Can I convert an object to a terrain? Its a countour object I created in another program (Max) I want to be able to drop objects (trees, etc) to it. Thanks

You can import it as a 3ds object as is and drop trees on it. It does not have to be made out of terrain. I don't think you can unless it's a grayscale image.

I created the 3DS terrain object in Max. It does drop objects to it but to the bottom of the terrain rather than to the top surface. Are there any settings I need to change or do something when exporting that object? Thanks.

It should drop them to the top as is. Why is it doing that I don't know. Do you have more stuff under it like a real Vue terrain? Maybe hide that on a hidden layer. You can do it the hard way too and that is use a object for the top. Say make a cube and place it to the hight that you want the trees to plant. Then drag the cube up in the air create trees group with cube and then drop the group as one object. It should step right threw that object just like any other object. You could try to convert the shape maybe to some other format. Sometimes on complex objects top is recorded as center. There is really no top referance saved with the object. Try to convert it to dxf of obj and try again. What your trying to do works, why it's not working for you I don't know. I've taken imported objects and stacked them up on top of each other by dropping them. Are you sure you over top of the 3ds object before you do the drop? Check it on the up view. Click drop only once. You have to drag stuff up in the air before you do the drop. If it's sorta inside the 3ds object it will not be the ground for Vue and what ever is under it will become the new ground.

It may be due to the way the object properties in Max are created. If you are familiar with Max I used Compound Objects/Terrain from a series of contour lines. Thanks

I have some objects here that are extramly complex shapes. When you look at them in Vue there displayed as flat plains but they are 3d shapes and render properly. That type of shape will never work with the drop command. The way to do the shape like that is the hard way. Turn on open gl in a new scene, import shape and place by hand the trees, Then group the whole works and save as a single object. Import in you working scene. Don't use the drop command on it ever cause it will break it.

It finally worked. It had to be created in Max as a terrain surface rather than terrain solid.