Topic: What is the best way to make Deck Plans?

[pyrotech]

Well I've been playing around with my next attempt at a TGC submission and have been having more difficulty than I really like with the map for it.

I'm working on a blockade runner for Harp Sci-Fi with a short write-up including history and stats.  I would like to include a deck plan with the article but the creation of said plan has been a bit tedious (made worse by the corrupted boot sector of my primary PC).

What tools do people use to build their deck plans (preferably free or near to it)?

I'll attach a Work In Progress picture of my deck plan to this post.

Regards-

[RandalThor]

I use ones others create because I am not good at that sort of thing. So, keep up the good work (are those chests being used as engine exhausts?).

[pyrotech]

barrels resized huge and recolored if I remember correct.  I've been using AutoRealm for this, but not been inspired.  It is too hard to be fast and not powerful enough for the effort required.  It could be just that it doesn't have any stock templates that work well for me as well I guess.  But I haven't been very happy with it so far for Sci-Fi vessels.

[markc]

  I do not know of any free programs but a friend of mine used house/architect programs to do some creations and I have had others use Photoshop or Illustrator which are both made by Adobe (not free).
MDC

[RandalThor]

But I haven't been very happy with it so far for Sci-Fi vessels.

Try these: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=675&q=sci-fi+spaceship+deck+plans&oq=sci-fi+spaceship+deck+plans&gs_l=img.3...504.16983.0.17397.33.13.3.14.14.0.472.2116.5j5j1j1j1.13.0....0...1ac.1.58.img..13.20.2197.CnnTwehms08

[pyrotech]

I've decided to try to use Visio to make the deckplan and see if that is any easier or better.

So far I have been much happier.  I'll need to color things and figure out how to put the grid on still.  But I think this looks better myself.  Let me know if I'm totally wrong about this.

Regards,

[markc]

Looks good to me.
MDC

[RandalThor]

Yeah, looks pretty-good to me. I do tend to prefer color and a bit more texture, but that would work just fine. I am assuming that is not a warship of any kind, because those walls are mighty thin... unless it relies upon active defenses, of course.

[Bruce]

There are a couple great graphics programs out there for free. One that comes to mind is Gimp. Gimp is a fully featured graphics program that would work great for your project. Another one that is free and is great with 3d modeling (the learning curve is steep though) is Inkscape. Both of those frequently hit number one when websites compare free graphics programs.
FYI, if whatever program you do decide to use supports .png format then your in luck as there are loads (a few gigabytes worth) of objects for free on various websites that you could use instead of trying to draw everything yourself. Try RPGMapshare.com, it's great site. Here's a link: http://rpgmapshare.com/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=105

I hope this helps.

Bruce

[pyrotech]

I typically prefer paint.net for free drawing manipulations (I'm simply  much more familiar with it).  For 3d I typically go Sketchup.  But seeing as my Windows machine is down with a bum hard drive I'm using my Linux box now.  Gimp and Incscape are the prime drawing softwares on Linux.  Times I've tried Gimp previously always left me feeling unhappy, but a bit of polish on the gui would fix most of my problems with it (and they have had a lot of time to polish the gui since I last tried it).  Incscape has been catching my attention to try recently.

I may work some more on these deckplans tomorrow if I get a chance.  I'll have to see what I can do with incscape.

Thanks for the link by the way I'll take a look and see if anything pops out at me.

Regards,

[Marrethiel]

Why not just use modern navy builds?
Its amazing how constant the ratio of crew to surface area is and they are created by experts!

[jdale]

FYI, if whatever program you do decide to use supports .png format then your in luck as there are loads (a few gigabytes worth) of objects for free on various websites that you could use instead of trying to draw everything yourself. Try RPGMapshare.com, it's great site. Here's a link: http://rpgmapshare.com/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=105

Another good source for .png objects and such is the Dundjinni forums: http://www.dundjinni.com/forums/default.asp

I have not kept up but there is a ton of useful material for mapmaking, and the .png files can be used in pretty much any graphics program, not just in Dundjinni.

That said, I like the nice clean lines of your map in Visio.

[pyrotech]

Well today's update on my deck plan adventure follows:

Bruce's link on map objects has proven very nice.  I've found several that I like and could spruce up a deck plan.

Using too many of them clutters a deck plan terrible. 

When converting a visio file to .png make sure you use a *lot* of resolution.  Otherwise it starts to look fuzzy.

Incscape is very powerful and useful, unfortunately just alien enough from other programs I've used to require a lot of time to do fairly simple things.

I should have a replacement PC in a couple weeks, so maybe I'll try again on software more familiar.  In the mean time I will try to learn how to use Incscape.

Taking these lessons learned I should be able to make a nice deckplan one of these days.

Here is latest iteration (lots of room for improvement as you can see).

Thanks for all the suggestions so far!  They have really helped.

By the way the attached practice deckplan uses graphics provided by rpgmapshare.com authorized for both personal and commercial use by their creators Steel Rat and Darth Asparagus.