![profantasy campaign cartographer profantasy campaign cartographer](https://i0.wp.com/rpgmaps.profantasy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CA107-Bay-of-Secrets.png)
Ortho will only allow you to place it either in a straight left/right from the previous placement, or straight up/down. Note that it doesn’t work for regular symbol placement from the symbol catalog, but if you place one symbol, and then use the copy command on it, you can paste it in a nice line. Ortho isn’t really connected to the grid, it’s just grouped along with them because it provides similar precision functionality.īasically, Ortho is used to ensure you can only place nodes/symbols along a straight line, making it a great tool when you need to line up something.
![profantasy campaign cartographer profantasy campaign cartographer](http://rpgmaps.profantasy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/CA127-World-of-Dyra.png)
You have probably also noticed the Ortho button in the lower right along with the Grid and Snap buttons, as well as the Ortho checkbox in the grid dialog. Whether creating a new grid or editing an existing one, do remember to give it a descriptive and correct name. If you click the Edit button to edit an existing grid, you’re taken straight to the edit dialog, while if you click New, you’ll have to select the type of grid first (2d rectangular is the standard square grid), then you see the edit dialog. So you can also edit or create a new grid from this dialog. Of course, it may very well be that none of the available grids fit your needs. I prefer to work with cursor snap on while using snap, since this gives me feedback while I work, instead of potentially surprising me as I click to place. If this option is enabled (along with Snap), you’ll see that the cursor jumps between snap points when trying to place anything, while if it is off (but Snap on), the cursor movement is smooth, but the entity “jumps” as you place it, as it aligns to the nearest snap point. The Grid and Snap checkboxes are directly mapped to the Grid and Snap buttons we talked about earlier and is just another way of turning them on/off, but the Cursor snap option is more interesting. Note that the names here are manually typed text, and while they should be correct out of the box, it is possible for you to change the configuration of the grid without changing the text which may lead to some confusion.īelow the grid list is a few options. This can sound weird at first, but it allows you to have a more detailed snap grid without the visual guide grid being too cluttered. So, if the grid is a 10′ Grid, 2 snap, it means that the visual grid dots will appear at 10′ distance, but there are two snap positions for each grid division, so the actual snaps are every 5′ in this case.
![profantasy campaign cartographer profantasy campaign cartographer](https://www.profantasy.com/images/cc3/gallery/gallery06.jpg)
This simply means that the guide grid will show a dot every X units, but each visible division is divided into Y snap points. Most of these are named something like X’ Grid, Y Snap. From here you can select from a list of predefined grids. To configure the snap grid, simply right click on either the Grid or Snap Buttons to bring up the configuration dialog. The snap grid that comes with the template may not be fit for your purpose, maybe you need a grid with finer or coarser snaps. Do note that the Grid button controls the visual helper grid, which is NOT the same as an in-map grid, such as a battlemap grid or overland hex grid. The Grid button controls the visual guide grid, but does not actually turn on grid snapping, you need to press the Snap button for that. There are two buttons down in the bottom right corner of the interface that controls the snap grid, the Grid and the Snap button. This is extremely helpful when mapping things like dungeons and floor plans to make those rooms and corridors that perfectly fit the 5′ (or whatever your gaming system uses) battlemap grid.
![profantasy campaign cartographer profantasy campaign cartographer](https://secure.profantasy.com/images/cc3plus/CC3p_schley.png)
When the snap grid is enabled, you’re only able to place nodes (and symbols) according to the snap (placement) grid. The easiest precision tool is the snap grid. I’ve talked about these things in other places before, but I’ll put all these into the context of precision work here. In CC3+ we have multiple tools available for that purpose, such as snap grid, modifiers and coordinates. But in this article, I am going to talk a bit about the former, when we want perfect precision in our work, when we need that road to be exactly 10 feet wide, or entities needs to line up perfectly with each other. When mapping, there are times when precision matters a lot, and times when it doesn’t matter at all and simply eyeballing sizes and positions gives the best result.