Creating custom symbols from objects

[dg0yt]

Somebody reported on Sourceforge [tickets:#440]:

Hello, is there a way to create a new custom symbol from a map? I drew our orienteering club logo using a few line and area symbols... Now It would be nice transform the whole thing in a symbol, like the Mapper logo.... I was not able to figure out how! Can somebody send me some hint/doc on the topic?

Thanks in advance Davide De Nardis

[dg0yt]

• summary: Creating custom symbols --> Creating custom symbols from objects
• status: new --> open
• Milestone: 0.5.97 --> 1.0

[dg0yt]

The OpenOrienteering logo symbol was really as a proof-of-concept for the usefulness of the .xmap (XML) file format... The trick was to manually edit .xmap file (in a text editor).

• The first step is to copy-and-paste the logo to an empty map. The .xmap file resulting from this new map has a minimum set of colors, symbols and objects. To prepare the next step you may already create the logo symbol (as a point symbol), and add a dummy line and area to its definition (as examples for future reference).
• The second step is to edit the file in a text editor. Initially, the logo is a number of objects (lines, areas), each referencing one of the symbols. For the logo to become a symbol, you will need to move the path objects to the logo symbol definition. Note that in the symbol definition, the paths need to reference colors, not symbols.

Unfortunately, there is no tool for this feature request yet. Maybe it could be implemented as (restricted) copy-and-paste from the map to the symbol editor.