The Fourteenth "Best of CC2 Mail List" Archive

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Re: [CC-L] Bitmap files

Date: 7/18/99 8:26:38 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: IRONWULF1

Pdesrui writes:

When you are using the bitmap files, as a fill, how do you make it permanent? If I choose another bitmap it changes all the previous ones.

You have to choose Fill Style Name, New, and input a name for the new fill style, choose the bitmap by clicking the find button, then click ok. Then save your map or template. Hope this helps.

From Jerry Mulholland

Try using the pic command instead of the bitmap fills it is a much better command for working with bitmaps.

Re: [CC-L] Flipping

Date: 7/22/99 12:05:05 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Mike Schmitz

At 01:16 PM 7/22/99 -0400, you wrote:

>So, how do I flip stuff? (such as a copy of a line or a poly -- I want to build up some symmetric stuff) The scale command just accepts a single value.

The mirror command will help you out here. It's under the edit menu, or just type MIRROR at the command line. For a 'flip' in either the horizontal or vertical plane, click the ORTHO and CSRSNAP buttons at the bottom. Then select your entity, Do It, then click a point beside the entity and draw a vertical or horizontal line (depending on how you want it flipped).

Re: [CC-L] Flipping

Date: 7/23/99 12:20:08 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: L. Lee Saunders

>So, how do I flip other stuff? (such as a copy of a line or a poly -- I want to build up some symmetric stuff) The scale command just accepts a single value.

Copy > Mirrored Copies.

First you select an entity(s), then you are asked to draw a 'Mirror Line'. The new entity is exactly mirrored on the other side of that temporary line. BTW it is also the same distance away from the temporary mirror line.

If you want to flip horz. or vert. or diagonally, draw a true square around the entity first - that way when you need to draw the mirror lines you can turn on the attach mode and attach to the nodes of the box. 2 top/bottom nodes for horz, 2 left/right nodes for vert and on top left/right node and the opposite bottom left/right node for diagonal copy.

Re: [CC-L] Map Help

Date: 7/23/99 10:11:46 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Breeze

Jon Compton wrote:

> Is there an easy way to break a large global map into smaller sections, like countries?>

Here is one method for doing this. This method has the advantage that both the scale and the origin are maintained throughout your maps.

STEP 1: Open the map that you want a part of. Open the layers dialog and 'Show All' and 'Thaw All'. 'Save As' your new map. Repeat 'Save As' for each sub-map you want.

STEP 2: Open the sub-map you want to work on (currently the same as your Large map with everything thawed). Make the 'Map Border' the current layer. 'Freeze All' and 'Hide All' layers. Show and Thaw the following layers: Background, Hex/Square Grid. Show (don't Thaw) the layer or layers necessary to define the extent of your sub-map. Click the Scale icon. Select All. Do it. The Command line now asks for the Scale factor. Enter a decimal that is your best guess as to the portion of the map you want to cut out. Pick a point (preferably off the map) for Scale center. If necessary for your sub-map, rotate 90 degrees.

STEP 3: Now you have a background and border that is hopefully close to the size of your sub-map. Now you need to rescale it exactly. This is accomplished easiest by sight by dragging All (Map Border, Background, and Hex/Square Grid) over your sub-map and resizing All by sight. This is not always possible due to the fact that the chosen entities will hide everything else within the boundaries. In this case, I drag All over the new sub-map section (outline only during the drag) to get an idea of the scale factor, and either execute the drag off the map, or cancel the drag. ( The drag is actually used to determine the scale factor.) The first few times I did this, I rescaled 5 or 6 times. With a little practice I got down to 2 or 3 per sub-map. Once the Background, Map Border, and Hex/Square Grids are scaled correctly, center them over your Sub-map (dragging from a different position is easiest due to the outline only on the drag). Set Coast/Sea layer current and Freeze the Map Border, Background, and Hex/Square Grid layers (I keep the Hex/Square Grid layer hidden, too).

Alternative to Step 2 and 3: If you use a simple Map Border, you can simply draw the Map Border around the section you want for your sub-map, and add the Hex/Square Grid as a box within your Map Border.

STEP 4: Now Break the coast, selecting within your sub-map, and breaking 'On' the Border. This makes the coast a line. If you used multipolied paths for your coastline, then 'Explode' the coastline and 'Erase' all but those within your Border. Click the 'Edit' icon, click the coast line, place a check on Closed, click 'OK'. Click on the 'Insert Node' icon and place a node 'On' each corner necessary. If your map is wholly within the land and you want to maintain your Coast/Sea land mass, you will need to break and close twice, the second time after you have placed three corner nodes, or just place a box with your land mass color within the boundaries and Back it. Make the Water/Rivers layer current and Freeze the Coast/Sea layer.

