Complete Novice's Questions about existing maps
Although I've used CC2 for many years I just can't get "into" CC3 at all. My main problem concerns the copying of my existing maps - both hand-drawn & those drawn with CC2.
First, is it possible to scan a hand-drawn map into CC3 as a background layer (if so, how?) and then use it to construct a new CC3 map based upon the hand-drawn detail? I simply can't see how this could be done. (This was fairly easy to do with CC2, but I can't find anything in the "Help" files that explains the process with CC3).
Second, if I convert a CC2 map to CC3, it just looks the same to me, so how does converting a map help? Can I use all the tools & symbols from CC3 with converted maps? For example, how do I add a CC3 map style to a converted CC2 map (i.e. CC3 Standard Overland) or can't the CC3 tools & symbols be used on my converted CC2 maps?
First, is it possible to scan a hand-drawn map into CC3 as a background layer (if so, how?) and then use it to construct a new CC3 map based upon the hand-drawn detail? I simply can't see how this could be done. (This was fairly easy to do with CC2, but I can't find anything in the "Help" files that explains the process with CC3).
Second, if I convert a CC2 map to CC3, it just looks the same to me, so how does converting a map help? Can I use all the tools & symbols from CC3 with converted maps? For example, how do I add a CC3 map style to a converted CC2 map (i.e. CC3 Standard Overland) or can't the CC3 tools & symbols be used on my converted CC2 maps?
Comments
- Scan the map to an image file
- Use Draw -> Insert File to insert the file into your drawing. You'll probably want to create a dedicated sheet to hold this image, and place it at the top of the sheet list. This ensures that everything you draw end up on top of the image.
- Then use the CC3 drawing tools to draw on top of your map, manually tracing it. At certain points of the process, you may wish to hide some of the layers, for example to hide the landmass you drew, so that you can see the details on the image below when placing forests, roads, mountains and so on.
Converting a map doesn't change the style of the map. What it basically does, is that it sets up appropriate sheets in the map, and moves your various entities to their appropriate sheet, based on the layer containing each entity. This is important when you want to continue working with a map in CC3, since sheets are very important both for drawing tools and effects.
It is possible to use the new CC3 drawing styles with a converted map, but in this case, you will need to import the appropriate drawing styles into your converted map first. The simplest way of doing this is to take an existing CC3 map (of the style you intend to use), and use Draw -> Insert File to insert this map into the map. Then immediately use Undo to remove it agsin. This remove all the traces of the map, but the fill styles remain. If you now click the "All Drawing Tools" button, and select the desired style (like Overland CC3) from the dropdown, you will have access to the drawing tools of the new CC3 Style.
Note that you can also use Change Properties on existing objects, like landmasses to change their fill style to one of the CC3 bitmap fill styles.
I have used this method for over 600 maps, I had a bit of a tussle with it to staert with. But I got it after some use.