Making big PDF maps

[Morte]

If I want to make PDF maps of sector or more size, looking roughly like a Shane's maps minus the subsector lines but with UWP data like this, what software do I need?

Can I do it free (since I only really want 2 or 3 maps)?

 

[Elliot]

The usual response is Campaign Cartographer - what would be really cool is if QLI put a sector map designer pdf form thingy on the web site - (although cost of software might be too high - anyone wanna stick a freebie up?)

 

[Slink182]

I need to ask - what size paper sheet are you looking to print something like your example on? A4, A2, legal, what?

 

[Morte]

It's mostly to view on screen, not for paper. I zoom in and scroll around. I don't really go in for paper much these days, but I have big dual monitors.

A decent viewing programme, with anti-aliased rendering and no arbitrary (sub)sector alignment crap, wouldn't be too bad. But I could put PDFs in a PDA, unlike most software.

 

[Malenfant]

Probably can't do it for free. I'd make the map in Photoshop or Canvas or something like that, then save it as a PDF using the full version of Adobe Acrobat.

 

[Flynn]

The sector maps are made using Campaign Cartographer II (now on sale at $39 instead of $79), Galactic 2.4, and a small script that can be found on the internet. After that, I think there's a lot of manipulation of images to get things looking right, but that's the basics of how maps like that can be created.

Programming anything like what's requested above would take a dedicated effort, which a lot of people are not likely to do without being paid for it. However, if you do find something like that, please let us know.

Good luck,
Flynn

 

[tjoneslo]

The software used to create the map on maps.travellercentral.com is free. But you need to know a little programming to get them to come out right.

I've used Anthony's software to produce quadrant maps using the same data in PDF just because I thought they looked nicer.

the nroute program Anthony Jackon wrote writes a postscript file (which has all the data), then uses a PS2PDF (a free software package) to produce the PDF files.

 

[Flynn]

Not familiar with postscript or how to use such a script, but if you could enlighten me, Obi-Wan, I would be forever in your debt...

Seeking wisdom,
Flynn

 

[Flynn]

tjoneslo,

Perhaps I should clarify.... Could you provide some general instructions on how you created either sector or quadrant maps using the nroute program followed by PS2PDF?

Thanks in advance for your time,
Flynn

 

[robject]

My Perl code is free, too, but it too produces PostScript files. I have to run GSView or similar to convert PS files to PDFs or JPEGs. I never heard of PS2PDF; sounds nice.

 

[Flynn]

Perl code? Would you mind sharing that, and how to set it up to run?

Thanks,
Flynn

 

[Flynn]

Pushing my envelope somewhat, as I'm not a C/C++ programmer, but I thought I'd see what could be done anyway...

Okay, I've tried downloading a C/C++ compiler off the internet and running nroute.c through it. Unfortunately, I get the following issues from the program itself:

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">nroute.c:
if( p = strrchr( out, '.' ) ) *p = 0;
^
nroute.c(120) : Warning 2: possible unintended assignment
if( (p = strchr( buf, '1' ))) POS=p-buf; else return;
^
nroute.c(145) : Warning 2: possible unintended assignment
if( (p = strchr( buf, '2' ))) PORT=p-buf; else return;
^
nroute.c(146) : Warning 2: possible unintended assignment
if( (p = strchr( buf, '3' ))) BASE=p-buf; else return;
^
nroute.c(148) : Warning 2: possible unintended assignment
if( (p = strchr( buf, '4' ))) TRADE=p-buf; else return;
^
nroute.c(149) : Warning 2: possible unintended assignment
if( (p = strchr( buf, '5' ))) ZONE=p-buf; else return;
^
nroute.c(150) : Warning 2: possible unintended assignment
if( (p = strchr( buf, '6' ))) GAS=p-buf+2; else return;
^
nroute.c(151) : Warning 2: possible unintended assignment
if( (p = strchr( buf, '7' ))) ALIGN=p-buf; else return;
^
nroute.c(152) : Warning 2: possible unintended assignment</pre>[/QUOTE]Any thoughts?

-Flynn

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

Those are just warnings*, and the compilation should have produced an executable anyway, unless there were actual errors - perhaps you only posted some of the compiler's output. In any case, there aren't any errors there.

* The coder is doing two things in one go: assigning something to the variable p, and then testing the value of p; a common enough C idiom, but the compiler doesn't neccessarily know the programmer meant to do that, hence the warning.

 

[vutpakdi]

Originally posted by Flynn:
Pushing my envelope somewhat, as I'm not a C/C++ programmer, but I thought I'd see what could be done anyway...

Okay, I've tried downloading a C/C++ compiler off the internet and running nroute.c through it. Unfortunately, I get the following issues from the program itself:

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">nroute.c:
if( p = strrchr( out, '.' ) ) *p = 0;
^
nroute.c(120) : Warning 2: possible unintended assignment</pre>

Any thoughts?
[/quote]<dusts off a really dusty and dirty C/C++ cap> I think that those warnings should be okay (ie, whoever wrote that really did want to do the assignment and then test the result). But, that being said, it something acts funny when you run the program, you could try changing the = to ==.

Ron

 

[Flynn]

Thanks, Ron,

Making those changes removed the warnings. The only errors now come from the file I'm processing itself.

More later,
Flynn

 

[vutpakdi]

Originally posted by Flynn:

Making those changes removed the warnings. The only errors now come from the file I'm processing itself.

Well, you might want/need to keep the assignments as they were since the original developer could have intended for them to be there. There should be a compiler switch to allow the executable to be built even if there are warnings but not errors(this is usually the default, I think).

I generally avoid(ed) doing assignments in conditionals for this exact reason: later on, discerning the intent is easier even if the code is more verbose.

Ron

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

Ack! Making those changes will, of course, completely alter the logic of the program.

 

[Straybow]

Programmers never document

 

[vutpakdi]

Originally posted by Straybow:
Programmers never document

Nah, some do (I do somewhat, on the rare occasions that I code these days: I'm a UI designer now). I did have a professor who declared that in code comments can be dangerous because they tend not to be updated when the code changes. He always advocated making the code as clear (if verbose) as possible and keeping comments to a minimum.

Ron

 

[tjoneslo]

Gee Flynn, I didn't realise you'd actually try this.

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/AFPL/6.50/Ps2pdf.htm
This is a link to PS2PDF, which is included with most of the RedHat Linux distributions.

The NRoute code from Anthony site also assume you are running it on a Linux server (or at least a Unix one). If you are not, you will have a porting job on your hands.

As others have noted, the warnings can be ignored as the assignments in the conditionals are intentional.

Start with reviewing the blankmap.ps file (it the postscript text file that forms the basis of the postscript file you will convert later).

Next look through the nroute.c code for the show_sector () function. A careful reading of the items begin written will show how the postscript is written. And then it calls the ps2pdf to convert the postscript ot a pdf file.

I took a look this morning and realized I lost the fixes for the nroute to produce the quadrant code when the our red hat server got upgraded. If you are really interested I can reproduce it.

Otherwise, If you only want one or two, you may be able to write by hand the PS file for your notes or tweak the show_sector() code.

Don't forget though, PDF is a page oriented file format, it likes things to be on a 8x11 page (or similar).