STEP 5: You can do this step either a few layers at a time or all together, depending on the size of your map. Trim everything that extends beyond your map to the Map Border. Erase everything that is completely outside your map. If you are working by layers, make sure that the Symbol Definition layer is Shown and Thawed with any layers that contain symbols.

STEP 6: Your map should be all set. To verify this, you need to Show All and Zoom Extents. Your sub-map should fill the window. If it doesn't, then there is something not erased, whether visible or not. Thaw All. If visible, just Erase by Each. If not visible, Erase by window, keeping the window out of your sub-map. You will know when you've found something when the Number of Entities Selected isn't zero.

Now you should be all set to add details at this scale. When this is done, you can split each map again to ad yet more detail. This method allows you to add anything from any map by 'Copy' and 'Paste' with coordinates 0,0. This can also be a disadvantage with CC2 due to the fact that CC2 can have problems working at high numbered coordinates. If you use polygons instead of multipolies and don't use smoothing you shouldn't have any problems.

[CC-L] Symbols and layers

Date: 7/24/99 10:57:25 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Simon Rogers

As of version 5.21, symbols work in following way:

First, Entities in the symbol definitions are on layers. By default, we draw all the entities in our symbols on the SYMBOL DEFINITION layer. Therefore, if you hide this layer, all the symbols will disappear.

However, there is no law to stop you creating multi-layer symbol definitions, and we use these in CD2. If you draw a symbol definition on the COAST/SEA and WATER/RIVERS layer, and hid the WATER/RIVERS layer, all the symbol references would be partially hidden.

Second, each symbol reference (what you see on the screen) has its own layer. If you hide this, all of the symbol reference, regardless of layers in the symdef, will be hidden.

RE: [CC-L] updating templates

Date: 7/24/99 3:17:47 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

You can do this by writing a small Script file.

Make a generic template that contains all of the fonts you want added, add any layers you want but put a box or line or something on those layer. There must be something on the layer otherwise it will not get added.

To make a script file use a plain text editor like Notepad.

Template.scr

LOADM #\Templates\Maps\my template.fct

PARTM #to be added.fcw

1;0;0,0;

UNDO

SAVE

LOADM #\Templates\Maps\starship.fct

PARTM #to be added.fcw

1;0;0,0;

UNDO

SAVE

In the above #\Templates\maps\my template.fct is the location of the template you want to update - if you want to update others just add another sequence to the script changing the location (ie. #\Templates\Cities\my city template.fct) You can also update map files - just change the fct to fcw. The # refers to CC2's root folder. Each file must be listed as a separate entity - You can get a listing of your files doing a DOS Dir command & piping it to a text file. For example at the DOS prompt type Dir/b>names.txt - this will give you a listing of the files in that directory & put them in a text file called names.txt.

PARTM #to be added.fcw - this inserts the file (to be added.fcw) that has the information you want to add to your maps. As written this file is in the CC2 root folder.

Just repeat the above sequence for every file you want to add fonts & layers to

> From: Mike Schmitz

> >Just open the template you want to change (File->Open, drop the "Files of type" list to "FCT Template", and open the template you want to edit). When you save the template, make sure you save it back with an FCT extension.> >

> >You can create your own templates in the same way. Draw a map, "Save As", and select "FCT Template" in the file type.>

> What I'd like to see is a utility that allows me to make changes to more than one template at a time. For example, I would like to add a layer called DISTRICTS to ALL of the city templates. Rather than open half a dozen maps and repeating the same procedure, I'd like to do it in one step. >

Re: [CC-L] LTP

Date: 7/28/99 6:03:39 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: L. Lee Saunders

>I downloaded and made some tests with the LTP plug in. Is there a way to use it for the contour lines ? Actually, I have a lot of paths (no smoothing) to shape my continents and I can't edit them easily (I have to explode the multipoly, edit the nodes and bring to back the new multipoly).>

>I tried the command on lines and it works nicely, but I'm unable to select a chain of paths. Did I miss something ?

LTP (Line to Poly, i.e. Path or Polygon) works only on lines but do not let this stop you. Actually I use LTP for the exact save reason you are trying to. Just follow these three steps.

