Terrain tools

[Anonymous]

A Terrain Tool Palette is needed. Maybe merged with the currently available SEO palette. There could be an option if the operation is done on terrain so that the subtracted piece is kept as a "to be demolished" mesh and that can be measured and dimensioned, also shown on plan properly.

Currently we have our base terrain and then you have to either copy the first one and perform SEO to the second one so that you can dig where you need to but also keep your original intact. but in order to see what you have removed you need to do some more SEOs using the original terrain (intersect?). also you cant see you dig sites in your plan and cant place a level dimension or dimensions in general.

a second method (very messy) would be to chop up your terrain where you need to dig and so starting with one mesh you will have several separate meshes after that. The pieces that are to be removed will be placed under "to be demolished" renovation status. The plus side of this is that you can see the removed pieces with the "to be demolished" graphic override and measure them as they are separate pieces. but this produces ofcourse more lines on your plan where you have cut the terrain.

the third method that i currently use and suits me best is to always keep a mesh intact, a copy in a separate layer to perform all my SEOs and finally place zones where i dig. that way you have complete control over your digs, zone labels that show the home story level or sea level dimension and area and volume of every dig and you can schedule all of that easily. Also after placing the zones you have to cut their top off using a third terrain so that we can keep only what is underground. So three terrains (original-solid body, SEO edited -solid body, zone cutter original - top surface only) but its the cleanest solution so far for me.

So having explained all the different methods i have used, i believe some kind of terrain tool is needed in con juction with the SEOs we already use so that we can dig and measure easily. Maybe SEOs could be a bit more feature rich.

[PB]

The terrain tool seems to be a relic from a long distant past !

An entirely re-thought terrain tool would be ideal: Renovation filter functionality, all the issues mentioned above, easier manipulation (modifying the terrain using contour lines, grade & excavation tools, operations available to the morph tool, calculation of excavation & fill volumes, etc.) and more versatile import of external data direct to a terrain object (Google Earth ! ! ! ), roads, paths, landscaping, 'drawing' on the landscape (as on morphs), etc.

[David O]

Hi 

Do you use the UK & Ireland version of Archicad & have a current UAS subscription, if so there is a terrain tool, see the attached screen shot.
If you have a current UAS go to your help menu & select UAS downloads then log in & download the tool, this tool will also do cut & fill calks for you