Just got Annual vol. 4, symbol weirdness

So, as the title suggests, I just picked up the 2010 Annual (volume 4). The main reason I wanted it was for the "Modern Political" style, which is what I've been trying to work with since downloading it.

Now, this is being installed with a CC3 install that is itself only a few days old. Built a new computer a couple months ago, and only just recently got around to putting CC3 on it. So it's JUST CC3 and the Annual. Opened it up and started playing with the Modern Political style, and something really weird is going on. First off, the Scale Bar and Compass Rose look like this:


Those are obviously not right... I'd presume that if anything, they came from Cosmographer (since they look sci-fi and the scale is in light years). But I've never had Cos on this computer. Further, I opened the "example map 1" that came with the style, which did give me the proper compass rose, which I was then able to access by clicking the "Symbols in Drawing" button for use in a blank map. It showed up correctly... in the menu. i.e. it looks like it's supposed to here, in the menu:


but when I click it and try to use it, it goes back to the Cosmographer looking symbol:


I must admit that Symbol Catalogs and everything about them still confuse the hell out of me. =/ I don't know why, but for some reason, I just cannot get my head around that whole aspect of the program. Not actually using symbols, placing them on the map and manipulating them, etc. That's all fine. I mean Symbol Catalogs, organizing them, changing their properties, etc... that kind of thing, just makes my head spin. So just in case the solution has something to do with any of that, it might require some detailed explanations for me to be able to implement it.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any assistance!

Comments

  • Updating since a bit of time has passed. I tried looking at the options for redefining/editing symbols... I thought that perhaps the "Replace Symbol" command or something else in the Symbol Manager might help, but that didn't lead anywhere, since the only option that I could tell for replacing or "redefining" a symbol was to pick another symbol from within the same set to use as the "new" symbol definition. Since the correct Modern Political Compass Rose is absent from the list in the Symbol Manager, I can't do so.
  • RalfRalf Administrator, ProFantasy 🖼️ 18 images Mapmaker
    At first I was very confused because I checked my own Modern Political template, and it did have the correct compass rose and scale bar. But then I checked the installation files for the Annual Vol 4 and indeed - an in progress version of the template seems to have ended up in there.

    I've attached the correct version of the template to this post. Save it in CC3/Templates/Overland Maps/Wizard, overwriting the old version. I'll also be fixing the installation shortly.

    To fix a map in progress, first delete the current definition of the symbols via the Symbol Manager, then add the correct versions from the symbol catalog.
  • Thanks Ralf!

    Kind of glad to know it's not just something unique to my copy of the Annual, heh. I'll download and and save the templates when I get home this evening.

    Fortunately, all I've done so far since downloading the Annual is create a couple of test maps as part of the process of learning how to use the style, which I am perfectly happy to just junk and save myself the trouble of that extra step to fix them.
  • Afraid I found another, similar problem >_<

    My mountain contours are all... ugly looking. They just don't look right at all compared to what they look like in the example maps.

    The ones I have:




    The example maps:


    Could this be a similar issue to the symbol problem, i.e. the wrong files somehow made it into the installer?
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    Looks like a fill scaling difference. Try to adjust the scale of the fill style in your map by going to the fill style dialog, switch to the "bitmap files" tab, then find the correct fill styles in the list, make sure "scaled" is checked for these fill styles, and try to increase the width/height values to get a good visual look for your map.
  • That did it! Thanks as always Monsen. =)

    The mountain and hill contours now look like those in the example maps. What I did was follow your suggestion by simply matching the values in my test map to those in sample map 1 (which were 50).

    One thing I noticed, though: the test map I've been working with was 400x300, and it's default values for those contour bitmaps was 5. Changing it to 50 made them look right. However, on a 1000x800 map, the default values were set at 12.5, and changing them to 50 made them look better, but still a little odd. So I gather that the exact values you'd want would vary based on the total size of the map.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    Yes, the values you want do depend on the size of the map. This is because the scaling is measured in map units, and a large map simply have more of these. So if a pattern is set up with scaling 10 on a 100x100 map, it means that the entire pattern will take up one tenth of the width of the map before it starts repeating, while on a 1000x1000 map the same patter would only take up one hundredth of a map before it starts repeating, so if you view the map using zoom extends, you will see an extremely noticeable difference. (The values of 1/10th and 1/100th are not necessary correct, since fill style resolutions also factor in, but you usually don't need to worry about those.)
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