Edge Trimming – Trims elements of instances outside of the host boundaries. It affects both host objects and Area modifiers.
Edge trimming is used to trim scattered instances consisting of multiple mesh elements so that they stay within the boundaries of the host objects, taking into account the modifiers added to the Area Modifiers list. If an origin of any integral part of the instance (any sub-mesh element of the instanced model) falls outside of the area specified by the scatter, such part is not rendered. This is a simplification, but you can imagine the origin as a point on the host object from which an element is growing.
The typical use cases of Edge Trimming include:
Grass lawns - in case of using large grass clumps, no individual grass blades will be growing outside of the defined area.
Carpets - in case of using large clumps of strands, no individual strands will be placed outside of the carpet area.
Pebbles, rocks, bark chippings, or any other objects which you need to distribute within some specific boundary and make sure no instances stick outside of that boundary (determined based on the mesh element origin precision).
In addition to making the scattering look more refined and natural, the edge trimming feature boosts performance by removing some of the instances you save from RAM and making parsing time shorter.
Column
width
5%
Column
width
35%
Image Added
...
Example: Edge Trimming
Align
align
center
Image_comparison_slider
LabelBefore
Off
width
50%
LabelAfter
On
AttachmentImageBefore
edge_trimming-not_trimmed.png
AttachmentImageAfter
edge_trimming-trimmed.png
height
50%
Notes
...
Section
Fancy Bullets
type
circle
Scene units in SketchUp are always calculated in inches.
