Best way to create terrain? 3d polygons?

[jasan]

Hi,

I'm working on a project where a large part goes into building a 3d model of the landscape surronding the house. I have been working with basic shapes (triangle + boxes). However, this has quite a few limitations, to name a few;

* You are limited to regtangle spaces and 90 degres corners, making it hard to replicate "reality".
* You end up with quite a few objects to describe a structure.

Is there any better way of doing this?
One solution would off course be to add a complete new object; a 3d polygon that allows you to insert new "breakpoints" and move these in x,y and z -axis.

Just as an example is a typical map of a new plot of land that could be 100x100 sqm in that plot may there be 25 measured spots that indicate hight. It would be great to first just insert a "standard box" and the insert these 25 measured points and let the z axis be altered. That would give a very basic 3d structure that would describe that land area.

BR

[Lynn22]

Could you describe the kind of terrain you want to create in your project or maybe give a link to an image representing your idea.

The reason I'm asking is that the use of non-flat terrains is a recurring question and I'm working on a test case to try and solve this in a general way, something that might work in many situations.

Thanks

[jasan]

I would be happy to send you my complete project. Please send a pm with an email (if this is ok with you).

Basically I would just like to represent the difference in height in the terrain around the house (in the plot that I have bought) and some areas that is "connected" to the plot, like a nearby road etc.

BR

[mjsweetland]

Hello,
Is there any progress on the 3D polygon idea?

I have been trying for some time to produce ground terrain using box's and triangle's, but the results are not very good.

A 3D polygon, or other terrain editor would be an VERY useful feature.

[Puybaret]

Some time ago, OK Hoff proposed a few 3D models that could help. But these are still only workarounds.
I understand it would be a nice feature, but this is complex to program, and I recall you that Sweet Home 3D is first an interior design program, meaning this kind of task isn't on my top priority list. But who knows, if ever I got a nice idea...

[mjsweetland]

Dear Mr Puybaret,
Thank you for your kind reply,
I do quite understand that Sweet Home 3D is primarily an interior design program, and obviously external terrain will be of low priority.

I would like to thank you for your reference to OK Hoff suggestions, I have checked the link's to OK Hoff and downloaded the various shapes and example files.
These are very helpful and informative, they have given me several idea's and workarounds and I have been able to create much more realistic external terrain

My sincere thanks to you for creating such a great program