Terrain Tools

There are many tools available for creating terrain. All tools are accessible through the Terrain menu.

Select Terrain> Terrain Perimeter to create a terrain perimeter.

Introductory Training Video: Creating a Terrain Perimeter

The terrain perimeter is a closed polyline defining the boundary of the terrain that generates in 3D views. If the terrain perimeter does not display on the screen, click the Fill Window button.

If you create a terrain perimeter after you have drawn a building or walls, the terrain perimeter encompasses everything in floor plan view.

It can be resized and edited like other polylines. See "Editing Closed-Polyline Based Objects".

A CAD polyline can be converted into a terrain perimeter. See "Editing Terrain Objects".

If you do not add any terrain elevation data within the terrain perimeter, the terrain remains flat at the elevation 0' - 0".

The terrain perimeter contains a variety of properties that can be customized. Many of these properties affect how the terrain displays when modeled in 3D. See "Terrain Specification Dialog".

Click the Terrain Specification button to open the Terrain Specification dialog. The Terrain Specification dialog controls how terrain is generated and how it displays in 3D views. See "Terrain Specification Dialog".

Select Terrain> Build Terrain to generate the terrain surface based on the provided elevation data. See "Building the Terrain".

Select Clear Terrain to remove contour lines and 3D surfaces generated by the program based on the provided elevation data. Elevation data entered manually remains. See "Clearing the Terrain".