Starting with Sandworm
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This chapter gives an overview of the Sandworm tool interface.
Overview of the Terrain Generation Process#
In general, the process of generating the terrain in Sandworm is as follows:
- Prepare assets: source data for terrain (geodata-based maps or links to online geodata sources), vector data to generate roads and point objects, OSM data to generate buildings, masks to generate vegetation, nodes that will be used as roads, trees, and anything else generated according to your data.
- Open Sandworm and add the terrain data: heights and imagery.
- Add roads, point objects, vegetation, and buildings, if any.
- Set masks, if necessary.
- Define the output settings such as terrain type, quality of generated data, and the world that will store the generated result.
- Generate (or re-generate) the output.
- Open the world with the output terrain in UnigineEditor.
Opening the Sandworm Tool#
To open Sandworm, select Tools -> Sandworm in the main menu.
The following window will open:
If you have already worked with Sandworm and created projects, you'll also see a list of links to your recent projects for quick access:
By clicking the Create New button, the Project Configuration window opens:
The coordinate system you choose here is set for the convenience of preview display. For data export, you should specify only a projected coordinate system because the generated terrain is exported to Object Landscape Terrain or Object Terrain Global, which is a flat (i.e., not geospherical) area.
Sandworm Interface#
The Sandworm tool interface has five panels: Sources, Output, Generation, Preview, and Parameters.
The location of panels is not fixed — you can rearrange them as necessary.
Sources Panel#
In the Sources panel, you specify the Elevation (height) and Imagery (albedo) sources for the terrain generation and Vector and Mask data sources for generation of details, vegetation, roads, communications, buildings, etc., if required. Multiselection allows working with multiple layers simultaneously.
The checkbox on the left of the source allows disabling a layer, thus excluding it from the generation process.
Right-clicking on a layer type allows adding a new layer — the same as clicking + Add Layer.
Right-clicking on a layer opens the context menu:
| Focus | Focuses the view in the Preview panel on the selected layer. |
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| Move to Foreground | Moves the selected layer (or layers of one type) to the foreground in the Preview panel. |
| Move to Background | Moves the selected layer (or layers of one type) to the background in the Preview panel. |
| Remove | Removes the selected layer or layers. |
| Generate Preview | Generates the preview of the selected layer. It is designed to generate the preview that has previously been canceled. |
| Take View Bounds | Encloses the area visible in the map preview window into the bounds for the selected layer. Data within the enclosed area are used for terrain generation. |
| Clear Bounds | Removes the bounds for the selected layer. When bounds are not set, all layer data are used for terrain generation. |
| Properties | Displays the properties of the source file for the selected layer, such as file name, the coordinate system the source file uses, the source file density in meters per pixel, and geographic bounds of the source file. |
To rename a layer, double-click and then focus-click its name
Preview Panel#
The Preview panel visualizes the available information. Here you can navigate and preview the added inputs. The following controls are available:
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Panning mode. Allows only panning in the Preview panel without selecting any layer. Panning is also possible when holding the SPACE button or the mouse wheel button and dragging the preview. |
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Selection mode. Allows panning and selecting the foreground layers in the Preview panel. |
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Zoom-in button. The preview can also be zoomed in by scrolling the mouse wheel up. |
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Zoom-out button. The preview can also be zoomed out by scrolling the mouse wheel down. |
| Coordinates | Current coordinates of the mouse cursor. |
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Display coordinates as WGS 84 latitude and longitude. If coordinates are already displayed as latitude and longitude (not in meters), this button is inactive. |
| Coordinate System | The coordinate system selected for preview. It can be changed by clicking this button. |
The source data might be heavy, and it can take time to generate a preview. In this case, you can cancel the preview generation using the following button available in the bottom right corner of the Preview panel during the generation process:
If you later require this preview to be generated, use the Generate Preview option in the context menu of the Sources panel.
Output Panel#
The Output panel contains the list of settings required to configure the resulting terrain: the area that will be generated, the projection used for display, export format, quality, the world where this terrain will be located, etc.
Generation Panel#
The Generation panel contains the settings that define the details of the terrain generation process: paths to the Sandworm project, which stores the terrain data and cache. The menu allows selecting the specific types of data to be generated. The Generate button initiates the generation process.
The 
button is used to clean the cache folder.
If any parameters required for the generation have not been set, they are highlighted red and clickable. Clicking on the highlighted words opens the corresponding output settings for adjustment.
Parameters Panel#
The Parameters panel contains parameters of the selected settings or information on the selected data source.
For the imported offline source layers (elevation, imagery, masks, and vectors), the following parameters are available:
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Encloses the area visible in the Preview window in the bounds. The data will be uploaded for the area within these bounds. You can move the points defining the bounds to adjust the area as necessary. |
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Removes the bounds for the selected layer. If the bounds are not set, all data available in the layer and within the Export Area will be uploaded. |
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Sets the bounds to enclose all data available in the layer. The data will be uploaded for the area within these bounds. You can move the points defining the bounds to adjust the area as necessary. |
By using this toolset, you can define which data should be taken from every layer without uploading any unnecessary or corrupted data.