Beginner Questions Part I: Minor Technical Difficulties

Hello! I'm new to CC3 and I love it so far! I've been playing around with it, going through the tutorials one by one and even playing with several of the annuals tutorials. I've also been downloading various symbols, such as Devin Night's tokens and the CSUAC symbols. All of that brings me to a bunch of complicated questions that I hope you can help me with. I realize these questions are mostly unrelated, and can get extensive, so I've decided to break them up into a couple different posts. I hope that's okay.

1. I use CC3 on both my desktop and my laptop - my desktop is much better for designing maps, but I use my laptop to map out the dungeons when I am playing D&D at a friend's house, and I plan to use the maps on my laptop when I start GMing my next campaign (I am the sole owner and user of both computers, and no one uses the programs but me, though a friend has an old version of CC that he uses on his computer). In order to bypass the issue of where my maps are at any given time, I have made a habit of saving them onto a flashdrive rather than on my C-drives. This has caused some issues with custom items, such as tiles and whatnot, being on one computer but not the other. I realize the obvious nature of this issue, but I was wondering - is there an easy to way to save things like textures or export them to the flashdrive so that I can have them with the maps that I'm using? I also noticed that when I make a custom texture (like the Genetica ones, which are awesome), I can figure out how to set it up for use with one map, but even on the same computer, if I open a different map, I'll have to remake a custom fill based on the custom texture. Is there a way to save those fills for use with all maps?

2. Secondly, I am having trouble with some of the symbols and terrains on my laptop. Both my desktop and laptop run Vista, but I was able to get CC3 on my desktop just fine (after several gruelling trials). CC3 runs fine on my laptop, too, but certain symbols and terrain/floors/etc. continually come up blank. When I was building a dungeon on my laptop last night, I was able to get the walls and floors in place, but when I clicked one of the symbols buttons, DD3 would crash. Everytime. I could get to most of the other symbols (CD, CC, etc.), but not the dungeon ones. In the end, I pulled up the map on my desktop and was able to start placing symbols just fine. With the terrains on my laptop, however, it seems to be random as to which ones load and which ones don't. Is this an issue with the installation of the program? Do I need to try reinstalling it? One issue with my laptop is a limited amount of space. I installed CC3 and all of the addons and still have 1.2 Gb left, but... I only have 1.2 Gb left. I'm not a computer genius, so I'm not sure if limited HD space would affect this functionality of the program itself once it's been isntalled.

Thanks for your input and suggestions! More (silly) questions are to follow.

Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited May 2009
    1.
    When you define fill styles, there are several types of paths you can use
    • Absolute path: This is the full path to the file. Means that paths and drive letters must be the same on both computers
    • Relative to cc3 directory. Prefix the path with a #. Ex: #bitmaps\tiles\woodgrain.bmp. This refers to files inside the CC3 directory. The structure inside the main CC3 directory must be identical, but CC3 doesn't need to be installed in the same place on each computer.
    • Relative to the map itself. This is usefull when you bring the maps with you, as you can just bring the fill files along as well. Since the reference is relative to the map, it doesn't matter if the flash drive gets different drive letters or that the fill files haven't been installed to the computer. You accomplish this by prefixing the path with a $-sign, like this: $fills\Hide-Background.png. This refers to a png image located inside a directory named fills. The $-sign tells CC3 to look for the fills directory in the same place your actual map file is located.
    Custom fill styles are saved in the map file, and not globally. What you can do to fix this:
    1. Edit the template and insert the fill style there instead, or create a new template with the fill style in it. This time, each time you create a new map based on that template, the fill style is already included. Templates are located in the templates subdirectory inside the main CC3 dir, and can be opened/edited just like a regular map file. Any map file can also be saved as a template by using "Save As", and selecting the CC3 Template file type.
    2. When draing a map, use Draw -> Insert File, and insert a CC3 drawing containing the desired fill styles into your drawing. Place it, then immediately hit Ctrl+Z (Undo) to remove the inserted file. This will remove the drawing you inserted, but the fill style definitions from it will remain behind, and usable in the new drawing.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    2.
    Have you installed the latest patch (Patch 7, brings CC3 up to v 3.24). This fixes some Vista problems.
    If this doesn't help, you might wish to send a note to ProFantasy Tech Support.

    While 1.2GB free space is not a lot, it shouldn't cause any problems for CC3.
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