Hi All
Sam here...I had CC way back around 2000, and have just bought CC3, FT3, CD, DD, and the annuals (yikes!)
So I've been trying to spend a lot of time learning its intricacies in the last week or so. Needless to say I have a lot of questions (I am no graphic designer).
I've started a map using Jon Roberts style (which I think is awesome!)
Some questions...but before I ask them, please bear with me (and correct me) on my use of terms, which, no doubt, will be wrong).
Is it possible to change the color/style of landmasses I've already created?
What I mean is...I drew the land mass (on the Land sheet) using the default color. Now I'd like to change the entire land color/style to forest. Is there a way to do that?
Thanks in advance.
So I've been trying to spend a lot of time learning its intricacies in the last week or so. Needless to say I have a lot of questions (I am no graphic designer).
I've started a map using Jon Roberts style (which I think is awesome!)
Some questions...but before I ask them, please bear with me (and correct me) on my use of terms, which, no doubt, will be wrong).
Is it possible to change the color/style of landmasses I've already created?
What I mean is...I drew the land mass (on the Land sheet) using the default color. Now I'd like to change the entire land color/style to forest. Is there a way to do that?
Thanks in advance.
Comments
1. If there exists a drawing tool in the style you wish to change your landmass into, then right-click the change properties button, and select the "Change like draw tool" option. Now right click to get up the list of drawing tools, select one, then select your landmass, then right click and select "Do It".
2. Or, more simply, click the change properties button, select your landmass, right click and select do it, and select the new fill style/color from the dialog that appears. Note that if your landmass has an outline, you must be careful so that you don't select that one at the same time. Best way to do this is to exclude black entities by using the Not operator when you do the selection (See the editing chapter in the manual for more details about the selection process)
The one thing I can't seem to figure out is the commands. It seems like every time I click a tool it does something different! For exmaple, the change properties tool. I want to change the fill style of a sea. I click the tool, select the entitity and one type of screen comes up. If i do it again, using the exact same procedure, a different screen comes up. Or the sea turns white. It's pretty frustrating because I cannot figure out why the program behaves a different way when I click the same command.
I imagine once I get used to it, it will be okay but it's eating up a lot of my time trying to learn it and CC3 is NOT very user friendly.
objects turn white when selected then right click to "do it" you can click redraw after to see the result
I want to change the fill style and color of my seas.
I bring up SHEET: SEA and LAYER: COAST/SEA
I click the CHANGE PROPERTIES button.
The square selection cursor comes up.
I select the sea by clicking on its border.
The command line says: "1 Entity Selected"
I click do it.
A CHANGE PROPERTIES window comes up.
I select color (BLUE 55).
The sea turns blue.
I click the CHANGE PROPERTIES button again.
This time an ENTITY PROPERTIES menu comes up.
Why is it CHANGE PROPERTIES the first time and ENTITY PROPERTIES the second time?
Thanks agin.
If you don't hear from them here on the forum, try contacting ProFantasy directly with this issue. They are always very helpful in getting problems like this sorted out.
Technical Support
For example; now I want to outline my seas.
I click ONLINE IN CURRENT COLOR, and it outlines in one color. If I click REPEAT SLAT COMMAND on a different sea, it outlines in black or a different color. It just seems to do different things each time. I know its operator error, but it still escapes me why this happens.
Edit...and then, for example, if I want to change to OUTLINE IN BLACK, I follow the same procedure (except, of course, I select OUTLINE IN BLACK), but the sea remains outlined in the prior color. Another Edit...I see that you need to use "CHANGE OUTLINE COLOR," correct?
Now, to change for example the landmass. Right click the change properties button, and select "Change like draw tool". Right click to bring up the list of drawing tools. Now select the new landmass style you wish to use. Now, simply select all your landmasses, then right click and select do it. All the selected entities will change style to the new one.
Do note that by default, the Herwin Wielink template does not contain all the required bitmap fills, so you may need to import these first.
Simplest way to do this is to first create a new Jon Roberts map (Just start a new map, save it, you don't need to draw anything.)
Now, in your actual map, select insert file from the draw menu, then insert the file you just created above. Immediately after inserting it, select Undo (Ctrl+Z). This will undo the insertion, but the fill style definition will remain behind, allowing you to use the jon roberts fills in this map.
Another way of doing it is to copy all the entities (except the background and map border) to a new blank Jon Roberts map, the use the change like draw tool described earlier. This saves you from importing the fill styles, but the entities will see a little bit strange untill you have finished changing them, since this map does not contain the fill style from the Wielink map that your entities used.
I feel like I would be wasting your time if, every time you helped me, I posted another thank you. So please accept this post as a blanket thank you.
So things are working out, and here's my next question (I think this was alluded to in Sweeney's tutorial video)...
I want to have a large map of 200 miles by 200 miles. I would like it to be comprised of 100 smaller maps of 20 miles by 20 miles. Each of these I would like to be comprised of 100 smaller maps of 2 miles by 2 miles.
Don't worry; I'm not actually going to attempt to draw 201 maps. But what I'm after is varying levels of detail. My goal is to get a general area, then zoom down to the smallest level of detail (2 x 2) and start mapping a particular area. From there, I can work out over time from a particular spot.
So, my question is, can I do a bunch of small maps which I can link to each other? Or, is there another way of doing what I'm trying to do?
The best way of handling this is to draw an overview map, then extracting the interesting sections, one by one, and make them more detailed. The process for doing this is given a brief overview in the editing chapter of the CC3 manual (check under the Trace heading in the editing chapter), and a more thorough examination in both the Tome of Ultimate Mapping and one of the annual issues.
When it comes to linking, you can place hyperlinks in maps which can take you to other maps, so you can easily create a point and click atlas for example.
The general advice I would like to give is:
- Create one world/continent/main map
- Create regional maps for the interesting areas on this map. Make sure each regional map has a view that is properly centered to view the entire area. Also remember, there is really no need that all the regional maps depict an area of equal size. As long as you use the same scale, the maps are fully compatible, but it works fine if the large region A is depicted on a 20 by 40 mile map, while the smaller region b is depicted on a 15 by 10 mile map.
- Then, continue with this though, creating local maps from the areas of the regional maps that needs more detail, following the same guidelines as above. You may need to make some extra regional maps, not because the region is interesting, but because it contains areas you wish to have local maps of.
I'll refer you to this topic where this particular issue was also discussed.
(Edit: Don't let me stop you if you are really sure you want it this way, but I will advice you to think this through at least a couple of times before you go ahead)
But I think I have an idea on how to go from one large to several detailed local maps.
Say for example.
You have two nations, oposite sides of a continent. You want adventurers, and merchants, going back and forth. But the resulting detailed maps would be in the thousands.
Instead of detailing all of the continent between those two nations, make strip maps. One for each of the main trading routes, and one for each of the bad guys' paths for getting between the nations. Say 5-7 paths between these two nations.
Results, just a few detailed maps, instead of thousands of them.