Maptools Q&A thread

The last 3 times I've closed & reopened Maptools, the room I drew keeps disappearing. The doors I drew are still there, and the bedrooms, stairs are still there, but the living room lines keep disappearing! What's going on? The hand drawn stuff seems to be able to save (but looks ugly & doesn't follow the grid lines). When I use the 'squaring tool' to get the straight lines, they keep vanishing (and I'm always saving the map, so that's not it). The tokens and everything else stays the same...

I'll try to create a few walls for you tonight.

Instead of drawing on the map you can place objects onto it, them resize/move them to create rooms.

Drawings do disapear from time to time, but objects/tokens don't.

Sent you an email describing how you can create a simple room with textures.

If you need a hand with it let me know.

Ken, I'm having trouble figuring out the "Fog of War" thing. (I think that's the feature I want...)

Athough you know what this map looks like (since you sent it to me), no one else does and you don't know what I populated that eastern room with. I've been trying to export a map with that E room blocked so everyone can see where that E 2x/door is to the other area, but I'm having trouble exporting an image that hides what's in there. What do I need to do?

Thanks! -B

Hmm... It looks like the "Vision Blocking Layer" isn't setup right.

In MapTools click on the eye icon.

You'll see a blue line around the perimeter of the building as well as a couple of the pillars in the room.

When Fog of War is active, the blue lines act as barriers to block line of sight.

With the "eye" icon selected the last icon allows you to draw "blue" lines. You'll need to draw lines along the interior walls.

Once you have the lines you'll need to re-apply Fog of War (to make the room dark and not visible to PCs). Then you can use a PC and hit Ctrl-i to illuminate areas you want them to see.


Start with a small section and play around with drawing the blue lines (Vision Blocking Layer).

If you need I could stop by on Tues/Wed since I'm off for the week. I might be able to stop by tomorrow for a bit, but it's Jorren's birthday and he's having a few friends over. You're free to stop buy here though...

Did you get the Vision Blocking Layer working?

Dwarmaj wrote:Did you get the Vision Blocking Layer working?

Not yet...

I think I might have messed something up trying to figure it out on my own... I can draw a very thin blue line, but it doesn't seem to do anything. (& I have lots of big blue boxes that I can't get rid of that only show when the eye icon is pressed.)

It might not matter too much anyway this encounter. If you're up this way anyway though, you're welcome to help me undo whatever mistakes I did, otherwise, it's not critical... I work very close to home so anytime is fine.

The "blue boxes" only do things when you're using Fog of War. They are used to block line of sight.

To get rid of a blue line:
1. Click on the Eye icon
2. Click on the solid blue square
3. Hold down the shift key, then Left click near the blue box you want to get rid of.
4. (still holding the shift key) Move the curser, this should create a white box over your blue box.
5. Left click when the white box overlaps the blue box.

This will erase the blue lines/boxes.

1. Click on the Fog icon
2. Click on the square to the right of the Fog icon
3. Hold down the shift key to make a "Fog of War" square

To remove a Fog of War square, follow the steps above, but don't hold down the shift key.

To illuminate the area, press Ctrl-i when a PC is selected.
When you have the blue boxes/lines where you want them.

Hey, if you two get together tommorrow, Tuesday, let me know. Think I'm pretty free to do Spellfire, Gamma World, martial arts, give tours of my new place (well at least all the unopened move boxes), or even some D&D randoms...(I know where those boxes are).

To add/remove Fog of War

Dwarmaj wrote:
1. Click on the Fog icon
2. Click on the square to the right of the Fog icon
3. Hold down the shift key to make a "Fog of War" square

To remove a Fog of War square, follow the steps above, but don't hold down the shift key.

Rest should be...

When you have the blue boxes/lines where you want them.
You can illuminate the area by pressing Ctrl-i when a PC is selected.


I'm available after 12. Need to wait until all of Jorren's friends are gone (he had a sleep over for his birthday, basically staying up all night playing with his new xbox).

Dwarmaj wrote:I'm available after 12.

If you & Stu want to come by, that'd be great, but I need to stay on site. I have a couple resident issues I may need to take care of, so I may have a ~15 min interuption to take care of...

What's a good time to stop by?

Dwarmaj wrote:What's a good time to stop by?

Anytime from now on is fine. I do need to get to the bank before it closes, but I can do that in about 10 mins around your schedule.

Maybe we should call Stu & coordinate? Did you have time to hang out a bit, or did you want to just help & run?

The only plans I have today is to watch the Phi/Min football game tonight.

I'm down by 4 and have the Philly kicker and defense. My opponant and I both have Vick so my chances are looking pretty good.

I'll head out at 1:30, should be at your place around 2. I'll call Stu when I'm in route.