1) make sure that all the paths are on the same layer

2) make sure that all the paths touch end for end

3) explode the paths.

now all you need to do is LTP them together (and use the EDIT command to close the new path to turn it into a polygon so that you can use a fill on it)

I use smoothed curves mostly but the above steps are exactly the steps I go through as well. Hope this works for you.

RE: [CC-L] Strange but true

Date: 7/29/99 5:19:57 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: William Wire

You must create a NEW fill pattern. In the dialog box where you can change the fill style, you also have the ability to create new ones. Just create a fill called "John1" and set it to be the current one. Draw a filled poly. Notice that the filled poly that was drawn using the style called "paving stones" doesn't change. If you go and modify the definition of "John1" in the fill styles, you will see EVERY polygon filled with "John1" style change to reflect this.

> From: John A. Tomkins

> I want to create a map and use different fill patterns, how can I if each time I change the fill pattern ALL my other filled poly's change with it?>

Re: [CC-L] Valleys & Canyons

Date: 7/29/99 11:43:52 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Chris Conboy

Patrick Teague wrote:

> There's an area known as Scarpit which is actually a gouge in the earth, a fairly long canyon. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to map it.

Try using the Perpendicular command (found under Draw|Lines|Perpendicular). This allows you to draw multiple perpendicular lines against another line.

I'd suggest experimenting on a new map: Draw a path or a polygon, then start the Perpendicular command. Click on the earlier path or poly, then you'll notice a perpendicular line as you move your mouse around. You can quickly put in multiple lines once you start the command just by moving the mouse and left-clicking. Try putting a bunch of perp. lines near each other. This will give a sort of 3d depth affect, kind of like a canyon or a ridge (I use this for ridges).

RE: [CC-L] Ungroup

Date: 8/3/99 5:13:44 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: William Wire

If you feel you must edit a symbol, you must EXPLODE it. Once exploded, it is no longer a symbol, but a copy of all the entities which made up that symbol. Those can be edited normally. Once you make your edits, you'd have to re-define it all as a symbol if you wanted it to be a symbol.

RE: [CC-L] Exporting to .bmp

Date: 8/3/99 12:08:57 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: William Wire

CC2 save as bitmap creates an 8-bit image. Why? I have no idea. Maybe some day PF will update that. What you want to do is copy your image onto the Clipboard. Set the resolution to the same size as your map, then copy to the clipboard. Open MS Paint or some other paint package and paste from the clipboard. You should have all the nice colors you are used to with a good resolution.

RE: [CC-L] Lack of line symbols

Date: 8/3/99 4:25:22 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

Here's what you could do to make your own line symbol variations:

Open a blank symbol catalog & place the symbol that you want to make into line symbol. Explode that symbol & Delete>All>Not Black Check if the symbol was double outlined (for dragging) Use list & see if there are duplicate entities) delete anything that you don't need & then Trim up all of the lines so that the symbol looks good. Define it as a symbol, give it a new name & save this as a new catalog.

RE: [CC-L] Selecting Items

Date: 8/3/99 11:23:37 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

Look under the Options menu for Toggle Crosshairs, Select By - make sure the Dialog or Pop Up is selected & preferences - to set your preferences.

> From: Roger

> I must have altered a setting on CC2 as previously I used to select things by left clicking on them or highlighting them with a 'window', now I’ve started getting a 'cross hairs' line.>

Re: [CC-L] Landscapes, Pictures

Date: 8/5/99 9:20:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: L. Lee Saunders

> Where do you get POV-Ray? What do you think of Bryce? Is it worth the money?

POV-Ray can be found FREE! at www.povray.org. It is the programmers drawing package. You can get it to do just about anything at all. I submitted a POV-Ray script to take an image of a CC2 world and put it on a globe. I also included settings to make it create multiple images that when played in order created a spinning globe. Either look in the archives or maybe someone will re-post it for you.

Re: [CC-L] off topic

Date: 8/7/99 12:55:18 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Joe Slayton

The easiest way to get generic screen shots (this works best in 16-bit color or 32-bit color):

1) start MS Paint (or some other painting-type program such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop).

2) In the software you want to get the screen capture from, get the part(s) you want to capture onscreen.

3) Press the "Print Screen" key on your keyboard. This action copies an exact representation of the screen onto the clipboard.

4) Switch to your paint program

5) Enter the Paste command.

6) Crop out unwanted window borders, controls, etc.

