What is the best way to modify one side of a poly?

[deanatglobe]

Here is a map I am working on of a city.



So I have a poly that is the base land contour. I would like to fractalize the coast, but not the three edges that are the map edge? What is the best way to approach this?

I also want to smooth the water contours and have the same issue.

Thanks

[RPMiller]

Your best bet would probably be to break the poly at the two nodes for each end of the coast and then fractalize and "re-poly" the land.

[Skycast]

What RP says will probably be your simplest bet if you know how to do that. Alternately you could just fractalize it and then remove the excessive nodes and move/snap two nodes to either corner when you are done.

[deanatglobe]

Can one have a poly that is a combination of smooth paths and straight paths?

[RPMiller]

I do not believe so, but you can convert them to lines I believe using the PTL (?) command. (I always forget the command line on that since I use the buttons.)

[esmale]

Can one have a poly that is a combination of smooth paths and straight paths?

I believe you can, but you have to create them as individual paths (straight or curved), then use the PATH TO POLY command to combine them.

For coaslines, you will probably have best results with a fractal line, and you want to do something like this:

1. Create a temp layer for your landmass with fractal coastline
2. Use the fractal path tool to create your coastline (trace over the existing one for general outline); all you need to do now is create the three 'straight' sides of the landmass that meet the map border.
3. Hide all layers except for your landmass and temp layer
4. Turn ORTHO on
5. Use the path tool to draw the three remaining sides of your landmass. The easiest way to do this is by selecting the PATH tool, then the ENDPOINT modifier; click on the end of your fractal coastline and extend the path down to where the map's bottom border is. Repeat for the opposite side of the landmass, then connect these paths with another path to create the third side.
6. Use TRIM to INTERSECTION tool to snip away any paths that extend beyond the corners of the map border
7. Use PATH to POLY tool to select the fractal and straight paths; this will close the paths to a single poly
8. Adjust the poly's fill style as desired
9. Delete the original landmass
10. Use CHANGE LAYER to put your put your temp landmass on the correct map layer

This is kind of a whirlwind, so let me know if you get stuck. Cheers,
-Erin

[RPMiller]

Thanks Erin! I knew someone more proficient would be along eventually.

[deanatglobe]

Thanks, I can get that to work no problem. It is trying to do a 'combine' or 'path to poly' when some lines are straight and some are smooth, even two smooth are not going together as I would expect.

Say I want to make a shape like an eye, I can make two opposing curved paths that connect a two points, when I do a path to poly I get two ovals instead of one eye shape.

It may not be possible, In the past I have always used poly lines for contours and just placed nodes close enough that they looked smooth.

[esmale]

Smooth paths can be harder to connect because of the way the curved spline is drawn between the actual points you create. My advice here is to use the EPOLY tool (which I know is part of the Mappa Harnica Toolkit, though there may be a CC2 Pro equivalent if you don't have that resource installed[?]). EPOLY is nice because it lets you draw polys that incorporate arcs on the fly.

(That said, lately I'm using a lot of drawing tools that constrain polys to the map borders, so this kind of problem doesn't occur. Otherwise, I'd be more conversant with my polys and paths--as it is, I'm not )

In your eye shape example, are you using PATH TO POLY or COMBINE? I ask because the latter usually fights me, and there's some trickery in the command line. PATH TO POLY is pretty straight-forward, though.

One cautionary word, though, is to avoid using path lines to mimic curves. Windows has an upper limit of how many nodes it can handle in a single map, and when it's reached, you'll have problems loading the FCW file. The exact limit varies from system to system (based on memory and such), but typically tops out around 20K on my box; YMMV.

Tell us more about that eye thing--I'm not 100% sure I follow your example.

Cheers,
-Erin

[deanatglobe]

I just whipped this up to show the type of problem I am having.



The numbers are the order I am clicking to make the nodes. The left shows an example of using Path to Poly that is working as I expected. When I use it on the smooth paths on the right I get the result on the bottom right. What I want is the shape above filled solid.

Does that make sense?

I am going to give the epoly thing a try.

Thanks