Mercator and Inserting a png map to trace
Okay, I am trying to do a world that I made in “Factual Terrains” and map it in the Mercator double sphere style for a full world map.
This is what I have done - First I exported the world from FT to a CC3 map, so I have a good coastline, some altitudes and rivers to follow. I did this from an Orthographical projection in FT so that I would have the two hemispheres to insert into my Mercator map. I exported to CC3 after adjusting the ft export options so I had a good map to follow. Once I opened them in CC3, making sure they were what I wanted. I saved them as pngs.
I then started to follow the Mercator issue PDF by opening the map and then hiding the Ocean fill sheet.
I then searched for in inserting maps and found this message in previous articles –
Importing Maps
Yes. You can use the Draw >>Insert File menu option. The insertable
formats are .png or .bmp.
When you insert the file, first prepare a new layer to take it (called
BITMAP or similar) and do likewise with a sheet. Have both these
selected before you start the import.
Make sure, when you apply the menu options and the dialog opens that you
uncheck the "Embed in drawing" checkbox. Once you've selected the bitmap
file and closed the dialog by clicking <OK>, commence inserting it by
clicking in the top, left corner of your map and then dragging the mouse
frame down to the opposite corner until it meets another part of the map
frame. Then click again and your bitmap will appear.
If it doesn't cover the entire map area, you may need to re-scale or
just have more sea than in your original map.
Choose the color you want to trace in, a bitmap fill that you like and
a line width of zero. You can then trace around the bitmap land area
using the Freehand Path tool or the Straight Path tool, depending on how
accurately you want to follow the coastline. Left click to end the
tracing action but don't completely close the path. Select the Numeric
Edit tool on the left bank of tool icons (fourth from bottom in the
outside column), left click with the little square mouse cursor on your
path and, in the "Edit 2D Path" dialog that opens, select the "Closed"
checkbox and click <OK>. This will produce a closed poly with the chosen
bitmap fill.
If your wrist tires during tracing, make several separate paths and join
them together at the end by right clicking the "Explode" tool (looks
like a stick of dynamite) and selecting "Combine Paths". Left click on
the first two paths you want to join (they will "grey-out") and right
click to make the join. If it doesn't look like they're joining in the
right way, type "f" and, if necessary, "s" one after the other until you
get a join that looks right.
I started following these directions, I created a layer and sheet called Bitmap, and then made sure I was currently on the sheet and layer as stated. I then proceeded to got to Draw >> Insert File menu option and it pulled up a browse window. I then selected my first png and hit open. I got the cross hairs and started in the top left corner and dragged to the bottom right corner. Now, here is where it goes wrong. Rather than follow the cursor and my dragging across the first hemisphere of the Mercator double hemisphere map (left one), the cross hairs goes in the reverse direction of the way I’m going and when I click the bottom right corner I get a square about the size I need, but its to the left of the actual map and there is a large red X in the middle of it. Now there was no option to check or uncheck of “Embed in Drawing:” as the directions above say should be there.
I’m very frustrated here and not sure why I can’t do what I should be able to do. Please help
Thanks,
“ Very frustrated and hair pulling “ Me
This is what I have done - First I exported the world from FT to a CC3 map, so I have a good coastline, some altitudes and rivers to follow. I did this from an Orthographical projection in FT so that I would have the two hemispheres to insert into my Mercator map. I exported to CC3 after adjusting the ft export options so I had a good map to follow. Once I opened them in CC3, making sure they were what I wanted. I saved them as pngs.
I then started to follow the Mercator issue PDF by opening the map and then hiding the Ocean fill sheet.
I then searched for in inserting maps and found this message in previous articles –
Importing Maps
Yes. You can use the Draw >>Insert File menu option. The insertable
formats are .png or .bmp.
When you insert the file, first prepare a new layer to take it (called
BITMAP or similar) and do likewise with a sheet. Have both these
selected before you start the import.
Make sure, when you apply the menu options and the dialog opens that you
uncheck the "Embed in drawing" checkbox. Once you've selected the bitmap
file and closed the dialog by clicking <OK>, commence inserting it by
clicking in the top, left corner of your map and then dragging the mouse
frame down to the opposite corner until it meets another part of the map
frame. Then click again and your bitmap will appear.
If it doesn't cover the entire map area, you may need to re-scale or
just have more sea than in your original map.
Choose the color you want to trace in, a bitmap fill that you like and
a line width of zero. You can then trace around the bitmap land area
using the Freehand Path tool or the Straight Path tool, depending on how
accurately you want to follow the coastline. Left click to end the
tracing action but don't completely close the path. Select the Numeric
Edit tool on the left bank of tool icons (fourth from bottom in the
outside column), left click with the little square mouse cursor on your
path and, in the "Edit 2D Path" dialog that opens, select the "Closed"
checkbox and click <OK>. This will produce a closed poly with the chosen
bitmap fill.
If your wrist tires during tracing, make several separate paths and join
them together at the end by right clicking the "Explode" tool (looks
like a stick of dynamite) and selecting "Combine Paths". Left click on
the first two paths you want to join (they will "grey-out") and right
click to make the join. If it doesn't look like they're joining in the
right way, type "f" and, if necessary, "s" one after the other until you
get a join that looks right.
I started following these directions, I created a layer and sheet called Bitmap, and then made sure I was currently on the sheet and layer as stated. I then proceeded to got to Draw >> Insert File menu option and it pulled up a browse window. I then selected my first png and hit open. I got the cross hairs and started in the top left corner and dragged to the bottom right corner. Now, here is where it goes wrong. Rather than follow the cursor and my dragging across the first hemisphere of the Mercator double hemisphere map (left one), the cross hairs goes in the reverse direction of the way I’m going and when I click the bottom right corner I get a square about the size I need, but its to the left of the actual map and there is a large red X in the middle of it. Now there was no option to check or uncheck of “Embed in Drawing:” as the directions above say should be there.
I’m very frustrated here and not sure why I can’t do what I should be able to do. Please help
Thanks,
“ Very frustrated and hair pulling “ Me
Comments
I am unsure why this happens, seems to be something with the template. Perhaps due to the coordinate system? (0,0 is at the centre of the map, which is unusual [but logical for that map])
The red x usually indicates that the file is missing, or that CC3 couldn't read it. Have you tried with another file. Perhaps rename the file, or move it to another location if it has a strange filename/path.
And of course, make sure your CC3 is upgraded to version 3.20.
It shouldn't be necessary to move the images into the annual folder though. When I tested this to diagnose the problem, I used images placed on a network drive. Only thing that I could thing of that could make problems with the placement is that the path contains some special characters, or that it is too long. I don't really know if CC has problems with either of these, since I can't reproduce that part of the problem, but they are common culprits. I would advice you try to place them on some real simple path first, for example on the root of the c: drive or similar, to see if that works.
As for the image sizes, I inserted a 1756x2476 png image without problems, so there shouldn't really be a size problem either.
What I DID discover just now, and what I thing might be your problem as well, is that CC3 can't read png images saved by CC3. You need to insert them into an image editor, and then just save them (No need to resize or anything, just save, but do make sure that the application resaves the image, not all programs will do that if you haven't made any changes)
This last part seems to be a definite bug. We already know that some programs, like firefox can't always read CC3-produced pngs, and imagemagic hates them to, claiming they are corrupt. It was interesting to see CC3 end up on the list of software not able to read pngs produced from CC3 though. Seems to not happen with every png I save from CC3, but it does happen with quite a lot of them.