The Drop Tool plugin created by an anonymous author on Ruby Library Depot is a useful tool to drop many components onto a surface that is not completely flat. It allows you to do this simply with the right click of the mouse then choosing “drop at intersection”. Another element of the tool allows you to drop the components at a certain height (but this just works as a move tool).

Though this plugin only works with components. Also when using the tool it tends to drop the object down to the extents of the virtual box that is made. So when you have a tree (such as I do in the above image) it will be seen as a box that takes the extents of the tree, thus the leaves will stretch out the base to many times bigger than the base of the actual trunk. When using the tool the tree will drop down until one of the edges hits the surface and may result with the base of the tree trunk still floating in the air. A way around this is to create circles the size of the trunk and create these as a component (to serve as a place holder). Then drop the circles down to the surface. Once the circles are down, you can replace the “circle” component with a “tree” component.

Overall, the Drop Tool plugin is a simple and useful plugin to have. At the time of this review this plugin is free and is available at Ruby Library Depot. Just be sure to scroll down and find the “drop.rb” file. I give this plugin 4 out 5 stars.

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