The Plague of Red X Symbols and Symbol Catalogs Not Importing

FarsightX3

I posted on the FB group, but per Sue's wisdom, she suggested to post here to help the investigation of communication be in one channel. So here is the context of my issue.

I had to get a new computer because my windows 10 machine's SSD and OS got corrupted. I am now on Windows 11.

After a fresh install of CC3+ and every expansion/annual, all of my custom symbols I added have that Red X. I remember in the past this was a pathing issue and you had to repath the symbols. I made sure to keep those symbols and symbol catalogs I made to live in the same location in my new computer. I didn't break the path. Each of my symbol catalogs live in their own folder. There is a .FSC file in each of them which I believe is the catalog file.

Here are the things I tried:

• Symbols > Import PNG. Select the png images. Now this works only for the first folder I select. If I repeat this process it doesn't work.
• Then I tried Draw > Insert File and selected the .FSC file. Didn't work.
• Next, I went into Symbol Manager and clicked import and imported the .FSC file, didn't work.
• After that, I went into the 2 columns of where the symbols live, clicked on the yellow folder button under Options and selected the .FSC file. When imported, it also became a Red X.
  

I feel like the pathing is definitely broken. Is there a way to make a new pathing that would regenerate the symbols in the map?

Monsen

I made sure to keep those symbols and symbol catalogs I made to live in the same location in my new computer.

Are you 100% sure of that? I grabbed a random symbol that gave me a red X and the path of it was C:\Users\Jer\Desktop\Mirage\The World of Mahdran\Massive World of Mahdran\4x4 Massive World\Grey Spectrum Mountains\Stones\Lavastone.png

Now, this immediately rises some red flags, because even if you did put the symbols on the desktop of the new computer, the path would only be the same if your username ("Jer" in this case), is the same on your new computer. If it isn't, then putting them on the desktop on the new computer will not result in the same path, the only thing you can do in that case is to manually recreate that exact path (Windows doesn't mind you creating additional folders under "Users" even if it isn't a user, but you need admin privs to do so.)

(You can check the actual path by right clicking on any of your images and select properties, the properties dialog will contain the full path of the current location)

Generally, keeping files on your desktop is NOT a good idea, precisely because of issues like this. I always recommend keeping all resource files inside the CC3+ data directroy, because that way, you can use relative references in your paths, meaning it will work even if the data directory isn't in the same location on the new computer.

There's a lot of information in this blog entry about dealing with this:

https://rpgmaps.profantasy.com/why-do-i-see-a-red-x/

FarsightX3

That makes a lot of sense now, Monsen. I do have admin privileges. My user name of my computer was not the same. That was one thing I didn't even look at. They were on my desktop on my last computer as well. Do you think if I just rename my windows user profile back to Jer, it would correct the pathing?

If so, the proper method to import the .FSC files are through the Folder button and import that file catalog correct?

jslayton

Also be careful that OneDrive doesn't shove itself into the path. The OS should be smart enough to do that redirection, but I've had too many installations where the "C:\Users\ThisIsMyUserName\Desktop" path has become "C:\Users\ThisIsMyUserName\OneDrive\Desktop" because OneDrive Wants To Be Your Friend.

I would be careful about renaming the folder in c:\Users to something else because Windows may or may not be wanting unatural familiarity with that precise folder. A search for "How to Change User Folder Name in Windows 10" suggests many caveats and possible problems.

As Monsen suggested, the simplest and least-painful short-term solution would be to create a new folder under c:\Users and move the assets from your existing desktop folder to the new one. A better solution would be to move those assets to somewhere like the ProFantasy user assets directory and then issue the mystical incantation to rename your image file names in the drawings to the new path. Monsen can tell you how to do that because I don't recall how at the moment.

Monsen

As Joe also said, don't rename your user profile. Windows will not like that at all. Instead, it is better to make a new profile using that name and just switch to that. But the desktop is really no good place keeping these files, so doing that is more a band-aid than anything really. As Joe suggested, it is better to fix the problem.

The command Joe mentions is documented in the Blog article, under the heading "Four B – Fixing the Map", under the subheading "Everything at Once" (But I recommend reading the whole thing, don't just that section)

As for symbol catalogs, you don't normally import those into your drawing. You open the symbol catalog in the symbol catalog window using the Open Symbol Catalog button, and simply use the symbols from there. Symbols will then be imported into the map one by one as you use them from the symbol catalog (But do note that symbols are indexed by their name, so if you have a symbol with a certain name already in your map, it will use that, even if the one in the catalog is different but with the same name)