Symbol collection based on numbers at the end not working

I've recently started creating a new symbol catalog. I've imported hundreds of png files, many of them whose names differ just by the numbers on the end. I've used the symbol settings dialog to setup symbol collections, then selected and saved all the symbols as a catalog. All the symbols appear to save. When I load the catalog none of the symbols are being grouped into collections.

The other day I did the same operation with a different folder of pngs and it worked great.

What can cause the symbol collections to fail? What is different about this folder of png files? How forgiving is the algorithm that creates the collections in the FSC file? Is there some bad data condition not being reported to me the user that can cause the algorithm to ignore all symbol collections but still build a symbol catalog, like number sequences that aren't consecutive that confuse the code?

Screen shot of Symbol Manager dialog attached. There are 500+ png symbols in this catalog that were built with multiple resolutions when imported.

Thanks

--Andy

Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited February 2020
    Just an guess, as I don't have time to check right now, but generally, CC3+ expects spaces as separators, so I am guessing those underscores makes the numbers appear as part of the "word" and not a numbering scheme.

    To test this, you can simply rename the symbols in the catalog, no need to re-import the .png's.
  • RalfRalf Administrator, ProFantasy 🖼️ 18 images Mapmaker
    No, spaces should not normally be necessary. Are the options set correctly for the symbols? Can you post the FSC file? The PNGs themselves are not necessary.

    As a side note, if you're doing more involved edits of symbol names, I highly recommend to use the Rename & Reorder commands from the Symbols menu. Export the list of symbol names to a text with "Create symdef name file", use a text editor to do the changes (allowing you to do find & replace operations for example), and then use "Import renamed symdefs" to import the edits into the catalog.
  • Thanks for the replies.

    I’ve found this free bulk rename utility indispensable in building catalogs.

    https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/

    I’ll post the FSC when I’m next at my computer. The FSC files appear to be binary. Is there a way to review its contents in clear text? For example as XML or JSON? Does CC3+ output error messages or other diagnostics that can help figure out what’s happening.

    When I first imported the png files it reported it was updating some existing symbols, which I didn’t expect given this was a new folder of files. I guess there were name duplicates with other symbols already loaded into my drawing? Could that have screwed me up?

    Thanks again.

    —Andy
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited February 2020
    Posted By: abouffardIs there a way to review its contents in clear text? For example as XML or JSON?
    No. The format of an fsc file is actually the exact same as a regular map (.fcw) file. The only difference is the extension to difference between different intended usage.
    Does CC3+ output error messages or other diagnostics that can help figure out what’s happening
    No. I doubt there are any actual errors in this case anyway, and if there are, they would be when the symbol catalog is actually used, not when it is being created. The determination of grouping happens when the catalog is used, not when it is made, and CC3+ then determines if the symbol should show grouped depending on if the 'Collection' flag is set or not, and whether it fits the criteria (i.e same name, just different number on the end)
    When I first imported the png files it reported it was updating some existing symbols, which I didn’t expect given this was a new folder of files. I guess there were name duplicates with other symbols already loaded into my drawing? Could that have screwed me up?
    Updated symbols talks about symbols already in the drawing, not the file in the folder. It is very unlikely that the presence of existing symbols would have caused any problems.


    Note that if you set the Symbol Properties through the Import png dialog, they are only applied to the symbols if your method is set as 'Rebuild All'. If it is set as 'Update', it won't touch the symbol options, including those on newly created ones, so if you used the wrong option in the dialog, it is very likely that your symbols never had the collection option set at all. If so, you can just select all the symbols in the symbol manager, hit Options, and set it there for all the symbols in one go.
  • I've attached the FSC file. I'm going to start again from just the raw png files and double check there are no naming issues with any of the files.

    --Andy
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    The problem is that you have a stray space AFTER the number in the symbol name. CC3+ expects the number to be the last thing. Since this is created from the filename, it also means you have an extra space at the end of your file names, which is generally not a very good thing.

    I recommend you fix your file names and recreate the catalog. You already linked to a bulk rename utility, which I assume would fix that easily.

    (If you don't want to regenerate the four resolution files, you can just rename the files generated by CC3+ instead, if so, replace all instances of _ to just _, then recreate the catalog from these files without the option of creating the resolutions.)
  • I just discovered the problem.

    I hadn't noticed before but when I started over and started to rename the original files I realized there was a single space just before all the ".png" extensions. So the first file was "Ice_Block_01 .png". In the font used in the bulk rename utility, and at the speed I was trying to get this done yesterday, I'd missed the space in every filename.
Sign In or Register to comment.