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Viz Artist User Guide

Version 3.14 | Published October 30, 2020 ©

Topography

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The Topography plug-in is the user interface for the topology in a scene. It is used to either load or build a topology from scratch which can be used by topology aware plug-ins like Topo Arrow, Topo Rect or Topo Ring. Areas where these plug-ins can be of use are for example ski jumps, golf greens or other surfaces which are not 100% planar.

Adding virtual elements which should not float above the ground require the knowledge of the terrain or topographical relief. Geometry plug-ins can make use of this knowledge and act like a cloth where the deformation along the vertical axis is defined by gravity and the topographic relief.

Note: This plug-in is located in: Built Ins -> Geom plug-ins -> Topo

Topography Properties

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  • Use LOD: Enables/disables dynamic level of detail.

  • Files: Shows a list of topography files.

  • Name: Shows the current file name.

  • Load: Loads the topography from the currently selected file.

  • Save: Saves the topography to the current file name.

  • VertexX: Determines the X coordinate of a vertex to add to the topology.

  • VertexY: Determines the Y coordinate of a vertex to add to the topology.

  • VertexZ: Determines the Z coordinate of a vertex to add to the topology.

  • NormalX: Determines the X component of the normal vector for the vertex.

  • NormalY: Determines the Y component of the normal vector for the vertex.

  • NormalZ: Determines the Z component of the normal vector for the vertex.

  • AddVertex: Adds a new vertex to the topology.

  • iA: Determines the first index of a vertex of a triangular face.

  • iB: Determines the second index of a vertex of a triangular face.

  • iC: Determines the third index of a vertex of a triangular face.

  • AddFace: Adds a new triangular face to the topology using ia, ib and ic.

  • Build: Attempts to automatically triangulate the vertices which have been added to the topology.

  • Clear: Deletes all vertices and faces from the topology.