What is an Entity?

Given Campaign Cartographer’s CAD underpinnings and the geeky nature of the target audience, I’m guessing that the term “entity” derives in no small part from the data-modeling concept of an “entity” used by Software Engineers.  If you are not familiar with this idea, let’s keep it simple and say that an entity is anything that you can put onto the canvas of your Drawing Window.

CC3+ recognizes 27 different types of entities.

Be careful not to confuse Symbols² with entities.  A symbol is one type of entity.  A single line on the canvas is also an entity.

To help you to recognize the entities that may be present in your map, I created the reference below.  The references map which entity types are created by certain buttons and menu options.  Take notice that you can right-click some buttons to provide additional options.

Entities Created by Draw Toolbar Buttons
Button	Entity Created	Button	Entity Created
	2D Line		2D Polygon
	2D Path		Varies. The entity created is a hollow version of the entity outlined.
	2D Arc2D Elliptical Arc (option)		2D Circle2D Ellipse (option)
	2D Path		2D Polygon2D Smooth Polygon (option) 2D Path (option)
	2D Spline2D Bezier (option)		2D Smooth Polygon2D Spline (option) 2D Bezier (option)
	2D Path		2D Polygon
	2D Text		2D Multipoly
	2D Text

Two buttons on the File toolbar allow you to create entities of type Action:2D hotspot.

Entities Created by File Toolbar Buttons
Button	Entity Created	Button	Entity Created
	Action:2D Hotspot		Action:2D Hotspot

In addition to entities easily created from the Draw toolbar and the File Toolbar, an additional entity can be created from the Draw menu.  A 2D Point.

Draw > Point to create a 2D Point

Finally, every symbol you add to the map from the Symbol Catalog is of type Symbol Reference.

But wait, there’s more! 12 more in fact.  I have not yet discovered which tools are able to create these entity types. As I discover them, I’ll keep you updated.

TIP: Learn to use the “Info” menu item.  As I played with various buttons and menu options, I would Info > List them to get a look at their attributes.

Menubar > Info > List

Select the scribbles and various entities using techniques from Part 1

Right-click. Select “Do It

A window with a blue background will open up with a lot of information about the entity. The entity type (circled in red in Figure 1 above) will be at the start of each entry.

By having a better understanding of the types of entities the various tools create, you can better zero in on the elements of your map with which you want to work.  For example, both the Landmass and Sea Contour tools simply create 2D Polygons. Knowing this may help you to select the correct entity by type

Select by Entity Type

Why You May Want To Use This Approach: You want to change the font of all of the text on your map.  You want to select one or more entities you’ve drawn using the Draw Buttons.

Now that we know what an entity is, it should be easy to select one or more of them.

In the Khalkaraeon map, all of the text is currently on the STRUCTURES layer.  We want to move it to the TEXT LABELS layer so we can then hide it on various print-outs we hand to players.  To move the text, we need to use the Change Properties tool.

1. Click the “Change Properties” button from the”Edit” toolbox to the left of the Symbol Catalog. See Figure 2.
2. Move your cursor to the Drawing Window.  In CC3, take note of the Command Line, it reads “Select Entities (0 picked):”.  In CC3+, you get this same text on the Command Line and, additionally, in the Command Prompt along with more detailed instructions.
3. Right-click.  Select “Entity Type” from the pop-up menu.
4. The “Like Entity” Dialog window will pop-up.  Click the checkbox labeled “2D Text”.
5. All of the Text entities will be selected and will turn pink in color. The Command Line reads “Select entities (13 picked):”.  If you have CC3+, the floating Command Prompt reads “Select entities to change properties [13 selected]:”
6. Right-click. Select “Do it” to execute the “Change Properties” command.

With the text selected, you can switch it to the TEXT LABELS layer via the “Change Properties” dialog.

All of the Roads are on the STRUCTURES Layer.  They are 2D Splines.  Use the technique above to select and move them to a different layer.

Select Prior

Why You May Want To Use This Approach: You just completed a command on one or more entities and now you want to execute another command on the same group of entities.

This one is easy.  Assume you just completed a command and want to work with the same group of entities.

1. Click the button or select the menu item to execute your next command.
2. Move your cursor to the Drawing Window.  In CC3, take note of the Command Line, it reads “Select Entities (0 picked):”.  In CC3+, you get this same text on both the Command Line and Command Prompt.
3. Right-click.  Select “Prior” from the pop-up menu. The same entity (or collection of entities) you just edited are selected again for you.  Confirm by taking note of the Command Line / Command Prompt.  The number of entities “picked” should be the same as the number selected for the previous command³.
4. Right-click. Select “Do It” to execute your new command.

“Select Prior” is an easy way to pick up entities you just edited.  If you’ve spent a significant amount of time discarding excess entities to get down to just the few you want to work with, this Select technique can save you a lot of time.

At this point, you should have a firm grasp on what a Campaign Cartographer 3+ entity is and can pick them up using a variety of different select techniques.  Some techniques are broader and more general and others are very specific.  You’ve at least been introduced to the Info > List box and should grasp the importance of watching the Command Line and Command Prompt.

But wait! There’s more!  We haven’t yet discussed Select by Color, Select by Fill Type, or combining multiple select types with AND, OR and NOT to add to and subtract from a selection.  If you add in the ability to freeze and thaw layers within CC3+, you’ve got a rich and varied set of tools to work with to quickly pick up entities on your map.

Play around.  Practice. Investigate some of the techniques I have not discussed.  This is a critical skill and the better you get at it, the more control you will have over the look and feel of your maps.  I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

What are your go-to techniques for selecting entities in CC3+?  Which technique has had the biggest impact on your productivity?  Please share it with me in the comments. I’d love to learn it.

1. Highly, highly recommended and worth every dollar if you want to accelerate your knowledge of the entire ProFantasy Software Suite. Even though it is written for CC3, the content is still largely applicable to CC3+ ↩
2. Technically, “Symbol References” but, for this discussion, just think of them as symbols ↩
3. Unless the previous command erased, split or otherwise altered the number of entities on the map ↩