Getting Started with VNS 2 Part 7B. Roads & Buildings


30. Move to the 2 Lane Highway Component. On the Elevation page, elevation is Relative to Vector Elevation.

31. Edit Cross-section profile. The centerline of the road starts at the vector elevation, at 0 meters. The associated Asphalt Ecosystem renders left of the point. The next point is about 2.7 meters away from the centerline and slightly lower. It also has the Asphalt Ecosystem, so it renders Asphalt between this point and the first point. The third point renders Asphalt to the second point. Gravel comes next. Then ShortGrass. Last is TallGrass with some Ecosystem Mixing to blend the TallGrass with the surrounding Ecosystem. At about 7.6 meters the Terraffector stops and the approach slope takes over.

32. Go to the Approach Slope page. Cut and Fill control how the Terraffector changes the terrain between the edge of the Terraffector and the Total Effect Radius distance.

33. Change the Cut to a 50% slope.

34. Save the project and render a preview. This gives us a more realistic drainage trench along this section of highway.

35. We can't have a highway just end without warning, so let's add one. We'll use a Wall, another useful VNS feature in the 3D Object Task Mode. Add a default Wall; we'll use the Dead End vector to control it.

36. Name it End of the Road.

37. Copy the Dead End vector to End of the Road Wall.

38. Make the Height Relative to Ground Elevation. Increase Panel Top Height to 3 meters.

39. Go to the Panel Material page and create a Diffuse Color Texture.

40. Choose the Stripes Element and View From the South.

41. Change the left pin color to white.

42. Change the right pin color to red.

43. Rotate the texture 45° around the Y axis to complete the warning barrier texture. Close the Texture Editor.

44. Save the project and render a preview. This is a simple application of a very powerful tool. For a look at using Walls to raise city buildings, explore the NYC project in the Demos folder.

45. Switch to realtime mode and you'll see that VNS now supports OpenGL Wall preview. Open the Cabin Plan view.

46. Let's add the loop drive to the development. Go to the Terrain Task Mode, select Terraffectors, and Add Component from Gallery. Load Dirt Road from the Component Gallery.

47. Go with the default Ecosystem Elevation scaling option.

48. Add the Cabin Road vector to the Dirt Road Terraffector and confirm.

49. Save the project and render a Cabin Plan preview.

50. All we have left are the cabins. Go to the 3D Object Task Mode, select 3D Objects, and Add Component from Gallery.

51.Go to the Building page in the Component Gallery and load the Log Cabin.

52. We're going to use a vector to position the cabins, so answer No when asked if you want to center the cabin's position in the current DEM bounds.

53. Add the Cabins vector to the Log Cabin 3D Object.

54. Use the Cabins vector for Position.

55. Switch to a realtime Cabin Plan view and zoom in a notch. Select Walls in the Scene-At-A-Glance to deactivate the 3D Objects and make them easier to see.

56. There will be a noticeable delay because the cabins are set to Preview Detail, which can slow response when several high polygon count 3D Objects are in view. Once we get them aligned, we can switch to the lower quality Preview Box setting.

57. All the cabins have the same odd heading. Go to the Size & Position page and select Rotate. The cabins have Rotate Y (Heading) value of -19°. Change it to 90°.

58. The cabins are now all facing west.

59. Another great time saving feature in VNS is 3D Object Alignment, which makes housing developments like this quick to set up. Go to the Align page and select Align Heading to Vector.

60. The cabins will align to their placement vector by default.

61. Select Align to this Vector in the Vector section and pick the Cabin Road from the dropdown list.

62. The cabins are now aligned to the Cabin Road.

63. Save the project and render a preview.

64. We're done building cabins, so switch back to realtime, and open the Road view.

65. Render a preview. The dirt road is spilling onto the highway, as dirt roads will. Let's clean it up.

66. Bring up the Dirt Road Terraffector Editor and turn to the General page. By default, the roads are set to Overlap. They have the same Priority, which allows them to overlap and render.

67. Increase the 2 Lane Highway Evaluation Order to 2 to have it render over the Dirt Road in the overlap area. Read more about Priority and Evaluation Order in the Interactive Reference Manual. They're very useful but not necessarily intuitive the first time around.

68. Save the project and render a preview.

69. Switch back to realtime mode. Go to the 3D Object Editor General page and change the Preview to Box. That should speed up operations a bit.

70. Open the Cabin Final view.

71. Save the project and render a preview.



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