Problems with the hex grid
Hello there, I am am noob making my first post (of many no doubt) with absolutely no experience of any drawing programs, so if I am asking very dumb questions, please play nice and be gentle with me.
I have finally decided to finally break open CC3 and try to redraw the board for one of my favourite wargames (the old board and counters died a red wine death some years ago). I thought this would not pose too much of a problem and would be a great way to learn the package. One layer for the hex grid and border, one for the geographical detail (symbols), one for text, one for the political colours, and possibly another layer for the sea / coastline. What could possibly go wrong?
Er well, the hex grid for starters.
I have managed to get a hex grid with the correct number of hexes in width and height (that was painful). However, I cannot seem to be able to make the hex grid thicker. I click edit, then change properties, then highlight the hex grid (it goes white) and click do it. I then get the change properties box, change the line width to 2 (it starts at 0 which feels wrong to me as this implies no width?), click the green check box beside it, and then OK, but nothing changes (even if I put 100 down as the width). What am I missing?
The other problem with the hex grid I encountered are that the snap points do not coincide with the vertices of the hex grid (or the center for that matter). I can see no way of editing the hex grid to change this. This is map is going to be very hard to do if I cannot use the snap to grid function. What setting have I made FUBAR?
I have read the user guide and cannot seem to be able to spot what I am doing wrong. I am the first to admit that I am not brilliant at RTFM and can miss things that would be blindingly obvious to others. If it is a case of my missing it, please let me know so I can go back and attempt to RTFM.
Any pointers in the right direction would be very welcome.
Cheers
Alan
I have finally decided to finally break open CC3 and try to redraw the board for one of my favourite wargames (the old board and counters died a red wine death some years ago). I thought this would not pose too much of a problem and would be a great way to learn the package. One layer for the hex grid and border, one for the geographical detail (symbols), one for text, one for the political colours, and possibly another layer for the sea / coastline. What could possibly go wrong?
Er well, the hex grid for starters.
I have managed to get a hex grid with the correct number of hexes in width and height (that was painful). However, I cannot seem to be able to make the hex grid thicker. I click edit, then change properties, then highlight the hex grid (it goes white) and click do it. I then get the change properties box, change the line width to 2 (it starts at 0 which feels wrong to me as this implies no width?), click the green check box beside it, and then OK, but nothing changes (even if I put 100 down as the width). What am I missing?
The other problem with the hex grid I encountered are that the snap points do not coincide with the vertices of the hex grid (or the center for that matter). I can see no way of editing the hex grid to change this. This is map is going to be very hard to do if I cannot use the snap to grid function. What setting have I made FUBAR?
I have read the user guide and cannot seem to be able to spot what I am doing wrong. I am the first to admit that I am not brilliant at RTFM and can miss things that would be blindingly obvious to others. If it is a case of my missing it, please let me know so I can go back and attempt to RTFM.
Any pointers in the right direction would be very welcome.
Cheers
Alan
Comments
So its funny how talking a problem through with yourself can lead to a solution - DOWH!!! TICK ALL THE GREEN CHECK BOXES!!!! I can now edit the hex width. I am very embarressed for having asked that bit.
Still, a solution to making the grid snap to where I need it still eludes me.
Cheers
Alan
Also, make sure your map is set to use the correct snap. Near the bottom left is the "Snap" button. Right click on it to bring up the snap settings, and make sure the "User Hexgrid" snap is selected in the grid, and that snaps is enabled. The "user Hexgrid" should have been created when you created your grid, to match the grid settings. If not, you can edit the setting yourself to your needs.
Thanks for getting back to me, but I see nothing that you decribe when I right click the "Snap Button".
I get a "Select Grid System" Box that has many options, but none labelled as you have described. Any ideas?
Cheers
Alan
You can also create a new snap grid yourself, but you will need to figure out the correct values.
- "Unlock" all grouped entities (button in lower right corner)
- Use "Keep" on the existing hex grid.
- Erase by layer "HEX/SQUARE GRID"
- Use "Draw > Hex or Square Overlay" to add the grid anew, setting your snap grid as desired.
If you want to circumvent this and just add a new snap grid matching your existing hexes, you can do so manually.
- Measure the distance from one hex center to the next, this can be either vertically or horizontally, depending on your alignment of the hexes.
- Note the center point's coordinates of the left-most and lowest hex on your map (this is the origin).
- Right-click the GRID button on the lower-right of the screen
- Click "New", choose a "Hexagonal grid", click "Continue"
- Give the grid a name, set its orientation matching your hexes
- Set either the Width or Height value (depending on the alignment) to the distance measured above. Set the other to that value times 1.1547.
- Click Ok. Your new hex snap grid is now enabled.