Creating Grids With Variable Angles

I'm working on grids in DD3 -- but I'd like to be able to create per-room grids at variable angles, so that if you have (for instance) a 30 x 40 room at a diagonal I can see easily that it is 3 10' squares by 4 10' squares. Anyone have any good ideas how to do that?

Comments

  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Assuming your scale is the same throughout and you just want to rotate it to fit, I would duplicate the grid onto as many new grid sheets as you have different orientations of room, and working on each one individually, rotate the grid till it fits the room for which it is intended.

    I think you can trim grids.... but I've never done anything like that before, so you might need someone else to make either a better suggestion, or to tell you how you might finish the job :)
  • I was trying to use symbol fills for grids, and it didn't seem like I could rotate the fill -- if I rotate the object containing the symbol fill the fill stayed the same orientation.
  • I think I've found at least a brute force solution -- I can define a symbol that is a 10' square, and then stamp that down as needed on the map. I don't know if there's a better way.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    If you were using a straightforward pattern fill it would be a simple case to convert the polygon containing it into a shaded polygon, and then using EDITSHADING to adjust the pitch of the shading, but...

    I've never even used a symbol fill, so I wouldn't know if doing such a thing would even work :(
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    You could draw your own grid by using grid, and snap (two buttons on the bottom right) grid shows a grid (the spacing of which can be adjusted by right clicking the grid button), and snap ensures that your clicks as you draw your grid lines snap to the point on the grid.

    Having drawn the one bit of grid you could then copy it and paste it, then rotate the different copies as required?
  • Some of the grids are all one piece, like under the draw menu, but I think there is a grid where each line is an individual piece. I haven't encountered it in a few years though.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Some of them you can explode into separate pieces, but make sure you have the right sheet and layer selected before you explode anything like that, since whatever is exploded ends up on the currently selected sheet and layer ;)
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited December 2017
    You can easily fill a shape with a grid at any angle (and at any scale) by using a custom Scaleable Hashing fill style. Check out Joe Sweeney's awesome video tutorial to learn how. You'll need to make a separate hash fill (see his video) for each odd angle by setting the angles of the hash. One angle should match the angle of the room and the other angle should be 90 degrees to that (add or subtract 90 from the first angle).

    Not to fret, it's easy to determine the angle of a room (polygon). To determine the angle of any given line/path/polygon side, click Info>Bearing from the menu bar and then click the line/side you want to measure.

    To apply the grid to an existing room, you can copy the floor to the grid sheet and then change the fill style to your custom grid. Another way is to create a drawing tool (see Joe's video) and then use the TRACE command to trace the floor.

    I hope that helps.

    Cheers,
    ~Dogtag
  • Fascinating. I learned something new. Don't know if I'll use it, but I learned something new.
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