CSUAC/SMAC tip - Easy access to symbol catalogs

I figured some users might find this useful, especially new users unaccustomed to UI customization.

SMAC Menus

Considering the huge collection of artwork available at the SMAC site, easy access to the symbols is a must. (Site is no longer available, so URL has been removed)

Considering Shessars considerable collection, and frequent updates, manually creating menu files is a hassle,and well, I am lazy :)
So, I wrote a little script to create these files for me.

The result is that there is now a daily updated set of menu files available at http://home.broadpark.no/~cc3/smac_menu.zip. This set is auto-generated from the content at the SMAC site, ensuring that it is always up to date. The menu files are updated daily, so expect up to 24 hours delay after Shessar posts new artwork before the files are up to date.

The zip file found at the url above contains two types of files:
  • .mnc files - These should be put into a subdirectory called "menu" inside your main CC3 directory. Just create this directory if it doesn't exists
  • .mnu file - The content of these files should be put into the corresponding menu (.mnu) files in the main CC3 directory. The file names of these are created automatically using the category names on the site, so they will NOT have the same name as the right CC3 menu file. It should be easy enough to figure out which file they go into though (master_City Symbols.mnu should be added to city.mnu, master_Dungeon Symbols.mnu to dungeon.mnu and so on)
The exact procedure is basically the same as for the CSUAC above, only difference is that you add the menu content to the various .mnu files (add-on spesific menu files) instead of the fcw32.imn file (global menu file).

Note that I have elected to only use CC3 built-in icons for this versions. I primarily do this because it means less files to distribute and put in the correct folder, but also because it is difficult creating or finding images (with an appropriate license) to be used. Obviously, I need to select the icons manually, so if Shessar creates a new category on the site, it will use a generic icon until I manually assign it one. This only affects the icon however, the menu for the new category will be available immediately without the need for any intervention by me.


Note that forum user deltaserpentis also posted a set of menu files, and a way to generate them yourself using excel. You'll find his post here

CSUAC Menus

If you have downloaded the CSUAC symbols (Site is no longer available, so URL has been removed), you know that there is a lot of symbol catalogs, and loading them manually when you go back and forth a lot can be a hassle. Here is one way of making them easier accessible, based on adding some extra buttons to CC3.

[Image_24]

Attached to this post is a zip file, containing a series of .mnc files, and a fcw32.imn file.
  1. Create a subfolder in your CC3 folder, name it menu
  2. Put all the .mnc files in this new menu folder
  3. Append the contents of the fcw32.imn file to your existing fcw32.imn file in the CC3 root directory. Make sure you don't leave any empty lines inside the file, but do make sure there is a line break after the last line of content, or CC3 will crash on startup.
    If you don't have a fcw32.imn file, you can just copy the fcw32.imn file file from the zip archive to your CC3 directory
  4. Start CC3. Click the screen tools button (Hammer icon at the bottom of the screen), and turn on "Custom icon bar 3". I usually place it to the left
  5. If the new toolbar show up blank, just restart CC3 or click on one of the "Add-on" buttons in the toobar. This will reload the menu.
Assuming everything was done correctly (and I typed the instructions correctly), you should now have a new row of buttons. Clicking on any of these will bring up a menu that lets you select a CSUAC symbol catalog easily (See attached screenshot).

Note that this is one way of providing easy access to these catalogs. CC3 offers other ways as well, for example by using Symbol Catalog Settings and Filters, but I find this method easier for a resource like the CSUAC, which you want to access in many circumstances.
Also note that by adding the icons to fcw32.imn, they will show up in all the menus. If you just want them in one menu, for example the dungeon menu, you can add the content of this file to the dungeon.mnu file instead.

The below zip-file is for the CSUAC menu, for the SMAC menu visit http://home.broadpark.no/~cc3/smac_menu.zip
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Comments

  • Awesome - thanks Monsen!
  • edited August 2008
    Wow, I love it. I actually tended not to use CSUAC stuff because I had to rifle through so many files. That makes it so much easier having them right at my finger tips. Thanks Monsen. Anyone who says you do not rock is unaware what it means to rock.
  • This is fantastic Monsen. Thank you! Like gregwr said, you rock!
  • JoeyD473JoeyD473 Betatester 🖼️ 2 images Traveler
    This has made my life so great.

    I have some other symbol sets, how do I add them to this bar as well?
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited August 2008
    Posted By: JoeyD473I have some other symbol sets, how do I add them to this bar as well?
    If you look at the files, there are one .mnc file for each button. These can be opened in a text editor, like notepad. This is the menu that shows when you click on the button. Just make a file identical to one of these, and point the entries to the symbol catalogs you wish to have available.
    Then, in the fcw32.imn file, just add another line equal to the one from my file, and increment the number in front (These must be unique, and represent the position on the toolbar), and change it to point to your new .mnc file. The word right after the number is the image you wish to use for the button. I don't know if PF has an official list of these, but if you look at the various .mnu files in the CC3 directory, you should find lots of names you can use.
  • 8 days later
  • 1 month later
  • Where are the files? I think I'm missing something here...
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited October 2008
    We lost some attachments during the installation of an addon.
    I'll restore the attachments for this thread, they'll be back shortly.
  • 11 days later
  • I am a total noob so please forgive the question..

    I dont get point #3 above. What is meant by append?

    I someone could help I would appreciate it.

