Adding a Retaining Wall

Retaining walls are often used on steeply sloped lots and
terraces to provide support and prevent erosion. Retaining walls can also be
freestanding and act as partitions between various parts of your landscape.
To add a retaining wall:
1. Click Add
Retaining Wall.
2. Draw the retaining
wall's outline by clicking to add points. Press Backspace to remove the
last point. Press Esc to cancel.
3. Right-click at the
last point when finished. (Or, to create a closed retaining wall, click the
first point when finished.)
The following is an example of a retaining wall being
drawn.

Below is the completed retaining wall.

Adjusting the Shape of a Retaining Wall
The height of the wall can be adjusted at each point. This
allows you to add retaining walls of many different shapes and sizes to your
landscape designs.
To modify the wall height:
1. Select the retaining
wall.
2. Click Edit
points to enable editing of the retaining wall's points.
3. Select a point where
you want to adjust the wall's height. (You can add additional points if needed
for finer control.)
4. Set the desired
height. (You can also use the mouse to adjust the height of the selected points
by holding down Ctrl while moving the mouse up and down. See Editing Points for details.)
Below is a sloping retaining wall that was made by adding
a point in the middle and increasing its height.

Using the Cut Terrain Feature
A powerful feature of Realtime Landscaping Architect is its
support for retaining walls that realistically cut into the terrain. This is
useful when designing landscapes with large slopes and other varying
topology.
To cut into the terrain:
1. Select the retaining
wall.
2. Select Edit >
Terrain Sculpting Order > Bring to Top. This will ensure the retaining
wall cut is applied after the underlying slope is applied.
3. Click the Cut
terrain option to enable terrain cutting.
4. If the cut is on the
wrong side of the wall, click the Reverse cut direction option.
5. Adjust the height of
the wall at each point as needed to achieve the desired cut.

Creating Terraces
You can use retaining walls to create terraces on your
sloping terrain.
To create terraces:
1. Create the desired
slope using the terrain topology tools. See Sculpting the Terrain for details.
2. Add a retaining wall
for the lower terrace level. Configure the retaining wall to cut the terrain as
described above.
3. Set the
Height property to the desired height of the terrace level. Or, use the
Auto wall height property to calculate the heights automatically based on
the surrounding terrain.
4. Add a new retaining
wall for the next level and set the Elevation property. This will typically be
0' for the first level, a larger value (such as 2') for the second level,
etc.
5. Repeat for each
level.
The following
example uses two retaining walls to create a terrace which has been used as a
flower bed.

Tips:
• When
using the Cut Terrain option, also use the Auto Wall Height option to
automatically calculate the height of the retaining wall based on the
surrounding terrain.
•
Adding retaining walls is easiest in the plan
view.
• Be
sure grid-snap is enabled, or it will be difficult to build your wall using
exact dimensions. See Snap Settings for
more information.
• If
you just want a small wall to use as edging, you might consider using Edging instead.
• If
your retaining wall isn't cutting into the terrain as expected, it may be
because you added the terrain objects after the retaining wall. To control the
order that terrain sculpting objects are applied, see Controlling the Terrain Sculpting
Order
See also:
Retaining Wall
Properties Setting Object
Properties Selecting Objects Editing Points Editing Objects Sculpting the
Terrain
|