Hex Grid for Battletech
Hello, I'm trying out making map sheets for Battletech, and I'm having some issues with getting the hex grid right. I have the map and hexes about the right size since I set the map size to 17.5"x21.75" (15x17 hexes) with a scale of 1":1". I set the grid spacing to 1.25/1.1546936. What I haven't been able to figure out in the couple of nights that I've been playing with the grid is making it look like a BT map sheet. On a BT map, the left and right edges have unnumbered half hexes, and the hex numbering starts with the top, leftmost full hex.
Problems:
-I can mostly get the partial side hexes by using a starting point of 0,0 for the grid, but then those sides are numbered.
-If I use a negative start point (-0.5,-0.5), then the hex grid ends up with an extra column and row of numbered hexes.
-If I fill the entire sheet vertically, then the half hexes along the top start their numbering off the sheet, which throws off the visible numbers.
-The column numbering is starting off-sheet, so that the first odd hex is 1002 instead of 1001.
-The hex grid also includes a border. I can expand the grid so the border doesn't show, but that has been interfering with the numbering. Nevermind... I just figured out that that can be removed afterwards, although I lost the lower edges on the lowest row of full hexes.
-The numbering doesn't seem to be able to start with a leading zero (0101 instead of 1001). I tried using quotation marks, but the field will not accept more than three characters.
I could live with the differences if CC3/CC+ is unable to get the hex grid the same as the printed BT map sheets, but I'd like the ones I make to match up with the ones I already have. Of course, anyone who has played BT knows the official map sheets tend not to line up very well anyways....
Any suggestions you folks have would be appreciated.
-Erik
Problems:
-I can mostly get the partial side hexes by using a starting point of 0,0 for the grid, but then those sides are numbered.
-If I use a negative start point (-0.5,-0.5), then the hex grid ends up with an extra column and row of numbered hexes.
-If I fill the entire sheet vertically, then the half hexes along the top start their numbering off the sheet, which throws off the visible numbers.
-The column numbering is starting off-sheet, so that the first odd hex is 1002 instead of 1001.
-The hex grid also includes a border. I can expand the grid so the border doesn't show, but that has been interfering with the numbering. Nevermind... I just figured out that that can be removed afterwards, although I lost the lower edges on the lowest row of full hexes.
-The numbering doesn't seem to be able to start with a leading zero (0101 instead of 1001). I tried using quotation marks, but the field will not accept more than three characters.
I could live with the differences if CC3/CC+ is unable to get the hex grid the same as the printed BT map sheets, but I'd like the ones I make to match up with the ones I already have. Of course, anyone who has played BT knows the official map sheets tend not to line up very well anyways....
Any suggestions you folks have would be appreciated.
-Erik
Comments
The Profantasy Map Library has a Battletech map template you can download which has some bitmaps in it it was also made for CC2 but you ought to be able to use it in CC3/CC3+
The template does use a leading zero for the hex numbering.
The download for it is:
http://www.sourcemaps.com/library/files/btgrass.zip
Make sure you put the bitmaps in the appropriate location or you'll get red Xs all on the map. See the Read Me in the zip.