In the Edit menu there's the command to replicate and scatter selected objects, but when I do so it makes duplicates, alright, but it doesn't scatter them-- it creates them all exactly on top of each other! Not exactly what I would call scattering, unless maybe it's a French word which means, "create multiple copies in the same position", but somehow I doubt that. ;) So, does anyone have any tips for using this feature? There are an awful lot of boxes to enter numbers into, in the scatter box, but I have no idea how to use it for predictable results. Thanks! Mike

Sounds like "Duplicate" -- at least, whenever I use Duplicate, that's the result I get, a bunch of copies on top of each other. For Scatter, you need to set the coordinates of the "four corners" where you want the objects scattered. There's places on the popup window to type them in. Unless you're a math whiz, however, you might not know what numbers to type in. On the vuedesprit@yahoogroups.com list, I learned a much easier way of using Scatter. Create four copies of what you want to scatter, say Fir trees. Place the four Fir trees at the "four corners" of the area you want to scatter Fir trees around in. Then select all four and use Scatter. Fill in how many objects you want, and the coordinates will already be filled in for you. When doing this over a terrain, it's a good idea to place your four objects above the terrain. Once they've been scattered, select one at a time to drop them onto the terrain. (If you start with the "four corners" on the terrain, the scattered items will be at those heights and probably not where you want them.) I hope this makes sense okay. I had avoided Scatter until I learned this technique; this makes it so easy to use! :) Varian -- Treasures d'Esprit http://www.varian.net/dreamview/dreamtools/vue/

"...Once they've been scattered, select one at a time to drop them onto the terrain..." Not necessary. As long as the objects being scattered are NOT grouped, they can be dropped to the ground at the same time. Each individual object will detect the ground level below it, and stop at the level. -SMT

OH!!! and here i am guessing at what numbers to put in for how far to scatter 'em!! d'oh! (being as there's no quick/simple way to tell what the vue coordinates are for something, and how far away everything is.... this is not fun.) i think you can drop the items in a group to their relative ground places if you open the group (not ungroup) in the world window. er, at least that's how i do it. i hope it works :) important note!!! once you tell the scatter thing to generate more than one copy, your duplicate command (ctrl-d) will use that number from now on!!! so don't be surprised if you go to get one copy and end up with fifteen.... when you want to duplicate after a scatter, use the scatter to generate 1 copy, and uncheck all the moving and rotating boxes. after that, the duplicate will work right.

Cool, Varian, thanks for the tip. Steve, yeah, I'm sure you're right--- the manual even says to do so before grouping, but I think Bloodsong's right too; that you can open the group and select all the individuals with ctrl+click and then drop and expect them all to rest happily on the surface of whatever they're over at the time. Again, Varian, now, I remember this being brought up at the Vue list, but i had forgotten the details, so I'll be trying out what you say-- it certainly makes sense! And yes, I've seen that you have to re-enter the numbers for duplicates, after I was experimenting with this and sudenly noticed in the World Browser that I had like 70 maple trees, after only a few "duplicate" commands! ...... Now, for another technical question: The real world has like what, about 11 miles from any given point to the horizon that you can see on a clear day, right? Does Vue hold true to this? I've noticed there is a certain point along the Y axis away from the camera where an object will disappear over the horizon. But, does Vue handle this mathematically correctly? And if so, what's its' basis for measurement? For example, say you knew a coconit tree was 60 feet tall and turned it on it's side. 11 x 5,280 = 58,080 feet. 58,080 dividede by 60 feet = 968. So, assuming the coconut tree measurement was "correct" in terms of Vue's measurements, could I expect to make 968 copies of it and lay them ened to end and have the final one disappear over the horizon? BTW, these measurements are probably arbitrary--- I'm not sure of the exact distance to the horizon, and I suppose that would only apply at sea level anyway...

