Creating a very large city

JoeyD473 · June 2009

I am creating a city that is basically 20 miles x 20 miles (105600' x 105600') and those measurements seem to be too big for CD3 so I am going to go and start my city in the overland wizard, but just use the CD3 tools. Are there any pitfalls I should be aware of before doing this?

Ralf · June 2009

I'd still use the CD3 templates, since they have all the layers and sheets used for cities. You'd have to manually create and sort these if you used an overland template.

Just make sure not to use bitmap fills for houses on such a large map, or you'll probably run into very long display times. I'd recommend a vector style template, if you want to create individual buildings.

Monsen · June 2009

The real problem with CD3 handling maps of that size seems to be in the calculation that converts map units to feets and inches in the coordinates display. If you create a CD3 map of your specified size, and then go to File -> Drawing Properties -> Drawing Units. Here, set the "Distance Display Format" to "Numeric". Now CC3 will report all distances and coordinates in raw map units instead of feets and inches (Unless you change anything else in here, on map unit still equals one feet though, so actual map scale is not affected, it only changes how CC3 shows you the numbers).
If you measure your map after thsi (or look at the coordinates), you will see the map size is actually correct.

JoeyD473 · June 2009

Thank You guys

KeithC · June 2009

Wow, that's a large map! What are you creating if you don't mind my asking.

JimP · June 2009

I make my large cities in blocks of areas.

I sketched out the city on paper, or in cd3, then put a square overlay over it. Breaking it up into smaller areas.

Then I draw, in CD3, each smaller area. I put them up on my web site linking thumbnails in html so the viewer can see how they go together.

JoeyD473 · June 2009

I m making the large city mainly because i think it will be interesting, but in reality it is a bunch of islands and part of the ainland that make up the city. Orginally I kind of pictured it similiar to venice, just bigger.

I started drawing it, and that is what I am going to do Jim.

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Creating a very large city

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