Align terrain to shapes

The Align terrain to shapes tool aligns terrains to selected shapes.

To align terrain to shapes, click the Align terrain to shapes tool or click Terrains > Align terrain to shapes in the main menu.

Note:

The Align terrain to shapes tool aligns one or all terrains to the shapes currently selected.

Tool settings

The Align terrain to shapes tool has the following options:

Terrain	The terrain that should be aligned or All.
Raise terrain	If enabled, terrain vertices below selected shapes are aligned.
Maximal raise distance	If the distance between the terrain and shape is smaller, terrain vertices below the shape are raised.
Lower terrain	If enabled, terrain vertices above selected shapes are aligned.
Maximal lower distance	If the distance between the terrain and shape is smaller, terrain vertices above the shape are lowered.
Add border	If enabled, a small border region around the shapes is aligned, too.
Write cut/fill volumes to attributes	If enabled, for each selected shape cut and fill volumes in cubic meters are approximately calculated. The values are written into the object attributes (fields cutVolume and fillVolume).
Smooth borders	Applies a smooth transition method at the 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 border is interpolated within the specified range defined in meters (see Border range). Constant gradient—Applies a slope with a constant up or down gradient defined in degrees (see Border gradient).
Border range (m)	Radial range in meters in which to apply a smooth transition. Available for the Smooth range and the Constant gradient methods.
Border gradient (°)	The gradient in degrees of the border slope. Available for the Constant gradient method.
Border easing	Applies a nonlinear smoothing to avoid sharp edges at the inner and outer fronts of the border region. When the toggle button is off, the smoothing is applied linearly. Available for the Smooth range method.

Elevation delta maps

When aligning terrains, the original heightmap of the terrain is not modified. The elevation data is stored as a separate image file in a subfolder (named after the CityEngine scene) in the project's data folder. These files and folders should not be renamed or deleted. If required, however, you can modify the elevation delta image file with an image processing tool (for example, apply blurring) and store it under the same name.

Tip:

Use the Align terrain to shapes tool in conjunction with the interactive editing tools.