Mapping multi-level structures with CC3

[DaltonSpence]

Before CC3, the main use I had for sheets came from the Cosmographer Add-on; each deck (and the hull) of a starship deckplan was done on a separate sheet. I used the same technique for multi-level dungeons and multi-floor buildings. Now CC3 is out, the main purpose of sheets seems to be the application of visual effects. I'm not sure how to convert my old CC2 deckplans, buildings and subterrainian structures to take advantage of these features. Should I use

1. layers for level designations and sheets to organize entities into categories and purpose? The "Front only on layer" option for symbols and drawtools would be invaluable here, but converting an existing drawing would require a custom script.
2. sheet names with a category prefix and a level suffix? This would work for symbols with forced wildcard sheets, but drawtools may have trouble.
3. sheet names with a level prefix and a category suffix? I could show a level's sheets more easily with "HIDESHTF *;SHOWSHT levelname*" but it would make forced sheet symbols and tools impossible to use.
4. some other method I haven't considered?

Please indicate your preferance by answering the poll. If one of the middle two options, would you group sheets by level or category?

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Dalton "who hopes this is a worthy first post for this forum" Spence

[Robbie]

I've not done deck plans...but I voted Level and Category primarily because I'd want to group sheets by level primarily...I'd probably put everything on sheets based on levels. I'd of course have a level prefix if I needed multiple sheets for each deck level.

[RPMiller]

I picked that as well. With the need to use effects on a sheet you basically have to have "sub sheets" or "sheet groups" so that you can easily organize a deck and still have effects.

[DaltonSpence]

I didn't want to bias the poll by including my choice in the original post, but after seriously considering the issue (and changing my mind several times) I've reluctantly decided that option 1 is the best way to go. This means that layers would have to be abandoned as a way of grouping classes of entities, but with sheets performing that function now an additional type grouping factor would be redundant. This idea might be difficult for veteran CC2 mappers to accept, since the old equivalency of sheet=level and layer=type is imbedded in the Sheets and Layers page of the help file.

• Sheets are the floors of an office (1ST, 2ND, 3RD)
• Layers are the type of object on each floor (furniture, books, computers)

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Each map would require its own custom script to periodically sort layers (levels) into the proper order, but a similar macro already existed for overland maps since CC2. As I said in my original post, the trick would be converting (ie. swapping) layers for sheets and vice versa. I'll write a macro for it later.

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Dalton "who is too tired right now to program safely" Spence