Cool tip Varian! I never knew that. Guess I'll be making more forests from now on...and fields of bonny clumps....and meadows filled with grasses...and, and... Gotta go. Vue's calling ;) Laurie

Oh duh, yes of course! Steve's right! I forgot about that element. Bloodsong's right, too...at least, I'm pretty sure that'll work too. I remember many times dropping an object that suddenly "fell apart" because it wasn't grouped or because the group was "open" in the scene list. So sure, that should work for the trees, too! Bloodsong: once you tell the scatter thing to generate more than one copy, your duplicate command (ctrl-d) will use that number from now on!!! -- Aieeeee! Now I understand why Duplicate gives me umpteen objects instead of one! Great tip to Scatter 1 after Scattering however many! :: waving bye to Laurie :: Don't forget to pack a lunch! :D And now Mike is giving me a math headache! =:o Where is Tesign? He probably knows the answer for that one. :)

...that when seen from the Top View, the ground plane is a disk with a radius of exactly 10,000 Vue Units? Uh...a Vue Unit or VU (that's my name for them) is the only absolute unit of measure in Vue, everything else is based on the size it was when it loaded into Vue. For instance, a tree with a size of 2.0 is exactly twice as big as it was when it was loaded, if it has a size of .5, it's half the size it was when it was loaded. Now, why E-On should choose an absolute scale for location, but a relative scale for size is beyond me! One of the big problems I have is getting different objects to be in scale with each other. Even Vue vegetation isn't in any proper scale. Just load the palm tree and the bonny clump and you'll see what I mean. I think we need to DEMAND from E-On that they let us in on the secret of, "Just exactly how big a Vue Unit is." If we knew, we could probably devise a scheme to normalize the scale of EVERYTHING! -SMT

heyas; actually, the horizion is usually only 3 miles away. thing is, you can see stuff beyond the horizon. (i know i can see a city that is 30 miles away, 'on' the horizon.) why you would want to measure palm trees distances to the horizon, i can't imagine... ;) i just zoom out until i can see the horizon (in the top view). sometimes i put stuff out there. otherwise i usually create false perspective distances. you don't really need to make everything real-life perfect. ;)

3 miles only? Really? Someone once told me it was 11. I'm not talking about the distance that the human eye can achieve detail, but simply to be able to see to the horizon line. NO, I have no desire to lay out a stream of palms-- that was just a hypothetical thingie! So, this amy sound stupid, but is that circle in the top view the horizon according to Vue?

"I think we need to DEMAND from E-On that they let us in on the secret of, "Just exactly how big a Vue Unit is." If we knew, we could probably devise a scheme to normalize the scale of EVERYTHING!" ... Steve, YES! I emphatically, 1000% agree! I've actually been secretly driving myself crazy trying to figure it all out, and to those who might think it's unimportant, I would have to say, well, maybe, but the shadows cast tell the TRUE story about the problem of what I call "size vs. distance"! I make extreme effort to try to make sure all my objects in my scenes are scaled at least relative to each other, but often that's a guessing game, at best. Even so, THAT I can live with, but if I could just have ONE thing which I knew was scaled properly relative to how Vue interprets the size of the "world", then I'd be happy. And you know, it's things like this which also carry over into how the objects are treated by not only light, but fog and haze as well--- VERY important when striving for reality in a scene. YES! Let's DEMAND this of them!

Yup, that's the edge of the known world. Step beyond that, and you enter the Twilight Zone. ;) It's the horizon line assuming the camera is basically in the center of the circle. You could, of course, move the camera elsewhere, in which case, the horizon would become somewhere else. :)

Varian, if only it were so easy in REAL life, eh? Why, we'd ALL be gods! ;)

Make sure that "Resize and center imported objects" is unchecked within the options. Depending on the varibles that Vue uses for the growth of each plant, the relative scales between the different species should be more accurate...well they are for me :o)

Martin, The description of the coconut tree say it grows up to 80 feet high. I grew a 100 different coconut trees and measured the tallest one. It turned out to be about 130VU. That would make a Vue Unit about 7.5 inches. I did the same thing with poplars which Vue says grows up to 100 feet. The tallest I got was 150VU, which would make a Vue Unit about 8 inches, close enough to 7.5 for a margin of error. THEN...I did the same thing with the Yucca trees, which Vue says grow to a max of about 12 feet. The tallest I got...65VU! That would either mean I have a 40 foot tall yucca, or the yucca is not using the same scale! These type of discrepancies are all too common with the Vue vegetation, and a real pain! -SMT