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tips [2019/05/04 21:59] – [Pitch Drawing Tips] tarquinwjtips [2019/12/08 19:21] – showing how to hide the scrap station's centreline tarquinwj
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   * Always check the "object setup area" on right side and "status line" on bottom of it. You may find there any necessary information with help to create object with correct parameters and in correct place.    * Always check the "object setup area" on right side and "status line" on bottom of it. You may find there any necessary information with help to create object with correct parameters and in correct place. 
   * If you press the "Escape" key you leave the "Insert Mode" and switch to "Select mode". The "Select mode" works in two steps - **select** - after first click you may check the parameters of object in "Status line" or "File commands" or "object setup area" and - **move** - after second click you may move with object.   * If you press the "Escape" key you leave the "Insert Mode" and switch to "Select mode". The "Select mode" works in two steps - **select** - after first click you may check the parameters of object in "Status line" or "File commands" or "object setup area" and - **move** - after second click you may move with object.
-  * If you add line object, you may start to insert new line simple by pressing of Ctrl+L keys, you don't need to escape from "Inserting mode" first. +  * To add a line object, you may start to insert new line simple by pressing of Ctrl+L keys, you don't need to escape from "Inserting mode" first. 
   * Always check the small yellow tick on first point of line object. It shows the FREE space side of line. It means you should draw walls in counterclockwise direction, the blocks in clockwise direction, pit or chimney in counterclockwise direction, etc. If you made a mistake there is "reverse" option in "Line commands" section.   * Always check the small yellow tick on first point of line object. It shows the FREE space side of line. It means you should draw walls in counterclockwise direction, the blocks in clockwise direction, pit or chimney in counterclockwise direction, etc. If you made a mistake there is "reverse" option in "Line commands" section.
 +
 +===Finding Objects if you have large blank extents===
 +If you have inserted an xvi or drawing image with large extents, it may be difficult to find the drawing objects by panning or zooming around the drawing interface.\\
 +An easier way to locate any drawing objects is to open the Objects window on the top right-hand side of the XTherion interface, and click on one of the objects listed.
 +Except for scraps, and areas, most objects will be selected and the drawing area will be panned to show the object mid-screen.\\
 +For example, clicking on object 4 below, selects it and brigs it to the centre of the drawing area.
 +
 +{{tips:xtherion_extents_find__objects.png?300}}
 +
 +If you are repeatedly creating th2 files with large blank extents around the drawings and images, then it may be because of spurious drawing lines made accidentally when navigating during data collection with PocketTopo, TopoDroid, SexyTopo or the likes.  It may also be because of inappropriate parameters used (chosen by you or the application developer) to export data from these applications to Therion.\\
 +If drawings and export\imports are well posed, then your drawing area extents should not be much larger than your actual drawing.\\
 +You can manually or automatically tweak the drawing area that is viewable for a particular file if you scroll down to the Drawing Area window near the bottom of the right-hand side of XTherion, and make adjustments there.
  
  
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     join scrap1 scrap2 [-count <number of passage (not line) joins for Therion to look for>]     join scrap1 scrap2 [-count <number of passage (not line) joins for Therion to look for>]
  
-Note that this works using passages defined by lines of "wall" type (even if their "-outline" is set to "none"). It does not join other types of line. It normally expects to find pairs of lines, one on each side of the passage. If there are multiple passages that need to be joined between pairs of scraps, you can normally use the "-count" option to say how many possible passage joins Therion should search for.+The method can only join two scraps at a time.  Note that it only works using passages defined by lines of "wall" type (even if their "-outline" is set to "none"). It does not join other types of line. It normally expects to find pairs of lines, one on each side of the passage opening. If there are multiple places where the two scraps join, you can normally use the "-count" option to say how many possible passage joins Therion should search for in the two scraps.
  
 **Manual line by line** **Manual line by line**
  
-From time to time the semi-automatic way does not work, or you want more refined control.  Then you should join each line to the other line (usually, but not only walls) or to a point. Every point on a line has a mark according its sequence from beginning of line (yellow tick). The first one has mark 0, next one 1, etc., last one is mark "end". So the join command will be:\\+From time to time the semi-automatic way does not work, or you want more refined control.  Then you should join each line to the other line (usually, but not only walls) or to a point. If you have several objects to join at one point, then unlike the scrap by scrap join above, you should use one join statement to join them all (see bottom of this topic).  Every point on a line has a mark according its sequence from beginning of line (yellow tick). The first one has mark 0, next one 1, etc., last one is mark "end". So the join command will be:\\
  
