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eclipse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 18, 2005
986
13
Sydney
Hi all,
I have a bit of a writing hobby. I'm setting my story in a post-collapse shopping Mall in Sydney, Australia. It's going to be a bit "Mad Max meets Harry Potter".

To help me visualise the old shopping mall converted into a fort, I wonder if there are any D&D mapping software that's really drop and drag for this sort of drawing task? I don't want anything as complex as Blender or Illustrator, but instead just want to be able to drop and drag walls and doors and tiled pathways and stairs etc into place. I'd want either 2d maps or 3d blocks I can quickly build. Faster than minecraft, and without having to mine all the resources.

Does anything come to mind?
 

Sondrix

macrumors newbie
Nov 6, 2011
21
0
yeah trimble sketchup is good (didn't know google sold it), which mall by the way? i live in sydney too!
 

eclipse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 18, 2005
986
13
Sydney
yeah trimble sketchup is good (didn't know google sold it), which mall by the way? i live in sydney too!
Ha ha! It hasn't been built yet. ;) Think of a collection of New Urbanist Mall's, kind of like a few Strand Arcades next to each other. One is the traditional Strand Mall, and the other opens up to contain a town square meeting area. It's set somewhere along the Parramatta River, on a new train line. Some law and order exists from here East to the sea, with pretentious mayor's bickering over who runs Parliament House and the coalition of forts. But out west, well, that's another story. Things get a bit feral and manky out near Penrith.;)

There are feral cyborgs, wild rivers of nanites working their magic on the land, glowing trees, meat-boxes (living brains in a tank), and all manner of Aboriginal dreaming coming back to life. It's Harry Potter meets Mad Max and a dystopian Star Trek thrown in.

If I ever get to write the thing! ;)


Anyway, I just saw the price for Sketchup. $495?? Wow. Um, anything open source? I might have to go ask the Blender mob if they have any plug ins that simplify it... :)
 
Last edited:

eclipse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 18, 2005
986
13
Sydney
There's a basic version that's free. Bottom right side of the page: http://sketchup.google.com/download/

Excellent: that will help with all my 3d requirements! Thanks for that. I was watching the introductory tutorial and my teenage son came in and said, "Aha! Sketchup! We learn that at school!"

Anyway, wondering if this is the best app for 2d mapping? Overhead mapping, like D&D game mapping of an environment. Does Sketchup label stuff clearly as well?
 
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