Draw Hex Grid not matching up

ubai

Hello,

I am having a weird problem with the "draw hex or square overlay" tool. I have a big atlas hex map that is 24000 x 12000, divided into 500 mile squares, then further divided into 100 mile vertical hexes. I make a new map that is 500 x 500 miles. When I try to further divide it into 100 mile vertical hexes, the hexes don't seem to start at the top as they do in the bigger map and nothing matches up properly.

How can I make a sub-region map from my atlas? If I can't get the hexes to line up, I can't make zoomed in files of the atlas section. I am using the overland hex map template, so I need to make a hex grid to places the hexes in the first place (I think).

Thanks!

Monsen

Hexes doesn't align to the top, they normally align to the lower left of the area, which is normally in the bottom left corner of the map.

And since hexes are complicated size-wise due to their geometry, a hex of size 100 miles will be 100 miles side-to-side, but 115.47 miles corner to (opposite) corner, a vertical hex of size 100 won't divide neatly into 500 miles. Rather, due to the alternating nature of hexes, every two hexes will take up 173.205 miles, or an average of 86.103 miles per hex (alternating between 115.47 and 57.735).

Now, you can influence this yourself. When you hit the Hex Grid button and set up the overlay, instead of clicking apply to set the grid automatically, click select points instead. Now, place the first point in the top left of your map, and the second in the bottom right. This should create a grid centered on that point.

And do remember you can place points precisely by using the modifiers, such as the endpoint modifier to put it exactly in the corner, or the snap feature if you set up a proper rectangular snap grid first.

ubai

Thanks! That seems to work, except it only labels some of the cells, and for some odd reason it doesn't draw the top right edge of the top right hex in the smaller map. Is there a way to fix this?

Monsen

Not sure what would cause the numbering. I am unable to reproduce that behavior myself. Note that it will only put numbers in fully complete hexes, so the rightmost row is expected to not have labels, even if they are mostly complete, they are not fully complete, and that is what CC3+ looks for. But I am honestly not sure why the A00 label is missing; from the other labels is clear that CC3+ sees that there is a hex there. On all my own tests, that one appear just fine. Could you post the .fcw file you are using where you experience this issue?

As for the missing line in the top left, I notice that sometimes happen if the hex is incomplete, as in your example there, it is missing the rightmost edge node where that line should end. Not sure why/when this happens, but since it is just a single line, the quickest fix is probably just to put it in my hand, just place a line on the same sheet and layer as the existing grid lines. The grid is really just a series of lines anyway. The same is probably the easiest fix for the numbering as well, just copy one of the existing number labels into place and use Numeric Edit to change the text. This also allow you to manually add labels to those incomplete hexes as well if you want. Keep in mind that the grid is normally grouped by default, but you can temporary unlock groups with the "Locked" button in the lower right of the GUI and temporarily unfreeze the HEX/SQUARE grid layer from the layers dialog so you can work with it.

ubai

Thanks! I eventually figured out that I needed to make sure that I had the right sizes for the hexes. I found this articel (https://cephalondusp.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-properties-of-hexes-and-mapping.html) which was very helpful.

If anyone else ever sees this, I went with 6 mile/24 mile/168 mile hexes, which tile in a way that the smaller hexes fit nicely into the larger hexes. I did have to make a custom rectangular grid for the world map, which is a bit time consuming, but you can't use square grids.

By doing this I can have my world atlas, then a regional map that contains a 4x4 grid of 168 hexes that contain 24 mile hexes, then a local map of an area that is 24 mile hexes containing 6 mile hexes.

As for the goofed up file above, I think I overwrote it while experimenting so I can't send it. Sorry!