Mirrored Copies, Symbol Making Hassles...

Calibre

Hey all!

Inspired by Ralf's Heraldy vid, I'm attempting to define my own symbols based on my campaign world. Only, I'm having problems.

1: Mirrored copies is NOT matching up my design.

2: I cannot determine at what point during symbol making that I can make the symbol varicolored.

3: I cannot determine how to save a new symbol to a catalog I've just made.

Screenies:

If you take a look at these 2 shots, the ones in red clearly show a line down the center of my symbol. I don't know how to prevent that using mirrored copy. Image 2 shows what the design looks like after mirrored copy then the process of trying to line to path, path to poly, etc. Obviously, I am doing something wrong. Also, at what point can I make one of these into varicolored? I've tried various options in Symbols to no avail.

Note, that I have no choice but to have a symmetrical design. My brain can not tolerate anything else.

thanks in advance

Cal

Monsen

Could you attach the .fcw file so I can have a look at the actual entities here?

Calibre

Aye, sir.

Estonisch Heraldry.FCW

Lillhans

For question 1, I let an ortho'd and snapped line start at the very tip, and run all the way to the bottom.

So as close as they appear to be, the top end node is not aligned with the bottom end node.

Monsen

1. As @Lillhans pointed out, your edge isn't straight. I don't know if you started with the left or right before mirroring, but none of them are straight, so it isn't a mirroring problem, it is a problem with the original shape. You can't mirror a non-straight edge and expect it to match up (unless the mirror line itself isn't straight). There is a 0.03 map unit horizontal difference between the top node and bottom node.
2. At any point really. Either use the Make Varicolor command on the entities before defining the symbol, or bring up the symbol for editing after defining it and us it on the entity. I do note you have attempted to define a symbol as varicolor in your map, the COSFLAME-VOL symbol, but here you have made the mistake of placing a symbol definition inside another symbol definition. Never do that. A symbol should be defined from base entities, NOT other symbols. Either use Explode on symbols to break them down before defining new symbols from them, or if you just need a copy of a symbol, for example to make vari, use the clone feature in the symbol manager.
3. Save your map with the new symbol in it. Then open up the symbol catalog you want to insert it into in the editor, and go to symbol manager, hit Import, and pick the map with your symbol in it.

Calibre

Could swear I used ON modifier to get it on the guideline...argh. Probably going too fast.

thanks!

I'll start over on defining the symbols

Cal

Glitch

Thanks - I've been struggling through this too

Lillhans

Setting up a custom mirror drawing tool is worth trying out, also (remember to give it a 90° kick under Options for top-to-down drawing).

It's kind of node-heavy and potentially will rely a great deal on clever node positioning, but designing large and using small tends to work wonders for hiding my own shortcomings!

Nothing beats gluing together well-designed arcs and paths though, I find, and with regular tools there is the option of combining smooth and sharp in a way that the mirror tool doesn't really allow for. Its strength is speed.

Calibre

Hey all,

Still having alignment issues:

Below you can see the results with snap and ON modifier used attempting to once again align my drawing symmetrically. Lill, I haven't tried my own tool yet. It may well be I am trying to create this symbol in an incorrect manner. That is, I'm doing it the wrong way.

The top screen shows how I used node edit to attempt to align the 2 drawings, but requires manually removing 'misaligned' nodes. The second screen shows the results of using a guideline and ON modifier. Mirror Copy on that.

Calibre

On the mirrored drawing tool:

How do I create one that

1: draws vertically

2: allows for smooth path

3: or smooth poly if 2 is not allowed.

thanks

Cal

Lillhans

Mirror drawing tool vertical drawing: options button under tool customization will let you set an angle. 90° will let you go up to down.

Smooth polygons or path doesn't exist as an option, to the best of my knowledge. No trace option either. If you draw a large enough figure it will approximate smooth properties when scaled down, however: think pixels.

Calibre

Thanks. I saw that and thought: nah, can't be that simple. heh

thanks

Cal

Lillhans

Give me a sec and I will sort out the other issue in a file.

Calibre

Ok, various issues:

The middle drawing is getting soooo close to what I want heh.

Cal

Lillhans

Align Mirror.FCW

Find attached a very simple form. I had snaps turned on for the first and last nodes of the plotting, only. Snap was, of course, also turned on for the purpose of mirror-copying - ensuring that I could put the mirror copy just right.

Edit; when put together, a simple Line to Path operation will glue the pieces together. Note that the new shape will assume whatever Sheet, Layer, Fill Style and Widght options are currently set. That's how 95% of my stuff ends up in the Common sheet by the way, because default when pasting.

Calibre

Got it.

Now, how would you combine that so that it becomes a whole entity, no center line so that it can be transformed into a symbol heh.

thanks

Cal

Lillhans

Align Mirror II.FCW

So left piece of the left set has been Path to Poly'd. So there is that: i.e. Path-to-polying them first an then just put them next to one another. That's still two pieces though.

On the right, the two pieces were aligned and then Line To Path'd. With the proper FS setting...it's now a solid fill polygon!

Lillhans

Note: if you want to you can always give the polygon a hollow fill style which effectively allows you to use the split function and produce cut-outs.

Very useful if you would ever want to kit-bash your heraldic symbols!

Calibre

Progress! Thanks, LH.

From here, I need to convert this to a symbol, create a catalog, then add more symbols to the catalog.

Cal