Basic land sculpting Q

How to Use the Edit Terrain Tool

To access the Edit Terrain tool, just click on your land and select Edit Terrain from the pie menu that appears. This opens a menu with many different tools to assist you in editing your land.

Terraform

Use the Select Land option to select the land you would like to edit and then select the Flatten Land, Raise Land, Lower Land, Smooth Land or Roughen Land options to pick the way in which you'd like to alter the land. Click the Apply to Selection button to terraform the whole selected plot. The Revert Land option returns it to the original shape if things get out of hand.

You can also use the dropdown menu labeled Small, Medium, or Large to choose the size of your "brush" and "paint" the effect on by left clicking on portions of your land. You can also hold down the left button to terraform faster.

HOME / LANDSCAPING
OVERVIEW

Land in Second Life can be terraformed using the Land Edit tools, to raise or lower, flatten or smooth the terrain as required. To be able to do this, land must belong to you, or to a group in which you are an officer - or the land settings set to permit anyone to edit it.

The large majority of regions in Second Life are limited to being changed by no more than +/- 4m from their original shape to make small hills or ponds, or smooth slopes. For historical reasons, the oldest main grid regions allow a far greater level of terraforming, up to +/- 40m from their original shape.

Private island owners, on the other hand, have an upper and lower limit of 100 meters - and can set their own ground textures.
EDITING LAND

A step-by-step explanation of land editing follow.

1. Right click on your land and chose the Edit Land option from the pie menu. Pressing ctrl-5 will also put you into Land Edit mode.
2. The Land Edit panel has a number of radio buttons to select the mode you wish to operate in. Select the Select Land option and then left click and drag your mouse, holding down the left mouse button down as you go, across the terrain. You will see a yellow bounding box as you do so. This is how you can select specific areas of your land to operate on; land outside of this dragged area will be unaffected by any changes you make. You do not have to select an area to work on, but it is safer to do so.
3. Once you have selected the area, you can then choose from flatten land, raise land, lower land, smooth land, and roughen land.
* Flatten Land: In this mode, left clicking on an area of land and dragging will begin to flatten all land that you move over; to the level of the land you first began dragging from.
* Raise Land: The more you click or hold the left mousebutton, the more the land will be raised.
* Lower Land: The longer you click or hold the left mousebutton, the more the land level under your mouse will be lowered.
* Smooth Land: As you left drag or click across your land, gradients will be smoothed to create a more natural slope between land of different heights.
* Roughen Land: The opposite of smooth, bumps and ditches will be accentuated to make the land surface rougher.
4. You will also see a dropdown on the Edit Land panel, this permits you to use Small, Medium or Large brush size when making edits to your land. Small should be used for more detailed or sharper cuts into your land, the large brush for more dramatic changes.
5. If the end result doesn't appeal to you, you can hit the 'revert land' button and then the 'apply to selection' button and your land will revert back to the way it was originally. Be warned though, this reverts land to its original state, which may not necessarily be the state it was in when you bought it or when you began editing it. Only use Revert if you are very sure.

GARDENING (adding trees, grasses and shrubs)

As well as editing the landscape itself, you can also add a wide range of trees, shrubs and grasses to it, to give it a more natural feel. A good selection of built in fauna is provided in your Inventory, under the top level Library folder. These built in trees and plants will sway in the breeze and each only counts as a single prim.

To use the built in planting tools:

1. Right click on your land and choose Create from the pie menu.
2. You will see lots of prim shapes on the create panel, along with the last two options which are Tree and Shrub respectively. Select either the Tree or Shrub option; your mouse cursor will turn into a small wand.
3. Left click on the ground with your mouse and a tree or shrub will appear. Which type appears is random.
4. Keep creating them until you get some you like. You can right-click delete the ones you don't like.
5. The trees may not be stuck in the ground quite correctly, this is normal. Simply left click and Edit a tree, and use the drag controls to move it down and into position.

There are many Linden trees and shrubs to choose from. They are all only one prim and significantly improve the look of your land. In addition to the above method, if you know exactly which type of tree/plant you want, you can find it in the Library area of your Inventory and simply drag that one from your inventory, and onto the ground.
HOW TO LET OTHERS EDIT YOUR LAND

If you would like someone else to edit your land for you there are 2 ways of allowing this. You can deed (give) the land to a group so that any officer has the ability to terraform it. Or you can allow anyone to terraform your land by checking the Edit Land tickbox in the About Land dialog..

Be warned, if you leave this enabled - someone, anyone, will be able to edit your land in any way they wish. Remember to Untick the Edit Land option when you are done editing your land.

1. Right click your land and choose 'About Land' from the pie menu
2. Go to the 'Options' tab.
3. Tick the 'Edit Land' tick box at the top of that window and then close the window. Others will be able to edit your land at this point.

Gang, please forgive me for not digging through the threads here for advice on land sculpting. All I know about land sculpting is that someone here said something like "running the land sculpting tool is a blast!"

Words of guidance, anyone? Would someone please direct me to a place to learn the basics?