ATL deleted AC structure, objects displaced using ref. file

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

I have 2 really big problems concerning Artlantis shaders and objects and I was hoping for help. I'll try to give as many details as possible which I think might have sth to do with the problem.

The project is a churchyard reconstruction - lots of trees, sloppy terrain (a huge, tall slub made by 'lifting' from a dwg file), several objects made in AC. Former colleague used version 12 to build them, then my new colleague continued to work on the file using version 15. I have version 16 but am using it only to look at her work. She exported the AC file to ATL format and then I did all the pre-rendering work in ATL 4.1.


1st problem: I did all the shaders+objects work in Artlantis 4.1. I set up a heliodon location, placed half the vegetation, added lights and increased the ground level (from 0 to 40200 cm). Look at the picture 1.
But while I was dragging+dropping flowers a roof of the crurch and 2 other constructions somehow got completely lost. Not just the texture, but the whole roof. See picture 2.
Now, I am relatively new to Artlantis but as far as I know it is not possible to delete a construction that was made in AC, right?

I wanted to fix this by trying to turn on the roof layer. Surprise, it was already visible. But when I look at the shader list, no shaders are displayed on the roof layer. Picture 3 shows how it all should look like, that is an older 'backup file'.

If you know of any way in which I can "turn on" my roof back, please tell. Otherwise I will have to deal with the non-working referencing (problem no 2).

2nd problem: I used the file->use reference file... option to fix this by importing everything from my 'roofless file' into a previous 'backup file' with roof showing (the file lacks lights and half the vegetation). However, all my objects (vegetation), views and lights got to be severely misplaced and didn't cover the terrain + no shader got applied to any AC construction. See what happens at picture 4.

Now you can see 3 groups in the 2D preview - upper right is only the terrain with objects, the middle dotted group is my vegetation after using the reference file, and the left group are also some trees which remained after a older older file->use reference file option (which I deleted from my 'roofless file').

What more I tried:
- My colleague also tried to import everything from the 'roofless file' into a 'backup file' on her PC, also with ATL 4.1. Displacement happened, no shaders applied.
- I tried to use file->use reference file from my 'roofless file' into a 'blanco' atl file which had nothing altered in artlantis. Displacement happened, no shaders applied.
- I went back to AC, did another save as atl file (first creation of atl file from AC 16), tried to use the file->use reference file from my 'roofless file' into it. Displacement happened, no shaders applied.


We have no more ideas on how to solve this problem except to
- do something with the coordinating system? Is there a way I can check if the 'roofless file' and the 'back up file' are equally placed?

- delete the flowers and hope the roof will reappear?

- try to select all displaced objects one by one and drag them to a proper place above the terrain + import all the shaders manually again? Please help me avoid this.

I'll greately appreciate any ideas how to make the roof visible again, or why is the referencing so bad. Please tell, I am starting to lose my mind over this... Thank you!!
Vesna


Pictures:

Picture 1 - my scene with an edited ground altitude:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vjnv5jsswnhep4s/01%20scene.png

Picture 2 - this is what happened to my roof:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dwvqb8pb6bpspqt/02%20problem%20roof.png

Picture 3 - this is how the roof and other constructions should look like:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s2zzplegsp7266b/03%20how%20it%20should%20be.png
Notice the layer in red circle. that one is without shaders in my roofless file, it doesn't show at all in the shaders list.

Picture 4 - this is what happened after referencing:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l75ih8pdoxpsowq/04%20after%20importing%20reference%20file.png

[Anonymous]

Why did you elevate ground level? You will never get a 100% accurate sun position in Artlantis, minor lack of accuracy in longtitute, lattitude (fractions of a second of a degree), and elevation should have little impact on a rendering result.

Try moving ground back down and see if this resolves your problems, also are the elements drawn a long distance from the origin I remember that this can cause significant issues with import and export

[Anonymous]

Hi sboydturner, thanx for your reply.

Yes, the elements are placed +410 m above the ground.

I was told by my former colleague this was because, in order to make a terrain, he had to manually set altitude values for all isohypses point in AC, which he got in a 2D *.dwg file. Now that I am thinking about it, all altitudes are around 415 m asl, so I suppose he started lifting in AC giving the starting value of 0 instead of eg. 410, which is the lowest altitude, grrr.

This resulted in a huge slab height:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1jx4k47w77tz0y9/ground.png

I lifted the ground level because when switching on the "infinite ground" option at 0 level, all I saw around my terrain was black and it was not realistic to render bordering trees. Also, Heliodon sky wasn't visible in many angles. Lifting the ground to 402 m helped a lot with this, but I can't say if that was the cause for a bad referencing to the 'backup file'.

I will do what you suggest and based on your suggestion I got one extra question: is there a way to check if both of my files have the origin center at the same place? If they are different, I could set the origin of the 'roofless file' to match the origin of the 'backup file' and then the referencing should work. Hopefully.

The question of why the whole roof disappeared still remains a mystery to me.

Thanx,
Vesna

[Anonymous]

Dear Scott,

The referencing is WORKING!! I've got my roof back and all the objects and lights are in place!!

I dropped the altitude level like you said and origin related, I opened both files side-by-side and since the scene size was the same, I set the origin to "center, x, y bottom" in both of them. Then I referenced and it worked! Some of the trees are now doubled but it is super easy to just delete them.

Thank you soooo much for advice!!
All the best,
Vesna