How Do You Find the Right Symbols for Your Maps?
I am looking for symbols/icons for supply bases, factories, mines, and ports, as well as capitol cities, partisan bases, battlefields, etc.
I got the big bundle earlier this year, and have been trying to use Campaign Cartographer 3+ to draw maps for my wargame projects. It's set in 1919. I didn't think the fantasy styles would fit, so I started with 1930s Overland.
I lined up my source maps, got the right scale and rotation, and drew railroads, rivers, and most of the coastline; I still have trouble with some lakes and islands. See this discussion here: https://forum.profantasy.com/discussion/15235/how-can-i-draw-real-world-places-in-campaign-cartographer/p1 I might write up instructions later.
Now I want to add the cities and towns. Some are notable for their size, others for each of the other reasons above. I couldn't find all the appropriate icons in 1930s Overland or any other set. I tried these instructions: https://rpgmaps.profantasy.com/using-multiple-symbol-styles/ but the search only finds bitmap icons, not vector icons like circles. If I search for *factor*HI.png, I don't get anything. If I search for *mine*HI.png, I get drawings of mountains with dwarven mines, more mountains, what seem to be icons for explosive mines, and pieces for location maps.
If there aren't suitable CC3+ symbols, I wonder how to import other symbol sets created for other tools.
If there are, I've drawn coasts, rivers, and railroads as polygons and paths. I don't want curves, because they make it harder to trace these and to keep these in the right hexes. I *really* don't want fractals for the same reason. But I wonder if there's a way to convert these to more elegant styles.
I tried converting some of the railroads from width-1 black paths to 1930s Overland railroads, but I couldn't see the 1930s Overland railroads. Maybe it requires a smaller scale, larger screen, better eyesight, and/or certain backgrounds.
Comments
If it is the size of existing 1930s Overland symbols you want to change for different sized towns and cities you can make the symbols larger or smaller by holding down the CTRL key and moving the mouse while you have the symbol on the crosshairs, or by right clicking while you have the symbol on the crosshairs and setting the scale precisely in the Symbol Parameters dialog that opens.
You are right - fantasy styles don't contain a huge number of relatively modern or real world symbols, but since the 1930s Overland symbols are vector symbols, it is possible to make new symbols to match the style in your own design. The process does involve quite a bit of mouse work, though, which may not be what you want to have to do. On the plus side, however, if you create your own new vector symbols you can add them to the symbol catalogue and use them again and again in as many maps as you like. Ralf demonstrated the making of a new fallen tree symbol in another vector style in this video if you wish to give it a try. I've linked to the point where he starts the work, but you might want to watch the whole show to get your bearings and fully understand what's happening at that point.
Thanks.
CA42 Modern Political has more city size options; the icons start smaller than CA84, but I can resize them.
I can search the File Explorer to find bitmap symbols, but I can't do that for vector symbols. I can open Select Drawing Tool and search every single style in turn, for either ty[pe, but it's a pain, and what works in the preview might not work on the map or vice-versa.
I don't mind using zig-zag lines and polygons for coasts, rivers, and railroads, but would like the option to replace them with other styles, e.g. to allow black-and-white printing. I can't figure out how to convert what I've drawn. I can't figure out how to replace what I've drawn either, either. Most of the existing styles are curves or fractals instead of straight paths, so they don't go where I've drawn them.
Some of the fancier vector symbols break during editing. Like river symbols with separate parts for the banks and the water, where trying to adjust these can separate the banks from the water or vice-versa. Some of them don't display properly at low resolution. Like the railroad symbols.
The last point there in particular is a good plan, though remember to create new ones rather than overwriting the old ones. You can only get the old ones back again by reinstalling.
There are some basic geometric vector shapes available in the Symbols => Maps => Other folder, as "Geometry.fsc". These have a fixed colour, however, but if you have the CA62 Geometry.fsc symbol catalogue as well (it's in the same folder), that has varicolor options for the same basic shapes. That might expand your vector symbol options sufficiently.
As for converting colour maps to black-and-white, try adding an RGB Matrix Process effect set to "Gray", and see how well that works. You may need to adjust the full-colour version of the map to keep the contrast sufficiently clear in the greyscale view, but you can turn it on and off as required for exporting images of the map.