Help with contouring

Kazareth

Hello to all,

So I am almost finished my first map, and I'm wanting to add some contours for hills. The style I'm using has no land contours in it. So I created a layer for it, however I saw a map where the elevations were shown on the contours, is there a way to learn how to do this as well?

Thank you for any help you can send my way.

Kaz

Loopysue

Unless there is an annual that contains a style that generates hollow polygons with numbers incorporated into the lines, I think its a case of numbering them by hand. I would suggest drawing the contour with the smooth polygon tool, exploding it, then using the break line tool to break the edge of the polygon, and deleting the bit you've broken out of it - which should leave you with a space where you can insert a text number in the gap - rotating to suit the orientation of the contour.

Like this:

Kazareth

Okay I'll try that Loopysue, thank you.

Dogtag

You shouldn't have to explode the polygon before breaking it. The Break command (BREAK) should just work on the poly. Also, Break should delete the broken section for you, so you won't have to delete it yourself.

If you use the Split command (SPLIT) instead, however, then you will have to delete the portion you want, manually.

Some variations of Loopysue's method could be

• Add the text before you break the polygon. That way you can play with the text first, to make sure it looks the way you want and is angled the way you want, and then you can break the poly just where you want it. Or;
  
• Add a new sheet, such as CONTOUR LABELS and then put a small glow effect on the sheet. You can pick any color you want for the glow but I recommend white or something resembling the background, if the background is consistent. Then, place the labels on the sheet and you won't have to break the contour line at all.

Cheers,
~Dogtag

Loopysue

Break went horribly weird for me on my polygon example above until I exploded it first, but maybe its because I only had three nodes controlling the shape in the first place?

Great alternative methods. Thanks

JimP

Or make a color chart, and use different bitmap fill for each contour level. The map is one excample of how i used this idea.

Kazareth

Thank you everyone! I did read the tutorial and look up contouring in the help menus, but it lead me to something similar to the color coding above. However, when I followed the instructions the "legend" was not there. These are the instructions I found:

Insert a color contour bar Top
Insert a color contour bar

1 On the Edit menu, click Insert File.

2 Choose the folder parts\maps\contours\ under your CC folder.

3 You will see a selection of files (color contour bars). Choose one that is the same height as your mapping template. If you don't know what size your mapping template is, choose 800x60.

4 Press and hold CTRL and move the mouse to scale the contour bar.

5 Click an insertion point.

6 On the Tools menu, select Groups, click Ungroup. Right click, select PRIOR, right click, Do it.

I never found the Color Bar. Does anyone know if there is one? The one above is very large.

Monsen

That reference is pretty old. I don't think that legend has shipped with CC for quite a few version. It used to be a legend containing the old default contour colors, so it isn't really applicable to modern CC3(+) maps with bitmap fills and a whole collection of different styles.

Kazareth

Do you know where I can find the color bar, Monsen?

Kazareth

and thank you JimP, I hope it is alright to snick your color bar?

Monsen

The color bar. Yes. Just hit the screen tools button (hammer in lower right) and turn it on. But that is not the same as the contour bar/legend from your help topic above, that is no longer shipped with CC3.

Kazareth

Ohhhhhh okay. So if it is not shipped anymore, is there somewhere else to get it?

Monsen

I doubt these will be much use to you, but here are the old files.

Kazareth

thank you very much Monsen, I appreciate it.

Kazareth

JimP did you do yours up in excel?

JimP

Go right ahead and use it. The color bitmap fills I use are also on my web site. I picked the ones out of Natalya's files I felt most fit what I wanted it to look like.

Color chart for my old surface maps

The template I used, the above color chart, and a link to the bitmap fills I used on the same page. There are also some Terraficta textures on the page where the 3 zip files are located. Not all 3 zips contain exactly the same files. Some colors may differ, etc.

Nope, I make map lists in Open/Libre/Euro Office.

Now, I'm off to locate a Traveller sub-sector I have misplaced somewhere on my hard drive. I usually have them all in the same folders on my hard drive as I"ll place them on my site.. not there though.

Tally ho ! (insert sound of hunting horns here and picture Daffy Duck... off to the chase !)

JimP

Ahem. I have not been in the eggnog. I'm just finding time to map... the relatives are going to sleep. I'm going to map ! Hurrah !

Kazareth

and the hunt begins! Thank you JimP

JimP

you're welcome.