7) Save to GIF, BMP, JPG, or whatever else you want.

If what you want to capture won't fit won't fit on one screen, just scroll over a tad in your main program, perform steps 3-7 above, then go back and merge the different frames.

Using Alt+Print Screen just captures the current window, not the entire display.

It's easier than printing and scanning back in, plus it doesn't do strange things if all the parts aren't exactly aligned. Otherwise, it's very similar in concept (but it all stays as bits in the machine).

Re: [CC-L] Copying Bitmaps

Date: 8/8/99 8:05:22 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Gregory Hazzard

Go to Options>Select by... and choose dialog or popup

Next make sure to Show All and Thaw All

Then choose Edit>Clipboard>Copy

You should get the entity selection box at the end of your arrow. Choose a spot outside your map, and drag the box across the entire window, if you want the whole window.

You will then get the crosshairs, as if you were drawing, and the Command Line will say Copy Origin {0,0}. Since you are copying the entire window it is easier to just type in the origin coordinates...I would leave them at 0,0. Type in 0,0 and hit enter. Then you should be able to paste to whatever application you are trying to paste into.

If you continue to have trouble, consider the idea that your application may not accept a direct paste from CC2.

Re: [CC-L] What's the deal with SymEncrypt?

Date: 8/10/99 8:47:51 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Gregory Hazzard

To install Symencrypt, just install it. It will run automatically when you doubleclick an encrypted symbol catalog in Windows Explorer. You can tell if they are encrypted when you download and unzip them. They will have a little key looking icon next to the file name in the Windows Explorer.

RE: [CC-L] Building Walls on my first City

Date: 8/12/99 12:45:15 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

This is a quick & good way to do city walls:

1) Set your fill style to solid, set the layer to walls & freeze all other layers

2) Pick the color for the walls (like gray #14) & choose a suitable line width (like 20) then start a path

3) Now draw your walls - if there are breaks in the wall then stop the path & start a new one where the breaks are

4) When you have finished drawing all of the city walls - copy the path (s) from 0,0 to 0,0 (the "from" & "to" points)

5) Change the color (by prior) to a different color (like gray #16)

6) Change the line width (by prior) to a smaller width (like 12)

7) Copy both of these paths (color 16 & color 14) from 0,0 to 0,0 (the "from" & "to" points)

8) Change the color (by prior) to black (color 0) & finally change the fill style (by prior) to zero

This gives very nice looking city walls & is much more flexible than a symbol as you can chose the color, width & shape.

RE: [CC-L] Building Walls on my first City

Date: 8/12/99 5:17:33 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: William Wire

Use a wide path with a solid color for the walls. If you want it outlined in black, duplicate the path, change color to black, and fill style to hollow. If you want "bricks" in the wall, change the fill style of that black wide path to a paving fill style with outline on. Your gate and tower symbols just cover parts of the path or fill in gaps if you insist on making them.

> From: John A. Tomkins

> I am in the process of laying out my first city. I have chosen something small to start with.

> The city has walls surrounding it. I found the gates, but I see nothing for the walls. Can someone who has used CD2 tell me where I can find or what I can use to make my city walls? Is there even any symbols for this?>

Re: [CC-L] Wilbur and CC2

Date: 8/12/99 6:29:54 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Joe Slayton

The closest you'll get to putting your maps into Wilbur at this point in time is to save them as a BMP, use a paint program to fill the oceans with black and the land with white (or various land contours in shades of gray with lighter getting higher). Save this BMP as a grayscale 8-bit bitmap. Load into Wilbur. Smooth and paint in the parts you want. Zooms, fractalization, etc. all won't work with this sort of map.

Additional discussion of this sort of feature would be a good idea to take up on the Wilbur mailing list (see how to join the list at http://www.ridgenet.net/~jslayton/software.html).

Re: [CC-L] Question about Linking

Date: 8/18/99 7:52:17 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Ian R Malcomson

>How does one go about linking maps? Is there a limit to how many links there are?

>What I'd like to do is make links to one of my overland maps, so when you click on a city symbol, the city map comes up and then do the same for certain buildings in the city map. Also making a link on the overland map to a couple of battlefield maps. Is this possible?

Do this:

From the menu: Info -> Link with Map -> select the map you wish to link from the File dialog box that appears -> draw a box around the area you wish to link.

A few things to note:

1. If you link to a map that resides in the same directory as the map you are creating the link in, then the link will be *relative*, meaning the link will work as long as the maps concerned are in the same directory, regardless of what that directory is named.

