Creating multiple maps with a common base (layer or layers?)
Here's my situation:
I am working on a world map. That map has multiple variations I will want to produce:
1. Continental Simple Geographic (no labels, no specific additional data or drill down maps, just the broad physical geography)
2. Regional Simple Geographic
3. World Simple Geographic
4. Possibly temperature/rainfall maps
5. Possibly an elevation map (or maps)
6. Continental Political Maps
7. Regional Political Maps
8. Continental Sentient Geography Maps (showing cities, populations centers of various species/tribes/key creatures)
9. Interconnection Maps (Continental and Regional) (showing road networks, tradeways, common maritime trade routes, etc)
10. Possibly a map of magical ley lines/magic density (World/Continental/Regional)
11. Overlay map showing relative sizes of real world continents to those on my world
That sounds like a lot of mapping and I have some of it done on paper (and some notionally in my head ready to go to paper) but all of it (except for some scanned images) has yet to make it into the mapping program (CC3).
I'm looking for a strategic approach involving reuse that will enable subsequent maps to be created after the basic geographic map with less effort than that will take.
I suspect there are some common things (like coastline, water areas, perhaps mountain ranges and gross geographic features) that will appear on or underlie all of these maps.
So, I can conceive of several approaches:
1. Save a map with the very most basic stuff on it (coastline, water, gross physical features) and use it as a basis for the other maps
Cons: If I branch maps off this base map then need a base map edit, that won't migrate to the previously branched maps.
Pros: I know this can be done
2. Try to do all of this stuff as layers on one map or drill down maps from inside that single 'interactive atlas'. This would involve either a lot of layers and/or drill down maps with layers (which I believe live in separate files)
Cons: With the number of continents, entities, submaps, layers, etc, that I am planning, I'm not sure the 8 Gb on my machine (or whatever limit of memory FastCAD has) will result in either a memory overload or such dismal performance the thing isn't usable (making this basic approach a bad idea)
Pros: Changes to any layer here should become part of any exported imagery (for printed maps or map image files) because there is one set of data (not multiple) (albeit I'm not sure of how true this is once linked submaps are involved)
3. Create the basic map (coastline, water, gross physical geography) as part of making one of the more complex maps but have these items in individual specific layers. Then use some sort of export to export a layer set or to create a map from that more complex map that only includes the layers I want.
Cons: I have no idea if you can export and import layers/layersets
Pros: If you can do export/import of layers, that might allow multiple maps to be made consistent and updateable (by reimporting a layer if need be) without producing a single massively resource consuming bloated master map (interactive atlas)
The idea is to share the gross physical geography so the maps all look like they cover the same continents and regions. The question is what is the best and most prudent strategy in my situation to achieving this result and doing so with an eye to updates/fixes/etc needing to propagate without brutal effort to any maps beyond the main map.
Of the above 3 options, I'm not sure which is possible (I don't know if you can export/import layer sets for instance) or the best strategy. I'd be interested in thoughts from anyone who has tried larger projects with inter-related maps.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
I am working on a world map. That map has multiple variations I will want to produce:
1. Continental Simple Geographic (no labels, no specific additional data or drill down maps, just the broad physical geography)
2. Regional Simple Geographic
3. World Simple Geographic
4. Possibly temperature/rainfall maps
5. Possibly an elevation map (or maps)
6. Continental Political Maps
7. Regional Political Maps
8. Continental Sentient Geography Maps (showing cities, populations centers of various species/tribes/key creatures)
9. Interconnection Maps (Continental and Regional) (showing road networks, tradeways, common maritime trade routes, etc)
10. Possibly a map of magical ley lines/magic density (World/Continental/Regional)
11. Overlay map showing relative sizes of real world continents to those on my world
That sounds like a lot of mapping and I have some of it done on paper (and some notionally in my head ready to go to paper) but all of it (except for some scanned images) has yet to make it into the mapping program (CC3).
I'm looking for a strategic approach involving reuse that will enable subsequent maps to be created after the basic geographic map with less effort than that will take.
I suspect there are some common things (like coastline, water areas, perhaps mountain ranges and gross geographic features) that will appear on or underlie all of these maps.
So, I can conceive of several approaches:
1. Save a map with the very most basic stuff on it (coastline, water, gross physical features) and use it as a basis for the other maps
Cons: If I branch maps off this base map then need a base map edit, that won't migrate to the previously branched maps.
Pros: I know this can be done
2. Try to do all of this stuff as layers on one map or drill down maps from inside that single 'interactive atlas'. This would involve either a lot of layers and/or drill down maps with layers (which I believe live in separate files)
Cons: With the number of continents, entities, submaps, layers, etc, that I am planning, I'm not sure the 8 Gb on my machine (or whatever limit of memory FastCAD has) will result in either a memory overload or such dismal performance the thing isn't usable (making this basic approach a bad idea)
Pros: Changes to any layer here should become part of any exported imagery (for printed maps or map image files) because there is one set of data (not multiple) (albeit I'm not sure of how true this is once linked submaps are involved)
3. Create the basic map (coastline, water, gross physical geography) as part of making one of the more complex maps but have these items in individual specific layers. Then use some sort of export to export a layer set or to create a map from that more complex map that only includes the layers I want.
