MichaelinLeschi

Hi Paladine, I am experiencing the very same issues that you are facing. Like you, I would really appreciate the software designers to make terrain sculpting tools awesome. For the very same reasons you described so well, I have a sloping terrain that needs grading and bulldozing because that all plays directly into design. That said, thanks are due to DJP for sharing the bit about the terrain hole tool. I'll work on learning what that can do for managing terrain issues.

Actually David's solution works in Architectural as well. The Terrain Specification dialogue is not seen on the drop down menus of the Architectural product but is seen by right clicking on the terrain in the plan or in the 3D camera. Still leaves a learning curve for bringing slabs and walls together with precision. Thanks again, your responses saved me a ton of time.

David, Keith: Thanks very much for the feedback. David's solution using Terrain Specification - Building Pad worked. Foundation and Retaining Walls appear relative to the building pad reference. Slabs on the other hand are separately set under Slab Spec to a 'Floor' by default, with options to reference from 'absolute', 'terrain', 'ceiling', 'roof'. It's confusing why there needs to be two separate reference points, one for walls, and one for slabs. It seems they should be tied together for each slab. David's solution is available in the Pro version. As I am using the lower end Architectural, I am thinking to try and reset the dwg imported contour elevations from sea level to an absolute zero. I'll circle back here with results.

Just started using a purchased copy of Home Designer Architectural. I was able to import a terrain from a DWG topo survey. It took a while but I persisted and it came through. The perimeter low point was at about 62' above sea level. The upper end of the perimeter was about 80'. The terrain slopes up. I started to build retaining and foundation walls and each item was far below the terrain as if it was set at a zero elevation. For these walls there is no elevation data input field. I downloaded a trial of Home Designer Pro to see if there was a way to fix this problem. No luck there either. I need to put foundation walls on top of slabs. Can't seem to do it. See the attached screenshot.