2. If you link to a map not in the same directory, the link will be *absolute*, meaning that the link will store the full path of the linked map. The link will only work if the linked map is in the directory it was in when the link was created.

3. To change a link from absolute to relative, press the "Edit" button, then select the link box. You will be presented with a text box containing the linked map's particulars. Replace the whole path name (not the file name) with a "$".

4. To make a map containing links look a bit neater, go to "Info", and select "Hide Hotspots". The links will still work, but you won't be able to see them.

5. For this reason, in the FR Atlas, we've added a second entity for each link. The entity may be a copy of a symbol, or a hollow box, or something else. The Atlas maps have a "Map Links" layer, which contains both the links and these second entities. The second entities are of a different colour (we chose purple). So, when "Hide Hotspots" is on, you won't see the mess that map links cause, but you'll still be able to see where links exist. Hiding the Map Links layer allows you to hide the second, coloured entities for map printing etc.

6. Remeber that map links are always rectangular, aligned to the X-Y axis. This means that, even though you may wish to link to a circular symbol, you are still limited to using a box for the link. Weird-shaped links can be created using a number of links, pointing to the same map. For example, in the Waterdeep Atlas maps, each ward in the Waterdeep map proper is linked using a number of varying size links, all pointing to the ward in question.

As for maximum numbers of links, again I reference the Waterdeep FR Atlas map. That single map contains a *huge* number of individual links, without reaching a limit. Unless you're going really, really wild with the amount of links you're using, I doubt you'll hit any kind of limit.

Finally, CC2 also allows you to create links (as above, except using the "Link to File" command) to other types of document (MSWord files, text files, spreadsheets - anything).

Re: [CC-L] Question about Linking

Date: 8/19/99 6:01:43 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Simon Rogers

Other uses of links (as found in the Atlas)

1) Put a link in the center of your compass rose to the parent map.

2) We've marked all links on overland maps with purple text on the Map Links layer - this seems to work pretty well; if you hide the map links layer, it doesn't show up on prints.

3) Links on the points on your compass rose can link to adjacent maps.

Re: [CC-L] Globe

Date: 8/19/99 11:56:34 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Joe Slayton

Simon Rogers wrote:

> Twice as wide as it is tall. Remember that this will be a projection -areas and distances will be distorted as you get further north and south. Probably Joe can tell you a lot more than me.

The globe needs two sets of up to 4 24-bit image maps, in sizes 4096x2048, 2048x1024, 1024x512, and 512x256. These maps represent the four zoom levels. Each level also has a link map, a 256-color image where each color can be linked to a CC2 file. These maps must be uncompressed BMP images. If a higher-resolution map is missing (say, the 4096x2048 maps aren't included to save space), the globe will reduce the number of available zoom levels.

These maps should be in the equirectangular projection. This projection is the standard one used by most software to handle mapping an image to a sphere. It is the sort of map that Wilbur generates by default for whole-world images. These maps can also be generated from the icosahedral templates on ProFantasy's web site (again using Wilbur). Image maps are available from a number of source for each planet in the solar system (and many of the moons), so it'd be possible to generate a solar system set of files with just a little more work on the globe source code.

Basically, if you have a whole-world map in any common projection, it should be possible to convert it to run with the globe software with a little work.

[CC-L] Sheets

Date: 8/22/99 5:38:23 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Simon Rogers

A note on sheets:

Because many users will ignore sheets, and because there isn't yet a status indicator, unless you deliberately select the SHEETS dialog box before starting a session, all entities will be drawn on the COMMON sheet. That way, if a user is not "sheet aware" it doesn't matter - they can just ignore sheets without worry.

So if you are using a template with predefined sheets, you will have to select the SHEETS dialog before starting to draw.

This minor problem will be corrected by the addition of a SHEETS status indicator in a couple of months.

RE: [CC-L] SymEncrypt

Date: 8/22/99 5:39:55 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

Symencytpt is a small program Mark wrote to allow registered users a chance to share their custom catalogs with other users - if the custom catalogs contain any ProFantasy symbols. If your catalogs do not contain any ProFantasy symbols (or derived symbols) you do not need Symencrypt.

You might need an updated Windows OLEAUT32.dll - this is available at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q192/4/61.ASP Page Title: "FILE: VBRun60.exe Installs Visual Basic 6.0 Run-Time Files" Download this file: VBRun60.exe

RE: [CC-L] Paved Floors

Date: 8/23/99 4:44:51 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

First make the solid background:

1) Make a copy of all the walls using Copy>Copy to layer & place on the Background layer.

