Using trace on coastline
I've got a problem using the trace function. I'm trying to create a new entity over a portion of my land mass by tracing the coastline. However, when I trace the entity it doesn't follow the coastline exactly, it only traces a handful of nodes along the coastline. I've attached a screenshot showing the problem.
Comments
However, using polygon, rather than smooth polygon, will help.
I generally prefer to duplicate the entity rather than using trace... The I use explode, node edit etc...
I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the number of nodes in my coastline, which was sketched and has a few thousand nodes. It's almost as if the trace function has a minimum distance between nodes and mine are too close together.
I think I may have to go the duplication route, although since I want to trace areas that are much smaller then the entire continent I don't think it is ideal.
Now if you have a lot of duplicates to make, I agree that it's time consumming.
My suspicion with trace is that it has a hardwired minimum node resolution, and anything higher than that resolution causes it to skip nodes....although just a guess.
If I were working on a new city, I would save as cityname01_001 Which means cityname version 1, map 001. I have gotten out to map 120, and decided to start over. So I went with cityname01b_001, etc.
That has prevented me from hair pulling more than once.
I had too many smooth polys in my map. In addition, my coastline was a smooth poly which evidently doesn't work so well when you try to trace it. In other words - the trace function does not work as intended when tracing a smooth poly. I went back and tested this with a small polygon shape and confirmed.