How to Develop Terrain and Building Separately

[KennethEvans]

I have searched fairly extensively for this topic but have a not found a workable solution. It seems to be something that others would want to do as the Terrain can be resource intensive.

 

It is not easy to copy the terrain only to another plan, or at least I have not found a way.  I can copy the perimeter, which becomes a polyline.  I can then create a new perimeter of the same size. I can then shift-select every terrain item and copy them to the plan with the new perimeter.  This seems to work but is tedious and error prone.

 

I can retain just the Terrain in a plan.  In another plan with the building I can do Edit | Edit Area | All Floors, then draw a marquee and copy the building.  However, when I paste this into the new plan, some things move. I ones I have caught are Doric Columns (Millwork) and foundation supports I added as to support the columns, which are Geometric Shapes.

These have a Floor to Bottom distance in Open Object.  This and the other parameters have not changed. What seems to be happening is that what it thinks is the Bottom has changed.  This can be seen in the screen shot. The plates which are up on the columns were under the columns in the original plan. Some of the 18 x18 foundation posts, which are Geometric Objects, have moved up, but not all of them.

 

I have not checked if copying the Terrain does not also have this problem.  I only tried it with a simple model.

 

1. So a good procedure for developing the terrain apart from the building would be really useful.

 

2. Some explanation of what it thinks the floor is and how to get around the problem that happens in the screenshot would also be useful.

 

Thanks.

[Arkytek]

I look forward to seeing any helpful answers for this query as your idea would be quite useful.

 

Granville

[KennethEvans]

I just found that for the objects that moved on coping, they were set to Elevation Reference=From Floor (in Open Object). This apparently is the default. Changing them to Absolute fixed the problem. Then they don't move when copied. It also made them easier to position accurately. There are also options for From Terrain, Ceiling, or Roof.

 

So this seems to be a fairly easy way to add a building to a terrain-only plan.  Once the building is there replacing it or removing it, may be a little problematic but probably doable.  I haven't tried that yet.

 

 

[DavidJPotter]

Ken for years and many versions I create the terrain in the plan that contains the structures. I see NO REASON to make it more difficult that it is natively. Terrain was added as a  feature in the year 2,000 AD (Version 7, not X7 but 7), and so since then Terrain is modulated relative to itself and then aligned, using the ""Building Pad" input box for that specific purpose. Of course, raw terrain does not take into account any altering of terrain required by the structure, that you must figure out yourself.

 

DJP

[DavidJPotter]

These Help articles and videos may be of some additional help: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/search/?default_tab=all&q=terrain

 

DJP