Landshape Iconography

Do you want to understand Landshape?

A good place to start is to befriend the icons.

Icons Visuals Have Meaning

Instead of using mere conventions for icons, Holygon has opted for a semantic visual language.

At first glance, icons may seem a bit similar. But there is method to the madness.

If you learn a few basic iconographic rules-of-thumb, you should be able to intuit the effect of a command by the way its icon looks.

Most icons follow the same visual rules. There are exceptions, such as Draw tools.

Take some time to recognize some basic visual patterns. Soon, you should be able to make an educated guess about what the next icon does, even before you have tried it.

Example 1. That Form Icon

Let's take a closer look at the Form icon.

In Landshape, Form is available in both the Main and Start toolbars.

The Icon for the Landshape command Form. Form lets you create new terrain.

The lower left shows a grey Plus subicon. The plus shows that Form creates new terrain. Currently, only Form and Plot create new terrain.
The lower right shows a grey Rhombus subicon. The rhombus shows that Form is a Pick command. All Pickers share the same rhombus subicon.

The main icon content depicts a stylized command operation, as seen in elevation. Let's look at each part in turn:

The upper blue shape represents Input. The blue shape exemplifies a stylized input group that is selected. This input group controls the output.
The orange shape represents Output. This exemplifies the new terrain that Form creates. In Form, your input geometry controls the output both in plan and in elevation.
Note that the terrain output is Dotted. The dots show that Form is a mesh command. Mesh commands, like Form, edit the topology of the terrain. Only some commands edit terrain topology.
Note that most Pick commands only move the mesh up and down. They shape terrain, moving its vertices up or down. But leave terrain topology untouched. Pick commands that only shape will instead show a solid orange line.
Note that the positions of output and input are vertically close. This shows that Form creates new terrain based on the elevation of the input.
Finally, the are two fatter squares at the terrain's start and end points. They represent the Rim, the terrain plot's outer border. Only commands that can create new terrain have these.

To learn how to use Form itself, read up on Form.

Example 2. That Level Brush Icon

Let's take a closer look at the Level Brush icon. It is available in the Brush toolbar.

The Icon for the Landshape command Level Brush. Level Brush forces terrain to a set elevation by stroking the terrain.

The lower right shows a grey Ellipse subicon. This shows that Level Brush is indeed a brush tool. All brushes share the same ellipse subicon.
The fatter orange shape represents terrain Output or effect. This is a stylized exemple of the terrain elevation change that this Brush applies. Here, the output is solid. A dotted output would have meant that the brush would have edited the topology of the terrain. In this case, it does not.
The thin greyish shapes, visible at the left and right of the effect, represent terrain Context. Context can help show how the effect of the tool relates to existing terrain elevations.
The purple single dot represents a sampled target height. In the Level brush, sampling is optional. Since it is characteristic of the Level Brush, it is included in the icon.

Landshape's iconography is a visual language. The examples above explain some of the vocabulary and grammar for Landshape's visual language.

Bring forth a toolbar. Look at some other command icons. Can you guess what they do?

Questions? Ask the Forum