Landscape Design Software - Adding a Stream

Landscape Design Software

Adding a Stream

Whether your property slopes or not, a stream can be an attractive addition to any landscape. In Realtime Landscaping Pro, a stream is basically a path of water. A waterfall or fountain is usually placed at one end, and the other end is usually placed at the edge of a pond. During a realtime walkthrough, water will flow realistically from the fountain or waterfall, down the stream, and into the pond.

To add a stream:

1. Click Add Stream.

2. Change the Width property to the desired width.

3. Draw the stream's centerline by clicking to add points. Press Backspace to remove the last point. Press Esc to cancel.

Note: It doesn't matter which direction you draw the stream – Realtime Landscaping Pro will automatically determine the direction of water flow.

4. Right-click at the last point when finished.

Changing the Shape

Once a stream has been added, it can be easily changed. This includes moving points, adding & deleting points, lengthening or shortening, and so forth. See Editing Points for more information.

Adding a Fountain or Waterfall

Water will only flow down the stream if fed by a fountain or waterfall. In the following example, a waterfall flows into a stream, which in turn flows into a pond. While a slope is used in this example, the water will also flow if the ground is flat.

Rock Border

Streams come with built-in support for rock borders. A rock border is added to the entire stream by default.

To turn the rock border on or off per-edge:

1. Click Edit border to enter rock border editing mode.

2. Click the edge(s) where you want to turn the rock border on or off.

3. When done, click Edit border again to toggle it off and leave rock border editing mode.

Controlling the Render Order

When working with overlapping streams, ponds, regions, and/or paths that use different materials, you can control which ones are drawn first. See Adding a Region for details.

Tips:

• Important: Depending on your local building codes, streams deeper than a certain depth may require a fence or have other restrictions for safety purposes. Please check your local building codes before building a real stream.

• Streams are very similar to Ponds. See Adding a Pond for more information.

• Adding a stream is easiest in the top-down view.

• See Adding a Pond for information on how to add a pond.

• See Adding a Fountain and Adding a Waterfall for details on how to add a fountain and/or waterfall.

• If you want to add a stream using exact dimensions, make sure grid snap is enabled and that the desired grid size is set. Otherwise, when adding a more organically shaped stream, you'll probably want to disable grid snap. See Snap Settings for more information.

• To add landscaping rocks in and around your stream, see Adding a Rock.

• Changing the length of the stream is easy – you just add or delete points. See Inserting & Deleting Points for more information.

• To add plants in and around your stream, see Adding a Plant.

• Unlike ponds, fish are not added to streams.

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