Cosmographer 3-D Starmap Scale?
Ok, I have a weird problem. I created a Map 1000 X 800 - I assume that must be in light years?
When I measure 2 stars, top to bottom, I would expect about 800 light year separation, but I get about 1000. And when I measure horizontally, I would expect to get 1000, but I get 800?
Very weird...it's as if the dimensions are flipped, but the map appears fine on the screen and oriented as expected.
Any suggestions?
When I measure 2 stars, top to bottom, I would expect about 800 light year separation, but I get about 1000. And when I measure horizontally, I would expect to get 1000, but I get 800?
Very weird...it's as if the dimensions are flipped, but the map appears fine on the screen and oriented as expected.
Any suggestions?
Comments
Whatever you need it to be really. Stars and planets are not to scale (If they were, they would be to small to be visible in almost any sized map). Therefore, treat this value as whatever you need (AU, LY, PC, etc...)
To see this visually, add an isometric grid to your drawing (Grid spacing 50 is ok for this drawing). Now, look at the "squares" in the grid. These are true squares, just projected for a 3D-view. You may notice that the distance from the top point to the bottom point is different from the distance from the left point to the right point. This is an artifact of the projection, in reality, these distances are the equal (in the system behind the scenes, the visible squares on the screen are definitely different). The tool however uses the true distance, which is why you get these seemingly weird (but correct) results.
When setting the map (canvas) size, you define the area which the isometric system will be laid out inside, but due to the ways these two line up, these will never be identical. The values here will therefore serve as guidelines, but not exact values.
When you measure the distance between two stars position at the X-axis of the map border, you are not really measuring along the map border, but rather across the isometric grid. Therefore, this distance is not equal to the distance of the map border occupying the same visual area on your screen, because the map border occupies a different coordinate system.
These issues are why the special star distance ruler is needed in the first place, because this tool understands the true isometric coordinate system used in your map, as opposed to the regular distance tool which only understands "flat" views.
Thanks for your patience!
Is there a way to set the center of a grid as the 0,0 point?