Align shapes to terrain

The Align shapes to terrain tool Align shapes to terrain tool aligns shapes to arbitrary terrains (map layers with attribute elevation defined) or to the y=0 level. All currently selected shapes and all shapes of the selected layers are aligned. The shapes are aligned to a terrain, using an alignment function and an optional offset. You can access the Align shapes to terrain tool Align shapes to terrain tool the following ways:

  • Click the Align shapes to terrain tool Align shapes to terrain tool on the toolbar.
  • Click Shapes > Align shapes to terrain in the main menu.
Shapes not aligned to terrain.
Shapes not aligned to terrain.
Shapes aligned to a terrain.
Shapes aligned to a terrain.

Align shapes to terrain options

The following parameters control the alignment:

Align function

The alignment function to apply to the vertices of the shape polygons.

  • Project All—Projects all shape vertices onto the terrain.
  • Project Below—Projects the vertices located below the terrain only.
  • Project to Object Average—Projects the shape vertices to the average of the vertices.
  • Translate to Average—Translates the shape to the average elevation of the projected vertices.
  • Translate to Maximum—Translates the shape to the maximum elevation of the projected vertices.
  • Translate to Minimum—Translates the shape to the minimal elevation of the projected shape vertices on the terrain.

Terrain

The terrain to align the shapes. All attribute layers with an elevation attribute plus the y=0 level are listed here.

Offset

The offset to add after alignment to the y-coordinate of the shape points.