2) Change to Background layer. Hide All, Freeze All.

3) Use erase, break and trims to create a fillable shape. Add lines between any open corridors or sections that go off the map border.

4) Now either trace round this outline using POLY, or use MULTIPOLY to make the whole thing into a solid shape.

5) Change the fill style (select by Prior) to Solid.

6) Send this to the back (by Prior)

Next make the paved background:

1) Copy>Copy to layer (the above background layer) place this on the Background (Floor 1) layer

2) Change to Background (Floor 1) layer. Hide All, Freeze All.

3) Change this fill style by Prior to Symbol Fills>Paving

4) Unhide the Background layer & Front the Background (Floor 1) layer.

You can also ad a grid by repeating the above but placing the copy on the Hex/Square Grid layer & then changing the Symbol Fills>pick the appropriate hex or square grid fill you want

> From: Roberson, Anthony W.

> I trying to get paved floors in my dungeons. Can anyone give me a DETAILED explanation

> of how to do it. I following the instructions in the book but no go...>

RE: [CC-L] Smart Symbol Alignment in CD2.

Date: 9/1/99 3:15:45 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

Turn off Csr Snap & Snap & see if it makes a difference. Also try doing it a bit faster - I had problems getting it to work if I did it too slowly.

> From: brentend

> When using CD2 the smart symbol alignment to roads doesn't seem to be working properly. Whenever I try to align it to a road, especially a diagonal one, it doesn't want to align and the symbol rapidly jumps through different angles while moving around it and oftentimes places itself without letting me slide it into position. Is there something I'm doing wrong here?>

Re: [CC-L] Selecting by window

Date: 9/2/99 5:26:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: William Hojecki

I think what you need to do is:

1 - thaw all the layers

2 - Use the CLIPBOARD - COPY command

3 - Select the items you want to copy

4 - start the new template

5 - use the CLIPBOARD - PASTE command to put the entities on the map

From there, you can split any polys you have and make the "right" size or delete any overflow shapes/lines/etc. for the map you're doing.

----- Original Message -----

I'm working on a map and need to copy part of it (a rectangular section) into a new smaller scaled template. How do I do this?

RE: [CC-L] Selecting by window

Date: 9/2/99 10:59:25 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

Open the map that you want to copy from. Now show all layers & then edit>clipboard>copy>select by window & select the area you want to copy.. Close this map but don't save the map.

Open a new map & edit>clipboard>paste. CC2 will now provide a box asking for the scale & rotation. Scale should be 1 & rotation 0. Next CC2 wants to know where to place this section (Insert at) just right click to accept the default of 0,0

OK, now draw a border for your new map - just draw it around the area you want for the new map. Next you will need to edit some of the entities, because they extend past the border of your new map. If they are polys, you can edit them using the dynamic edit icon, but if they are multipolies you will need to Edit>Explode them before you can edit them.

Using the Trim commands trim the lines & paths to the new map border. You might need to adjust some of the symbols at the map's edge.

CC2 is not a paint program & copies whole entities to the clipboard. You can not just crop an area in CC2 like you can in a bitmap. This is a little time consuming the first few times you do it, but once you get the hang of it, it does go pretty fast. A lot faster than redrawing the whole map.

-----Original Message-----

From: gswest

I’m working on a map and need to copy part of it (a rectangular section) into a new smaller scaled template. How do I do this?

RE: [CC-L] Symbols in CC2 ver 6

Date: 9/13/99 6:52:35 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

Open up a symbol catalog & load the same catalog.

Symbol>Edit Symbol - choose the symbol you want to change, draw a box & a new window pops up.

Make whatever changes you want. You can copy & paste into this window **but** do not past another symbol in here (explode it first)

When you are happy with your changes, close the window. Now you'll be asked if you want to save it. Choose yes. That's it.

If you want to retain the original symbol but make a version like it you can Symbols>Clone Symbol - give it a different name & then edit the new symbol as above.

To use the new "color 31" - Symbols>Edit symbol>pick the symbol. Now choose "Change to Symbol Color" & select the entities whose color you want to be "color 31". Close it & save.

