Unfractalize?

Just curious, is there a way to unfractalize something? What I'm thinking, specifically, is the Fractalize command. I've Fractalized all the rivers on one of my maps and I'm not sure now if I like them that way or not. It really isn't much hassle to redraw them all if I decide to go back to smooth, but I was just curious if there was a command that would do it?

Comments

  • jslaytonjslayton Moderator, ProFantasy Mapmaker
    REDN claims to offer that functionality.
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited October 2017
    For the uninitiated, REDN is the Remove Nodes command. You can use it by typing REDN in the command line or by right-clicking the Fractalise [CC3 Button Image] button, and then choosing Remove Nodes from the pop-up menu. Like Fractalise, you can use Remove Nodes multiple times to repeatedly adjust the number of nodes on the entity.

    When you're done, however, you'll still have a straight entity (path, poly, etc). To make it smooth again, right-click the Fractalise button again and then select Straight to Smooth (STC on the command line) to convert the straight entity to a smooth one.

    On the other hand, you can also make a fractalized entity smooth, without removing nodes. Personally, I think this often looks pretty good with rivers.

    Incidentally, you can also right-click the Explode [CC3 Button Image] button; they both have the same pop-up menu.

    Cheers,
    ~Dogtag
  • JimPJimP 🖼️ 280 images Cartographer
    edited October 2017
    What i do is save as a series of flenames, before and after edits/add symbols, etc.

    So I have a filename01_001, save it, fractalize. I don't like the results, load filename001_001, fractalize gone. Much faster than deleting lots of nodes.

    I do have filename01_001 up to filename01_050, for lots of my maps, but it goes back further than undo. So it can be helpful.
  • jslaytonjslayton Moderator, ProFantasy Mapmaker
    A minor word of warning with REDN: it doesn't exactly undo a FRX (fractalize) operation. What it does is to remove nodes when the angle between adjacent nodes is above a certain value. That means that it's quite possible to fractalize an entity (or draw a fractal entity with a drawing tool) and then have REDN be unable to get it close to its original shape.
  • ScottAScottA Surveyor
    That worked a charm. I wasn't trying to "put things back" so much as really to take out some of the sharp angles I got on some of my rivers when I fractalized them. I left them mostly fractalized, but adjusted those that looked awful with sharp and boxy angles. Much better now! Thanks, again for the advice.
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