Understanding Pick Commands

Pickers Unlock the World of Landshape

Pick commands, also known as pickers, are Landshape's most powerful and accurate commands.

Pickers enable you to control the shape and properties of your terrain.

To Pick is essentially to select. In Landshape, picking works similar to Sketchup's selecting.

Pickers are a core part of Landshape. Take some time to understand how pickers work, and you will unlock the world of Landshape.

🙋 Pick me! Pick me!

Pick in a Nutshell

In Landshape, you impose your vision onto your terrain, by using separate geometry, called control groups.

Pickers let you edit your terrain. To edit terrain, Pickers let you select reusable Sketchup geometry.

The input geometry that you select, or pick, will drive your terrain results. Accordingly, if you edit the your control geometry, or move it around in space, you will achieve a different effect in your terrain.

Sketchup is already very good at creating accurate geometry. Landshape leverages this fact by repurposing geometry to control terrain. Pick input is simply standard Sketchup geometry — faces, surfaces, edges, points — in a group.

This way of working affords great accuracy, control, and repeatability.

Always Group Your Input

As a general rule, your Pick input should always be grouped. Many Pickers require your input to be grouped. Note that currently, most Pickers will not recognize your input unless it is contained a group.

🦉 It is best practise to always keep raw geometry in a group or component.

G is for Groups – Set a Shortcut

Since most Pickers expect your input to be grouped, make sure grouping is simple for you.

Please use a keyboard shortcut for Sketchup's command Edit > Make Group.

If you have not already, set your shortcut now. To set a shortcut in Sketchup, open Window > Preferences > Shortcuts

The key G is well suited for Make Group.

Many Names. One Thing

"Input geometry", "control geometry", "input groups", "control groups", or sometimes simply "input" or "control" – in Landshape, all these refer to the same thing. This thing is what drives the effects in your terrain.

How Pickers Are Used

To use a Picker, first preselect a control group hovering above your terrain. Then, run a Landshape Pick command. To tweak the effect, then try typing different values.

Most pickers support value tweaking. When running the Picker, check your VCB label.

Atomic Commands Do One Thing Well

By design, most of Landshape's commands, especially pickers, are atomic.

The atomic approach means that each command is intentionally kept simple. Each command does one thing well.

A complex terrain result is not the result of a complex terrain command. No, it is the result of running simpler atomic commands, one after one after one.

Most Pickers are simple. It is the way you combine commands that creates a powerful workflow.

Combine Pickers for Powerful Workflows

For a powerful workflow, try chaining several Pick commands, one after the other. Often, you can reuse the same control group, and run one Picker after another.

Workflow Example

For instance, try this. First, let's set the scene.

Set Your Scene

In Sketchup;

1. Plotquake a new terrain. This will be your workflow canvas.
2. Use Sketchup's Circle tool to draw a circle. Keep it within your terrain's footprint. For a nicer result, set say 120 segments.
3. Group your circle.
4. Rotate your circle a few degrees in red and green axes, to give it a slant.
5. Move it upwards. Make it hover well above your terrain.
6. Paint the control group with a distinct material.
7. Select it.

Now, you have prepared a small scene. You should see a random-elevation terrain, and a simple circle control group above it.

Try the Workflow

Now for the fun part. With your circle control group still selected, in Landshape, run:

1. Embed. This should rebuild your terrain with your selected circle's edges.
2. Zone. This should paint your terrain with your selected circle's material.
3. Fit. This should move your terrain up to hit your selected circle's surface.
4. Blend. This should transition your terrain elevations from the circle border and outwards.

You have now chained four atomic pickers into one workflow. Well done!

🦉 Don't get the desired effects? Try playing around with Pickers' VCB values.
😵‍💫 Confused by the values? Start a blank slate. Try Reset Settings….

This is just one workflow among countless. Since Landshape offers some dozen pickers, plus many other commands, a world of workflows is waiting for you to discover.

— What is your favourite Landshape workflow? — Let Holygon know!

Pick Your Input

Different Pickers have different purposes, and create different terrain effects.

Because of this, they expect somewhat different kinds of input. Some Pickers support only faces, others only edges, others both.

To learn which kind of input a specific Pick command supports, simply hover its toolbar icon and read its tooltip, or visit its Learn page.

Pick Terrain Editing Examples

For instance:

• To move terrain up, select a grouped face above terrain, and run Fit.
• To smoothen terrain, select a grouped face above terrain, and run Smooth.
• To add local detail, select grouped edges, and run Embed.
• To color terrain, select a grouped painted face, and run Zone.

Always Group Input Geometry

Generally, Pickers expect groups.

Make it a habit to always group your input geometry. This way, you can also much more easily select, move, hide, show, tag, and generally interact with the input. By containing your input in a group, you get in control.

A few Pickers also support raw geometry input. Especially if you already are inside a group. Embed is an example of this.

Holygon plans to make more pickers support raw geometry input.

Pick Operation

Direct

1. Pre-select valid inputs.
2. Run Command.
3. To adjust result, type values.

To finish, switch to any other tool.
To keep commanding, continue to item 2, below.

