Adding an Overlay

An Overlay object is a picture that is draped over the terrain. For example, you could import a blueprint of your house and trace over the exterior it using the House tool. This can help you design more quickly and with a greater degree of accuracy.

To add an overlay:

1.   Import the picture you want to use as an overlay using the Picture Import Wizard.

2.   Click the Add Overlay button, which is found near the top of the screen under the Utilities tab.

3.   Click the picture of the default overlay that appears to the right of the screen, and then select the overlay that you recently imported from the menu that appears.

4.   Click on your landscape design where you wish to place the overlay.

5.   Position and resize the overlay as needed. To size the overlay accurately, use the Resize using Known Distance property that appears to the right of the screen.

The picture below shows an example of a simple house blueprint that has been added to the landscape design using the overlay object.

In the picture below, a house has been drawn on top of an overlay using the House tool.

Tips:

•      You can import a satellite image of your property as an overlay using the Google Maps Import Wizard.

•      An Overlay must first be imported before it can be added to your landscape design. Pictures can be imported using the Picture Import Wizard.

•      Overlays appear in the Top-Down and Perspective views as well as during Realtime Walkthroughs. If you wish to hide an Overlay during a Walkthrough, uncheck the Show in Realtime Walkthrough option. See below for more information.

•      When you have finished tracing over your Overlay, you can either delete it or hide it. All Overlays in your landscape design can be hidden using the Show/Hide Objects dialog. Alternately, the Overlay could be placed in a hidden layer; see Using Layers for more information.

See also:

Overlay Properties
Google Maps Import Wizard
Setting Object Properties
Snap Settings
Selecting Objects
Selecting Points
Editing Objects
Picture Import Wizard