Terrain editing (Terrain & Sculptor)
How a mountain comes about is shown by Getting started 5: place a patch, click it again, shape it with the four brushes. What follows here goes beyond that.
The sculptor on a terrain patch, in the 3D view.
The patch
Grid points X and Y are the patch's most important value. The brushes only move heights that exist as support points: a patch that's too coarse can't be shaped finely, one that's too fine costs computing time for detail nobody sees. Start coarse and create finer patches where you need detail.
Alongside that are Width, Depth, and one material each for the top, the sides, and the bottom.
Brushes
- Aim by ground plane helps on steep slopes, where the flank is in the way and you mean the foot of it. The usual choice is , aiming by surface picking.
- Shift raises or lowers the whole patch by an amount, without touching its shape: the fastest way to bring a finished terrain up to the height of the track.
- Brush radius and shift are lengths and follow Model scale for lengths and sizes. Strength is a proportion.
Surface colouring
Surface colouring colors the surface by height and steepness, instead of the material: Alpine, Meadow, Moorland, Desert, Autumn, or None. Colours start at and Colours span set the height range the palette runs across.
Match colours to terrain in the tool window sets both from the actual heights. That way the snow ends up on the peak.
With multiple patches, select them all together
The button sets one height range for all selected patches. Adjusted one at a time, a color band ends up cutting straight across continuous terrain.
Contour lines
The patch can draw contour lines, on request, in the plan and in 3D, with adjustable spacing, start height and color. On paper they replace the 3D view.
Contour lines know nothing of cutouts
They show the slope as it would run without a cutting, and in 3D they run straight across the open pit. For a tunnel that's correct, since the mountain above it is still there.
Multiple patches
Split terrain… in the context menu cuts a patch into blocks, Merge terrain blocks joins them back together. This gets you different resolutions in different places, and blocks that individually fit your printer.
A second click always opens only one block, and a brush stroke stops at the seam. So select all the blocks and call up Sculpt terrain blocks together…: the brush then runs across the seams.
Merging is only offered when the blocks form a rectangle and nothing built in would be lost, such as a tunnel.
Terrain last
Settle the track and its heights first (Embankments and ramps) and only then adjust the terrain. Tunnels and cuttings from annotations build themselves in on refresh.