Two questions: Purpose of certain layers and impact of hidden entities
Question 1: So I have a large number of layers In my map, and today I was going through and doing a bit of pruning.
I noticed several layers whose purpose I can't discern. I checked by creating new maps in both the Default CC3 style and the Modern Political style (the June 2010 Annual). All of the following layers are already present in the list of layers when a new map is started:
"Merge"
"Standard"
"Symbol Definition"
"Template"
When I hide/freeze all other layers and use a function that will allow me to select all the entities in the entire map (e.g. Erase or Move), there is nothing to select on any of these layers with the exception of "Template", which has 16 non-visible entities in a brand new map in the Default CC3 style, and 25 non-visible entities in my Modern Political map.
I have noticed that when I hide and freeze all layers, effects won't turn on, and by process of elimination I determined that "Merge" needs to be visible for effects to actually work. So that's what THAT layer does, apparently,
Can anyone tell me what the rest of the above are actually for? Are they important to keep around?
Question 2: I'm experimenting with some MAJOR changes to the main landmasses and political borders in my map. I'm re-drawing several entities from scratch, but I don't want to completely delete the old versions of those entities, in case I need to reference or copy something later. So my question is how will this impact CC3s performance?
Among the entities I wish to preserve are the coast (a closed path) and land (a filled polygon) of the main landmass, which is almost 2000 km long. Needless to say, these are HUGE entities (this is one of the reasons I'm experimenting; tracing the coastline has become impossible). The "old" versions of the coast and landmass (and the old political borders, too) would all be kept in their own layers, and would be hidden and frozen the vast majority of the time (unless I needed them for something). So that's basically the question: would having all these big entities just hanging around hidden and frozen in their own layers have any impact on performance? Or are they irrelevant unless they're actually visible in the map?
For that matter, I know that the number of sheets can impact rendering capability, but can the number of layers have any impact on rendering or performance? Or is clutter for the user the only reason to worry about having lots of layers?
Thanks in advance!
I noticed several layers whose purpose I can't discern. I checked by creating new maps in both the Default CC3 style and the Modern Political style (the June 2010 Annual). All of the following layers are already present in the list of layers when a new map is started:
"Merge"
"Standard"
"Symbol Definition"
"Template"
When I hide/freeze all other layers and use a function that will allow me to select all the entities in the entire map (e.g. Erase or Move), there is nothing to select on any of these layers with the exception of "Template", which has 16 non-visible entities in a brand new map in the Default CC3 style, and 25 non-visible entities in my Modern Political map.
I have noticed that when I hide and freeze all layers, effects won't turn on, and by process of elimination I determined that "Merge" needs to be visible for effects to actually work. So that's what THAT layer does, apparently,
Can anyone tell me what the rest of the above are actually for? Are they important to keep around?
Question 2: I'm experimenting with some MAJOR changes to the main landmasses and political borders in my map. I'm re-drawing several entities from scratch, but I don't want to completely delete the old versions of those entities, in case I need to reference or copy something later. So my question is how will this impact CC3s performance?
Among the entities I wish to preserve are the coast (a closed path) and land (a filled polygon) of the main landmass, which is almost 2000 km long. Needless to say, these are HUGE entities (this is one of the reasons I'm experimenting; tracing the coastline has become impossible). The "old" versions of the coast and landmass (and the old political borders, too) would all be kept in their own layers, and would be hidden and frozen the vast majority of the time (unless I needed them for something). So that's basically the question: would having all these big entities just hanging around hidden and frozen in their own layers have any impact on performance? Or are they irrelevant unless they're actually visible in the map?
For that matter, I know that the number of sheets can impact rendering capability, but can the number of layers have any impact on rendering or performance? Or is clutter for the user the only reason to worry about having lots of layers?
Thanks in advance!
Comments
The Merge layer is vital to sheet effects so it's better to keep it visible (and to keep it present too!).
The Template layer is usually storing dots(points) to avoid sheet disparition (a sheet disappears on saving if it has no entity on it) and is usually hidden.
I'm not sure for the other two.
Landmasses with a lot of nodes can sometimes speed down CC3.
Why don't you save you file as a new one and keep the old for reference? If you need an entity from the old map you can still use the Clipboard copy/paste to get this entity to the new map.
You just have to take care not to change the origin nor the scale and the entity will be at exactly the same place.
Well, not exactly, its rather the number of sheet effects used.
A map with 20 sheets with no effects renders quickly.
A map with 5 sheets with 3 effects each will be slower in render.
Re: storing the stuff on another map for future copying - "be sure not to change the origin" - sorry, I don't really understand this (to be honest I don't really understand the purpose or functionality of "Clipboard origin" when using the copy command in the first place). Keeping the old entities around in an entirely separate map WOULD be a fine solution if I could indeed get the copies to be in the same spot when copying and then pasting, to avoid having to try and precisely line them up manually which doesn't always work so well.
Still, I've noticed that when the layer "Minerals/Mountains" (which has TONS of smooth polygons for contours) is hidden, the program responds more quickly with zooms and redrawing. So this may be an answer to my question, that even if there are a bunch of entities, or really complex entities, on a layer, it doesn't really impact the program's performance or capabilities in any way as long as that layer is hidden? That's what seems to be the case, I just wanted to see if anyone could confirm that that is indeed correct.
I find using 0,0 the easier but you could as easily specify a clipboard origine of 100,50 and when you paste in the second map, just type again 100,50 when the prompt asks for Place....
I have also used an entity node with the Endpoint modifier (F5) when I was not sure of the origins (0,0 points) of both maps, especially with dungeon work.
I use the modifier on a given entity to specify the clipboard origine then the modifier of the corresponding entity to place the copy on the second map.
Hope it's clear, if not, I'll try to post a picture.
I have sometimes had to do that as the import somehow shifted away from that location. Not in several years though.