Itoo Software Forum

Forest Pack => Forest Pro (*) => Topic started by: Mike Truly on April 16, 2010, 01:02:53 PM

Title: Tree Editor Questions
Post by: Mike Truly on April 16, 2010, 01:02:53 PM
I am about to dive into another project using FP 3.3.1.  I have not used the 'Tree Editor' functions before but need to do so for this project as I need to place trees in specific locations.

Imagine an aerial image looking straight down and it shows pine trees on a hill.  They are sparsely placed with empty ground in between and I need to place my FP trees exactly on top of each tree location in the aerial image.

I setup a test scene to experiment with the Tree Editor functions and I figured out that clicking the tree button lets me select and move trees around... this is great.  I also figured out that if I hold the shift while I move I can clone trees.

But I have a couple of questions.

1.  Why when I go to activate the tree button do many of the trees (including one which might be selected) disappear from the perspective view?  They seem to stay visible in the top, front, left views.

2.  I begin the process in the normal FP way by scattering a bunch of trees inside a spline... then I edit the positions of individual trees.  But is there a way to start with an empty spline and just click to add tree locations?

3.  If I select a single tree and then do a shift+move to clone it... the result is I get a tree that is EXACTLY the same size, rotation, etc. as the original.  But what I really want is to simply place a new tree in a new location but still have FP give it all the fabulous influences... different scale, rotatation, translation, etc.  Is there a way to simply define new tree locations but have them be influenced by the FP controls?

Thanks!
Title: Re: Tree Editor Questions
Post by: Mike Truly on April 16, 2010, 01:09:48 PM
OK, I figured out that after I clone a tree... I can rotate and scale so this is great.  But is there a way to simply add the new tree in a new position and let FP do the rotate and scaling?

Thanks!
Title: Re: Tree Editor Questions
Post by: Mike Truly on April 16, 2010, 01:17:52 PM
OK, I figured it out... I can create POINT objects in the desired location of trees and then create the FP trees in those locations... excellent.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Tree Editor Questions
Post by: iToo on April 16, 2010, 05:03:42 PM
Hi Mike,
 
Quote
1.  Why when I go to activate the tree button do many of the trees (including one which might be selected) disappear from the perspective view?  They seem to stay visible in the top, front, left views.

Are you using shaded or wireframe mode ? What display objects (plane, pyramid..) ? If possible, please attach a screenshot to see the problem.
 
Quote
2.  I begin the process in the normal FP way by scattering a bunch of trees inside a spline... then I edit the positions of individual trees.  But is there a way to start with an empty spline and just click to add tree locations?

Yes. In the Creation window, change the mode selector from "Generate" to "Custom Edit" and set the initial width/height values. Next, you can create the trees clicking on the viewport. Use right click to finish.
 
Quote
3.  If I select a single tree and then do a shift+move to clone it... the result is I get a tree that is EXACTLY the same size, rotation, etc. as the original.  But what I really want is to simply place a new tree in a new location but still have FP give it all the fabulous influences... different scale, rotatation, translation, etc.  Is there a way to simply define new tree locations but have them be influenced by the FP controls?

Yes, you can enable random scale and rotation from the Transform rollout, same as the spline creation mode. Besides this, if you need to random the tree models, select them and use "Random ID" and "Reset Size" buttons.

Title: Re: Tree Editor Questions
Post by: Mike Truly on April 16, 2010, 05:48:28 PM
Thanks Carlos!

Attached is a zipfile containing the MAX2010_64 file and some screenshots.
Title: Re: Tree Editor Questions
Post by: iToo on April 17, 2010, 11:09:34 AM
The "Edge Faces" viewport option is not compatible with Tree Edition mode. This is an issue that we are working to solve.

If you need to edit the items on a top viewport, set the display mode to "Pyramid" (Display rollout) to make them visible.

Title: Re: Tree Editor Questions
Post by: Mike Truly on April 17, 2010, 03:08:32 PM
Thanks Carlos... will do.