Draw your first area

This is the whole idea of Lan3D in one lesson: draw an area on the plan, give it an altitude, and the plan becomes terrain.

Before you start

Open a model in Split view, so the plan is on the left and the 3D view on the right. Make sure the Terrain tab is selected in the sidebar — it is the band that shapes the ground, and it is selected when a model is new.

Steps

1. Pick the rectangle. Click the Shape button on the tool rail and choose Rectangle — or just press R.
2. Drag across the plan. Press where one corner should go, drag to the opposite corner, let go. Try about six by four metres; the edges read their lengths as you drag. Hold Shift for a square.
3. Look right. The area is selected, and in 3D it already stands a little proud of the ground.
4. Give it an altitude. The altitude slider sits at the edge of the plan. Drag it, or click the number and type 1.5 for a metre and a half. The 3D ground rises to meet it, with a bank grading down to the ground around it.
5. Draw a second one that overlaps the first, and type 0.6 for it. The two fuse into one piece of ground with a step between them.

What just happened

An area on the terrain band is a level: its altitude says how high the ground is held inside it, and the ground in between is worked out for you. A negative altitude digs down instead — that is a pond, and it is a later lesson.

Tips

• Draw first, set the altitude after: the shape is selected the moment you let go.
• The slider's number is also the altitude new shapes will get, so set it once and draw several at the same level.
• Nothing is lost by experimenting — ⌘Z takes any of it back.

Next

Select, move and resize — now that something is drawn, learn to pick it up and change it.