Mapping a RL School

Some friends and I came up with the idea of creating a stylized map of our school for our headmaster's retirement (He is a former history teacher and renowned Tolkien buff). I have some experience with the profantasy suite from DMing campaigns for our D&D group, but have never attempted to recreate a real life location before.

Our school is in a rural area, and is composed of about 20 portable-style buildings, plus a couple of larger custom structures. We have a very clear overhead picture courtesy of google maps that we'd like to use as a template.

Questions
1. What program - city designer or dungeon designer - would be best for this sort of thing?
2. Is it possible to import the google maps jpg and 'overlay' our map on top of it to ensure accuracy?
3. Are there any tutorials you'd recommend?
4. Are there any symbol sets or downloadable styles you'd suggest?

Thanks in advance for your help and recommendations!

Comments

  • Any help out there? Even a suggestion as to how to use the google earth image as a template to create a map would be hugely helpful!
  • edited August 2014
    What you should do is import the map you have as a sheet that use as a template. Start it near the top of the list & slowly move it down as you work each sheet. For instance you can trace the outlines of the buildings as desired. Once complete you can hide the template sheet or remove it all together. I used that technique to get the coastal outlines, rivers, mountainous areas, political boundaries, & cities for this map.
  • RalfRalf Administrator, ProFantasy 🖼️ 18 images Mapmaker
    1. I'd suggest a City Designer template for this scale of map (a layout of multiple buidlings).
    2. You need to save the image as a PNG file (any current image editing program can convert jpgs to pngs). Then create a new sheet in your maps as Sven mentions, and use Draw > Insert file to place the PNG on that sheet.
    3./4. Do you have this year's Annual? The "Achtung Cthulhu" (January) mapping guide contains instruction on how to import a Google map and use it as a drawing guide.
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    Also, Symbol Set 3 is modern symbols, so you may want to check it out.

    ~Dogtag
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