City Desinger 3

[darkseed2012]

I have been eye balling this for a while now. I have lots of maps and some I would like to take further and do some more work on. I am wondering if anyone on here has used CD3 and can tell me if it has a feature for layers to draw over an existing map. I want to start with one of my existing scans and draw over it using this software.

Does this software allow for what I want to do?

https://secure.profantasy.com/products/cd3.asp

[Mouse]

You have to get CC3+ to use CD3, because CD3 is an add on to that software.

Layers are called sheets in CC3, and yes it is possible to import a bitmap into CC3+ map and use it as a base for a new map, drawing on sheets above the bitmap. You can also move the bitmap up and down the stack of sheets, or make it partially transparent to make it easier to draw your new map at different levels.

There is however a steep learning curve if you have never used vector graphics packages before. I would strongly recommend following the 'Our First Map' tutorial contained in the User Manual - to get a good basic understanding of what the programme can do.

I hope that helps

[Tonnichiwa]

Hi Darkseed2012,

CD3 is an expansion for Campaign Cartographer 3+ and will allow you to pull your hand drawn map into it so that you can draw over it. You will probably have to convert your hand drawn map to a PNG first though.

Then, you can choose a mapping style you want from CD3. Then you would create a Sheet (it's the same thing as a layer in photoshop), and name it something like HAND DRAWN MAP. You want to make sure that the checkbox is marked so that the HAND DRAWN MAP sheet is the active sheet. Then go to the Draw menu and go down to "Insert File".

Navigate to the PNG of the hand drawn map and upload it into your CC3+ user interface. When you do this it will ask you for a first point. Put 0,0 (this is zero-comma-zero.) and press enter. When you were creating your CD3 map it will have asked you what size you wanted your map to be. Whatever size you chose should be the next values you enter into the command line. So if you left it at the default size you would then type in 1000,800 (one thousand-comma-eight hundred) and press enter.

This will place your hand drawn map over the top of your newly created CD3 map. Now, you go back to the Sheets and effects and turn them on. Activate your HAND DRAWN MAP Sheet and add a Transparency to it. Make the transparency around 25 to 30% and now you can see through it when you add things to your CD3 map.


Now start using the drawing tools to draw over your hand drawn map. Once you are done drawing your City, you can turn on the sheets and effects, hide the HAND DRAWN MAP sheet, and print out your new City (or make it into a file that you can import into a VTT or whatever else you want.

To see this in action, go over to the Guild City threads and look up the thread I am doing called "Supreme Residence of the August Grandmaster of Guild City. That is how I am using CD3 to draw over the wonderful template J.Edward has made for Section 1.

I'm not sure if you own CC3+ yet but you MUST own either CC3+ or CC3 in order to use the CD3 product.

I hope that helped

Cheers

~Tonnichiwa

EDIT: I see a little Mouse snuck in there before I could answer