I think most of us can relate to your frustration. We've all been at the starting end of the Campaign Cartographer Learning Curve™.
There's a lot of good advice above. If I may, I'd like to add that, while video tutorial videos are good, I strongly encourage you to follow the tutorials in the CC3 Essentials guide first. The tutorials are short, fun, and very informative. There are also Essentials guides for each add-on (DD3, CD3, Cosmographer, CA3, and Perspectives 3), but you'll want to start with CC3+ even if you don't plan to do much overland mapping. It contains a lot of software basics that the other guides build on. After that, consider working your way to the User Manual, video tutorials, and, if you can get it, The Tome of Ultimate Mapping. If you have questions as you go, please don't hesitate to come here and ask them.
The The Essentials guides are just that — short, informative overviews of the most common and important parts of CC3+ and the add-ons. Just as importantly, they point out some of the more unfamiliar ways you use the tools, especially if you're used to traditional "paint" programs or even other CAD software. The map tutorial part of the CC3+ Essentials guide starts around p. 14 but I recommend reading through the whole thing — it's a fairly small document but it packs in a lot of good information.
If you got the physical CD/DVD, a printed copy should have been included in the disc case but even if you don't have a disc, a typical CC3+ installation has electronic (PDF) versions in the \ProFantasy\CC3\Documentation folder, where the default location for is C:\ProgramData. Also, the CC3 User Manual might be installed there as well. If not, you can download PDF copies of both documents from your registration page.
One thing to note is that the CC3+ Essentials guide was written for CC3 but everything in there applies to CC3+. Some button images might be a little different but they are similar enough that it should not be an issue. The CC3+ User Manual and the Tome were written specifically for CC3+ and they explain things in more detail. Also, you can open the CC3+ User Manual from the Help menu in CC3+.
Another good resource is the Interesting, Important, and Helpful Topics discussion. It's a "sticky" topic that always sits at the top of the forum discussion list. And, of course, the forum here is very active and filled with friendly, helpful folks (as evidenced here). The community is typically happy to share what we've learned, or point folks in a helpful direction.
Comments
Welcome to CC3+ and the ProFantasy forums.
I think most of us can relate to your frustration. We've all been at the starting end of the Campaign Cartographer Learning Curve™.
There's a lot of good advice above. If I may, I'd like to add that, while video tutorial videos are good, I strongly encourage you to follow the tutorials in the CC3 Essentials guide first. The tutorials are short, fun, and very informative. There are also Essentials guides for each add-on (DD3, CD3, Cosmographer, CA3, and Perspectives 3), but you'll want to start with CC3+ even if you don't plan to do much overland mapping. It contains a lot of software basics that the other guides build on. After that, consider working your way to the User Manual, video tutorials, and, if you can get it, The Tome of Ultimate Mapping. If you have questions as you go, please don't hesitate to come here and ask them.
The The Essentials guides are just that — short, informative overviews of the most common and important parts of CC3+ and the add-ons. Just as importantly, they point out some of the more unfamiliar ways you use the tools, especially if you're used to traditional "paint" programs or even other CAD software. The map tutorial part of the CC3+ Essentials guide starts around p. 14 but I recommend reading through the whole thing — it's a fairly small document but it packs in a lot of good information.
If you got the physical CD/DVD, a printed copy should have been included in the disc case but even if you don't have a disc, a typical CC3+ installation has electronic (PDF) versions in the \ProFantasy\CC3\Documentation folder, where the default location for is C:\ProgramData. Also, the CC3 User Manual might be installed there as well. If not, you can download PDF copies of both documents from your registration page.
One thing to note is that the CC3+ Essentials guide was written for CC3 but everything in there applies to CC3+. Some button images might be a little different but they are similar enough that it should not be an issue. The CC3+ User Manual and the Tome were written specifically for CC3+ and they explain things in more detail. Also, you can open the CC3+ User Manual from the Help menu in CC3+.
Another good resource is the Interesting, Important, and Helpful Topics discussion. It's a "sticky" topic that always sits at the top of the forum discussion list. And, of course, the forum here is very active and filled with friendly, helpful folks (as evidenced here). The community is typically happy to share what we've learned, or point folks in a helpful direction.
Cheers and happy mapping!
~Dogtag