Alternatively:

Picking

1. Run Pick Command with nothing preselected.
2. While running Command, Pick valid inputs.
3. To apply Command, click Enter or Doubleclick.
4. To adjust result, type values.

To finish, switch to any other tool.
To keep commanding, repeat from item 2, above.

While running the command, type VCB values anytime.
Values control active result, and next result.

All commands in menu Pick should work in the way described above.

Input Position Determines Effect

Your selected Pick input can sit above the terrain, or below it. It will affect any terrain above and below it.

Pick commands that use areas as input will per default effect any terrain area above or below it.

For all pickers, an important property of the input is its plan position. Before running your command, ensure your input is in the right plan position.

Landshape often projects your picked geometry downwards or upwards, until it hits your terrain. This means that your input's plan position drives terrain results. Make sure that your control group is in the right place.

To Check your input's plan position, select your input, then run View Top. To superimpose input and terrain, use X-Ray mode.

For some pickers, only their plan position determines the result. Their position in height does not matter at all. This vertical dimension is known as height, elevation, blue axis, or Z. The reason is that Landshape automatically projects the input up or down until it hits the terrain. Example of this includes Embed and Puff.

For many pickers, their height position determines the result. The reason is typically that they move the terrain towards the selected target. An example of this is Fit. If you Fit a grouped flat shape lying flat on your flat terrain, nothing will happen. However, if you elevate your control group upwards, so that it hovers well above the terrain, you should better see what Fit does.

For some few pickers, their input height position only matters relative to other selected input. The reason is that when Landshape automatically projects the selected input to the terrain, it tried to do so in a meaningful order. An example of this unsual pattern is Zone.

Command Values Determine Effect

Most Pickers have values, also called parameters.

Parameters like Distance and Blend may allow you to e.g. expand or shrink the area affected. If you use very small values, you mey not see any effect.

Check Your Premises

If your input is good, but the effect still is not what you expected, there is a good chance that your Picker is using unexpected values. Try running the command again. But then, this time type in different values for your value control box, or VCB. You can control the effect by playing with different values.

Note that many commands have several VCB values. Use your keyboard's comma or semicolon character to set the next value.

Communicate via Control Groups

You communicate with your terrain by using control geometry groups.

Control groups help you impose your vision onto your terrain.

Since a control group is often used for multiple purposes as your project advances, make it a habit to always tag your controls, and hide them when not in use.

Control groups enable working with great accuracy and repeatability. Pickers are Landshape's most powerful commands.

Valid Pick Input

Different commands will require different kinds of input.

Some commands already support a quite liberal range of inputs.

However, some commands simply will not work with certain kinds of input.

One reason for this is because different commands have different purposes. Some commands only make sense for an enclosed area. Others only make sense for a path of edges.

Holygon aims to expand the range of valid inputs in future updates. Ideally, all pickers should support any input that makes sense for that command.

A long-term goal of Landshape is to become very liberal with input.

For now, to understand which input a command expects, hover its toolbar icon, or read its Input description in Learn.

Troubleshooting Command Input

🤔 Does Command not work as expected? Probably, you are using invalid input.

😎 For Pick commands, it's easy to learn valid inputs. Try one of these:

• Simply hover your cursor over the Command command button in the toolbar. This should show a tooltip. The tooltip shows a summary of valid input.
• Open Learn, and manually navigate to the Command page. Read the instructions carefully.
• Run Command, and while Commanding, right-click any geometry. In the context menu, run Landshape > Learn Command. The context menu should automatically send you to the currently active command's Learn page.
• Open SketchUp's Instructor panel. It should update as you switch tools. You may dock the Instructor to a side tray.

Best Practises to Pick like a Master

Group Your Input

To keep things organised and avoid cluttering, always group your input. Most Pickers should work also with components.

Tag Your Input Groups

In complex models, your viewport may get cluttered with input. To keep your model tidy, Holygon recommends tagging your input groups. This way, you may show and hide your input at a single click.

Check Affected Areas

To check which parts of the terrain should be affected before running a picker, view your terrain from the top and parallel projection. There is a command for this, called View Top. If your input hovers above the terrain, you will see exactly where in plan it connects to the terrain.

As Above, So Below

For height-independent commands, also called area commands, like Embed, Zone, Puff, it works equally well to keep yourcontrol groups below the terrain. For instance, you can keep your entire 2D siteplan under the terrain. Some users prefer this way of working. Other users keep control groups above the terrain.

The choice of vertical input positioning is about practical aspects, like visibility and selectability.

No Need to Select Terrain

For Pick commands, you never need to select the Landshape terrain itself. Landshape will automatically identify the corresponding plot, and apply the command effect.

Pick Command Examples

Examples of common Pick commands include Form, Mesh, Embed, Fit, Blend, Zone, Puff, and many more.

All major Pick commands are found under menu Pick.

A few more auxiliary or experimental Pickers may be found under menu Prop. Currently, these may be less polished.

Pickers versus Other Command Types

Pick commands may be contrasted with Brushes. Brushes let you edit terrain by directly stroking the terrain. However, brush strokes may not have the same accuracy and resuability as geometry-based commands.

For an overview of all command types, see Command Types.

Edit Nonterrain with Prep

Do you wish to instead edit nonterrain geometry? Instead use Prep.