Hiya, I’ve started making a garden where the beds are slightly raised around the paths. Is there a plugin or way I could have done this to raise the surface of each area like a slope rather than it looking so blocky? I think it might be something to do with Sandbox but I can’t quite figure out how that works.
One way would be to draw a curve representing the edge of your borders before trying to raise them, then use Follow Me to run the shape around the outline of the border. Finally draw in the top face of the border to complete.
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Thanks Simon - I think that might be tricky with the slightly awkward shapes of the beds. I don’t suppose there is a way or plugin to life the surface but for it to curve rather than be diagonal that you know of?
Yes! that’s it 
Ah you beat me to it. I was making a gif suggesting the same thing!
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Thank you eric
I’ll upload it anyway since its done. Just keep in mind the amount of pressure you use to ‘inflate’ your terrain. Luckily it lets you enter different numbers in until your satisfied. Then all you need to do is smooth/soften the terrain group after.
I tried doing all of them at once and it doesn’t like that so you’ll have to do them one mound at a time. Much quicker than sandbox though.
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I’d also recommend a paid extension called Artisan. It’s like Sandbox but faster and more intuitive.
Here I’ve subdivided the inside area of a mound and then ‘sculpted’ more undulating terrain. Then subdivided and smoothed again to reduce sharp edges. Different techniques for different needs.
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That looks really good, I can imagine I’ll need to use this sort of tool a lot so it might be worth me investing in that plugin for its extra functionality.
For sure. Obviously I did this super fast so result is a but clunky but it’s super easy to learn and pretty powerful. It has vertex tools, painting and selecting on surface, subdivision and polygon reduction. All stuff needed for working with terrain.
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Thanks, yes that sounds like a great tool I’ll use a lot. I’ve just downloaded the trial. I like Bubble but I think terrain will allow me to create something that bit more detailed.
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How did you create that mesh? Was it using the subdivide tool?
I’ll head off and read a tutorial…
Yes. I offset the surface a bit…then subdivided a few times the inner surface. Then I selected everything and de-selected the small offset surface from the walk as I didn’t want to raise the edges up…just the middle. Unless you have retaining walls…then you could lift everything up at once using the Sculpt tool. Takes a bit of playing around to get it right.
Another option is "Fredo’s “Curviloft - loft by spline” but I think artisan is the better way to go to get a more organic look as these beds wouldn’t be pefect domes? But curviloft is a little less perfect than soapskin.
One approach would be to combine tools…use soapskin to get a starting dome easily and then adjust that mesh with artisan.
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Agreed @whiterabbitdesigncompany… Here is comparison between soapskin by itself (right) and Artisian adjusted (left). Nice thing as both of these are super fast. Took maybe 2 mins total.
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Great suggestions!
But don’t neglect that you probably need to add some borders between you paths and beds.
Just a thought. Never mind, I see that Eric S has already included that.
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Thank you for all of your help @whiterabbitdesigncompany @c_j_ryan @eric-s @mihai.s I’ve managed to create the mounds and learnt a whole lot in the process. Amazing! I really love all of the animated gifs, that’s a very clever way of communicating!
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I always advertise SketchUp’s own “Sandbox” tools:
This extension helps a lot in many cases according to my experience.
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