red crosses instead of pics...?

Dron

Hello,

some time ago I've created a map using some of the pictures from CSUAC collection. It was before the collection was converted to CC3 symbol catalogs so I used ordinary pictures then.
Now, that the CSUAC coll. is presented in the form of CC3 sym.cats I'm using these. Unfortunately the symbols in the map turned into the "wel known" red crosses. I suppose it's because the former locations of separate pictures are gone.
Nevermind - I would like change them for symbols from the CSUAC sym.cat. Unfortunately - even if I load the correct sym. cat. and select the right symbol it immediatelly changes to "red cross" :( (see the attached picture).

Please, does anyone know how to get back / change the "red crosses" to "legal" symbols / pictures?

Thanks in advance
Pavel Svika alias Dron

PS: hopefully I'll attach the pic in next topic.

Dron

Here goes the pic showing that even with valid catalog adding a symbol with same name as the "already-red-crossed" symbol turns into a red cross immediatelly too :(

Monsen

If the broken symbol in the map has the same name as the working symbol, CC3 will use the cached symbol definition already in the map. In this case, you must purge the old symbols from the map. (Use the Delete command in the symbol manager to delete all occurrences of a given symbol, or use Purge to purge all definitions for all symbols that are no longer in the map)

Best way to test if this is indeed the issue is to start a new map, and try placing the symbols there. If that works, you know the above is the problem.

Dron

Posted By: Monsen.....
Best way to test if this is indeed the issue is to start a new map, and try placing the symbols there. If that works, you know the above is the problem.

Yep - when using the symbol in another (or new) map it works fine.
So the problem is with cached symbols.
Nonetheless - after erasing the "old versions" from the map the behaviour did not change until I purged the symbols using Symbols -> Purg Symbols. Since that I can use the symbols from new sym.cats. for drawing again.

The only problem I had was to search for all the problematic symbols since my map is BIG and some symbols were small. Is there any convenient way to search for / zoom to some symbol...?

Thanks for swift help

Monsen

Not that I can think about, maybe someone else has a solution for that.
You can get rid of all the symbols of a particular type by just using "Delete" from inside the symbol manager, but of course, that only help if you don't need to know where the symbols were on the map before deleting. Of course, you can also use "Replace" in the symbol manager to replace a bad symbol with another symbol (Perhaps something that stands out well on your map so it is easy to hunt down)

Shessar

I've had to fix this on a quite few of my maps too. How I did it (it is time consuming if there are a lot of symbols, but it works and is quicker than re-doing the symbols in the map one by one).

-Open the Symbol Manager and rename all of the symbols that show as red x's by putting another character at the end of the name. So if the name is "WebWall kpl-b" you might rename it to "WebWall kpl-bB".

-Open the new symbol catalogs and click on each symbol that you want to fix. Don't place it, just click on it to add it to the Symbol Manager.

-Use the Replace function in the symbol manager to replace each red x with the correct symbol.Then delete the red x version.

The only problem I've run across in this is that sometimes the symbol orientation is different so will be placed in a slightly different location and will have to be dragged back to where you want it.

Like I said, this takes time, especially hunting down the new location of the symbols within the catalogs. If someone has found a faster way, I'd love to hear it.

(Just a note, the CSUAC was reorganized for the sake of future updates. So while it is a pain to fix everything in your maps now, future additions to the catalogs will not cause the same issues and as the amount of art grows it will be easier to locate the symbols within the new file structure.)

Robak

Many thanks for this solution which saved one of my maps.

Am I right that CC3 decide to replace pngs every time if the path to the png is not anymore ok?
Does this mean: Every time if i decide to change the path structure of my hard drive a bit I heave to fear to damage all my maps I did in the last years?

With best regards

Robak

Terraformer_Author

Now how does this issue pertain to image file names? I'm working on a symbols package - and some of my files have names like "Gems_Alexandrite", "Gems_Diamonds", "Gems_Rubies", and "Mermaids1","Mermaids2","Mermaids3" in sequences like that? Should I think about renaming these before packaging?

JimP

As long as you don't change the paths under CC3, you won't a problem.

Terraformer_Author

Thanks Jim.

Monsen

Posted By: RobakDoes this mean: Every time if i decide to change the path structure of my hard drive a bit I heave to fear to damage all my maps I did in the last years?

Make sure you use relative paths. Symbols you use should always be stored in a subdirectory under the Symbols directory in your CC3 installation directory. Symbols stored there can be accessed with relative paths, so that even if you install CC3 to a different location later, the reference is still correct, as long as you copy in your symbols to the same subdirectory under CC3.
As an alternative, you can store the symbols in a subdirectory relative to where you store your maps. The downside here is that all maps that use the same symbols must then be stored in the same directory (no subdirectories).

None of this helps however if you completely reorganize your collection. The internal directory structure of your collection needs to stay the same.

Posted By: RobakAm I right that CC3 decide to replace pngs every time if the path to the png is not anymore ok?

CC3 doesn't 'replace' png's. The png files are not stored inside the map itself, so CC3 must have access to the original symbol to be able to show it. If the path is invalid, CC3 doesn't know how the symbol looks, so it cannot do anything but displaying the red X.

jaerdaph

Best practices with PNGs: Use relative paths instead of absolute paths and keep all your PNGs in folders in the Profantasy->CC3 folder.

Robak

Thank you. I will take care about this in future.

Best regards
Robak