HOW TO CREATE A NEW ZONE

With the release of version 3.0, I've created two tools that help in the creation of new zones and regions. It automates selecting the extent of a new zone, downloading the maps and dividing the zone up into regions. Unlike KLIMB, I've not spent much time polishing them, so please bear with me (they shouldn't be buggy, just not production quality).

It's helpful but not essential to check out the Zone Background page to get an understanding of the files and directory structure involved in a new zone.

  MAKEZONE

The first tool is called MakeZone.exe. It lets you figure out how big your zone will be and then create the overview map for the zone which you can then carve up into regions.
  1. Download MakeZone.exe
  2. Make sure you're in the KLIMB directory
  3. Run MAKEZONE.exe
  4. Enter the latitude and longitude of the center of your zone
  5. Adjust width and height parameters
  6. Press "Get Map"
    This goes out and downloads maps from the USGS's terraserver. At this scale, they're not always the best looking maps, but they're free and reliable; if you can find a better overview map of the zone you can use that instead. Be that at it may, this zone map isn't very important: you'll be using it for creating regions (see below) but the end user will only see it on KLIMB's Change Region Advanced dialog.
  7. Adjust latitude, longitude, width and height until you're happy (You can also adjust the "zoom" level of the maps, it defaults to 17. You can only do so via the console ("F2") and typing "set S(mag) 18" (or whatever zoom level you want).)
  8. When happy with your zone, give it a name
  9. Press "Make Zone"
Now you're have a KLIMB zone, you're ready to make regions in it.

  MAKEREGIONS

The second tool is called MakeRegions.exe. It lets you create new regions in an existing zone.
  1. Download MakeRegions.exe
  2. Make sure you're in the KLIMB directory
  3. Select the zone you want to create regions in from the list of existing zones.
  4. Select the region name (leave region file and node file as is)
  5. Select the scale of the maps, 14 is about what KLIMB uses.
  6. Left click and right click to mark out an area to be your region
    Beware, there is a tension between making a region big enough to be useful versus making it too big so that KLIMB bogs down. Another dilemma is how to decide on the boundary between regions: should they follow geographical features such as county divisions or should they be layed out so that two or more regions can be viewed together nicely.
  7. Press "Make Region" button
  8. Repeat for as many regions as you want.
Now you have a KLIMB zone with one or more regions. Fire up KLIMB and try it out.

  ADDING ROADS AND NODES

The last essential step is adding roads and nodes. This can be a daunting task--the San Francisco Bay Area zone contains over 700 nodes and 1,200 roads.

Luckily there are two factors easing the burden. First a region is still useful even just a handful of roads and nodes. This means you can do the work incrementally. Second, it's kind of fun and slightly addictive adding nodes and bending roads.

When you get to this stage, let me know and I can tell you my thoughts on how to do this best (KLIMB's new zoom feature is really helpful here).

  FINAL DETAILS

KLIMB has a bunch of odd ball minor features like overview maps, trails, points of interest, region origin, custom colors, etc. which you can specify for a new zone. There all straightforward but too numerous to explain here. Contact me if you want more information.

Home ©2008 Keith Vetter
klimb at klimb.org