[ShadowChaser13]

Maps are always a pain in the a$$, i know one of the others was asking about em.  As i start up my new campaign ill post the ones i draw up here, feel free to dl and modify.  if you have any, feel free to throw em up all help appreciated.

[CanRay]

There's also this handy dandy book.

[ShadowChaser13]

i remeber that one fondly....best game resource ever invented

[jonathanc]

There's also this handy dandy book.

I was lucky enough to find a used copy of it a few years ago.

[Irian]

Outside-Views of buildings can be found pretty well at the 3D-Warehouse for Google Sketchup... Don't know how many people design interiors with it (I do, sometimes, as it makes nice maps).

[CanRay]

There's also this handy dandy book.

I was lucky enough to find a used copy of it a few years ago.

The PDF version allows for easy printouts while the DTF version requires photocopying that ruins the spine.

[crisses]

I just reviewed a bunch of mapping software see http://eveslist.crisses.org/Resources/Mapping

I'm not finished with going through the list, and I'm on a Mac -- but so far the cheapest/easiest solution I have for desktop is Dia (open source, basically a "visio" knockoff) and creating custom "shapes".  I made about 8 shapes (top-down architectural style: doorways, trees, helipad, stairs, etc.) and drew a preliminary map.  It came out alright.  I'm a graphic designer (and programmer, and...) -- so I'm up for creating a whole "shape set" for creating shadowrunning maps in Dia (over time -- now that I have the "hang" of making Dia shape sets).

Application:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dia-installer/

It's at Sourceforge, there's Windows & Mac ports of Dia.  Creating shapes -> you can make svg files in Illustrator/Inkscape and import them, or you can actually use Dia itself.  Warning: there's no "rotate" in Dia currently.  They're working on it.  So when I export a shape where horizontal vs. vertical matters, I have to rotate it and export it again in another program.  ick.   Such is the world of open source.

I don't have my shapes online yet, but this shape set is already available and could be helpful for creating maps:
http://dia-installer.de/shapes/building_site/index.html
requires installation after installing your Dia installation.

If you liked old-style SR1/2/3 node maps, you can use Dia to make networking diagrams   (It's a standard shape set, no extra install required.) Remember: a wired network is a safer network.  All the corps will only have wireless at specific points -- datastores and goodies will quite probably be "hard wired" to avoid being hacked, so I don't see why the old-style node maps/network diagrams went "out of style" -- they still are valid (just make a few items wired AND wireless (i.e. hubs/routers/access ports) while others are completely wireless and others are completely wired).  This is EXACTLY the type of use Dia is made for, so I'd say go to town...  I'll have to draw an example SR4 network map soon, just so people can see Dia at work...

[Irian]

You missed "Campaign Cartographer". It belong in the list (and when sorted from cheapest to most expensive, probably WAY down at the end :-))

[crisses]

You missed "Campaign Cartographer". It belong in the list (and when sorted from cheapest to most expensive, probably WAY down at the end :-))

I had looked at it.  Not sure why it disappeared from the list, unless I rejected it for some reason....I doubt it though, it was probably a mistake -- I'll find it in the history of the page.  If something is too "dungeon-oriented" I might reject it to slim the list down.

In the meantime I just played with Ortelius (Mac, for real cartography) and I'm almost as impressed as I thought I would be from the mini demo reel on their site.  I thought they'd only give a 30-day demo, so I didn't want to try it.  Instead, the free full-featured version is only watermarked....heck, I can use watermarked for a campaign map!  ($100 for a licensed copy, not at all game-oriented.  Which in many ways is better for Shadowrun...).  I did an outdoor map, but there are symbols for indoor maps too.  It has all sorts of real-map-drawing goodness....

[Irian]

Campaign Cartographer... Dungeon Oriented?  It's more like an expensive all way mapping tool, from whole worlds to cities to single rooms. Very professional, but expensive. Makes good maps, though.

[crisses]

Campaign Cartographer... Dungeon Oriented?  It's more like an expensive all way mapping tool, from whole worlds to cities to single rooms. Very professional, but expensive. Makes good maps, though.

No.  That's not what I said.  I said I might eliminate some of the ones that are dungeon-oriented.  Some of the OTHERS on the list are exceptionally "medievalesque dungeon-game" and would only be appropriate for some uses in Shadowrun.  Versus something like ortelius (sp?) which is actually a program for people who draw modern maps (cartography program - that professionals use for road maps, tourist maps, etc.).

By the way, Campaign Cartographer was on the list, as a link -- I didn't have the name of the program listed (and they didn't have the name of the program in their link -- which is bad search engine mojo).  I fixed it so that the link has the name of the program as text.