Trouble with Layers...

I'm terribly sorry to be asking a question that must be incredibly 'noobish', but I've been working on it for hours and I just can't seem to figure it out. I'm working on a map that starts with light landmass terrain, and the very first thing that I do is create a lake in the center. Then, I create two landmasses for islands on the lake, but as soon as I move the map or zoom or anything else, the islands 'disappear' behind the lake. Nothing I've been trying seems to work as far as trying to make the lake a 'deeper' layer, trying to move it to the back, move the islands to the front... Nothing. I can make the islands work if I create the lake as a 'sea' and then add the landmasses, but for some reason if I create the lake using the 'lake' terrain type, eveything I put on top of it just disappears under the lake no matter how much I try to edit the sheet that the lake is going on beforeheand. Again, I know a lot of you may be reading this and thinking, "What a dope", but I would appreciate any feedback on this matter.

Thank you all so much for being gentle. *winces*

Peace.

Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited August 2010
    This is because of how sheets and drawing tools work in CC3.

    By default, all drawing tools place whatever you draw with them on a predefined sheet (no matter what sheet was active beforehand). So, land will always end up on the LAND sheet, and the lake will always end up on the RIVERS sheet. So when you draw your islands using the normal landmass tool, they will end up on the LAND sheet, and therefore end up behind the lake. (They will only appear on top until you do something that causes a redraw).

    To fix this, you need an extra sheet. Name the sheet ISLAND, and place it below the RIVERS sheet in the list (Thereby causing it to be drawn later than the RIVERS sheet, and therefore, on top of it). Now, draw your lake and islands manually. Now, enter the sheets dialog, hide the RIVERS sheet, and return. Now you can use "Change Properties" on your islands (We hid the lake to make the islands easy to select), and move them to your new ISLAND sheet. Now go back into the sheet dialog, and unhide RIVERS, and you should be good to go.

    If you often create islands like this, you can also create a separate drawing tools for them that automatically places them on the right sheet.
  • Woot! Love you!

    Erm... I mean, umm... It worked! Thank you!

    *scurries off*
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