Workflow Products
Workflow Products holds the tools that do in one run what would otherwise take a chain of several. There is one at the moment.
Topo Render
Section titled “Topo Render”Produces a finished, publication ready terrain image: colour tinting by elevation, multidirectional shading, cast shadows and atmospheric attenuation, all combined in a single raster.
Where Hillshade gives you a grey layer you then have to style and blend yourself, Topo Render gives you the final picture.
| Parameter | What to set |
|---|---|
| Input | Your elevation raster. |
| Palette | The colour scheme applied to elevation. Reverse palette flips it, which is what you want when low ground should be light rather than dark. |
| Azimuth | Where the light comes from, in degrees clockwise from north. 315, the north west, is the cartographic convention. |
| Altitude | The light’s height above the horizon, in degrees. Lower gives longer shadows and more drama. |
| Clipping polygon | An optional vector layer limiting the rendering to a study area. |
| Background height offset and colour | How far below the terrain the background plane sits, and its colour. This is what gives the image its floating relief look. |
| Attenuation parameter | How much distant terrain fades into the background haze. Higher values give more atmospheric depth. |
| Ambient light | The fill light in the shadows. Raise it if the shaded faces come out too dark to read. |
| Z factor | Vertical exaggeration. Raise it above 1 for gentle terrain that looks flat at true scale. |
| Max dist | An optional limit on how far shadows and attenuation are computed. |
| Output | The rendered raster. |
Start from the defaults. They produce a good image on most terrain. Change the palette and the z factor first, then the lighting, then the atmosphere.
Not an analysis layer. The output is a picture, not a measurement. Keep the original DEM for anything you intend to compute.
Comparable tools. For a lighter finished rendering, see Hypsometrically Tinted Hillshade in General.