[CC-L] Blank Decal Paper

Date: 9/13/99 9:47:56 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Mark Ramsey

I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but for anyone who is interested (Mark McKibben notably) you can buy blank decal sheets suitable for most inkjet and laser printers from Micro-Mark.

www.micromark.com

[CC-L] Re:

Date: 9/14/99 3:27:51 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Simon Rogers

What you need to do:

1) Select Text Properties. Select More Fonts. Add the font you want to the drawing.

2) Select Text. Type in the letters that you want to make into symbols.

3) Set the fill style and color you want.

4) Select Explode Text from the Text menu.

5) The text now consists of CC2 entities (multipolies) that are ready to be made into symbols.

----- Original Message -----

From: Guy Hoyle

> I'm trying to create a symbol for the first time. Is there a way I can import a symbol frm a TrueType font? >

RE: [CC-L] Walls and Towers

Date: 9/14/99 6:28:13 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

This is a quick & good way to do city walls:

1) Set your fill style to solid, set the layer to walls & freeze all other layers

2) Pick the color for the walls (like gray #14) & choose a suitable line width (like 20) then start a path

3) Now draw your walls - if there are breaks in the wall then stop the path & start a new one where the breaks are

4) When you have finished drawing all of the city walls - copy the path(s) from 0,0 to 0,0 (the "from" & "to" points)

5) Change the color (by prior) to a different color (like gray #16)

6) Change the line width (by prior) to a smaller width (like 12)

7) Copy both of these paths (color 16 & color 14) from 0,0 to 0,0 (the "from" & "to" points)

8) Change the color (by prior) to black (color 0) & finally change the fill style (by prior) to zero

Make the towers in exactly the same fashion - just use circles instead of paths & the copy to the appropriate locations.

This gives very nice looking city walls & is much more flexible than a symbol as you can chose the color, width & shape :)

RE: [CC-L] DD2 problem

Date: 9/14/99 10:00:07 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

Due to the program improvements in ver6 geomorphs no longer work exactly as originally specified. When you scale them, the width of the walls also scales, too. To deal with this, Explode all the geomorphs after you have finished inserting the symbols and select Edit > Change Line Width, select by layer Walls, Do it, then select a new, appropriate line width.

Re: [CC-L] Random Street Problem

Date: 9/15/99 4:04:48 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Simon Rogers

We've discovered the cause of the random street problem. It is caused by those very few house styles which have polgons included on them, namely Mastaba and a couple of skyscrapers. If you don't include these in your random streets for the moment, then the error will not occur. We are testing a solution.

1. Change the random steet settings

2. Define the length of the street (either on a path or independantly)

3. When CD2 starts drawing the houses, it will crash... usually on one of the first few but sometimes it gets into a half dozen or so.

Subj: [CC-L] FW: Fractalizing landmass on edge of a map

Date: 9/17/99 4:18:16 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

File: How to draw a FRX corner.FCW (30975 bytes)

This is one way:

1) Start a path exactly on the map border (use the ON modifier)

2) Click a few points then finish ON another map border.

3) Fractalise the shape.

4) Select the Edit icon, select Closed.

(If you are at a corner, you will also need to do the following)

5) Select the Insert Node icon. Choose a point on the long segment of the polygon.

6) Select the Endpoint modifier.

7) Select near the corner of the map.

See attached diagram

[CC-L] RE:_[CC-L]¨Multipoly_Question

Date: 9/17/99 2:21:44 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

No - but - here's what I do to make it faster.

Make sure you use Hide All & Freeze All to isolate the multipoly.

On a large multipoly, the leak will usually show up as a triangle shape - first zoom in to each apex & draw a circle. Then explode the multipoly & zoom back in to the circles & see if there is a gap or a crossed line in one of these locations. This is the most likely location of the offending join.

If not then you need to follow there joins around the multipoly. I change the color of each entity I check. For example - if the multipoly is made up of red paths, I change a path to blue, now I can just zoom into the joins of that segment - if that's not the right one, then change the next segment to blue & check it's joins. Just keep doing this until you find the join that is incorrect. It's not necessary to check each node - just the ENDPOINT nodes.

If you don't find a gap or a crossed line, it is possible that there is a duplicate line in the multipoly. In this case it is necessary to do List>Count on each segment to see where the duplicate line is. I always check for gaps & crossed lines first because looking for a duplicate line is more time consuming if the multipoly is big.

> From: Annelise Johnsen

> I was wondering if there is any quick fix way of checking for leaking multipolies, for example using INFO -> LIST in a way I don't know about which will reveal all ?>

> It's not always practical to go over every node of a large multipoly and at certain zoom levels leaks are sometimes invisible.>

Re: [CC-L] Automatic blocks?

