# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > General and Miscellaneous Mapping >  Hexagonal Grid

## Jkaen

Hi guys,

Been finding the tutorials really helpful, so I hope this will be an easy answer for you guys.

I am looking at mapping an gladiator style arena, I think I can follow various tutorials enough to get that done, however I then want to overlay a hexagonal grid if possible over it.

Is there an easy way you are aware of I can do this, or should I just wimp out and do a square grid?

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## ravells

I found a photoshop tutorial here

But what software are you using? If you're using vector software it's a snap. Just draw a hexagon and replicate it.

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## Jkaen

Sorry, am fairly new to all this, missed out out one of the key  points!

I am leaning very heavily on RobA's GIMP tutorial right now, learning the program as I go along, so I am not really familiar with its abilities at the moment.

I will follow the tutorial and hoepfully I can transfer the knowledge across the programs

Thanks

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## RPMiller

If you really want a super easy way to lay down a grid and also having a gaming environment to move virtual figures and such you might check out one of the Virtual Gaming Tables. MapTool is the one I use predominately, the link is in my sig, but I can wholeheartedly recommend Battlegrounds as well. In either one you can drop your map in, turn on a grid to overlay it and then drop in tokens to move around. They include fog of war features and vision as well as a whole lot more.

EDIT: In fact here is a sample map down in MapTool that we are using in our current game. It is super simplistic, but this was banged out in about 5 minutes or so.

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## RobA

The voronoi plugin I mentioned here can make nice hexes:



(but only up to 56 px)

-Rob A>

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## ravells

I knew you'd find a solution!

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## GM's Apprentice

If you can import Photoshop or Photopaint files I can upload an overlay at the apprentice website for you to drop on top of your map.  It's scaled to fit a 4800 x 6000 pixel map, with a scale of 200 = 5 feet.

I also have it resampled and scaled to support a hex that equals 3 feet.

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## RPMiller

Here's another method:
If you go here: http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/ you can set up your own size hex grid and save it as a PDF. Much to my delight if you open the PDF in PhotoShop you'll discover that it has a transparent background!

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## baez

I think this is a lesser known filter in Gimp, but it's one of the defaults, and it allows you to build perfect hexes for overlaying on your maps:

Filters -> Distorts -> Mosaic

Then use these settings (Tile Size is the size of the hexes, and Tile Spacing adjusts the width of the lines):

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## Korash

@baez - THAT deserves some rep man *bonk*

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## Midgardsormr

It does, indeed. Have some from me, as well.

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## Mrugnak

Bumping old thread to say there's a plugin for GIMP to generate hexgrids here:

http://registry.gimp.org/node/15852

I'm loving it.

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## Redrobes

> I think this is a lesser known filter in Gimp...





> ...there's a plugin for GIMP to generate hexgrids


Nice one... rep bonk, bonk !

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## RobA

> Bumping old thread to say there's a plugin for GIMP to generate hexgrids here:
> 
> http://registry.gimp.org/node/15852
> 
> I'm loving it.


heh!  That's my plugin, too!

-Rob A>

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## GoddessofKazareth

Firstly thank you for all this very helpful info, my question is what type of transparency would you use?  Meaning what time of plastic?

Thanks in advance for your knowledge

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