Map items vanish
Hi folks.
First of all a good day. I am fairly new to CC and use it together with the cosmographer to make maps for my Traveller RPG campaign.
Sadly, the software does not do, what it should, at least not for me, which might be a statement about myself more than about the software :D
I keep constructing and drawing items into my maps but some of them keep disappearing. I.e. I add a deck plating. Fine. I edit bordering bulkheads. Fine. I add a passageway and bang, the deckplating is gone.
Huh?
I then try to shift layers and move the up and down in the sheets and effects menu. To no avail. Some layers aren't even there in that menu. I.e. there is a Layer "Furnitures", that is used, when you paint furnitures. That layers is not in that menu.
It also is very "uncommon" for graphic programs, to put the layer that is displayed on top of the other layers, right down on the bottom of the list. Not very intuitive, as far as my experience with various CAD and GIS product go (and yes I have some experience here).
All in all, the software makes me curse a lot and produce too little. I invest time without getting nice results and am getting a bit pissed off.
As I said, this could totally be me being obnoxious, so take this as a report of what happened, not as a criticism of the software. To me it is just very unintuitive and even the tutorials did not work the way they were shown.
Or maybe there is a problem with my installation?
I am working on an Alienware 17 laptop with Win10.
Maybe you can give me a lead, what I can do. I invested time and money and want to get results, instead I get anger.
So any hints or help are greatly appreciated.
Oh and sorry if I got typos or so... english isn't my mother tongue.
Greetings from Austria!
Nanoc
First of all a good day. I am fairly new to CC and use it together with the cosmographer to make maps for my Traveller RPG campaign.
Sadly, the software does not do, what it should, at least not for me, which might be a statement about myself more than about the software :D
I keep constructing and drawing items into my maps but some of them keep disappearing. I.e. I add a deck plating. Fine. I edit bordering bulkheads. Fine. I add a passageway and bang, the deckplating is gone.
Huh?
I then try to shift layers and move the up and down in the sheets and effects menu. To no avail. Some layers aren't even there in that menu. I.e. there is a Layer "Furnitures", that is used, when you paint furnitures. That layers is not in that menu.
It also is very "uncommon" for graphic programs, to put the layer that is displayed on top of the other layers, right down on the bottom of the list. Not very intuitive, as far as my experience with various CAD and GIS product go (and yes I have some experience here).
All in all, the software makes me curse a lot and produce too little. I invest time without getting nice results and am getting a bit pissed off.
As I said, this could totally be me being obnoxious, so take this as a report of what happened, not as a criticism of the software. To me it is just very unintuitive and even the tutorials did not work the way they were shown.
Or maybe there is a problem with my installation?
I am working on an Alienware 17 laptop with Win10.
Maybe you can give me a lead, what I can do. I invested time and money and want to get results, instead I get anger.
So any hints or help are greatly appreciated.
Oh and sorry if I got typos or so... english isn't my mother tongue.
Greetings from Austria!
Nanoc
Comments
I think (though I can't be certain because I can't see your screen) that you might be confusing layers and sheets? It is the sheets that control the order in which things are drawn, and therefore whether one type of thing is in front of or behind another type of thing.
There are a couple of things about sheets that you need to bear in mind when drawing:
Many of the drawing tools create polygons that have a designated fill and a designated outline style. They are also set to draw objects that fall on a particular named sheet, no matter which sheet is active at the time of drawing. So as soon as the screen refreshes the polygon you have just drawn may vanish. All that is really happening is that it has been redrawn on the correct sheet for the tool you used to draw it. The same is true of symbols. Most are predestined to end up on a sheet called "SYMBOLS*" where the asterisk is a wildcard allowing users to have several different types of SYMBOLS sheets.
When you are moving sheets up and down the list in the Sheets and Effects dialog, you will need to remember that they are drawn in the order shown, so that the BACKGROUND sheet at the top of the list is drawn first and ends up underneath everything else that is drawn after it on the screen. In a sense, the list is upside down. If you want the things on sheet A to be on top of the things on sheet B, then sheet A must appear below sheet B in the list.
It sounds like you are doing a spaceship and probably have no use for a fantasy overland map, but do it anyway. Open up the guide that comes with CC3+ and walk through it. Yes it will take you an hour or two or maybe even three (I don't remember how long it took me). But those hours will save you a ton of frustration and you will re-gain those over the next map or two that you make that you actually are looking to make.