Terrain Sculpt

Shape the ground with Sculpt: raise hills, dig valleys, level platforms and cut terraces. It works like a brush: click and drag on the ground. Then paint it and add water.

Click Sculpt in the bottom toolbar.
Drag across the ground to raise a hill.
Pick Lower and drag beside it to dig a valley.

The brush

Moving the sculpt brush circle over the ground and a hill, dragging the Size slider to make it bigger, then pressing [ to make it smaller — The circle shows where your brush will land.

Sculpt has two tabs of tools. Shape builds and weathers the ground; Level makes it flat, sloped or stepped.
Size is the brush's width in metres, the same for every tool. [ and ] make it smaller and bigger.
Strength sets how much each pass does, and Softness how gently it fades at the edge. Each tool remembers its own.
The circle shows the brush's size and fade. The icon in the middle shows which tool is active.

Raise hills and dig valleys

Dragging Raise across a flat board to build a hill, then switching to Lower and dragging beside it to dig a valley below the board — Raise builds the ground up. Lower digs it down.

Raise: drag to build the ground up. Go over it again to go higher. Hold the brush still to keep building.
Lower: drag to dig. You can dig up to 5 m below the board, for ponds, river beds and ditches.
Hold Alt to swap them: Raise digs and Lower builds, for as long as you hold it.

Natural detail

Smoothing the lumpy side of a hill, roughening its top, then eroding a steep peak into scree — Smooth, Roughen and Erode make ground look natural.

Smooth evens out bumps and sharp edges but keeps the overall shape. Hold Shift with any tool to smooth for a moment.
Roughen adds lumps and dips, so hills stop looking like smooth domes. Detail sets how big they are.
Erode crumbles steep slopes into loose scree. Brush over a peak a few times.

Gullies with Rain

Picking Rain and brushing back and forth over the side of a smooth hill, which wears into gullies running downhill with soil fanned out at the bottom — Rain carves gullies down a slope.

Rain runs water down the slopes under the brush. It cuts gullies where the water speeds up and leaves the soil in fans where the slope eases.
Go over a hillside a few times: each pass cuts the gullies deeper. A bigger brush makes longer gullies.
On flat ground it does nothing: the water has nowhere to run.

Level ground

Flattening the side of a hill into a level platform, then setting a height and levelling a second patch to it — Flatten levels the ground to one height.

Flatten levels the ground under the brush: a base for a building, a courtyard, a field.
Level to: Start point uses the height where you start dragging. Set height uses the height you choose.
To take a height from the ground, click the picker and then the ground, or Alt-click the ground.
Only: Fill dips just raises low spots, and Cut bumps just lowers high ones. Useful for a plateau with cliff sides.

Ramps and terraces

Dragging a ramp from the ground up onto a plateau, then cutting a hillside into steps with Terrace — Ramp joins two heights. Terrace cuts slopes into steps.

Ramp: press where the slope starts, drag to where it ends, and let go. The ramp's width is the brush size. Press Esc before letting go to cancel.
Terrace: drag over a slope to cut it into flat steps. Step sets each step's height, and Edges makes them soft or sharp.

Undo and start again

Digging two strokes through a hill by mistake, pressing Undo twice to take them back, then Redo to bring one back — Undo takes back a stroke; Redo brings it back.

Undo and Redo at the top of the panel, or Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z. Each stroke is one step.
Reset brings the ground back to board level where you brush. Reset the whole terrain… flattens everything, and can be undone too.
Contours draws height lines on the ground, to see how high things are while you sculpt.

On a phone or tablet

Drag with one finger to sculpt.
Two fingers move the camera. Putting a second finger down mid-stroke cancels the stroke.
Picking a tool folds the panel down to a small bar. Tap its arrow, or drag the bar up, to open it again.

Controls

Drag the ground	Sculpt
Drag the sky	Turn the camera
Right drag	Move the camera
Scroll	Zoom in and out
Alt	Swap Raise and Lower; Alt-click picks a Flatten height
Shift	Smooth with any tool
[ and ]	Smaller and bigger brush
Esc	Cancel a ramp
Ctrl+Z	Undo a stroke
Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y	Redo

Tips

Sculpt first, then paint. Materials follow the hills.
Trees and walls settle onto the ground as you sculpt under them.
Lower digs up to 5 m below the board, deep enough for the ponds and river beds in the water guide.
Sculpt, Paint and Water share one undo: Ctrl+Z steps back through all three in order.

More guides

Ready to try it? Open the editor.