Date: 9/20/99 9:09:47 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Simon Rogers

HOUSEM is a macro command for creating houses. It asks for a house type, then for the points.

----- Original Message -----

From: Robert A. Crawford

> Silly question -- is it possible to write a macro that prompts for four streets that define a "block" and then fills in houses along each side of the block. Maybe even put V-shaped houses on the corners?>

Subj: RE: [CC-L] Scaling Line Width

Date: 9/21/99 8:58:45 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

Open the catalog.

Symbols>Edit symbols>Change line width & select the lines you want to change. Enter a new value. Close the dialog box & save. Save AS - a symbol catalog

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Thomas Schekelmann

> I would like to know if there is a way to scale the Line Width. I was creating a few symbols and they were far to large compared to the normals. So I scaled them down to the right size, but some lines had a set line width. So, these lines kept the width and now everything is covered with these lines. They do have the right length, but just the width did not change.>

RE: [cc-developer-l] what I learned from the Atlas project

Date: 9/24/99 2:23:03 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Linda Kekumu

Re: [CC-L] Fractalization Question

Date: 9/29/99 12:45:08 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: Ian R Malcomson

>So, I am trying to create an ismuth that runs off both the north and south side of the borders. I'd like to fractalize the east and west coastlines without fractalizing the north and south straight line borders. Any ideas?

Draw the E & W coastlines, and N & S borderlines, as connecting paths. Frac the coastlines. Use the CMB command a few times to join the coastlines & borderlines together to form a single path. EDIT the path to be closed. Much more efficient than a multipoly.

RE: [CC-L] Text along a circle

Date: 10/10/99 2:22:22 PM Pacific Standard Time

From: Linda Kekumu

Switch to the text layer, draw an arc in a different color on or just inside/outside your circle - freeze all. At the command type in TEXTA (the text along curves macro) enter the total number of letters & then type them in one at a time.

[CC-L] Drawing Arcs.

Date: 10/16/99 3:13:17 AM Pacific Standard Time

From: Leo Sutherland

In case anyone hasn't realised it, and have had trouble with drawing Arcs (Centre, Start and End) then, as I've just discovered, the entry in fcw32.mnu for this function needs to be changed from

&Center, Start and End:ARCS|;

to

&Center, Start and End:|ARCS;

as usual take backup of fcw32.mnu first.

RE: [CC-L] Vanishing symbols

Date: 10/16/99 11:39:52 PM Pacific Standard Time

From: Linda Kekumu

Cc2 & CM are different programs. The CM catalogs behave differently in CM & CC2 because there are some internal differences & when I made the CM catalogs I used CM templates.

Try this - open the catalog in CC2 (File>Open) & then at the command type in cs <enter>. Now File>Save AS - a symbol catalog. Then load the catalog in CC2 & see if it works correctly.

cs is a macro that changes the symbol layer to the Symbol Definition layer. Please do not do this on the City Designer catalogs!

> From: Shawn A. Chesak

> I've discovered that the 'disappearing' symbols catalog occurs with the Maps.fsc catalog as well as ALL of the FR Atlas catalogs.>

> The symbol catalog appears when I unhide the Background layer with most of these templates, although it seems to be affecting the Merge layer in others.>

RE: [CC-L] Printing

Date: 10/18/99 12:24:19 AM Pacific Standard Time

From: Linda Kekumu

Some things to try:

Download the latest printer driver from your printer manufacturer's website. Check your printer settings in My Computer>Printers>Properties - check the Details tab & look at the Spool Settings. I found that I had numerous printing problems until I selected the button that says "Print directly to the printer" with a Spool Data format of RAW.

Another consideration is printer memory. Is the map you are trying to print very big? Make sure that the memory settings show correctly. Check My Computer>printers>properties & make sure Windows is displaying the correct printer memory - sometimes it misses this!

Check that the correct paper size is selected.

Also, most printers have numerous options to set up - try changing the emulation, resolution, memory tracking, page protection, if you have a color printer & it is set to color mode, make sure color cartridge is in there. Grab your printer manual & see what kind of options the printer has.

Keep me posted n what is happening. If you have an HP4L, please be aware that these printers have a tiny amount of printer memory & have a hard time with vector graphics.

Also, Windows spools to your hard disk. How much hard disk space do you have? & finally try cleaning out your Temp folder or Windows\Temp.

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