Sheet Effects Inactive by Default?

Hello everyone,

I am a brand new user --just started playing with this wonderful program today. I am following Joseph Sweeney's great overland tutorial to get acquainted with it all, and so far have run into one problem: every time I start the program and open my map, the sheet effects are set as inactive. Is there a way to make it so they will always be checked as "active" when I open a file?

Also, when placing a mountain, I accidentally rotated it. I was able to eyeball it the way it was before, but I do hate eyeballing things, so how do I reset symbols to their default position and size?

Sorry if these questions are already answered on the forum, I did try a search but could not come up with anything. Right now I'm just overwhelmed with information and by what this amazing program can accomplish. Would be grateful for any help.

Thanks in advance!

-Marina

Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited November 2009
    Hi and welcome.

    Yes. Sheet effects are always off by default. This is because these are heavy in the CPU, so it is not recommended working on your map with these on. Normally, you would only turn on effects when you are working with the effects themselves, or when you are ready to export/print the map.
    That said, if you always wish to have effects on for a particular map, you can add the command to the maps open macro. Just go to File -> Drawing Properties -> Map notes, select "onOpenMacro" and hit "edit", and then add the line
    EFFECTSON
    at the bottom. This will turn on effects each time this particular map is loaded.
    Under Tools -> Options, you can set this globally (The "Effects on Load" setting). This affects all maps.

    To reset the symbol, just right click in the drawing window (With the symbol still active at the cursor). You should now get a symbol properties dialog. Just hit the "Set Normal" button to fix it. Also, the arrow keys on the keyboar are shortcuts for setting the rotation to 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees, no matter the previous orientation.
  • Simon RogersSimon Rogers Administrator, ProFantasy Traveler
    Posted By: marinaHello everyone,

    I am a brand new user --just started playing with this wonderful program today. I am following Joseph Sweeney's great overland tutorial to get acquainted with it all, and so far have run into one problem: every time I start the program and open my map, the sheet effects are set as inactive. Is there a way to make it so they will always be checked as "active" when I open a file?
    To add to Monsen's comments, on a per-drawing basis you can select Display Speed Settings >> Effects are On when Loaded.
  • edited November 2009
    Thank you kindly to both of you for your replies. I've decided to go the per-drawing basis for now. It doesn't seem to be slowing my computer much, though granted I am working on a little map at the moment.

    Monsen, the "Set Normal" thing only worked partially. Everything is still bigger than it should be (not on the map, but when I go to place a new one.) I did play with scaling the mountains because I liked making them bigger as I got closer to the bottom of the map, but now I'd really like to reset them. Right now when I go to the symbol properties dialog the scale shows as "X and Y: 1.00000." Maybe I accidentally did something to change the default scale of everything? I've tried not to stray from the tutorial.

    There's one more thing: when I zoom in on the borders of my map (the borders of the land mass, not the whole map) they look so harsh. This is with sheet effects on. Is there any way to soften this? To apply an anti-alias effect to it?

    Thanks again!
  • RalfRalf Administrator, ProFantasy 🖼️ 18 images Mapmaker
    You can set your default symbol scale under File > Drawing Properties. "Set to Normal" will then always reset the scale to that value.

    You can add a small "Blur" effect to your LAND sheet to soften the effect. If you want to affect the coastline only, I'd recommend putting the black outline only on a new sheet (e.g. COASTLINE) and adding the effect to that sheet.
  • Thank you, Ralf! I'll give this a try tonight. :)
  • edited November 2009
    Posted By: RalfYou can set your default symbol scale under File > Drawing Properties. "Set to Normal" will then always reset the scale to that value.

    You can add a small "Blur" effect to your LAND sheet to soften the effect. If you want to affect the coastline only, I'd recommend putting the black outline only on a new sheet (e.g. COASTLINE) and adding the effect to that sheet.
    Hey Ralf,

    I've tried going to File > Drawing Properties, but I don't see the "Set to Normal" option anywhere. I've attached a screenshot of the options I get.
  • Click on Defauly symbol style. And then enter a number in the Scale blank. Click okay.

    A surface map scale of 1000 miles would be a scale of 1.0. Yours shows as 0.0

    Surface maps larger than 1,000 miles or kilometers wide would be greater than 1.0 My surface maps are basedon my old 5xx hexagon mappages, and are 185 miles x 234 miles. My scale is set at 0.185
  • edited November 2009
    Posted By: JimPClick on Defauly symbol style. And then enter a number in the Scale blank. Click okay.

    A surface map scale of 1000 miles would be a scale of 1.0. Yours shows as 0.0

    Surface maps larger than 1,000 miles or kilometers wide would be greater than 1.0 My surface maps are basedon my old 5xx hexagon mappages, and are 185 miles x 234 miles. My scale is set at 0.185
    Geez. I'm feeling really stupid not being able to fix this even with help. I couldn't figure out the original scale for my map, so I started the tutorial from the beginning and then went to check what the scale was before I messed it up. It's 0.30000. I entered that on my original map, but when I go to place a new symbol, it still is the same too big size as before. What could I be doing wrong? <:(

    EDIT: OK, this is REALLY confusing. Upon restarting the program, the mountains reverted to the correct size. However, if I go to "Drawing Properties", it shows the same scale as on my earlier screenshot. I don't get it. I'm glad it's fixed but I'm frustrated because I don't get it.
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