Newb Question about joining stuff

Kingbreaker · May 2008

Last night I spent about two hours trying to do something that it would take 10 seconds to do in, say, fireworks.

How do I take two objects (landmasses, in this case) and join them together so that they are merged as one?

I tried using the explode command and other tactics. . . . all for nought.

Much fun otherwise!

thanks,

John

Monsen · May 2008

Don't know if this is the easiest way to accomplish this, as this is not something I normally do, but one way to go at it is to use BREAK on each of the two landmasses to get rid of line on each one where they are supposed to be joined. You will then end up with two lines representing the outline of your landmasses (The fill will disappear for now). You will also need to get rid of the black outline as this is a separate entity. It should be easy to delete by using the ERA (Erase) command on a section where you removed the landmass part with BREAK, or by only selecting black entities.
Then, use CMB (Combine paths) to combine the two outlines into one line. Make sure you flip them if needed, so two of the closest ends are connected. Then, use CLOSEPATH (Path to Poly) to close the polygon again, causing the fill to reappear properly. No, use fractalize or node edit commands if needed to give the combined landmass a natural look, before finally using OUTLINEB (Outline in Black) on the landmass to put back a proper outline around the new combined landmass.

Latharion · May 2008

I think what he wants to do is a Multipoly. The multipoly command is very easy to use. Simply select the Multipoly tool (or type MPOLY2 on the command bar) and select the two land masses you want to combine into one. Right click, select "Do It" and that's it/ The new multipoly will have the characteristics that are currently selected (color, line style, fill style). You can combine any number and types of entities this way (say a half-circle, a line, and a path). When trying to multipoly paths, if one or more of the paths is "smoothed" it needs to be unsmoothed before the multipoly command is used on it because of calculation errors within the program (it cannot reasonably guess where a smoothed path and a regular path will connect). The resultant multipoly may be "smoothed" after it is multipolied though.

If you want to combine two paths (say for example you wish to combine two rivers into one larger river entity) use the CMB command as Monsen recommended. Again, do not forget to "unsmooth" any smoothed paths before using this command. The path may be "smoothed" afterward.

Saint Valamir · July 2009

Sorry for resurrecting this - but I am a total newbie and I found this post while trying to understand something....

Multipoly is driving me insane. Specifically: I am doing a continent while tracing a very strict coastline, since this would take a million clicks to trace I am doing it in parts. So I am ending up with uneven chunks of land I want to smoothly combine - I am drawing them with the coastline tool.

I am trying to map the whole world out like this, a chunk at a time - but I will be damned if I can make all the chunks bind together as one whole piece.

Please understand, I am very new

Joachim de Ravenbel · July 2009

Well, in your case Saint Valamir, I wouldn't use the coastline tool because it generates polies. I would use the fractal path, each new one starting at the end of the previous (use F5 - Endpoit modifier but with a big zoom because F5 on a fractal takes the node nearest to the selection). When you're done, Combine all those paths and give the the attributes of the coasline tool.

jaerdaph · July 2009

Hi Saint Valamir,

We recently had this same question come up in another thread "Controlling Combine Path ... ?": http://forum.profantasy.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=1097&page=1

There's some more good advice in there from Joachim and others.

Best,

jaerdaph

Saint Valamir · July 2009

Thanks guys! Working with this new info, hope I can wrangle these controls!

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Newb Question about joining stuff

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