Adding a Region

A region is a closed area filled with a material. It can be used for ground cover, driveways, play areas, and more. Regions can have straight or curved edges, and can be flat or mounded. Regions of the same material can overlap without seams. Realtime Landscaping Pro includes a large number of materials, including grass, rock, stone, and brick.

To add a region:

1.   Click Add Region.

2.   Draw the region's outline by clicking to add points. Press Backspace to remove the last point. Press Esc to cancel.

3.   Click the starting point to close the outline. Or, right-click to automatically join the last point to the first.

A region was used to create the flower bed used in the example below.

Changing the Shape

Once a region has been added, it can be easily changed. This includes moving points, adding & deleting points, and so forth. See Editing Points for more information.

Setting Region Height

Regions can be used to form a mound (berm) or depression, allowing you to create uneven terrain that more closely matches your property.

To add a mound or depression:

1.   Select the region.

2.   Change the Height property as desired. Use positive numbers to build a mound, or negative numbers to build a depression.

Here are some sample grassy regions. The one on the left uses a height of 3', while the one on the right uses a height of -3'.

For more information about terrain sculpting, see Sculpting the Terrain.

Working with Overlapping Regions

You can create multiple overlapping regions to get the exact shape you need. If both objects use the same material properties, then they will overlap without seams. This is shown in the following examples:

Controlling the Render Order

When working with overlapping regions that use different materials, you can control which ones are drawn first. For example, you can use this to ensure a path runs on top of a grassy area. You can control the render order of the following objects:

•      Region

•      Path

•      Pond

•      Stream

•      Overlay

To change a region's render order:

1.   Select the region object you want to change (Region, Path, Pond, Stream, and/or Overlay).

2.   If you want the region to render on top of all other regions, right-click and select Render Order > Bring to Front. Or, if you want the region to render beneath all other regions, right-click and select Render Order > Send to Back.

If you want to bring the region one more step towards the top of a group of overlapping objects, right-click and select Render Order > Bring Forward. Or, if you want to bring the region one more step towards the bottom of a group of objects, right-click and select Render Order > Send Backward.

Note: You can change multiple regions with this command. For example, selecting multiple regions and using Render Order > Bring to Front will cause the selected regions to render on top of the unselected regions.

In the following example, a region with mulch is incorrectly rendering on top of a path.

This is fixed by selecting the path and using the Bring to Front command.

Tips:

•      Adding a region is easiest in the top-down view.

•      If you are building driveways, patios, or other geometric shapes, make sure grid-snap is enabled, or it will be difficult to draw your region using exact dimensions. See Snap Settings for more information.

•      For more control over the shape of your region, you can easily add more points. See Inserting & Deleting Points for more information.

See also:

Region Properties
Setting Object Properties
Selecting Objects
Selecting Points
Editing Objects
Adding a Path
Saving and Loading Shapes