  
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 {{:tips:zig-zag_map.png?150|map}} {{:tips:zig-zag_extended.png?150|extended}}\\ {{:tips:zig-zag_map.png?150|map}} {{:tips:zig-zag_extended.png?150|extended}}\\
 See also [[extend|Extended Elevations]] page for comprehensive extended elevation guidance. See also [[extend|Extended Elevations]] page for comprehensive extended elevation guidance.
 +
 +====Showing centreline for parts of a cave, and passage walls for others====
 +
 +Sometimes you might have full survey data and drawings for some parts of a cave, while other parts might have only centreline data. It is possible to combine these in the same PDF output, using a map consisting of other maps, and other surveys:
 +
 +  map allcave
 +    subsection_map@subsection #the part with walls drawn
 +    othersubsection_survey    #the survey containing a part without wall drawings
 +  endmap
 +
 +Note that you now cannot use "symbol-hide group centreline" or any equivalents to hide the centreline in your scraps, since it will also hide these centrelines that do not have any wall drawings. Instead, you need to [[metapost#Centreline that is only visible when not in a scrap|hide it within the scraps using metapost]].
 +
 +====Making a subset of the cave take its altitude colours from a larger part of the cave====
 +
 +When rendering a map (map-endmap), with "color map-fg altitude" enabled, the default automatic altitude colour bands take their highest and lowest values from the highest and lowest survey stations for the parts of the survey that are used in the rendering. It takes all the survey stations within the "cave" (ie. not in a "flags surface" section), from whichever surveys and subsurveys have some of their parts included in the map, and finds the highest and lowest station. This happens even if the highest and lowest stations within those surveys are not even rendered because they are not included in a scrap.
 +
 +When you want to render a subset of that cave, such as a map showing only the entrance series of a cave, you might want to have the colours match the colours that were used in the overall map, so that the parts of the cave are recognisable. One way is to use an [[examples#colour_palette_scales_-_lookups|altitude lookup]].
 +
 +Another approach, which allows Therion to continue using automatic altitude colours, is to [[#Showing centreline for parts of a cave, and passage walls for others|include the highest and lowest surveys/subsurveys in your map]], and then use symbol-hide to hide those surveys. If you don't know which part of the cave will be the highest or lowest, just include all of them, to be on the safe side.
 +
 +  map foo
 +    subsection_map@subsection #the part you actually want to render
 +    othersubsection_survey    #the survey containing the highest part of the cave
 +    anothersubsection_survey  #the survey containing the lowest part of the cave
 +  endmap
 +
 +Your layout would then include this:
 +
 +  color map-fg altitude
 +  symbol-hide group centreline
 +
 +By hiding the centreline, you cause the unwanted surveys not to render at all, so the output acts like they were never included (it is cropped accordingly to show only the rendered part).
 +
 +If you need to include a centreline-only section of the cave in your rendering, then the same approach works, but it is a little more convoluted. Create a scrap in the highest and lowest parts of the cave. Those scraps should contain only a single station point. It doesn't have to be the highest or lowest station, since simply including any station causes all of them within that survey to be considered for the highest and lowest points. Give that station the "-visibility off" option. Include that scrap instead of including the survey itself. You will then also need to [[metapost#Centreline that is only visible when not in a scrap|use MetaPost to hide the tiny bit of centreline]] that Therion will try to show at that hidden station. Unfortunately, Therion will still leave the space for that centreline even though you asked it not to draw anything, so it will not crop the survey to the appropriate size. No solution is known for this problem at present.
 =====Map Layout===== =====Map Layout=====
 +
 +====How to make map outputs match ISO paper size proportions====
 +from Chris Hayes
 +
 +ISO paper sizes have an edge length ratio, H:W, of √2:1, or vise versa. However when exporting maps to pdf, Therion makes the pdf exactly match the bounds of the cave, plus any images or legend elements that we might include with the layout.  This does not typically match an ISO paper size, or the proportions thereof.
 +
 +
 +If we want our exported map output to scale nicely to print to a standard paper size (e.g. A4, A3, A1) then we need to cunningly include a map-header and or a map-image element to nudge the size of the pdf 'paper'.
 +
 +
 +  * Compile a map with ''map-header 0 100 nw'' and ''map-header 100 0 se'' to get the dimensions, H and W of the pdf, then modify the map-header specification and compile again.
 +
 +  * For portrait outputs;  add / remove ''delta H = 50*[√(2)*W/H -1]'' to the y positions
 +  * For landscape outputs; add / remove ''delta W = 50*[√(2)*H/W -1]'' to the x positions
 +
 +
 +  # Example for a portrait output, with modified y positions
 +  map-header 0 109.79986718266315 nw               #place map header in top left corner
 +  map-image 100 -9.79986718266315 se Club_Logo.png #place an image such as club logo in bottom right corner
 +
 +The output will probably not match an ISO paper size that you have in your printer, but it will be of the correct proportion to be scaled to fit thatISO paper size.
  
 ====Map-image and custom legendbox==== ====Map-image and custom legendbox====
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