Cosmographer - symbols tiny and offset from cursor / grid
BrainPunter
Newcomer
Hi all - I'm new to CC3 and Cosmographer and I'm struggling with making a Traveller style map.
After a fair amount of trial and error and Google-fu I've managed to get myself a hex map with grid points aligned to it using the Cosmographer Sector Vector style. I do not create a grid during the map creation, creating it afterwards using the Grid button in the left nav, leaving it set to the default values.
However, after that the default for all the traveller symbols is comically small, which seems like it must be wrong. The normal size is 0.8, but I have to override that to about 160 to get them to a size appropriate for the grid that's been drawn.
More irritatingly, while the grid points all line up properly with the centers of my hexes, when I select a symbol and attempt to place it, the symbol sits off well to the left and above of the cursor, not aligned with any grid point.
I've right-clicked on both the grid and snap buttons at the bottom of the window and the values there for the hex grid are identical. I'm at my wit's end - what gives? Any help will be most appreciated.
Comments
Which symbols are you trying to place? Almost all of the Traveller symbols are designed to be offset to the placement point (center of the hex) on purpose, because they are supposed to be placed according to the official guidelines. Only the main world itself will be centered, the other symbols are intended to "surround" it at fixed offset/position depending on symbol type.
As for scale, the Traveller symbols are scaled to fit a grid size of 1. If you make your hex grid larger than that, you also need to change the symbol scale accordingly.
Ahh - that gets me somewhere. I'm not trying to make a proper Traveller map so I was planning on using the symbols for other purposes.
So it turns out planets are indeed centered, but the symbols are still way off. If I choose a base, it will be in the next hex up and to the left in a position where it would overlap any planet in that hex.
That said, I've realised I can probably just use shapes from the geometry set to do what I'm after. I'm still curious about the weird offset, though.
Thanks for the prompt reply - it definitely helped me think around the problem.
I'm still curious about the weird offset, though.
The offset is because in Traveller, the base is supposed to be in the same Hex as the planet, in the 10 o'clock position. With the offset in place, you just click the planet down in the middle of the hex, then followed by the base in the same position, and thanks to the offset, it will be perfectly placed every time.
The reason you get it in a different hex is that you have the symbols scaled too large. I realize that this is how you probably want them, but in Traveller, the planets only occupy a small part of the hex, with room for symbols and names surrounding it in the same hex.
If you are not making a traveller map, I recommend using a different symbol catalog. You'll find the same symbol sin other Cosmographer catalogs without the offset, with the exception of those very simple Traveller-spesific symbols (Such as the bases)