Program Settings

Program settings let you determine the unit of measurement, 3D graphics options, auto file saving, and more. These options are global to the program, not to a specific landscape design.

To change the program settings:

1.   Click Settings > Program Settings.

2.   Change the settings as desired and click OK.

Unit of measurement
Select the units you want to use for distance measurements. You can change this option at any time. See Entering Distances, below, for more information.

3D Graphics
If your video card supports Realtime Landscaping Architect's minimum requirements for 3D hardware acceleration, then the Hardware acceleration option will be available. If objects aren't rendering properly, or if you are having trouble printing or viewing a walkthrough, try turning off hardware acceleration.

Important: If you change the Hardware acceleration setting, then you will need to stop and restart Realtime Landscaping Architect before your change will take effect.

If hardware acceleration is available, then you can click Hardware settings for some 3D hardware-specific rendering options:

Light coronas
Enables coronas around lights and around the sun during realtime walkthroughs.

Gamma correction
Enables gamma correction during realtime walkthroughs. This helps the graphics appear more crisp and vivid. However, on some LCD monitors this may cause the landscape to appear overly bright and colorful, so you can turn off gamma correction if desired.

Anti-aliasing
Enables anti-aliasing, if supported by your video card. Anti-aliasing helps smooth the jagged edges that often occur during 3D rendering. Anti-aliasing is only used during a realtime walkthrough.

Improved texture filtering
Enables anisotropic texture filtering, if supported by your video card. This helps large flat surfaces to appear less blurry when viewed at an angle.

Advanced lighting effects
Enables specular highlights and other advanced lighting effects if supported by your video card.

Auto file save
Select this option to automatically save your landscape file periodically. You can enter the desired number of minutes between saves. This option is turned off by default.

Highlight object under cursor
When this option is enabled, the object under the cursor will display a highlighted outline to show you what will be selected if you click. This option is on by default.

Reverse mouse wheel zoom direction
Use this option if you want to reverse the zoom direction when using the mouse or zoom tool.

Color scheme
Use this option to change the application's user interface scheme. Several schemes are included, such as brushed metal (the default), teak, and several solid-color schemes.

Entering Distances

When entering a distance measurement, the default is feet for English, and meters for metric. However, you can also specify the units explicitly. For example, use 1m for 1 meter, 1'6" for one and one-half feet, 14cm for 14 centimeters, and so forth. Realtime Landscaping Architect will automatically convert the units you enter to the current measurement system. For example, entering 1m when using English units will be displayed as 3'3".

See also:

Realtime Walkthrough
Environment Settings