Cons: I have no idea if you can export and import layers/layersets
Pros: If you can do export/import of layers, that might allow multiple maps to be made consistent and updateable (by reimporting a layer if need be) without producing a single massively resource consuming bloated master map (interactive atlas)
The idea is to share the gross physical geography so the maps all look like they cover the same continents and regions. The question is what is the best and most prudent strategy in my situation to achieving this result and doing so with an eye to updates/fixes/etc needing to propagate without brutal effort to any maps beyond the main map.
Of the above 3 options, I'm not sure which is possible (I don't know if you can export/import layer sets for instance) or the best strategy. I'd be interested in thoughts from anyone who has tried larger projects with inter-related maps.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Comments
1. Created 2 hemispheres in FT3.
2. import them into CC3 for editing. Decide where major countries are located on each map. Name islands and continents.
3. Do several exports of rectangular pngs so I can create region maps. Import the pngs into CC3. Add smaller countries, rivers, lakes, smaller mountain areas. Some larger forests.
4. Do more rectangular png exports to detail areas around dungeons/adventure areas.
5. Import in to CC3 and draw detail towns, roads to dungeon/adventure areas, towns/cities.
I have a set of folders under CC3, and now under CC3+, in the same way as my web site.
So Crestar, under there is a folder for nothern and one for southern hemisphere. Under those are country folders. Under the country folders are folders for each town, city, adventure/dungeon area I'm making detail maps for.
And under those I have two folders: done and variations.
The ones I am uploading to my web host are under done. The various versions are under variations.
When you make a map in CC3, things will generally go to different sheets (and layers), so it is easy to grab just the land sheet from one map, and insert it into another map. This allows you to finish up your geographic map, and then just bring over the relevant sheets. You will typically do this by either copy/paste from one m,ap to another, or just make a copy of the map file itself, open it up, and delete everything on the sheets you don't want.
Also, when making world -> regional -> local maps, always make this as separate map files. You can copy the continental outline from your world map to your regional maps, cut out the parts you don't need, and enhance the detail of it by applying additional fractalization to the coastline (and other features)
Edit: Ninja'ed by JimP
Anyway. kaladorn, if any of that is confusing, just ask and I'll elaborate.
My only issue with Jim's method is I'm starting from an existing paper map. I wasn't planning to model that in FT3 (as I don't have it and can't imagine how much effort replicating the existing map in a fractal environment might be... I suspect a lot).
Momsen:
You are suggesting make my main geographic map with lots of layers, then use that as a basis for others (such as weather, political, etc) but copying the map file then removing unnecessary layers and adding any new ones? That seems viable.
I wasn't sure if I could export a layer (like the base/background layer with the coastlines) and then import it into and empty file, but your method seems fairly good.
It still might be nice to know if it was possible to export/import the layer though for this case:
a) Make a first map with many layers (call it Map A)
b) Make a copy and then edit the layers for the purpose of the second Map adding new ones (call this map
c) When wanting to create Map C, I can also start with A or B, but it may happen that there are unique layers in each I'd like in Map C.... so here there is the issue of whether I can import a layer exported from another map.
(Assumption I am making: All of these maps are same scale/resolution/aspect ratio to make layer import, if possible, non-problematic)
So, do we know if it is possible to (by cut n paste or by explicit export/import) move a layer from map to map?
(I didn't quite get from Momsen's answer whether this was feasible...
I'll also heed the suggestion about how to deal with the sub-maps, though another question occurs:
I have a continental map (let's say 3500 mi x 3500 mi or 3500 px by 3500 px if that's more useful).
I want to make a 500 mi x 500 mi (or 500 px x 500 px) regional map.
In a high level description sense, how do I achieve this?
If I take the continental map and chop out unnecessary bits except the 500x500 chunk I want, my mapfile is still 3500 x 3500.
If I create the new map as 500 x 500, I'm imagining importing a layer from a 3500x3500 map to get the part I want might have issues.
Is this where a rectangular export would make sense? (Export a 500x500 section of the continental map?)
And not having done this yet, if I export from a 3500x3500 map with layers A thru F and the export is a 500x500 section, do I get a map file 500x500 with layers A thru F clipped to that area? (I'd think so, but want to be sure).
Thanks for the advice peeps.
I'm also curious how people do style changes (like the recent Red Hand Barony maps) - do you have to remap or can you just say "use equivalent icons from this icon pack' and have the visual remap just happen? I ask because it seems conceptually like that ought to be possible.
For style changes, most people would redraw the map because a style is not just about symbols and colors. One style may have a completely different way of illustrating mountains for example, which cannot be handled by a quick 'search and replace' like command. It is possible to change a maps style without redrawing the map, but it does involve a bit of work, depending on the source and target styles.
2) scan it to png or bmp
3) import into CC3, into a template of the same miles in X and Y dimensions. Continue on with the other steps I mention above.