Were to get real Earth coastlines and rivers for editing in CC3+?

Hello, I'm just starting on this, but I bought the programs just for the purpose of making an alternate Earth setting, so I need the coastlines, rivers and lakes of the existing Earth.
I understand there are already completed maps for this sort of thing. Where can I find them?
Thanks,
Sean

Comments

  • In this issue of the Cartographer's Annual volume for 2012, I think. Oddly, this subject came up in another PF Forum topic just a week ago! Great minds, and all that...
  • Thanks! I've been getting really frustrated in this process of trying to make it.

    Is it possible to make those maps look like the Mike Schley templates?
  • If you have that Cartographer's Annual volume for 2012 installed on your computer, you can find a whole series of coastal outline sample maps already prepared in CC3+ format (as .FCW files) that come with it. When you open one of those in CC3+, it is already set by default to work with the Mike Schley overland template, so all you have to do is use the CC3+ tools to draw in exactly what terrain types you need and where (as fills, lines and/or symbols). So essentially, yes you can make such an outline look like a typical Mike Schley style map with a little work.

    As the PDF mapping guide for that issue of the Annual describes, if you also have the Fractal Terrains ProFantasy program (FT), you can convert various types of real-world map data available online into FT formats using FT, and then export them as something you can work with in CC3+. In essence, this is how those outline FCW file maps that come with this issue of the Annual were generated - specifically for people who don't own FT.
  • edited November 2018
    Thanks, Wyvern. I do have FT3, so what I have done so far is:
    1) Import hi-resolution data this link: https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/relief/ETOPO1/data/ice_surface/cell_registered/binary/
    2) I use that to generate the world in FT3
    3) I zoomed in to view just Europe, North Africa and Western Asia and set the projection to Hammer.
    4) I exported that to CCW3+ as a single file, just coastlines
    5) I opened that new map in CCW3+
    6) I used the Info > Distance tool to measure the map top to bottom and left to right.
    7) I opened a new instance of CCW3 and created a new map based on the Mike Schley template and set the size to the same dimensions.
    8) Back to the 1st map, I used the copy button > right click to choose copy to clipboard option
    9) Back to the new map, I clicked paste and then tried to line up the ghosty outlines of the old map into the box of the new map.

    It seems to have mostly worked. The scale seems correct and the water sections are the same as from the Mike Schley template, but the landmasses are still the same bright green as the original.

    How do I fix that? Do I have to retrace the entire world?
    Thanks!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    Haven't got the annual... never done anything like this before... but...

    If this is a CC3 map that bright green will be a polygon on a sheet somewhere, even if its just the background and a map-sized rectangle.

    First step is to find out which sheet its on by hiding all the sheets and revealing each one in turn till you get the green. Having isolated that sheet hide all the other sheets so that you can select all the green polys without catching anything else by mistake. Then use the change properties button to change the fill of those polys to your chosen land fill.
  • I suggest working through any tutorials you find. That will help you learn the software as it does have a learning curve.
  • 12 days later
  • I usually change properties on the edge of the landscape, then change the fill or colour. Changing the fill sometimes adds in a bunch of other lines, so often you have to just change the colour. You can get really nice results using the trace tool, while all the time improving the range of curse words you use during a given session. But it's worth it :). I usually do a trace of the landscape, and then a trace of the seas and such.

    Thanks for the link!
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