New to Digital Cartography? Software General Information

[The Good Doctor]

My copy of Freehand 7 is showing its age. I took my original digital map and doubled the size so that I could add in villages and towns, and try to add in trade routes, roads, weather patterns, etc. Doubling the size meant the map went from 1 to 4 pages. Then I added in space for the rest of the hand drawn stuff. 120 pages. 30+ layers.

Windows has changed how it does memory management, and "compatibility" hasn't helped. I need to upgrade, pure and simple. The past two months have been frustrating. Data elements sometimes show up on other layers; deleted layers reappear days later.

I want to use vector mapping, and want to be able to print sections of maps easily. I would also like the option of hotlinking (like CC3) smaller, detailed maps to the main map -- but that is not necessary, just a "wanna" feature.

Adobe has Freehand 10, but it's spendy at $400, and Adobe has stopped all further development. Has anyone tried Freehand 10? How does it compare to Illustrator? I want to import the work I've done without have to start from scratch (starting over would require HOURS of Red Alert and Starcraft, killing and nuking and - oh, the computer carnage before I could deal with it!)

I am also contemplating CC3 with a couple of wilderness modules and symbol set1, but haven't decided on that for sure.

Comments would be welcome.

[Steel General]

@The Good Doctor - Have you considered Inkscape, its free, and its vector.

I know there are a few people here who use it, so they will hopefully pop-in and give a little more info.