Using symbols from one annual style in a different style
Since the whole "creating/modifying symbols and catalogs" process is something I've never been good at or completely understood, I figured the best thing to do for this fairly specific operation is ask here about the best way to accomplish it.
I'm working in the "Fantasy Worlds" annual style, which uses abstract graphics (dots, basically) for cities and structures, instead of little PNG pictures of towns and such. I'm fine with this, but when it comes to "city dots", I prefer the style of dots in a different Annual that I have worked with extensively (Modern Political). So if I wanted to just lift those symbols from Modern Political, and drop them into my Fantasy Worlds map, and then save a new symbol catalog containing all the normal FW symbols + those city dots from MP, how would I go about this?
OR... since they are just dots, would it be simpler to try and modify the existing dot symbols already present in FW? i.e. the symbol for "town" is literally just a an unfilled circle, so you see whatever is behind it (the land or whatever) inside the circle symbol. What I'd rather have (and what Modern Political uses) is a black circle filled with white. So would it be easier to take FW's circle and change it? Or easier to copy the symbols out from MP and add them to a catalog with all the FW symbols?
Thanks!
I'm working in the "Fantasy Worlds" annual style, which uses abstract graphics (dots, basically) for cities and structures, instead of little PNG pictures of towns and such. I'm fine with this, but when it comes to "city dots", I prefer the style of dots in a different Annual that I have worked with extensively (Modern Political). So if I wanted to just lift those symbols from Modern Political, and drop them into my Fantasy Worlds map, and then save a new symbol catalog containing all the normal FW symbols + those city dots from MP, how would I go about this?
OR... since they are just dots, would it be simpler to try and modify the existing dot symbols already present in FW? i.e. the symbol for "town" is literally just a an unfilled circle, so you see whatever is behind it (the land or whatever) inside the circle symbol. What I'd rather have (and what Modern Political uses) is a black circle filled with white. So would it be easier to take FW's circle and change it? Or easier to copy the symbols out from MP and add them to a catalog with all the FW symbols?
Thanks!
Comments
1. Start a new overland symbol catalog from the new map wizard.
2. Click the Open Symbol Catalog
3. Click once on every symbol you want to include in your new catalog.
4. Repeat from 2 for every additional symbol catalog you wish to include symbols from
5. Go to Symbols -> Symbol manager. Check that you are happy with this list of symbols. Rearrange if required. Once you are happy, select all the symbols in the list by clicking on the top one, scrolling down to the bottom, and then holding down the shift key while clicking on the bottom one. Now, hit the Save as Catalog button.
6. Save it anywhere. Now, in your map, you can just use Open Symbol Catalog
If you want to include every symbol in a symbol catalog, you can actually just load up that symbol catalog (as a map, not in the symbol catalog window) and use that as a base instead of starting from scratch in step 1., then continue on from 2. Do note that when you get to the end, after having saved your custom catalog in step 6, when you close the window, CC3+ will then ask you if you wish to save your changes. You should say no to this, as you have already saved your changes to a new catalog, and you don't want to go around modifying the official catalogs (If you mess them up, it means reinstalling, and your modifications to official catalogs may be overwritten by a later update)
So I've got my city dot symbols in my Fantasy Worlds map. But, if I click on the symbol type buttons above the symbol catalog area ("Structures", "Minerals/Mountains", etc.), it reverts to JUST showing the symbols that come with FW by default. My imported symbols remain invisible until I go back to showing ALL symbols in the catalog I created, all at once (or if I use the "show symbols in map" button, but that also shows a huge list of symbols).
There's no "All" button up there, so the only way to get my imported symbols from Modern Political to show up again is to manually re-load the actual symbol catalog, the one I created as per your instructions Monsen. I say "manually", because the "Symbol Catalog Settings" doesn't show my created catalog. Only the CA28 default ones (CA 28 being Fantasy Woirlds.) So I have to actually use the "Open Symbol Catalog" button and re-load the catalog.
I like using the symbol type buttons so I don't have to scroll around as much in the display showing ALL symbols, and can instead click to just show mountains, or just show cities/structures, etc. So is there any way to make it so that when I use those, it pulls from my custom catalog for them?
Furthermore, I'm confused as to why my custom-made one isn't showing up. I named it "CA28 VS custom 1 all" and put it in the same folder as the default CA28 symbol catalogs, so I would have thought it would show up with all the other FW catalogs when "CA28" is the filter. Any way to make it show up when I use the Symbol Catalog Settings button?