Some elusive issues I'm wrestling with

Hi fellow Carti's, I have some issues I'm running into that I have no idea how to even begin to search for a answer and after a lot of hours spent searching through the tome and online, I'm coming here in the hopes of finding some solutions. Mostly it's because I lack the vocabulary necessary to zero in on topics that would give me my answers, so what follows is my attempt to articulate what my problem is, if in your answer you'd be so kind as to also teach me the needed terminology so that in the in future I can find answers on my own, it'd be much appreciated.

1) I like using areas outside my drawing borders to test things on or act as a short of virtual shelf to hold copies of variations of what I'm working on, problem is I'm not sure why some drawings let me do this, and some don't. Any time I use a template, I'm locked into the border, but when I set my own drawing dimensions I'm free to draw outside the borders. How do I turn off/on the ability to draw past borders?

2) Related to above, I'm currently working on a ship floorplan am I'm running into a problem I have no clue how to trouble shoot. Going to get a bit pedantic in a effort to describe it and hopefully someone can educate me on wtf is going on;

Frequently I will draw short little bars on the outside of my image as i work with sheets to help me place new additions to my drawing. While the cross hairs are very helpful, I find that having such little guide bars extremely useful for keeping a consistent accuracy as I flip between layers. Typically my settings for these guidance bars is a solid fill line with a width of 0.5 using a bright color. Today however, as I try to lay down a set of these guiding lines outside the 2nd deck I'm working on, my straight lines are suddenly veering off from my placement point and going a random direction towards the map border. I.E. I will place it at a point and draw it straight up 2 grid dots, but the line will decide on it's own to shoot off towards the upper left, or some other direction if I erase it and try again. I'm really mystified by this behavior and have absolutely no idea where to even begin troubleshooting this.

3) There are quite a few tools which don't seem to be explained in either the user manual or the TUM. If they are listed, then it's not by their tooltip names and are instead nested under some other term I'm ignorant of. My question is where can I find instructions on the use of the following tools:

Endpoint, Midpoint, On, Intersection, Perpendicular and Center?

4) Not so long ago I discovered a free resource that added a lot of symbols, etc that were coded specifically to work with CC3/CC3+ at the Vintyri Archive, and after successfully installing all of them I noticed I have a extra collection of tools on the right toolbar (image attached). While the tooltips are semi-informative, I have not been able to make use of them. I was wondering if anyone knew of a site that explains how to use this set of tools? (or if I should even bother with them, 4 seem redundant to CC3+'s embedded tools as is).

Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond to these.

Comments

  • 1. The likely culprit is that the tool you are trying to draw with has "Restrict to Map Border" set. You can find more info about this in the Chapter on Drawing Tools in the Tome, specifically pg. 141

    2. This might be because you have Attach turned on for the map. It's a button located at the bottom of the UI. Look up 'Attach Mode' in the help file, this will also lead you to understanding the use of the commands from 3.

    3. See 2.

    4. These are buttons to macros that I think are included in Dungeon Designer. Originally they were in an annual that had a tutorial, I'm not sure if they are described anywhere else, but they aid in drawing lines that can be used to build castles.
  • Hi Kathorus;

    Heartfelt thanks for the reply, particularly with what the term was (i.e. Restrict to Map Border), the pg you listed landed me in the symbols chapter (at least on my reader it did) but thanks to your identifying the topic and effect, I was able to find it. You were also correct about the Attach button being turned on, I must've strayed onto it while hitting the Snap button and didn't notice it, flipping it off cleared up the map that was having that problem =) That said, b]greatly[/b] appreciate the suggestion of looking it up in the help file, will keep that in mind for other times when I can't seem to find things in the TUM. Be a while before I can get my head wrapped around how to use those tools but at least I know where to find the instructions now!

    Ahhh the Annuals! I had bought the whole bundle but have yet to work my way through them. Knowing the Annuals have instruction on their use is not something I would've thought of, kept flipping through the TUM and (mistakenly) assumed it must've been bundled with the sets I installed from the Vintyri collection. Thanks for setting me straight on that.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Learning how to use CC3 is a pretty complicated thing to start with until you get used to what everything is and where it comes from - a mental map of things. Generally speaking, the toolbars individually relate either CC3 and its add-ons, *or* to third party graphics and software. They aren't ever mixed up on the same toolbar (at least I don't think they are, even though I haven't used any third party artwork other than Bogie's Mapping Objects for about 2 years, and I don't have a toolbar for that one owing to my particular setup).

    Don't worry - it will all come clear to you in the end :)
  • kathoruskathorus Traveler
    edited January 2019
    Wow, glad I could help. I was expecting at least half of my suggestions to be incorrect and the other half to be wrong. :)

    As Sue said, CC3 is complex. It takes time to run into some terms, and finding uses for all the various tools. That is a testament, I think, to its power and usefulness as a piece of software.

    And don't be discouraged, I just learned about Hatch Styles, not to be confused with Scaleable Hatching, the other day and I've been using the software for 15 years or so when it was still CC2.

    Another great resource is the Command of the Week tutorials by Monsen - http://forum.profantasy.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=7866

    Also, the Annual Guide that shows those commands from 4. is CA46 Castle Walls.
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