Woes...of a map maker...

[Asiaticus]

My techniqe has been to cut out an area of a map I want in a Jpg file and grid the thing around the edges with KM marks and use that to locate the path of rivers, towns, hills, etc as x,y landmark points on my CS battle map file. I find the lowest and highest elevations and establish what the base elevation and delta will be.

Lay out the rivers and roads towns and then fill in topography starting with hills. I use my landmarks as points to measrure the locations of the various local features that I fill in section by section around them. Sort of like painting a picture. Often I sketch in the general elevations in the maps areas and then cut away or add to it untill I am satisfied that it looks right and then put on the icing of covering terrain features.

If I have one of the the good AMS topo maps its pretty easy.