New to Digital Cartography? Software General Information

[Gamerprinter]

Although AutoCAD and Microstation which are the major CAD applications used in the engineering trades - its really more technical drawing than true map production, sure you can make maps, but symbol sets aren't made for the kind of maps used in most games.

That's the difference with Campaign Cartographer - it is built on a basic CAD engine, however all the coding over the last 30 years was to make more applicable to RPG map-making.

CC3 is only $39, those others are thousands of dollars each, Microstation most expensive of all. Yes they are all CAD, but CC3 and the rest are very much "apples and oranges".

I hear all the advocacy of free software, that's not me. If I pay for software, I can yell at somebody when something's wrong, not so with free software. That's not the only reason, but I don't use GIMP/Inkscape, nothing wrong with it, its just not me.

[RobA]

When was the poll added? I hadn't noticed it before.

-Rob A>

[ravells]

A while back....about a month or so...but I didn't really publicise it.

[Alistair]

New to this site and just noticed this post...

I make regular use of the following:

Fractal Mapper 8
Fractal World Explorer 1.7
Astrosynthesis 2

I've used several other things, mostly online random dungeon generators and the such though. I used Campaign Cartographer 2 for a while as well.

[Juggernaut1981]

As I mentioned in my September Challenge entry, when I do my maps I use a combination of AutoREALM (probably Vector?) and GIMP with a tablet laptop (Fujitsu Lifebook T Series)

Generally the process is:

#1 Stick in all the big features (land, rivers, etc)
#2 Export into JPGs the icons available in AutoREALM (because I don't know how to export the individual icons in AutoREALM so I could use them as brushes in GIMP)
#3 Build a number of layers in GIMP to deal with the different sections of the map (oceans, landscape, roads, structures, map-notes/labels)
#4 Tweak around by inserting layers and fidgeting with their interplay to get the effects I want. Fidget with colouring,etc.

[mearrin69]

Hi all,
I'm pretty new to making maps - been doing some of the tutorials here over the past week or so - but I'm not totally new to graphics software.

Specific to mapping, I have purchased (but barely used) Dundjinni, Fractal Mapper, and Astrosynthesis (I guess that sort of counts). I use Fireworks for web work but like the way it functions so I've used that quite a bit as a GM for making and editing images to use in-game...and I've also made a couple of maps with it. I also have Photoshop and Illustrator (not current versions) but I've never used them for mapping until recently (using PS for tutorials found here). I have a very old version of Painter but haven't used it for mapping either...not sure if it even *would* be useful.

Beyond 2D, I've used a number of modeling and rendering apps - ranging from Sketchup and Silo all of the way to Maya and Max. I'm tangentially involved in the 3D content creation world (as a business analyst) and have had the opportunity to use review units of a lot of this stuff and have bought quite a bit more just because it interested me. I'm considering trying out 3D to render objects for maps (buildings, trees, etc.) to see if I like the look. trueSpace 7 (now free, I think), and maybe some others, allow you to render to PSD layers and I think that'd be useful for this.

Since coming here (one week maybe) I've bumped into some new apps like Wilbur. Hoping to try these out when I get time. I downloaded and took a brief look at Wilbur but have to admit I didn't get a chance to check it out fully - looks cool though!
M

[jlvoideater]

I always used Dundjinni, but have to use GIMP until my laptop is fixed. I have an Ubuntu laptop and Macbook, but I only have the PC version of Dundjinni.

[SushiDave]

Hi! I am new to the site here and excited about sharing notes & ideas with fellow mappers & GM's in the Fantasy Realm setting. I have been using Fractal Mapper since version 6 and love it. Kudos to Mark Oliva and all the resources he's provided to mappers using the FM series. There are a few minor problems I've run into with FM, but nothing that can't be worked around. And of course, like a greedy user - have no shortage of items on my wish list. But? All in all, I find FM to work well for my needs.

[DrLight]

I also use Pro Fantasy 's CC3 and packages, and have NBOS's Fractal Mapper and astrosynth but I haven't used them in a while

[ajcsiv]

Guys, thank you so much for this.

It has been an excellent start for me to research what programs I should learn and/or what is right for me.