Terrain specialist needed-my head hurts

[ricatic]

I have been trying for many, many hours to build the needed walkout terrain plan for my own house project. I have read all the knowledge base articles and watched the videos...I have used elevation lines, areas, flat area modifiers and chants to the terrain gods...still can't get it anywhere close to right...I have 40 plus years of real world dirt experience...I could have done all the dozer work required to grade the site in the time I have spent working on this terrain model...the desired grade profile for the front and left side are acceptable...attempts to lower the grade for the walkout result in dislocation of the driveway elevation...creating a mini skateboard park...retaining walls were not originally part of the design but are acceptable...the flat area depicted with the hatched part between garage and house will provide a platform for the A/C compressor...any help will be much appreciated...

 

Regards

 

Rick

Kingston_Ranch_WO_revision_2_terrain_questions.plan

[Jo_Ann]

You have to open the terrain perimeter, and uncheck "flatten pad".   You will also have to raise the "subfloor height above terrain" to about 18", to slightly raise the house foundation above the ground.  This means that some adjustments will likely need to be done (porch floor, garage floor).

I  shaped, and then set, the orange colored elevation region to 0", and combined it into one region with the other region that you had to the right side of the property.

I set the green colored elevation region at -102" to reveal the concrete patio (-107" was too low!).

I added some retaining walls, as you suggested.

I did not change anything else.

You might want to add railings on top of the retaining walls, for safety.

 

  

[ricatic]

Jo Anne

 

Thanks so much for the tutorial...I never really wanted to use retaining walls...your advice on some grade changes and especially the unflatten pad tip were the game changers...voila... no retaining walls...I attached the plan again because I don't know the techniques for other attachments,,,maybe someone can help me learn them...it looks great and even has my RV pad included

 

Once I got the elevations where you placed them...I used 50 years of playing in the dirt experience to manuever the elevation planes where I needed them...the couple of areas that still need a bit of attention can be fixed with a flat shovel and a rake...

 

Thanks again

 

Regards

 

Rick

Kingston_Ranch_WO_revision_2.plan