for exterior views but may have to watch your photo resolution and size  as well as shadows, to match the view correctly.

It is fast and easy to setup and try.

[Allan Chesney]

You can also do this without the mirror.  Just import the photo (through File/Import - Photoboard Wizard). Set it to the size you require and if you check the 'Billboard' option it will automatically face the camera regardless of the camera angle.  You can easily resize it too after import and it keeps the resolution as well, as it apparently only links to the image.  I imported a 5MB image and set it to 100 metres wide but the file size was only 212KB. You still need to make sure the sun is on the front of it though.

If you import the image to the Background it will always centre behind your model regardless of which side of the house you are looking at, so could be totally wrong. That is why Doug's suggestion of positioning your own photos around the building can be a better option. The photoboard or mirror option will also reflect in water or glass so it looks right, while the background wont produce a reflection. (Another bug that we hope will be fixed sometime.)

Allan

[anon125]

you are very creative!