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Author Topic: Using splines to excluding forest objects in Custom Edit mode, can you do it?  (Read 1448 times)

Colin Hanford

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Hi all,

Hopefully I'm asking a stupid question with a simple answer and I've been working to long on my project to see the wood for the trees :)

I have data for the positions of trees in a spline for a huge area and are using Forest's Custom Edit mode to generate a tree at each vertex. Problem I've got is there's a proposed highway model running through the area and I want to exclude the trees that will be under the highway so they don't poke through the road.

When using Custom Edit mode you don't seem to be able to use another spline or mesh as an exclude object, or am I missing something?

I can't really efficiently delete the vertices I don't want a tree at as there are thousands and thousands of them. The area is 25km long and has hundreds of thousands of trees.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Colin

Michal Karmazín

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Hi Colin,

Well, because Areas are disabled when using Custom Edit mode, I would suggest you one of following options:

If you apply the Vol. Select modifier over your spline used previously for Forest's "Creation Tools purposes", with Stack Selection Level: Vertex, Select By Volume: Mesh Object (where you select your "Exclude Area") you can easily select all of these "unwanted vertexes" & by adding the Edit Poly modifier you can delete those by hitting Backspace. Than if you select all Edges and hit Create Shape you'll get a new spline just with "correct vetexes". This can be selected under Forest's Creation Tools - Along a Path.

In case you're using the V-Ray renderer, there is an easy workaround by using its VRayDistanceTex. If you add that "Exclude Area" object under VRayDistanceTex Objects and set inside / outside colors as on attached screenshot, this map can be later used in combination with the Forest Color map in the Get Color from Map - As texture on Surface mode linked to the Opacity slot. This way those items will be "invisible" for the renderer.

Hope you'll find it useful.

Best regards,

Colin Hanford

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Hi Michal,

Great, thanks for the detailed reply. We'll give them a go.

Cheers,
Colin