Editing Points

Many objects, such as houses, ponds, and edging, are defined using a 3-dimensional outline. The Edit Points button is used to enable editing of the points that define the outline.

To enable point editing:

1.   Click Edit Points in the object's property window. The button will turn yellow and the object's points will appear in the view.

2.   Edit the points as desired (see the following topics for details).

To disable point editing:

1.   Click Edit Points. The button will turn blue, and the object's points will disappear from the view.

2.   You can then select and edit objects normally.

When editing points, the move, rotate, and scale tools will only affect the selected points, not the entire object. Also, you will only be able to select points, not other objects.

Editing Curve Types

Some objects, such as houses and fences, always use straight lines between points. Other objects, such as fill regions, swimming pools, and lot boundaries, can use either straight or curved lines, and you can specify the type at each point.

Four types of curves are supported: Straight, Spline, Bezier, and Bezier Corner. Each type is illustrated below:

Straight

Use this option for a sharp corner.

Spline

Use this option for a smooth curve at the point. This option automatically rounds the corner based on the surrounding points.

Bezier

Use this option for a smooth curve at the point. You can control the shape of the curve by dragging the blue dots, called handles. The distance between the handles controls the sharpness of the curve, and the angle controls the curve itself. The handles are linked, so when you move one, the other will be adjusted automatically.

Bezier Corner

This is similar to Bezier, but the handles are not linked so you can move each one independent of the other. This allows you to create a sharp corner, with a smooth curve on each side.

Scaling Bezier Handles

You can use the Scale tool to control the shape of Bezier curves.

To scale Bezier curve handles:

1.   Click Edit Points in the object's property window. The button will turn yellow and the object's points will appear in the view.

2.   Select the points you want to scale.

3.   Click the Scale tool.

4.   Move the cursor over any one of the handles (it doesn't matter which). The cursor will change to the scale icon.

5.   Click and drag to scale the handles.

In the example below, the shape on the right is a copy of the one on the left. The handles of the shape on the right have been scaled using the above technique.

Editing Points of Multiple Objects

A powerful feature of Realtime Landscaping Architect is the ability to edit multiple objects of the same type at once. This ability extends to their points. For example, suppose you are building a multilevel deck and want to adjust the points of all of the decks at once. You could select all of the deck objects and click Edit Points. The points for all of the selected decks will appear and you can edit them normally. This feature only works with objects of the same type, however. For example, you cannot edit the points of a house and deck at the same time.

Tips:

•      You can select the two points that form an edge by clicking the edge.

•      You can save and load shapes, even if the shapes belong to different objects. See Saving and Loading Shapes for details.

See also:

Selecting Points
Moving Points
Rotating Points
Scaling Points
Inserting & Deleting Points
Using Automatic Dimensions
Undoing and Redoing Changes
Saving and Loading Shapes