Folks:

I see this topic has come up before, but I haven't found a solution. I'm trying to create a berm terminated by an L-shaped retaining wall such that the topography would start at the top of the retaining wall (without rising behind it) sloping down to grade (0' elevation) a few feet in front of the wall. Imagine the retaining wall running parallel to a walkway; the walkway should be at grade, the retaining wall should run right along the edge of the walkway, the berm should start at the top of the retaining wall and slop away pretty steeply (in 5'-10' max) back to grade.

No matter how I try, I can't create that vertical rise of topography / terrain right next to the retaining wall. I can create a fairly steep "hill", but I can't get to perfectly vertical.

I >have< been able to put a ground cover region at the level of the top of the retaining wall, but I have not been successful at connecting that to properly sloping terrain to make it look right. I must be doing something "wrong."

I am using Home & Landscape Designer Architectural Series.

Berm-Failed-02.png (518kb) downloaded 7 time(s).
Berm-Failed-01.png (334kb) downloaded 2 time(s).

Hello,

When you post questions at the Forum, please inform the exact name (Architectural Series or Essentials, etc) and version number of your program (V15 or V18 or V21, etc).
On the PC you will find this information in the main menu => Help => About…
On the Mac this info is on the title menu => About…

Note that you mentioned Architectural series but you posted your question in the Home and landscape Studio section.

Different programs and versions include different features, so we need the information in order to provide the correct solutions.

Please, note that, if we don't have this information, we can't answer your questions.

Thank you for your understanding.

No problem. Done!

Thanks!

Thank you, Patricia.

According to the manual:

In the image on that same manual page it clearly suggests that a retaining wall should constrain topography.

BTW: The Build Pad suggestion seems reasonable, except it too isn't behaving as the manual suggests it should.

Hey, how do you insert images like that? I found the Add Image button confusing... like I had to have uploaded the image somewhere beforehand and paste the URL in.

I'm attaching a snippet from the manual in this attachment.
Retaining Wall Manual Page.png (301kb) downloaded 2 time(s).
That really looks like the retaining wall is holding back the topography / terrain.

To answer your other question about the Build Pad, the manual reads "Convert to Build Pad button creates a flat area regardless of topography lines that exist." In my case, it didn't create the flat area, though I didn't play with it long.

In the end, I was able to work around what I'm convinced >is< a bug by using the Excavate Topography tool. I used contour lines to raise the topography up to the top of the retaining wall, then excavated at the outside edge of the wall back down to 0'. It's >very< fiddly, but it came close enough for me to move on.