Need a little help with my First Map

blunderboy

Hi guys.
I've been working on a map for a role play site for some time and I wanted to just get the shape of the continents correct.
Now however we've decided on a scale, so I need to increase the size of the picture, and also add a scale bar to it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The continent is supposed to be 4,500 miles West-East and 6,000 miles North to South.

I'd also then like some advice on creating other maps of specific areas.
Thanks.

Moskva

You could simple create a new map and copy the shape of the continents into the new map and adjust the size.

blunderboy

I tried that, but for some reason it wouldn't paste the continents, but a URL link.
Despite trying this several times it always pasted the link not the map.

Monsen

Are you sure you actually copied the continents properly? A common mistake when copying between maps is that people forget to do all the steps of the copy process. Keep an eye on the command line when you do the copying, and make sure you provide all the data it asks for.

blunderboy

I'll have another try. Thanks.

Ralf

Are you only trying to make the continent larger overall? Then you could just SCALE everything:

1. Open the layer dialog (top bar, the field with L:LAYERNAME)
2. Make sure everything is visible and thawed (except the layer TEMPLATE, that can stay frozen)
3. Right-click the scale button on the left toolbar and choose Non-Visual ScaleXY.
4. Right-click and select "All"
5. Right-click, "Do It"
6. Type in the x scale "4500/1000" (or simply "4.5".
7. Type in the y scale "6000/1000" (or simply "6)".
8. Accept the default scale origin of 0,0 by right-clicking.

Your overall map will now be 4500 by 6000 miles. If you want to scale only the map border and background, de-select the landmass and islands after step 4. You can then move and scale the landmass on its own, placing it properly in the center of the map again.

blunderboy

Worked perfectly thank you.
Now is there anyway to add a scale bar at this stage?

Ralf

Of course.

- click the "Drawing Symbols" button above the catalog window on the left (that's the green button directly under "Options"). That displays you the symbol definitions already in the map, which includes the scale bar.
- Click the scale bar, move it over the map and scale it to the approximate size you want (by holding down ctrl key and moving the mouse up or down).
- Before actually placing the symbol, right-click and the Symbol Parameters dialog comes up. Look at the current scale of the symbol.
- At default size (1.0) the scale bar shows 100 miles. So, if you current scale is 4.87, it will will be 487 miles across. I suggest you now set the scale to the nearest whole number, so your scale bar will not be an odd size. Type in 5.0 for the scale for example.
- Click "Continue" and now place the symbol. A dialog comes up for the miles number shown in the scale bar. Type in the scale you defined above, i.e. 500 if you set the scale to 5.0.

That's it, you now have a correctly scaled scale bar in your map.