CA34 - contours & grid (FTPro export)

I'm a novice user and have been trying out CA34 (using FTPro). One thing that I would like to be able to do is merge the contours so there's a nice even bleed of colours in the ocean. I turned on effects for Contours and added Blur. It doesn't bother me that the land contours also blur, but unfortunately the line separating land and ocean also blurs. Is there anyway to keep that coastline sharp?

Also, some weird things were happening with the grid. The FTPro map had no grid, but by the time I'd exported and converted I got a map in two halves: vertical lines only on the left half of the map, and proper square grid markings on the right half. I got rid of it by deleting the GRID sheet in CC3, but I wondered if I had done something wrong??

Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Posted By: vikkiwIs there anyway to keep that coastline sharp?
    Move or copy it to another sheet without the blur effect.
  • RalfRalf Administrator, ProFantasy 🖼️ 18 images Mapmaker
    That's a bit more complicated, because I think vikkiw is not talking about the coastline, but simply the lowest land contour (darkest green). The way FT exports the contours, you can't single that out and put it on its own sheet without messing up the order of contours.

    To get this working, you need to put the sea contours on their own sheet (e.g. CONTOURS SEA) below (i.e. above in the list) the LAND sheet. Unfortunately I couldn't do this in the converter, because it can only differentiate entities by their layer (and FT puts all contours on the same layer). Do it manually, probably best by selecting by colors 79, 78, 77, 76, 74, 72, 70 and 69.

    This would be perfect for a quick macro. Anybody wanting to write one? *looks around for Joachim* ;)
  • edited October 2009
    Here you are!

    Attached is the FT.txt file you need to rename FT.mac and place in the CC3 main folder.
    Use LOADMAC command and select FT.mac then use FT enter to launch the macro.
    All color 79,78,77,76,74,72,70 & 69 entities will go on a CONTOURS,SEA sheet while the rest goes on LAND sheet.
    Works well with CA34 settings.
    There's a drawback, though. If no entity of one color is present the macro will fail. Didn't found a way to prevent it.
    If you want to use other export settings, you will have to change the macro to target new colors.
    Hope it helps.

    JdR
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