Random Questions and Problems

Calibre

Hey all,

Happy New Year!

While proceeding to make various maps for my weekly game and following Ralf's videos, I'm noticing differences and permutations. List:

Overview: I'm doing a small area outside and Inn and I am going to do a floor plan for the Inn, itself. I chose Ryecroft Town Style as I do not yet have SS5:

1: Clicking 'DEFAULT' button does NOT bring up Ryecroft symbols, but looks like crude, what?, vector symbols? I have to click the symbol folder, backout of CD3 and then select Ryecroft in the list then double click that to load the defaults back in. Why?

2: When I go to FLOORPLAN the options available do not list SS4 even though I have SS4 AND Ralf's video shows it should be available. He even says it should be available. Why?

3: the F9 key to 'ON' the roads as he did in his Ryecroft video does not attach in a esthetic manner. The second road I 'ON' shows a separate entity which I cannot find a way to combine. LIST shows both roads as a line, 2 diff. widths and then a fill. I have shunted the second road to its own sheet to mask this jarring visual error yet, I can still see divisions. I'll double check the TOME to ensure I'm not using the wrong procedure---but I'll point out that Ralf in fact used this technique in his own Ryecroft Video. Why?

4: I chose the exact same options Ralf did in his video and when I click on the hotspot, instead of a floorplan, I get the roof drawn on it---though Ralf chose this exact option, his video showed the actual floor itself---not the ROOF over it. Why, please?

5: Every floor shows the ROOF though I deselected Roof Drawing. I chose DD3 floorplan from the list since SS4 is not showing. I do have this product. I'm seriously confused by this.

Please, please explain

thanks

Cal

Loopysue

Hi Calibre :)

1. Umm. Default button? I'm not following you there. Sorry!
2. If it is installed it should be there. Maybe install it again in repair mode? (Follow that with another install of the latest update)
3. How do you mean "aesthetic manner" in question 3? I know what aesthetic means. It's just that I don't understand what the issue is with it somehow not looking right to you. ON does not combine the two entities. It simply makes sure that the two entities meet and that there is no gap or overlap. And putting things on separate sheets will not improve joins because that makes the entities even more separated. There may even be different sheet effects on the two different sheets.
4. Without the file to play with I couldn't say. It might be that you have the roof on the FLOOR sheet/layer, but that is only a wild guess.
5. As above. I don't know without the file.

Would you mind sharing the file?

Calibre

Heyyas, Sue

1: the 'Default Catalog' button on the bar with the catalog buttons in CD3. When Ralf clicks this on his video, it loaded the 'default' catalog. For me, it loads these cartoonish symbols---probably from an old catalog.

2: SS4 is installed. But it does not show as an option for me to use as it did for Ralf when he was doing his floorplan in his video---even though I own it.

3: I have a 10' muddy road to which I F9'ed a 5' muddy road from the side. There is no merging of these roads. You can clearly see the 5' road on top of the 10' one. I temp stuck the 5' one on a new sheet just to keep going till I got an answer ?

4: Every floor listed showed only the roof even when I choose multiple levels in the drawing wizard. Is this something lacking in Ryecroft style, I wonder? Or yet another blunder on my part ?

5: as above. Yeah sure, let' me load it up ?

PS: I notice a red line above the roofs which informs me: file to load...*scratches head*

thanks

Cal

Inn of Two Waters.FCW

Loopysue

When I click any of the catalogue buttons I'm getting SS3a catalogues. I'm not entirely sure that I really understand how those buttons work myself, and have to admit that I rarely use them. I tend more to hit the folder button at the top of the catalogue panel and go find the right FSC file. Because I've been doing it that way for 4 years now, I know where everything is to find it quickly. I also know this is not the correct way to do it, but it works.

Did you try reinstalling SS4?

If you use TRACED on the roads to trace their outlines as a single entity, then adjust the sheet effects like this, you should hopefully end up with something like you want. That Inner Glow effect wasn't helping! Glow is better. I've switched it off here to show just the reduced EFI.

