Interactive terrain editing

The Terrain Edit Brush and Terrain Reset Brush tools allow you to interactively change the elevation of the terrain in your scene.

Tip:

• To use the CityEngine tools, ensure the Tool Options window is open by clicking Window > Tool Options in the main menu.
• Not all CityEngine tools have options under Tool Options.

Set terrain height

To edit the height of the terrain, click the Terrain Edit Brush tool or click Terrains > Terrain Edit Brush in the main menu.

In the scene, click the terrain to adjust the height. Click and hold to continuously brush the terrain to the new height. You can change brush options, such as height, brush size, or smoothing terrain, in the Terrain Edit Brush tool options.

Terrain Edit Brush Tool Options

The Terrain Edit Brush tool includes the following options:

Terrain Edit Brush
Brush Size (m)	The brush size in meters defining the radius in which the terrain height is adjusted.
Elevation Picker	Allows you to pick the terrain height at the location of your mouse by clicking a terrain in the Viewport. Press (y) to turn the elevation picker toggle on and off.
Height (m)	The height in meters in which the terrain is adjusted.
Smooth Borders	Applies a smooth transition method at the brush border between the edited and the original terrain. None: No smoothing is applied. Smooth Range: Applies smoothing to the terrain in which the relative height difference at the brush border is interpolated within the specified range defined in meters (see Range). Constant Gradient: Applies a slope with a constant up or down gradient defined in degrees (see Gradient).
Range (m)	Radial range in meters in which to apply smooth transition. Available for the Smooth Range and the Constant Gradient methods.
Gradient (°)	The gradient in degrees of the border slope. Available for the Constant Gradient method.
Easing	Applies a non-linear smoothing in order to avoid sharp edges at the inner and outer fronts of the border region. When the toggle key is off, the smoothing is applied linearly. Available for the Smooth Range method.

Reset terrain

To reset the terrain to the original height, click the Terrain Reset Brush tool or click Terrains > Terrain Reset Brush in the main menu.

In the scene, click the terrain to reset it to its original height. Click and hold to continuously reset the terrain. You can set the brush size in Terrain Reset Brush tool options.

Terrain Reset Brush Tool Options

The Terrain Reset Brush tool includes the following options:

Terrain Reset Brush
Brush Size	The brush size in meters defining the radius within which the terrain is reset.
Smooth Borders	Applies a smooth transition method at the brush border between the edited and the original terrain. None: No smoothing is applied. Smooth Range: Applies smoothing to the terrain in which the relative height difference at the brush border is interpolated within the specified range defined in meters (see Range). Constant Gradient: Applies a slope with a constant up or down gradient defined in degrees (see Gradient).
Range (m)	Radial range in meters in which to apply smooth transition. Available for the Smooth Range and the Constant Gradient methods.
Gradient (°)	The gradient in degrees of the border slope. Available for the Constant Gradient method.
Easing	Applies a non-linear smoothing in order to avoid sharp edges at the inner and outer fronts of the border region. When the toggle key is off, the smoothing is applied linearly. Available for the Smooth Range method.

Note:

Reset means restoring the original height defined by the elevation attribute of the terrain layer.

Globally reset terrain

You can reset a single terrain or all terrains simultaneously using the Reset Terrain tool. Click Terrains > Reset Terrain.

Reset settings

Terrain	Choose which terrain to reset or select All.
Constraint	Everywhere: All terrains are completely reset. Inside selected shapes only: Only the terrain vertices intersecting the currently selected shapes are reset.
Add border	If enabled, a small border region around the shapes is reset, too. Only meaningful if Constraint is set to Inside selected shapes only.