Creating an island in a lake

Hi everyone, I'm pretty new to this program, and I'm sure there's already a topic somewhere explaining how to do this already, but I thought it would probably be easier to just ask again than to search for that topic (sorry).
I was trying to create an island with rivers and lakes, and one of those lakes si supposed to have a smaller island in it as well. I tried creating a new "Land" type, but I just ended up messing everything up, and now all the land I draw is dark blue instead of green... Anyway, is there a simple way to create land that's above the lake layer, but beneath the mountains and rivers layer?
And while I'm at it, how do I know which layer is supposed to be in front of which? like, is the mountain layer in front of vegetation or is it the other way around? And how do I change that?
I hope I'm clear, if not please tell me and I'll try to explain better.

Thanks :)

Comments

  • Well, I think the first thing that might help, is to establish between the sheets and the layers. Sheets are what you work off from, the layers group objects together. If you look up at your main bar across the top, the sheets bar is on the left. the Layers bar is on the right. Sheets you can move up or down according to how you want the map drawn, layers are in alphabetical order, and do not change. Sheets create the effects, layers do not.

    Second thing. This is one of the most important things to remember. Items are drawn on your map according to how the Sheets are ordered. From the top down, the top being drawn first, then the next sheet on top of that, then the next on top of that, etc. so it's always best to draw land mass first, then your mountains/hills, then lakes and rivers, and so on. But if you, say... want terrain fills, or contures to blend into the back ground, but you drew them last... you just move them up the list until they are where you want.

    Now, I'm fairly new to this program myself, but I would think if you want to draw an island that's in an existing lake, you should create a new sheet, just for that...labeled soemthing like land, inlake... make sure the land is first in your labeling, so your drawing tools can find it. Then make sure that sheet is BELOW your river/lake sheet.

    If I'm wrong about this... I'm sure someone here, more experienced than I, will let you know. :)
  • Yes. Create a new sheet and put the lake on it.

    Sheets list

    sea
    land
    lake

    In that order, any other sheets left out for clarity.
  • I just made a really quick land mass with a lake, and an island in the middle. I'm posting the .fcw so you can see what I've done. Open it up in your cc3+, and you will be able to see it. Notice I've made both a sheet, and a layer labeled land inlake. To get your island on the land inlake layer, what you will need to do, is go into SHEETS and hide everything but the island once you've drawn it. You do that by clicking on the second box on each sheet EXCEPT your land inlake sheet. Then go down to the left side toolbars, to the copy tool, right click, copy to layer, right click, do it, then choose the land, inlake layer that you added. Then unhide everything.

    I hope this helps you!
  • Thank you for such a quick response! I guess i got mixed up between sheet and layer (ugh), thanks for the help! :) Customer service 10/10 :p
  • oh, we don't actually work here, we are fellow profantasy users, just like you ;)
  • I know it was a joke :p
    If I may, I have another small problem and don't really feel like opening another topic about it, but I installed CC3+ on 2 computers, and I noticed that I don't have the same content on both computers. For example, on one of them, I have more sheets than the other: "Symbol" regroups "mountains", "vegetation", and several more sheets. Also, I don't have the same farmland style. Those are just a couple of differences I noticed, there are probably a lot more :/
  • There are only three things that I can think of that you might need to look at.

    First, check to make sure you have the newest version on both computers. I believe that if you open cc3+, then click on about above the main bar, that will tell you which version you have. I believe the newest one is 3.70, but I could be wrong.

    Second, make sure you have I stalled the newest update on both, that would be update 4a.

    You might also need to do a repair install.

    Beyond that, you will need to have one of the more knowledgeable people here to help:)
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    Did you start the maps from the same template on both computers when you observed this? Sheets, drawing tool styles, bitmap fills, etc are all defined by the current template, they are not global.
  • Yes, everything has to be indentical. The same symbols and bitmap fills have to be on both computers in the same path. That bit me when I installed back on my Win 8.1 laptop.
  • (Sorry I was away for a few days)
    So, I checked, I do have the same symbols and backgrounds and everything on both computers. I'm pretty sure at one point i didn't have the same sheets, but now I do, although I don't know what changed haha.
    thanks for your help :)
  • You do know that you can add or remove sheets as you need to, don't you? And that what sheets you have will depend on the type of map you are creating?
  • Well for the moment (I think) I've always been creating the same kind of map, so I didn't expect anything to change. Must have done something differently at one point though haha. It doesn't matter, everything is working okay now :)
  • 3 years later
  • I've been trying to follow the advice in this post to create an island in a lake, but I'm finding a different problem. The Mike Schley template has a dark outline around all land masses, but the outline around my island disappears when I redraw. I drew the island using default land mass on a "land island" sheet, which is below the rivers and lakes sheet in the sheets list. Maybe I can live without the outline, but I'd prefer that it would look like any other island or land mass. Any thoughts?
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    It may be the order of your sheets, Neusys. Open the Sheets and Effects dialog (shown above) and check that the COASTLINE sheet is listed below the one with the island drawn on it. This should make it visible again.
  • Hi neusys. The Mike Schley default landmass creates entities on two separate sheets when it creates land polygons, one on the LAND Sheet, the other (your problematic blue outline) on the COASTLINE Sheet. Both will need to be lower on the Sheets list than whatever Sheet your lake surface is drawn on (probably RIVERS ?) to remain visible. ["Lower" on the Sheets list means closer to the MAP BORDER Sheet and further from the COMMON Sheet on that list incidentally.]

    Alternatively, as you've already created a new LAND ISLAND sheet, you could simply create another new Sheet - say LAND ISLAND COAST - for the blue coast outline to go onto as well. It will need to be lower on the Sheets list than your LAND ISLAND Sheet to look right. If you're happy with the look of your island, you can simply move the island and its coastline to these new Sheets using the Change Properties command as normal, to save redrawing them.

    You'll also need to add the relevant Sheet effects to your new LAND ISLAND and LAND ISLAND COAST Sheets to get the islands to match up completely with the ordinary land masses, once the Sheet Effects are turned on, (and if you haven't already done so for the LAND ISLAND Sheet).
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