Thanks for the suggestions. Making the string is the problem. I can make a cylinder. It can have collision detection, but it looks like a lead pipe falling to the floor. I can put bones in the cylinder and it then looks like a lead pipe with crinks in it that I have to physically bend at each joint. That looks dorky and requires key frames which are deleted if I add a (gravity) force to make it fall to the floor. The problems seem to be + Making something flexible that behaves like string falling. + A string made of zillions of little spheres would require individual keyframing and endless adjustments to the individual rotation of all those little spheres by hand. Even then it is problematic to make this look like a string affected by gravity and air. - I could make it wave, but the wave force would have no relationship to the falling motion. it's a real puzzler

I think you're right.
I will probably animate everything else and see if I can add the string by hand... fortunately it will be a short animation. (I guess Disney did it this way, but he had minions, and I am but one.)

Tried that animated hair stuff when Poser 5 first came out and it wound up looking like a bunch of spastic fried worms. Haven't tried the latest patches to see if they worked that out yet, but I don't think it (Poser) would help in this scenario.

Absolutely astounding!! (Is this where my marbles went when I lost them?)

Actually, I like "Blick" !!

thanks again...

Thanks Gebe.
I'm not trying to sell Bryce or imply that it is better than Vue... I'm only trying to figure out how to work in Vue... and I thought posting this image may help explain what I am attempting to do.

What you show is what I need, I think.... Obviously I have to do a lot of experimenting to learn Vue. So far my scanning of the documents that come along with the download demo hasn't turned up any detail on this.

A question, if you don't mind...
In your render of the top view with orange trees... are you able to select and move one of your trees in that view while the render remains visible as a rendered, colored image, or does it revert to wireframe when you add or move an object?

I'm not trying to be a pest or a smart aleck, just trying to get a handle on this... It would be good to have what you show and have that remain in view while positioning other objects.

I do really like what I've seen of Vue so far.

again, thanks for your patience.

This is great. Got carrots?

I will post a couple of sample rough test images here to show how the placement of objects is simplified when you have a visual render of the top view where you can see the details of the elevation as you place a new object and drag it around. This does not require adding any "stick" markers, etc.

These are from Bryce 5... This is the sort of thing I thought might be available using Vue.

Good show...

Sorry, but I don't have autoCad... I don't do much in the way of engineering/architectural type work, however you did make me think of trying something in Rhino if I can get the terrain in there.

Thanks for all the good info... the World Construction Set is looking good - downloaded demo so I can kick it around a bit.

Thanks.
I have not commited to doing the project yet, this is experimental at this point. I have come close with Bryce, but find some resolution problems (animating a fly-over of the property, when the camera approaches parts of the terrain, the enlargement causes some real rough detail, even with elevation greyscale maps at 1024x1024, or larger).

No, I do not have all the numerical elevations.
I am working with aerial photos and some previous sketches showing placement of shrubbery. I am painting the greyscale height map image in PhotoShop by eyeballing the scant reference material that I have - an impossible task in itself.

Your "what you see" images above are helpful, and I know about dropping the trees, etc. to the object below (Bryce does this as well). The problem is, as shown in your images, #3, specifically, is positioning the shrubbery without benefit of seeing the rendered terrain, only the wireframe image. Thus placing the shrubbery is a trial and error process of dropping the plants, rendering and moving the plants around again and again. I pretty much solved this particular issue in Bryce, and had hoped that Vue offered a similar process.

I agree, it is a crazy project without DEMS, Topo maps or anything of that sort... but after 20+ years, I've never accused clients of being sane or rational.

I appreciate your input, and it does help... perhaps when it is all added up, the answer will appear... or I can go do something better with my time.

thanks much for the efforts

Thanks, Guitta.... I understand the idea of using the grid, but it seems like a major workaround when if it were possible to see a rendered top view of the terrain the process would be a lot simpler.... I need to place objects relative to the elevations on my terrain. If I give the terrain a color, the wireframe of the terrain would all be the same color, right? So if I wanted to place a bush in an exact position next to a depression in the terrain, what would allow me to see the depression from the top wire-frame view? I did figure out how to see different objects, trees, etc. relative to one another, but not relative to terrain details. I have used Bryce for a long time, and it works in many ways as Vue does. You can render the different viewports (Top, side, etc.) in Bryce and then superimpose the wireframe of your terrain over the rendered image. This allows fairly precise placement of objects according to the terrain details. Is it possible to render any view other than the main camera view in Vue, and keep it rendered while you place objects over the image... or perhaps import an overhead render as a guide on a background layer to arrange objects to? There are some other issues in Bryce that I am hoping will be different in Vue. Thanks for your very kind help.

Thanks for the ideas and tips. I'm going to do some serious experimenting with all of these to see what works in my situation... I knew you guys would have some good ideas... I really appreciate the speedy feedback Nate.

".... I spent about 4 hours yesterday, and dlded more than 500 BVH from the lists at that site.... " Well, I've read this post a few times and find it quite interesting. A question - - when you refer to "that site..." what is the site? Do you have an URL you can share? Maybe this was in a previous post, but so far I have not located it. thanks.

Nukem did a great job of illustrating this assignment. He should get an A+... Using Poser people in a similar scenario may make the illustration more interesting to some observers of your presentation - including the guide lines showing the horizon and convergence points would help explain the issue, perhaps.

Attached Link: Pigments of the Imagination: 20+ years of commercial illustration