8. Defining surfaces
In order to define surfaces please proceed as following:
- Press the key <F4> or select Define new surface clockwise from the Edit
menu or on the Surfaces tab.
- Select the desired vertices of the surface clockwise in the location panorama window.
- To finish the surface definition, click on the first vertex again. Alternatively you can press the Enter key or click again on the Define new surface clockwise button on the Surfaces tab. In order to truncate the action, press the <ESC>.
The new surface will be displayed on the location panorama, on the measuring panoramas as well as in the 3D view framed with red-white lines:
The properties of the surface are specified on the Surfaces tab in the Scenery data window:
The entry in the field Texture source will define the visual properties of the surface:
- When set to None, the surface will be optical transparent, but a collision with the surface will be simulated. This will be used for surfaces which are not visible in the location panorama because they are located e.g. behind a hilltop.
- The setting Background panorama is the most used texture source for the scenery ground. If this option is used, the surface will be filled with the appropriate image information of the location panorama and is able to hide the model, model shadows and smoke.
- Use the setting Security area in order to define the border of a security area with help of the surface.
Select the material properties which have to be used by collision simulations in the box Material. If set to Without no collision will be simulated. On the Material tab of the Scenery data window you can create additional materials or modify the existing ones.
Activate the option Shadow target (S) for surfaces on which the model should cast a shadow. Surfaces which are far away or turned away from the sun should not be set as shadow targets.
The option No grounds effect (B) defines if this surface will create a ground effect when a helicopter hovers above it at low heights.
By activating the option Collision on both sides (K) a collision of the model and the surface will be simulated at the front as well as the rear side of the surface.
The function Sort will sort all surfaces on the surface list according to the texture source. This is necessary to optimize the simulation performance. However, this only needs to be executed once at the end of the scenery design.
You can also define surfaces with more than three vertices. But in this case, all vertices need to be located on the same layer and the surface edge must not show any concavity.
Following topic : Simulation edges.