Expand/Contract page size from Top and/or Left

For some pesky reason, whenever I draw a map and expect the party to head south or east, they inevitably find a way to head north and west. As such, my maps are located too far into the corner, and there's an awkward scramble to move everything on the map layer, object layer, and GM layer an arbitrary distance to the right and down, then hope I managed to keep everything aligned. Usually I end up putting the game on hold for a few minutes while I get the grid lined up, and then inevitably find that one of the hidden monsters on the GM layer managed to embed himself into a wall. It would be great if there a way to increase page size (height and width), and add the additional height/width to the Top and/or Left side of the page. Similarly, it would be nice if there was a way to shrink a page dimensions and take a little off the top/left instead of the right/bottom. The former would be far more useful than the latter, but I imagine both would rely on the same underlying mechanic.

You should not need to move the map around once you set it up. Simply make the page large enough to accommodate the entire map. To change the page size: Click on the blue icon (Page Toolbar) to the top right corner of the map. Then hover over your page and click on the "gear" looking icon (blue field with a white gear called Page Settings). Next, change the Page Size to the desired size and click ok. If this does not solve your issue please send me a join link and I will take a look at your setup.

Gauss, your instructions are correct and work just fine, but not in the sort of map style Nick is talking about. What happens when you follow your instructions is that additional 'squares' are added to the east and south sides of the tabletop grid, while the map itself remains unchanged and 'connected' to the northwest corner. What I believe Nick is talking about is a dynamic, hand-drawn map, being built up over time as the players' characters explore, as opposed to one that was already made and set up. When using this type of map, the GM has to arbitrarily pick a point at which to begin, which is generally the center of the tabletop grid area. As the players explore, depending on which direction they travel, more and more of the tabletop grid is filled up with drawings in that direction. Eventually, they'll move off the edge of the grid, and need more room to draw... to enlarge the grid in that direction. The irony of this situation is that a good GM knows it's going to happen, and prepares for it as best s(he) can... if you have no idea where they're gonna go, start drawing in the middle. If they're likely to travel mostly south, start drawing towards the north end of the grid, and so on. What makes this ironic is the fact that, no matter how well you know your players, they'll end up going whatever direction you assumed they wouldn't go! And so, currently, if the players wander off the edge of the grid to the east or south, things work out just fine... it's easy to make the grid wider to the right, or to the bottom of the screen. But it's impossible to increase space above or to the left of the grid! What you have to do in those cases is to increase the grid, then try to copy the entire map and drag it southeast until it fits again, and hope that you don't mess anything up in the process! Nick is asking for a way to decide the direction in which to stretch the tabletop grid, so as to give him more room to draw 'above' or 'to the left' of the current drawing. Shouldn't be too hard to do; something similar to how the TABLE button here in the forums allows one to "Add Row Above" or "Add Column Left". +1 to this idea, by the way. -Phnord

Ahhh, I see, thank you for the clarification Phnord. Nick , if Phnord's analysis is correct then as a workaround you can move the entire layer at once. After enlarging the page, select a layer, click on the map, hit Ctrl+A to select everything, and then drag the entire layer to the position desired. Repeat for the other layers. This workaround shouldn't take more than 30seconds.

Phnord is right on his analysis, this is exactly the problem I've been having. Gauss, the workaround you've described is what I've been doing, but since all 3 layers need to be moved by the exact same amount, and re-aligned to the grid, it often takes more than 30 seconds, or introduces an unforeseen mistake (monsters in walls). Not a game breaker, but certainly a distraction when trying to run a fast paced combat or chase scene. I'm not quite sure how this would best be implimented - adding additional buttons/toggles to the Page tab seems overly complicated. Maybe alternate between increasing/contracting size between the left and right edges of the page? Or let the page borders be dragged in the map view, allowing size to be re-adjusted on the fly without opening the Page Settings box? If there's ever a refactor of the page settings, this would be something to consider.

After selecting the layer you can move the layer by using the arrow keys. That will move the layer one grid square at a time. Everything should keep its respective positions and you can count out the number of squares you are moving the layer. Then repeat for the other layers.

Gauss, thanks for the suggestion. I just played around with it a bit, and I can't seem to get it to work as you described. When I move a layer using the arrow keys, the contents of that layer re-snap to the grid. For map images that I had previously aligned, this breaks the alignment, since the edges of the map image (what gets snapped) often aren't lined up with the grid squares. Similarly, tokens that were placed using alt+move (to not be aligned to the grid) are snapped to grid when I try to move the layer that they are on using the arrow keys.

Nick , please send me a join link so I can take a look at your setup. I will see if I can come up with something.

I'm having the same issue currently. I tried scaling the page from 70x70 to 100x100. Then moved my entire map from the map layer to the bottom right corner. I also tried scaling up to 140x140 just in case it was an issue with the map size but that doesn't seem to be the case either. When I drag the entire map it doesn't snap it to the grid the way it was placed before hand. My floor tiles are no longer centered on the grid but instead slightly off position, so now when I go to place new walls/floor tiles etc. they are slightly out of place compared to the rest. And easy fix could just to build the rest of my map holding alt to place everything so nothing snaps to the grid, but then when we actually go to play PC/enemy character models will be slightly out of line with the map because they are snapping differently to the grid.

Brandon, the map layer doesn't snap to the grid. You can move your floor tiles to the objects layer, position them, and then move them back to the map layer. Another alternative, if your tiles are close-but-not-quite-right, you can hold Alt and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the graphic around pixel-by-pixel instead of the gross movements performed with the mouse.

Brandon , if you still need help please send me a join link and I can come take a look.