Question About Contours

KaigePain

Hi, I've very recently purchased CC3 and am trying to get the hang of it with numerous practice maps. I've gone through all the tutorials and everything, but I just can't seem to figure out how to do something.

I need to make a snowy area on the map with a contour. That's the easy part, but I just can't get it to go all the way to the coast. Is there any easy way of drawing it all the way to the coast without it overflowing into the ocean?

The map is pretty plain for right now, but a lot of the features on it will require me to know this.

jaerdaph

The Trace option that most drawing tools have is what you need. Select the contour drawing tool that you are using to draw the snow as before. Click your first point somewhere north of your coast and draw your snowy area until you get near where you want it to hit the coast. Now look down at the command line. You will see something like NEXT POINT (T-Trace):. Hit the "T" key and you will be asked in the command line to select the entity you want to trace. Select the coast line. Now click your first point on the coast where you want the trace to start and drag your mouse (without clicking) along the coastline to the point you want the snow to "exit" the coastline (stop tracing). Click there, then keep drawing as normal until you get back to where you started.

I'm not sure I described that clearly, and the Trace function can be a little tricky to get the hang of, but if you keep practicing (and hitting Undo if you don't like the results), you'll get the hang of it.

Joachim de Ravenbel

Myself, I'm not comfortable with Trace. It sometimes takes ages to redraw and usually gets the wrong way. I don't know if my way is easier, but I usually copy the land entity on another sheet, hide all other sheets, explode the land, erase all the unwanted lines, close the shape with a fracal line using the endpoint (F5) modifier and (right click explode) Line to Path and if needed (right click explode again) Path To Poly to get a filled shape.

jaerdaph

The method Joachim describes is definitely preferable once you get more experience with the software, but Trace is easier (relatively) when you are just starting out.

Ralf

I'd encourage you to give Trace another chance. If you know what you're doing, it is much quicker and just as exact as the copy/break/trim method. I used to do it as Joachim describes, but recently I find myself using Trace almost exclusively.
- When the command line asks for "Entity to Trace" click on the entity well towards the direction you want to trace it, away from the starting point.
- then on "Starting point of portion" click where your trace starts exactly. Remember you can use modifiers at this point.
- When tracing complex entities, be patient with your mouse movements. Move the mouse close to your trace endpoint in one straight movement, then hover and wait until the redraw catches up. Now do the fine-tuning with little and slow mouse movements. Again, you can use modifiers.

Sandwich

Hello all, I joined the forums to ask about this same issue. I too would like a type of terrain (in my case, desert) to go right up to the coastline but have been struggling. I attempted to use Jaerdaph's described 'trace' method, but upon hitting 't' the letter simply appeared in the command line. Thinking the next logical thing would be to press enter to submit it, I did and this simply completed my terrain polygon. I then attempted the other 'hotkeys' the command line presented me with mid-polygon drawing; Delete for 'back', Space for 'randomise' and so on. Apart from space again completing the shape, none of them did anything at all. Am I doing something wrong?

Best regards.

JimP

I created layers for elevation ranges, added bitmap fills for each of those layers and added them to a template.

So my maps have varous bitmaps, shades of green, brown, and icey blue, for varous elevation ranges. Shades of blue for the depths.

Color chart for Crestar surface maps you will need the bitmap fills linked there to. Or create your own bitmap fills. Updated link Nov 7, 2016.

probstette

@sandwich

Did you choose the default terrain tool or the standard polygon? For some reason the polygon doesn't have the trace option.

JimP

. mistake, posted in wrong discussion.