Draw roads

The Draw Road tool in background edit mode draws roads on the map. Unlike regions and markers, a road is part of the background: it does not appear in the hierarchy and cannot link a document. Roads always render above terrain and images, below regions and markers, and pass behind stamps such as forests.

Drawing

1. Select the Draw Road tool in background edit mode.

2. Drag on the canvas to draw a road. When you release, the road is created and enters editing right away.

3. Adjust its style and shape, then confirm with the check button or Enter. The cancel button deletes the road you just drew.

Selecting and editing

Click a road on the canvas, or pick one from the list in the right panel. The Select / Move tool can also select roads by clicking.

Editing has two levels. A first selection handles the whole road; double-clicking enters point editing.

Action	What it does
Drag	Moves the whole road.
Drag an end handle	Stretches or shortens the road.
Shift+drag an end handle	Continues the road from that end.
Double-click	Enters point editing. In point editing, double-clicking the line adds a point there.
Drag a point	Moves the point to reshape the road.
Delete	Removes the selected point in point editing, or the road at the whole-road level.
Esc	Steps back one level: point editing to whole road, whole road to deselected.

Style (floating panel)

Selecting a road shows a style panel at the top right of the map.

Element	What it does
Name	The name shown in the list. It is not drawn on the map.
Style	Choose dashed, solid, dotted, or double line.
Color	The road color. Turn on Use terrain colors to pick from the map’s terrain colors; the road then follows later changes to that terrain color.
Width	The thickness of the road.
Opacity	How much the background shows through.
Roughness	Adds a hand-drawn meander between points.
Smooth	Relaxes the points into a gentler curve.

Roughness and Smooth only move existing points. They never add or remove any.

List (right panel)

With the Draw Road tool selected, the right panel lists the roads you have drawn. Clicking an entry selects that road and moves the view to it, which helps when a road sits off screen.