    Thanks in advance!
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Posted By: RondorI dont get point #3 above. What is meant by append?
    Append means "Add to", as opposed to replace.
    Just open both files in a text editor, and copy the contents of my file into the existing file.
  • 25 days later
  • when i'm click on the hammer, i d'ont have in the menu the "custom icon bar 3"
    what is the problem, or what i've gorgot to do?
    thx for help
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Check if it has another name. It should be the second item from the bottom, placed between the options for Symbol Toolbar and Symbol Catalog
  • THx a lot. it's god for the toolbar, but i've got another problem. There are so much red X on the map. i'm not able to fix this problem
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Red X's are usually beacause either
    1) You don't have the bitmap symbols that are used in that particular map
    2) You have them, but they are not in the same location as they were when the map was made.

    You should be able to enter the symbol manager, find the missing symbol (it is represented with a red x here as well), and do a "list" on the symbol from here to see where CC3 is looking for the symbol.
    Ideally, this should be a relative path starting with # (relative to the CC3 install directory) or $ (relative to the map location).
  • 1 month later
  • edited January 2009
    Okay, all done. Now I have the buttons on the toolbar, but I get an error message of "Error Loading File!" when I click on any of them. I have shut it down and restarted and still get the same error. Could the FSC files be in the wrong folder? I saved them all to the folder the CSUAC Readme file told me to, CC3-->Symbols. Do I need to load them into the new Menu file instead?
  • DkarrDkarr Traveler
    You need to extract each of the symbol catalogs from the CSUAC to the following directory \CC3\Symbols\CSUAC\

    It will look something like this:
    CSUAC Structure

    Then make sure that your menus point to the correct location
  • edited January 2009
    Okay, but I still get the same error message. Where do I change where the menus are pointing? I think I see where the menu's are in the .mnc files. But they all point to the correct folder.
  • DkarrDkarr Traveler
    Did you add the menus to your FCW32.imn file? It should look something like this:

    fcw32.imn file
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    And did you put all the *.mnc files in a subfolder called "menu" inside the main CC3 directory. If not, the program won't find the menu files themselves.

    To help us track down the error, does it show up immediately when clicking on the button, or do you get a menu popping up when clicking the button, and then get an error when you click on the desired entry in the menu?
  • edited January 2009
    Posted By: DkarrDid you add the menus to your FCW32.imn file? It should look something like this:
    It looks exactly like that.
    Posted By: # MonsenAnd did you put all the *.mnc files in a subfolder called "menu" inside the main CC3 directory. If not, the program won't find the menu files themselves.
    I did at first, but I saw the root above pointing to csuac_menu so I changed the name. But I changed it back and still get the same message (and yeah, it is an immediate error):


    image
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Posted By: freefallinand yeah, it is an immediate error
    Ok. That means that it can't find the .mnc files, so let us forget about the symbol catalogs themselves for now (The fsc files)

    - First thing to try is to try several of the buttons, and both left and right click on them. This establishes if there might be an error in the fcw32.imn file. If some work, and some doesn't, you should redo this file.
    - If all the buttons create errors, check your file structure.
    1. Make sure you have a subdirectory called "menu" inside your main CC3 directory, and not inside a subdirectory or anything
    2. Make sure you have copied the 8 *.mnc files directly into the menu directory, and not inside a subdirectory or similar.
    3. If you are using Windows Vista, it is sometimes a bit protective about the content in the Program Files structure. You can verify that CC3 itself can see the files by using file->open, browse to the "menu" directory you created, and manually type in *.* as the filename and hit enter. If the files are available, you will see them listed in the window. (Don't try to actually open them in CC3)
  • That's what it was, the 8 .mnc files were in a sub folder inside of the main "menu", in essence a Menu file inside of a Menu file :) Thanks for the help!
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    No problem. Hope you find these helpful.
  • 11 days later
  • what file do i add these files to like where is it??
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Follow the instructions in the first post, they tell you exactly what to do, step by step.
    Your CC3 directory is by default located in c:\Program Files\ProFantasy\CC3
  • 1 year later
  • This is a huge time-saver. Thanks!

    I did encounter a couple of problems though.

    First, half of the vegetation files appeared to be blank. In fcw32.imn, All the lines referencing the "Vegetation_Pt1" file had a space in the middle of the file name. For instance:

    Arbor:|CATALOG #Symbols\CSUAC\BL5_CC3_Vegetation_Pt1\Arbor.FSC;

    had a space between "CC3_" and "Vegetation". I removed these spaces, and instead of being blank these images now appeared as red X's.

    I haven't figured out how to deal with this second problem. All the other symbol libraries are fine. The artwork for this one is there and everything seems to be spelled correctly and in the appropriate case. I don't know how to edit the .FSC files to check them though.

    Any ideas?
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited June 2010
    You need to keep the space in the directory name, since the path is stored inside the symbol catalog files, and if you rename the directory, the stored path to the art files will be in error.

    As for blank symbol catalogs, that usually happens if the catalog file is missing, or the path is wrong. My menu file should take into account the extra space in this catalog, but you may wish to open up your copy of csuac_vegetation.mnc in notepad and make sure that the path is correct (including the space). Also make sure your symbol catalogs (the .fsc files) are actually stored right inside the BL5_CC3_ Vegetation_Pt1 directory, and not inside a subdirectory (structure should be identical to the other csuac sets, except for that stray space)
  • Posted By: MonsenYou need to keep the space in the directory name, since the path is stored inside the symbol catalog files, and if you rename the directory, the stored path to the art files will be in error.

    As for blank symbol catalogs, that usually happens if the catalog file is missing, or the path is wrong. My menu file should take into account the extra space in this catalog, but you may wish to open up your copy of csuac_vegetation.mnc in notepad and make sure that the path is correct (including the space). Also make sure your symbol catalogs (the .fsc files) are actually stored right inside the BL5_CC3_ Vegetation_Pt1 directory, and not inside a subdirectory (structure should be identical to the other csuac sets, except for that stray space)
    Thank you! That completely fixed it.
  • 1 month later
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