Very Large Maps, is it a problem?

[a2area]

Layers and groups of layers and layer effects make a huge difference.. what i did on my recent map of Gotha, which is 15000 X 7500 (about 2mi/px at equator), was to keep data elements or things that i may want to edit later and in separate layered files from the master. For instance all of my rivers are on several layers depending on size.. and i'd keep them in another file with a flattened terrain map as the background so i can see what i'm doing when i edit. Then i bring over the rivers to the main file and flatten them as a layer rather than having another group. Later if i want to change the rivers for some reason i trash the layer in the main file and go to my rivers file and change it then drag over and flatten again. I do the same thing with climate, rainfall, masks etc.. bring them over when i need them, use them for that purpose and then delete them from the main file. Better to take up hard disk space with separate manageable files (preferably on a peripheral drive) than to clog up your ram with a huger than necessary document. Cuts down on time for screen refresh and applying effects.

Something else i have picked up is having two files... one labeled filename_backup which i'll save out to occasionally. With work that big saving can take a while and you never know when something might glitch and freeze up.. at least you'll have an extra file rather than one corrupt file!

[Kodiak]

Another thing you may want to do is build all of you continents seperately, so you are only generally working with maps 1/4 to 1/8 of your desired world size. When you have finished all of your continents, make your 40000x20000 blank canvas, and add your continents to it. This way you only have to deal with slow down for the final stages of your map as opposed to getting decreased performance the longer you work on it.