Terraforming: High high or low from original?

How do you determine how high (or low) a piece of Linden land can be terraformed to?

Let's say you are looking at water land that looks shallow enough to create a beach. How would you know that you could before you buy it?

This is from memory so the wording may be different, but from the toolbar: World -> Estate Land. On the Terrain tab it lists the terraforming limits. Most, but not all, mainland is +/- 4m.

World > Region/Estate > Terrain shows the the sim terrain raise and lower limits

But how to find out what height the land was baked at? :<

There is no way to know for sure before you buy, unfortunately. What you see right now might be at its maximum high or low limit at any given point in the terrain. I have seen fairly normal looking mainland areas that once had a deep ditch in one area, and a high hump somewhere else, and it was impossible to level them.

If being able to change the terrain a great deal from what it is now is important to you, either choose to buy in sims that have more than the usual mainland +/- 4M limit, such as private sims or the few Mainland areas that have higher terraform ranges... Or contact the owner and ask if they would be willing to select the parcel and drive it to its highest and lowest extremes, so you can see its limits. If they select the parcel, and lower it as far as it can go, it will show its 'true profile' at the bottom limit. If they raise it to the max allowed, it will also show its true shape. Once it has been driven as high or as low as it can go, you can raise or lower it halfway between the extremes to put the terrain in its default shape. A "Revert" on the selected parcel should also set the terrain to the way the Lindens designed it, and show its median profile. But there is no "undo" for a Revert. Revert restores the last 'baked' terrain heighmap, which for the Mainland is the original Linden Lab design.

The problems with this is that when you don't own the whole sim as a private sim (not mainland), there is no way to put the land back as it was, and making such drastic changes will also have effects on the nearby parcels. It's unlikely the neighbors will enjoy a trench or ridge forming inside their property lines.

Ok, follow-up question that assumes it's virgin mainland.

If the water level is at 20m does that mean the dry land can be formed by raising it from a 16m depth or from a 17m depth?

A clue would be if there is other land on the plots around you poking through the water. 17m to be safe, but 16m will get you close enough to be able to wade around with only your feet submerged. See if the seller will raise it for you before you buy to see.

I was surprised at how much more beach I was able to pull up on my home sim of Liome that was underwater when I bought the sim from LL.

Hrmmmph! Silly people trying to make MORE land and LESS underwater!

If they are cool with it, you could ask the owner to check the "allow terraforming" box in the About Land window. That way you could experiment with it yourself. (They probably won't allow it if they have builds on the parcel, but if it's empty there shouldn't be a problem with it.)

You have 4m worth of adjustment..17m depth and you would have a beach 1m above the water line..16m depth and you'd have water lapping on the beach - hardly what I'd call dry land...but land of a sort.

This of course assumes you do actually have 4m worth of adjustment...probably worth clarifying with the land owner.