Building a patio into sloped terrain

[ericepv]

I am trying to create a sunken patio in sloping terrain. The problem I am having is getting a smooth drop in the grade of the lot without distorting the patio which needs to remain flat. The attached sample file shows what I am trying to achieve with the grey circle representing the area where he patio will be. I tried to subtract this area from the terrain perimeter but found that I cannot subtract and object from terrain like I can with a polyline solid. I've been back and fourth with tech support but so far they have not been able to find a solution.

Any ideas?

Sunken Patio in Sloping Terrain.zip

[ericepv]

One more try...

Sunken Patio in Sloping Terrain.zip

[javatom]

Try opening your terrain DBX and setting the smoothing and triangle count to "low".

[ericepv]

Here's the full working file with the actual patio.

R1--Duhamel-Patio-terrian modified 02.zip

[ericepv]

  On 1/17/2019 at 5:02 PM, javatom said:

Try opening your terrain DBX and setting the smoothing and triangle count to "low".

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I tried that earlier but it had no effect.

[Renerabbitt]

  On 1/17/2019 at 5:05 PM, ericepv said:

I tried that earlier but it had no effect.

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When I want clean sharp drop-offs I use terrain breaks with retaining walls, even if the walls have a grass material applied and are only 1/16" inch thick. Remember to avoid crossing elevation data, as in, avoid crossing an elevation line over an elevation region with conflicting data...think of terrain as molding a piece of clay, everything needs suggested transitions, you can't force it.

[javatom]

The other thing to keep in mind, some items follow terrain and some do not.  You can always place a polyline solid over a terrain and define the elevation as "absolute".  It will not react to the terrain at all.

[ericepv]

  On 1/17/2019 at 5:54 PM, Renerabbitt said:

When I want clean sharp drop-offs I use terrain breaks with retaining walls, even if the walls have a grass material applied and are only 1/16" inch thick. Remember to avoid crossing elevation data, as in, avoid crossing an elevation line over an elevation region with conflicting data...think of terrain as molding a piece of clay, everything needs suggested transitions, you can't force it.

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Thanks for the tip on retaining walls, that made a difference. I still can't get the terrain elevation to mathc the patio perfectly but with the camera angle I'm using, you can't tell.

[ericepv]

  On 1/17/2019 at 7:40 PM, javatom said:

The other thing to keep in mind, some items follow terrain and some do not.  You can always place a polyline solid over a terrain and define the elevation as "absolute".  It will not react to the terrain at all.

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I'll give that a try.

[Alaskan_Son]

  On 1/17/2019 at 5:54 PM, Renerabbitt said:

I use terrain breaks with retaining walls

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This is a confusing statement.  I think it's worth clarifying that a wall set to be a Terrain Retaining Wall includes a Terrain Break as part of the wall itself.  There should be no reason to have both.  Now if you're talking about a Terrain Wall or a normal wall/railing along with a standalone Terrain Break, that's a different thing.

[Renerabbitt]

  On 1/17/2019 at 7:56 PM, Alaskan_Son said:

 

This is a confusing statement.  I think it's worth clarifying that a wall set to be a Terrain Retaining Wall includes a Terrain Break as part of the wall itself.  There should be no reason to have both.  Now if you're talking about a Terrain Wall or a normal wall/railing along with a standalone Terrain Break, that's a different thing.

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  On 1/17/2019 at 7:43 PM, ericepv said:

 

I'll give that a try.

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Michael was right, I should stop giving advice from memory, I meant that I usually use a spline terrain wall with a terrain break. The terrain retaining wall can be difficult in tight spaces-

The terrain wall isn't necessary but from my own experience everything seems to workout better when I have it in place, even if I set it to invisible, not sure that makes sense from a program language stand-point...maybe its just my feel good method.

[ericepv]

  On 1/17/2019 at 8:59 PM, Renerabbitt said:

 

Michael was right, I should stop giving advice from memory, I meant that I usually use a spline terrain wall with a terrain break. The terrain retaining wall can be difficult in tight spaces-

The terrain wall isn't necessary but from my own experience everything seems to workout better when I have it in place, even if I set it to invisible, not sure that makes sense from a program language stand-point...maybe its just my feel good method.

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Your terrain looks better that mine (at least from the angle you showed), I'd appreciate if you could send your changes.

[Renerabbitt]

  On 1/17/2019 at 9:07 PM, ericepv said:

 

Your terrain looks better that mine (at least from the angle you showed), I'd appreciate if you could send your changes.

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https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArIPOe8v1SrkicRfvdk5iVyFvfloAA

I must have one of my huge textures files in plan b/c its well over 25mb...let me know when you get it so I can delete from my drive..you'll be missing textures since I replaced the ones I was missing from your file.

I have linear interpolation turned on, you should turn that off in terrain dbx if you plan on modifying

[Alaskan_Son]

Terrains are all about:

1. Giving Chief the correct elevation data to work with
2. Giving Chief enough elevation data to work with
3. Not giving Chief conflicting or confusing elevation data (i.e. overlapping data or data placed too close together)
4. Understanding the difference between defining your terrain (i.e. elevation data) and modifying the defined terrain (i.e. terrain modifiers).

[ericepv]

Got it, thanks Rene.