New user with two (possibly dumb) Cartographer questions
Hi,
I've just started using CC3 and Cosmographer 3, using it to turn some (rather badly) hand-drawn sector and sub-sector maps for Warhammer 40,000 and Battlefleet Gothic into something that looks a whole lot better.
I've been playing around with the Starmaps in Cosmographer 3 and have two questions. My apologies if the answers are totally obvious but I haven't been able to work out where I'm going wrong.
1) Sheet Effects for Nebulae and Borders: I've been using the tutorial Starmap (the Firaxis Sector) and have gotten to the point where you add nebulae and borders (page 13-14 of the PDF manual, file Firaxis Sector 03.FCW).
I use the Background Tools and Border Tools to place some nebulae and borders, turn on Sheet Effects and... nothing happens to the nebulae and borders I have just drawn.
The Sheet Effects for the elements of the map which were already present in the file (i.e drawn by ProFantasy and not me) *do* turn on, but not the effects for my nebulae and borders.
The nebulae are in the Background Nebulae Sheet and the borders are in the Borders Outline Sheet (both are the default sheets created by the Background Tools and Border Tools). And I have chosen the option to tunr on Sheet Effects that apply to the Whole Drawing, so I honestly don't think I'm somehow not activating the Sheet Effects for the relevant Sheets....
Any ideas of where/ how I am going wrong?
2) Star Lanes in 2-D Maps
Does the Distance Between Stars button work when you are using 2-D rather than 3-D planets? It is a really useful tool but I would prefer to create a 2-D starmap with space lanes rather than a 3-D ones.
I know I can simply draw lines in the Symbols Below sheet (which is where the space lanes drawn by Distance Between Stars appear) and then hopefully any applicable Effects will kick in when I turn them on after drawing but I'm clumsy and using the automated tool would save a lot of time!
Thanks,
James
I've just started using CC3 and Cosmographer 3, using it to turn some (rather badly) hand-drawn sector and sub-sector maps for Warhammer 40,000 and Battlefleet Gothic into something that looks a whole lot better.
I've been playing around with the Starmaps in Cosmographer 3 and have two questions. My apologies if the answers are totally obvious but I haven't been able to work out where I'm going wrong.
1) Sheet Effects for Nebulae and Borders: I've been using the tutorial Starmap (the Firaxis Sector) and have gotten to the point where you add nebulae and borders (page 13-14 of the PDF manual, file Firaxis Sector 03.FCW).
I use the Background Tools and Border Tools to place some nebulae and borders, turn on Sheet Effects and... nothing happens to the nebulae and borders I have just drawn.
The Sheet Effects for the elements of the map which were already present in the file (i.e drawn by ProFantasy and not me) *do* turn on, but not the effects for my nebulae and borders.
The nebulae are in the Background Nebulae Sheet and the borders are in the Borders Outline Sheet (both are the default sheets created by the Background Tools and Border Tools). And I have chosen the option to tunr on Sheet Effects that apply to the Whole Drawing, so I honestly don't think I'm somehow not activating the Sheet Effects for the relevant Sheets....
Any ideas of where/ how I am going wrong?
2) Star Lanes in 2-D Maps
Does the Distance Between Stars button work when you are using 2-D rather than 3-D planets? It is a really useful tool but I would prefer to create a 2-D starmap with space lanes rather than a 3-D ones.
I know I can simply draw lines in the Symbols Below sheet (which is where the space lanes drawn by Distance Between Stars appear) and then hopefully any applicable Effects will kick in when I turn them on after drawing but I'm clumsy and using the automated tool would save a lot of time!
Thanks,
James
Comments
No, the Distance between Stars button only works for 3d maps. I'd do the following:
Draw the line as normal with "Distance Between Stars". Use Info > Length Along on the distance line (right-click to read the length of the whole entity). Note the length (this is the actual 2d distance). Then use Numeric Edit (# button on the left toolbar) to change the displayed distance to this value.
No, unfortunately not. But after you've put in all the distance lines as normal, you can either
1. Erase all the distance numbers. Click the Erase button, right-click to select by entity type, choose "2d Text". Right-click again, choose Combine > And, right-click and select by the color of your distance labels. This should make sure you select no other text than the distances. Right-click, Do It.
2. Or simply change the layer of the distance labels ( by Change Properties) to a new layer, which you can then hide.
As for the sheet effects, the Nebulae and border effects are missing from that example. Do the following to fix this:
- Open the Sheet effects dialog
- Activate sheet effects and from the Dropbox box select the setting "Cos 3d Starmap" again (despite it being already pre-selected). CC3 will ask you whether to add some sheets, answer "No".
- Nebulae and Border should now have their effects applied.