Newbie Questions - One General (best way to learn) and One Specific (Inserting image files)

Hi everyone!

I am an orginal D&D'er (white box, 3 pamphlets, 3x5 index cards, skipping dates with my highschool girl friend to go an 'epic adventure') and long time DM. I have been 'kicking it old school' for a while with my world and dungeon creation with 17" x 22" graph paper.

But when I got an idea for a new world (think 17th century Carribean with contesting empires, freebooters, pirates, ancient civilizations, etc.), I decided this was the perfect time to 'update' my tools and production. So after a lot of careful searching and reviewing, I settled on CC3+.

But while I have been a coder and network engineer, I have never actually used a CAD program or a Graphic Imaging program.

So my General Question: Best place to start? I do have the CC3 Essentials and CC+ manual, and I know there are video tutorials out there, but I learn best by working on a real project.

Which leads to my Specific Question: I have scanned in a hand-drawn map of "Il-Baħar ta 'Arawak" (my version of the Carribean). Following the guidance I found in this forum, I have tried to import this map so I can 'trace' over it with CC3+ tools. But when I try to import it using Draw>Insert File, I get a "Could not open file" error box.

I have saved my scanned image as PNG, BMP, and JPG, but they all give the same result!

Help! I do NOT want to have to freehand draw this into CC3+!

Thanks!

Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    I highly recommend you start with either the manual or the video tutorials. While you may find your own projects a good way to learn, there tend to crop up all of this myriad of questions of how do I do that, and then that, and then that, and so on. The manual is paced to learn the right things in the right order. I don't think "jumping from problem to problem" which is what tends to happen if you just dive right in is the best way to learn CC3+.

    That error typically happens if your file is too large. Try to reduce the image size in an image editor before inserting it.
  • Josh.P.Josh.P. Traveler
    Don't start with the project you bought CC3+ for. I can't stress this enough. Do some small maps. Learn the tools. Make the mistakes. Learn from them. Then start.

    Lean on the resources that are available to you.

    YouTube Videos - This is my channel and aims to help the new guys.
    If you have Facebook there are currently 630 of us hiding in here chatting every day: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1830466227284189/
  • Hmmm. Okay. The two of you have persuaded me. I won't start by trying to build a big, complicated map.

    Josh, I bookmarked your channel, and will start working through it.

    Monsen, I will try reducing the size of the file.

    Thanks to both of you!
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