I don't have your floorplan maps, so I can't really help you with that one. Maybe Ralf or Remy can throw more light on it when they see the thread?

Calibre

Thanks! I'll definitely use TRACE on them then. I used the inner glow because my OCD ? If I see black outlines on objects, I want to see them on ALL things in the map heh. Just the inker in me I guess. Remember? I asked about your cliffs with a similar question heh.

PS: well, guess I coulda used 'outline in black' CAD tool doh.

anyway

thanks

Cal

Loopysue

You're welcome, Calibre.

Maybe someone will be along later to answer the rest of the questions you have.

Calibre

Hey, Sue

You said you traced the roads, what tool did you use?

thanks

Cal

AHHH. You meant the command. Thanks, that worked. Lack of Sleep = Lack of Reading Comprehension

Loopysue

Its TRACED, by the way. A newer and better version of the tool.

Before you use it make sure you have the correct sheet, layer and fill style selected as active. It's not a disaster if you didn't do that because you can use Change Properties to put things right again. It just makes things easier and faster.

Monsen

1. There isn't a catalog filter supplied with this style (may be an oversight from Ralf?). Just use Open Symbol Catalog to open the catalog if you have closed it. Except for some chimney symbols for use with houses drawn with the house tool, everything is in one single symbol catalog anyway, unless you mix symbols in from other styles, you should just have this one symbol catalog loaded all the time. A quick way to reload the catalog is also just to save the map, then pick the map from the recent map entries in the file menu, as this will reload the map with the CA161 catalog showing.
2. It should certainly be there. Try grabbing a new copy of the SS4 installer to make sure you have the latest one and do a repair install with that.
3. You've already discussed roads with Sue, but just to clarify, the On modifier doesn't try to merge the roads, it just makes sure that the node you place is exactly on the other entity so there won't be any gaps/etc. But depending on things like fill and such, it may still be very visible that it is another entity there. For smaller roads merging with larger roads, it often looks best if you use Send Behind to bring the smaller road behind the larger one, or the road that is ending behind the road that continues on.
4. This only works correctly if the house symbols are proper CD3 style symbols. They require some extra entities for CC3+ to be able to figure out the floorplan. If the symbols doesn't have this information, it defaults to just including the symbol itself so you at least have some kind of guide to use to manually trace the walls to get the right size and shape. Unfortunately, it looks like the CA161 symbols are NOT proper CD3 style symbols.

mike robel

Regarding roads: I put each "class" of road on a different sheet:

Interstate/Autobahn

Heavy Duty multi-lane

Medium duty

Light duty

Unimproved/gravel

Trail/dirt

Path

Track

Each is a different color and sometimes width. Not all are used on every map.

Railroads are placed above interstates.

Calibre

Thanks Remy and mike.

I usually draw roads by my own methods. I was just following along Ralf's vid and noticed things didn't quite match up heh. I'll do them correctly from now on ?

Sue, thanks for reminding about that command. It's quite handy, now.

Cal

Calibre

Trying the Repair with SS4 I am getting this error:

Could not access network location $ARTDIR$.

hmmm. Better send this off to tech support.

Cal

Loopysue

Did you download a fresh installer like Remy suggested? Sometimes old installers don't work all that well.

Calibre

Yes, it was a new one.

Monsen

Try to uninstall SS4 (using the standard add/remove programs in windows, as this will call upon the old installer cache) and reinstall using the new installer. Hopefully that will fix things. (Remember to reinstall the latest update when you are done)

Calibre

Thanks, Remy

I've followed instructions and I can use SS4 and the Forlorn Cottage, etc. I just can't get it to list as available when I try to use the 'floorplan' button in CD3 like Ralf did.

thanks for the assist

Cal

Loopysue

That doesn't sound like it's working properly, Calibre. Remy has covered all the usual things, so it's probably time to contact Tech Support about it.