Is there a way to rotate an object and change the bounding box around it, in order to scale the object in a different direction?  For instance, a terrain is located at 0 degrees.  With the universal manipulator, you rotate it 90 degrees, but the bounding box goes back to zero---much like what happens when you rotate an object in the Vertex Modeler (but without converting the terrain to a vertex object).  This combination of scaling and rotation is a great way to create geological overhangs, which is possible in Bryce, but doesn't seem to be so in Carrara.

The Translation tool (the little arrow) is always based upon the global position. The Univeral Manipulator (the little planet Saturn tool) always shows the local position when activated. So, switching between them by using T for Translate and U for Univeral should give you the control you are looking for. Mark

Thanks, Mark, but  it's scale that I need, not translation.  Regardless of what manipulator I use, I can only scale in the direction of one of the faces of the working box, which moves with the object, akin to Bryce's Object Space.  What I want is a function similar to Bryce's World Space, where the bounding box would remain parallel to the ground plane regardless of the orientation of the object.

That way you can use scaling to twist a terrain to create overhangs, then rotate it back to its original position.

The only way I've found is to convert a terrain into a vertex object, but you lose all the terrain functions---a major detriment.

Any ideas?

I'm probably slow today so forgive me if I'm not "getting it". The Univeral manipulater does scaling too. However, if you've rotated a terrain and want a "new" bounding box, simply select the terrain and create Group with it. Now the new group will have a reset bounding box. In this same way, you can apply different deformations - each group having it's own specific deformation.

The universal manipulator as well can only scale in the direction of a face of the working box.  If you create a group, you do get a new working box, but when you scale, it scales the overall size of the object, no matter what axis you pull from, whereas I would like to scale only from the Z axis.

Crazy, eh?

Under the Modify tab select Basic Deformations => Scale. It will allow you to scale groups in non-uniform dimensions.

Precisely what I was looking for.  Thanks so much!