Issues WIth Fills

Anti-Steve · July 2010

Hello!

I've been mucking around with CC3 off and on for a little while now, and have finally started to actually use it for something game oriented. One of our players used GIS to create a rough map of the known world as it stands currently, and I'm trying to bring it into CC3 to add some more polish than MS Paint can apply. I've created the map, imported the original image and traced out the contours of the coastline and the islands currently used in game. I used the Path tool to do all the tracing and then removed the mapkey sheet (ie: the original map I traced the outline from).

I then made sure everything was joined and nothing overlapped in terms of the lines, at least none that I can find escaped my careful 'Combine Paths' and 'Edit Node'. I made sure it was all converted to a Poly via - 'Path to Poly' tool, however it's all just an outline.

I'm trying to get the islands and mainland filled with the basic SS1A Land Normal bitmap fill, but none of it seems to work. I've tried Change Properties, Change Fill Style, and it doesn't seem to want to co-operate. This is the only issue I have, the rest of the mapping should be easy enough, simply changing the terrain around. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've attached my map so that a more discerning and practiced eye might pick out a mistake that I've made and provide some guidance.

Thanks!

Ralf · July 2010

Phew, the problem is that some of your lines are doubled up. Try exploding one of the islands and selecting a single line ... you'll see that you always select two entities. Trying to make a poly from that creates a double outline with the fill style being zero width between the two lines, effectively invisible.

You can fix the problem by moving a single node off to the side and then deleting nodes from the outlying line. Moving around the entity once will remove the second outline, resulting in the proper polygon. I've started the process on one island in the attached version of your map and show where to click to delete nodes.

It might actually be faster to retrace the islands.

To trace a bitmap, don't mess around with Lines and Combining Paths if possible. Switch to hollow outline and a bright color and trace an island or coastline in a single go with a Path or Polygon. Use Path to Poly on any paths afterwards to close them, Change Properties to set the correct fill style.

Hope that helps.

Simon Rogers · July 2010

Save a back up.
Type COUNTA and press ENTER to see how many entities are on the map.
Type DELDUPS and press ENTER.
Select All, Do it.

This might delete all your duplicated entities.

Anti-Steve · July 2010

Thank you both,

I'm going to give both methods a go, just so 1) I'm clear on what is being said, and 2) I have an alternate way to fix problems if something like this pops up again and one way doesn't work.

If I have any issues, I'll be sure to post again.

Thanks again!

Anti-Steve · July 2010

Alright, so The COUNTA and DELDUPS didn't seem to do anything, Entity Count remained the same.

I cleared a few more islands using Ralf's Method, however, a few seem...odd. Two islands to the north seem completely invisible save for small portions, and the one to the far southwest doesn't seem to work no matter how I slice it. I'd rather not have to redo any of the islands since it took so bloody long to trace them to begin with, just trying to figure out what is happening with those islands so I can avoid duplicating it in the future. If I must I must though.

Would it be recommended in the future to use one of the Poly Tools? Or The Path Line Tool?

I'm not even sure how I got so many duplicates to begin with. I used the Path tool to draw the outlines, then Combined them, then Path to Poly... unless Combining more than once duplicates the polys... Not sure - still learning the program, starting to make a lot more sense though.

Thanks!

Ralf · July 2010

I fixed the rest of the islands for you. One was a multipoly and needed to be exploded and redone with LTP2 before it could be worked on; two were actually still paths and needed to be closed to become polygons.

Why did you use Combine when you already had them as paths? Did you use several paths for each island? Using combine on already complete entities might have created the copies, I'm not 100% sure. You can (and probably should) use the Polygon tool right away.

Anti-Steve · July 2010

I basically zoomed right in as the original landscape was outlined by a border, and used a zoomed in view of the pixels to create as accurate a trace as possible. So If I got towards the end of doing one of the islands lets say, I'd leave a small gap instead of fudging with being precise on my mouse click and just combine paths. So yes, I used a TON of paths.

I'll be sure to use the Polygon tool...and I think I'm going to start writing this stuff down in a notebook or something so I don't forget.

So I'm gathering the Multipoly was the SW island, and LTP2 is? I'm guessing Line to Path twice? Now, in the case of the top two islands, how did you know exactly where to click in order to close them off? I guess I should find a tutorial as the in program one only covers the basics...especially if I'm tackling something like this.

As always, you're help is greatly appreciated Ralf.

EDIT: I guess another question is, if I run into something that doesn't make sense, how exactly can I tell what's wrong. For example, on the current iteration of the map that you sent, only the Bottom Right Quadrant basically can have any Landmass/River/Road/Terrain placed on it... Symbols are fine and can be placed anywhere, but in trying to populate some rivers, I found only the BR Quad of the map was workable, the rest not so much. Perhaps it's just my limited experience that prevents me from identifying the problem.

Anti-Steve · July 2010

This morning so far I've tried going through each of the layers to see if there was an entity that was blocking it but found nothing. I picked up the Tome of Ultimate Mapping, so that should help but most of it seems to pertain to using the landmass, and terrain tools rather than the method I used here for the base map.

So, as it stands right now I'm sort of stumped.

Ralf · July 2010

Posted By: Anti-Steve
EDIT: I guess another question is, if I run into something that doesn't make sense, how exactly can I tell what's wrong. For example, on the current iteration of the map that you sent, only the Bottom Right Quadrant basically can have any Landmass/River/Road/Terrain placed on it... Symbols are fine and can be placed anywhere, but in trying to populate some rivers, I found only the BR Quad of the map was workable, the rest not so much. Perhaps it's just my limited experience that prevents me from identifying the problem.

That's because everything is on the MAP BORDER layer and serves as a limit for most drawing tools. Simply use CHANGE LAYER to move all the land pieces to RELIEF/CONTOUR (or some such) and you'll be fine.

The multipoly was the top-right island. You can use Info > List on the entities to see their properties and what exactly they are. LTP2 is the text equivalent to "Line to Path". It creates a path entity form a collection of connected lines. Thats what I used to put the exploded multipoly back together into a path.

You weren't able to see the polygons because they had a zero width and their fill style no outline. Open the fill style dialog and select the bitmap fill "SS1a Land Normal". Check the "Outlined" box to make the polygons visible. That's what I did. I had turned the Outline off in my previous version of the map and didn't turn it back on, sorry for the confusion.

Anti-Steve · July 2010

Ralf, you are my personal hero. I've started to jot these notes down for future reference if I do this sort of mapping again rather than using the landmass tools.

I appreciate your assistance and patience!

Looks much sharper outlined, thanks for the tips!

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