Adding a Stream

Streams can be an attractive addition to any landscape design. A stream is an adjustable path of water in Realtime Landscaping Architect, which can be modified in many of the same ways as a pond.

To add a stream:

1.   Click the Add Stream button that is found near the top of the screen under the Water Features tab.

2.   Estimate how wide the stream should be, and modify the Width property as needed.

3.   Draw the centerline of the stream by clicking the left mouse button to add points. Press the Backspace key to remove the last point added, and press the Esc key to cancel. If you would like to input the distance and angle manually, place at least one point and then press the Enter key.

Note: It doesn’t matter which direction you draw the stream. You can change the water flow direction later.

4.   To finish drawing the stream, right-click to place the last point.

Changing the Shape

After a stream is added to your landscape design, it can be easily changed by modifying the points that control the stream’s shape. For details, see Editing Points.

Water Flow Direction

You can easily control the water flow direction by defining its path.

To set the water flow direction:

1.   Click the Edit Flow Path button found in the properties to enable flow path editing mode.

2.   To reverse the flow direction, click Reverse flow direction.

3.   Edit points as needed to define the desired flow point. You can add and remove points as needed.

4.   When finished, click the Edit Flow Path button to disable flow path editing mode.

Rock Border

Just like ponds, streams also support rock borders. The rock border can be toggled on and off per stream or per edge.

To turn the rock border on or off per-edge:

1.   Click the Edit border button found in the properties to enable rock border editing mode.

2.   Click the edges of your stream where you would like to toggle the rock border on or off.

3.   When finished, click the Edit border button to disable rock border editing mode.

Controlling the Render Order

When overlapping objects, such as streams, regions, and ponds, are added to your landscape design, you can control which ones appear on top. For example, if a stream is added to the back yard of your design, then a large grass region is added to the entire back yard, you could determine that the steam should appear on top of the grass region so that it does not appear as if the stream has a grass floor. See the Working with Overlapping Regions portion of the Adding a Region topic for a more detailed explanation with images.

Customizing the Plan View

Streams can be given separate materials in the Plan and Perspective views. This is useful if you wish your Plan view to look stylized, but want the Perspective view to look realistic. To allow a separate material to be shown in each view, click the Custom appearance in each view option, found in the properties. Two tabs will appear: Plan and Perspective. These tabs allow you to customize how the steam appears in the corresponding view.

Tips:

•      Important: Depending on your local building codes, streams deeper than a certain depth may require a fence or have other restrictions for safety purposes. Please check your local building codes before building a real stream.

•      Streams and Ponds are very similar. For information on ponds, see Adding a Pond.

•      Streams can be added in either the Plan or Perspective views, but are easiest to add in the Plan view.

•      Fountains and waterfalls can be integrated into your water garden design; see Adding a Fountain and Adding a Waterfall for more information.

•      Streams can be difficult to design if grid snap is enabled because the points of the stream will snap to the grid intersections as you move them. You can toggle the grid snapping off by pressing Ctrl + G on your keyboard. For more information, see Snap Settings.

•      Landscaping rocks can be added in and around your streams; see Adding a Rock for details.

•      Fish are not added to streams; the koi fish are only placed in ponds.

•      To change the length of your stream, add, delete, or move the points that define the stream’s shape. For information on adding and removing points, see Inserting and Deleting Points.

•      Plants can be added in and around your streams; see Adding a Plant for details.

See also:

Stream Properties
Setting Object Properties
Selecting Objects
Selecting Points
Editing Objects
Adding a Pond
Adding a Waterfall
Adding a Fountain
Adding a Rock
Adding a Rock Border
Realtime Walkthrough
Saving and Loading Shapes