Questions from a newbie

Hi, I have a couple of noobish questions with relation to dungeon creation. The program is generally very easy to use, and even more advanced stuff is no problem. But there are some really basic things that just elude me completely:

1) The yellow 'wall' that always forms around your maps is practical when designing your dungeon. But how do you 'turn it off' when printing or exporting your map as a .jpg-file? Even if I put walls on top of the yellow one they drop down to the layer below.

2) I can't seem to figure out how to scale map titles/compasses/scale bars so they don't take up half my map.

3) I'm having serious trouble with the grid. I'm making battle-maps, so I want five-foot squares clearly presented on my map. I played around with the grid some and gave it up. Then I found the perfect floor-type: Chequer. It makes clearly viewable brown and beige squares on my map. After a while I found the grid settings and told CC3 to make a 5' grid on my map. But - ho ho - now one 5-foot-square equals four of my chequer-floor-tiles (those are some biiiiig 5-foot-squares). So in essence, my question is; how do I set the five-foot grid to be the same size (square by square) as the square of a normal battle-mat?

Thanks in advance!

Comments

  • JoeyD473JoeyD473 Betatester 🖼️ 2 images Traveler
    1. When printing if you don't want the map border click on sheets and turn off the border sheets

    2. click on the resize tool then click on the object you want to rescale. Right click and then click 'Do It'

    3. Most checkered floor tiles aren't set to be 5' grids. You can make them so with the resize tool, but it takes some playing. Your best bet is just to use the normal grid tool. I actually prefer the use the overland grid tool over the dungeon grid tool as a general rule.

    click on the overland tolls button, then click on the grid tool. Change the setting to a square grid (presuming you want 5' square grid and not a hex grid) and set the distance to 5. You probably not want grid labels so unclick those check boxes. You will have to decide if you want the snap points to match the 5' grid so click those options as is appropriate.
  • 1. Cool, thanks. I couldn't figure out how to hide them on .jpg-transfer but I just deleted the borders and it worked fine.

    2. and 3. I can't find the resize tool or the overland tools button. And when I add a grid in grid settings, no "border" shows up. If I am to use it as a battle mat I need the 5' squares to be clearly seperated from each other and I can't figure out how to do that.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    The scale (resize) button looks like this: image, and is found to the left of the drawing area/symbol catalog

    The Grid settings dialog is for adding/modifying drawing grids to aid in drawing, not for actual visible battlemat grids. To draw a grid on your map, use Draw -> Hex or Square Overlay...
  • Resize: Thanks!

    As for the drawing of battlemat grit, when I choose Draw -> Square overlay it brings up a prompt. I fill in 5.0000 spacing and Square grid, and click apply, but nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Check that neither your GRID sheet nor HEX/SQUARE GRID layer is hidden. Also, make sure to select an appropriate color before you draw the grid, as it is drawn in the current color. Lastly, check the position of the GRID sheet in the sheets list. It should be close to the end of the list, otherwise it might end up below other entities.
  • The grid sheet is NOT hidden. There is no HEX/SQUARE GRID sheet.

    I have tried selecting from a variety of colors.

    I've moved the GRID sheet to the end of the sheets list.

    Still to no avail. A DRAW -> HEX OR SQUARE OVERLAY command produces nothing.
  • edited October 2011
    I re-created the entire map and chose Grid Overlay in map creation. That worked as intended.

    EDIT: I can't get the layers to work... Now I'm trying to get walls to hide the grid, but pushing them to the bottom of the sheets list does nothing.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    You seem to be a bit confused about Layers and Sheets. Those are two completely different concepts.

    Sheets can contain effects, and determine the ordering of entities. Entities on sheets at the bottom of the list will appear on top of entities on sheets further up the list (The list represents the drawing order. The sheet at the top of the list is drawn first, then the next sheet in the list is drawn on top of that, and so on).

    Layers represent a type of grouping of entities. For example can you define a layer to keep all the GM Only stuff to easy show/hide these items, no matter what kind of items they are (Text, traps[symbols], secret rooms[walls and floors]).


    If the sheet order does not work as expected, use the Info tool to make sure that the entities are on the sheet you expect them to be. A wall is not automatically on the Walls sheet (Well, normally, the drawing tool would ensure that it is, but it is certainly possible to have walls on other sheets as well)
  • Hey. I couldn't find the info-tool, but I tried to figure it out manually by pushing grid up in the sheet order one by one. My walls are under the grid no matter what, except if grid is moved before the 'background'-sheet. Problem is, that if I do that the grid isn't visible AT ALL!

    Halp :(
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Sorry, I left out a little bit there, it was supposed to say the List tool in the Info menu. List will show you both what layer and sheet an entity is on.

    From what you describe though, it sounds like your walls are on the background sheet. Use Change Properties to move them to the Walls Sheet.
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