Default Scale Units?
I'm sorry - this is probably such a dumb question that it doesn't even bear asking, but I cannot find the answer despite viewing numerous tutorials, scanning the help files and manual, and doing a search here on the forums. What is the default scale unit when you make a map?
I'm trying to make a map that is 1 square = 5ft, and the reference map is 22" x 17" which is, of course, much to large to scan into Fantasy Grounds without the help of Kinkos (the nearest one is over an hour away). The boxes say 100x800 or similar, but I don't know if that's miles, feet, or whatever, and whenever I add a scale barn, it seems like the map scale is off. If I get the boxes to 5' the map is too small to get all of it onto the page, and if I make it big enough (or what I think is big enough) to accommodate the whole map, the scale barn is something like 100' ft.
Could someone explain to me, what the default unit for the DD3 map, and the CC3 map is; and also, how to figure out what size I need to enter to get the right size map with the right sized grid?
Thanks so much!
I'm trying to make a map that is 1 square = 5ft, and the reference map is 22" x 17" which is, of course, much to large to scan into Fantasy Grounds without the help of Kinkos (the nearest one is over an hour away). The boxes say 100x800 or similar, but I don't know if that's miles, feet, or whatever, and whenever I add a scale barn, it seems like the map scale is off. If I get the boxes to 5' the map is too small to get all of it onto the page, and if I make it big enough (or what I think is big enough) to accommodate the whole map, the scale barn is something like 100' ft.
Could someone explain to me, what the default unit for the DD3 map, and the CC3 map is; and also, how to figure out what size I need to enter to get the right size map with the right sized grid?
Thanks so much!
Comments
CC3 automatically equates everything to a single unit. So if you choose inches, then a single unit will be 1 inch. If you choose feet, then a single unit will be one foot. In order to increase or decrease the number of units, you have to adjust "Inches per Unit". For example, a normal foot is 12 inches, so Inches per Unit will default to 12 inches when you set your Drawing Unit to feet. I wanted 5' per unit, which is five times the default number of feet per unit, so I had to multiply inches by 5 to get 60 inches per unit, in order for the standard unit to be five feet.
Determining the map size was trickier. There wasn't any way I could really determine how to fit everything on the map, without knowing the original drawing scale. An entire Region is on a 22 x 17" map. I guess I could've tried to count the number of squares in a direction, or hunted up a ruler and measured to see how many per inch, but I settled for a guess. I figured that 10 squares per inch looked too small, and I wanted even numbers, so I used five squares per inch. Each square on the map represents five feet, so that meant I needed 25 feet per inch to fit the entire map. I multiplied 25 x 22 and 25 x 17, for 550x425, and that's what I set the map size at. I may have calculated that last part wrong, so if my logic is off, someone please tell me before I get to the end of the page and don't have enough space, lol.
Oh well, at least my map scale is right.
Thanks!
Don't think in paper inches until you get to the issue of printing the map, always think in the maps real-world units when drawing it. It's much easier to think about a corridor's width (say 10 feet) and simply translate that into drawing units on a 1:1 ratio.
Then when you consider your print size, it's easy as well: If you want one square of the map (e.g. 5 feet) to be one inch on paper, you set that in the print dialog under "Scale Factor": 1" paper distance to 5' drawing distance. And yes, you can just enter those ' and " symbols in that box.
Coming back to the size of the map: If you already know that your printed map will be 22" x 17", the calculation is easy too: at 5' to the inch, your map should be 110 (22*5) by 85 (176*5), drawing units large.
Hope that helps.
I'm not sure I understand the point of making a map 1 square = 1 foot and then having the grid be 1 square = 5 feet? I'm thinking I didn't understand what you're saying, because that makes no sense to me?
Then, by making the grid 5 map units (= 5 feet), you have a grid where each square is 5'.
Also, using 1:1 ratio inside CC3 makes the printing much easier, as Ralf explained, because you just set up the scale in the print dialog to 1" paper distance to 5' drawing distance and that's it.
However, using 1 map unit = 1 foot, you don't have to recalculate anything. For example, a 35' wall is mapped as a 35 map unit wall, not a 7 map unit wall (which you get if you make one map unit = 5').
When you start a new DD3 map, it is already set up to use 1' = 1 map unit, and all symbols are properly scaled to match this.
The basic point here is, think in proper map distances (feet or meters for dungeon maps and battle mats, km/miles for overland maps), NOT in squares. Grid sizes and print sizes are very easy to set up to whatever value you need afterwards.
I want to create a city local map that is 24000 feet by 14000 feet (large for a dungeon, small for overland). What size should I set in the template? And, I suppose, which template best suits this size? The map will show the main town features and the surrounding area.
And posting to a new thread helps us help you.