Using Dia to create dungeon maps

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10-09-2007, 05:18 PM
ColeonyxOnline

Using Dia to create dungeon maps

I used Dia, a diagramming tool, to create the map below.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ngeon3Grid.jpg

It's very easy to use it, to create a map like this one, I used the line and arc tools and I set the "snap to grid" option on the preferences menu. To create a grid, I created a separate layer with the lines in it. The Dia source file for this image is here.

I have submitted a feature request to their developers asking for the option to print/display the grid be added to preferences menu. If anyone wants to add a comment to that request it would be appreciated.
10-09-2007, 05:43 PM
ravells

Welcome to the boards, Coleony. I've not come across Dia before and must check it out. Enjoy your stay and do check out all the forums. There is probably much in the tutorials sections that can be applied to Dia with a bit of tinkering.

Ravs
10-09-2007, 10:21 PM
pyrandon

Hm! I've also never heard of Dia--so your post is doubly valuable! I can easily see this being nice for quickie maps! Thanks for the display.

(And welcome to the Guild!!!)
10-10-2007, 08:52 AM
ColeonyxOnline

Quote:

Originally Posted by ravells

Welcome to the boards, Coleony. I've not come across Dia before and must check it out. Enjoy your stay and do check out all the forums. There is probably much in the tutorials sections that can be applied to Dia with a bit of tinkering.

Ravs

Quote:

Originally Posted by pyrandon

Hm! I've also never heard of Dia--so your post is doubly valuable! I can easily see this being nice for quickie maps! Thanks for the display.

(And welcome to the Guild!!!)

Thank you both for the welcome, I appreciate it. If you have any issues with the installation on Windows XP, I can try to help.

Thanks again...
10-10-2007, 11:56 AM
RobA

Hi Coleony!

I had played with Dia but ended moving to Inkscape as it seemed a bit more feature rich to me. Have you ever compared the two?

-Rob A>
10-10-2007, 12:53 PM
ColeonyxOnline

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobA

Hi Coleony!

I had played with Dia but ended moving to Inkscape as it seemed a bit more feature rich to me. Have you ever compared the two?

-Rob A>

Hi Rob,

I installed Inkscape and used to create one image, a 3D table. It looks very interesting, specially if you are interested in creating 3D images.

Dia is more for simple 2D battlemaps (it also supports Hex grids) like the one I posted, nothing 3D. As far as I know, Dia doesn't even have a tool to paint pixels.

So for city maps or world maps, probably some other tool, like Inkscape, would work better.
10-10-2007, 04:51 PM
ColeonyxOnline

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobA

Inkscape is a 2D vector application, are you sure that is what you were thinking of? (of course you can make some realistic looking 3d stuff with it, but it is all 2D painting :)

Attached is a 10 second scribble...(I had my snap to 10 px but the grid to 20 px, hence the half grid offsets...)

-Rob A>

Nice map, is there any chance you could include the Inkscape source for it? :D

You are right, I use GIMP for my stuff on deviantart, and I had seen some of the example images done with Inkscape and they looked trully 3D, something that would be very hard to accomplish with GIMP.

The other thing that I liked about Dia was the "snap to grid" and the fact I could just quickly use the line tool to create the walls which is all I use when creating maps (aside from doors). And I also liked the fact that the layers were also very easy to use (like creating a map for the GM and another one that I print).
10-10-2007, 05:11 PM
ravells

You may want to check out CC3 as well...but it's not free.
10-10-2007, 07:44 PM
ColeonyxOnline

Quote:

Originally Posted by ravells

You may want to check out CC3 as well...but it's not free.

From everything that I have seen and heard, CC3 really is the best program for mapping available.

The reason why I actually tried using Dia, was after reading the thread "Musings, Collusion Kills and Excel Maps" and I wondered if there was another program other than CC3 or Autoream to make a simple battlemaps, that's when I tried Dia, and was surprised at how easy it was.
10-10-2007, 08:31 PM
RobA

Clever little link. Reminded me of the time I was sent a full set of network diagrams, drawn in Excel using cell borders to make the lines!

-Rob A>

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