Adding a Height Painter

The Height Painter object lets you sculpt the terrain by
"painting" the heights. This only affects the terrain heights, not the material
displayed on the surface of the terrain.
To add a Height Painter:
1.
Click the Add Height Painter button that is found near the top of
the screen under the Terrain tab.
2.
Click an area of your landscape design to place the first corner of the Height
Painter.
3.
Click another area of your landscape design to place the opposite corner of the
Height Painter.
Important:
Be sure the Height Painter fully covers the area that you want to modify before
you start painting. The terrain height adjustments are relative to the
underlying terrain, so moving or resizing the Height Painter could cause the
painted heights to become invalid, in which case you would need to erase the
heights and start over.
To use the painting tools:
1.
Click the desired Height Painter to select it.
2.
Click the desired tool button. For example, click the Raise/Lower button
to raise or lower the terrain.
3.
Set the desired brush properties, primarily the Brush Size and Brush
Height. Use a small brush for localized changes, or a larger brush to affect
larger areas. Enter a positive height to raise the terrain, or a negative height
to lower the terrain.
4.
Select the desired brush shape. Default options include Circle and Square, but
you can also select Custom Shape to use a shape from the shape library.
5.
Click and drag the mouse over the terrain you want to modify. Do this as many
times as needed.
6.
To undo the last painting operation, click Undo.
The following tools are available:
Tool |
Description |
Raise/Lower |
Raise or lower the terrain heights by the value
specified in the Brush Height property. |
Flatten |
Set the terrain heights to the value specified by
the Brush Height property. |
Clamp Min |
Clamp the minimum terrain heights to the value
specified by the Brush Height property. |
Clamp Max |
Clamp the maximum terrain heights to the value
specified by the Brush Height property. |
Smooth |
Reduce sudden changes in the terrain
heights. |
Roughen |
Add random variation to the terrain heights. The
Brush Height property determines the maximum height variation. The Brush
Taper property determines how far apart the random height variations will
be. |
Erase |
Erase previous painting operations (click and drag
over the areas you want to undo your height changes). |
Erase All |
Click this button to erase all painting operations
for the currently selected Height Painter. |
Below are some examples of the Height Painter tools.

Example |
Description |
1 |
The Raise/Lower tool was used multiple
times. Each time, the brush size was reduced to make the mound. |
2 |
Starting with #1, the Flatten tool was used
to create the shelf. |
3 |
Starting with #2, the Clamp Max tool was
used to clamp the maximum height. |
4 |
Similar to #1, but a negative height was used for
the Raise/Lower tool. |
5 |
Starting with #4, the Clamp Min tool was
used to clamp the minimum height to slightly below 0. |
6 |
Starting with an empty Height Painter, the
Roughen tool was used to create the random height variations. The
Smooth tool was then used to soften the
result. |
The landscape design shown below uses a Height Painter for
the raised flower bed with a flattened top. The Raise/Lower tool was used to as
described in example #1, and the flat area was created using the Clamp Max tool
as described in example #3.

Tips:
• Only
the terrain inside the Height Painter can be modified.
•
Multiple Height Painters can be used if needed. However, you can only
paint on the currently selected Height Painter.
• The
Brush Height slider is limited to plus or minus 50 feet (15.24 m), but by
typing a value in the text field, it can be increased to plus or minus 300 feet
(91.44 m).
• If a
Height Painter overlaps other terrain sculpting objects, it may be necessary to
modify the Terrain Sculpting
Order.
• The
painting operations are dependent on the underlying terrain. Therefore, ensure
the size, placement, and sculpting order are all set properly before you start
painting. Otherwise, the heights you paint may become invalid, in which case you
would need to erase them and start over.
See also:
Height Painter
Properties Setting Object
Properties Selecting Objects Selecting Points Editing Objects Adding Slope Adding a Height Map Adding a Height Grid
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