Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?p355wi7mfvtrf12Source code (AutoIt):
http://pastebin.com/jYmbe1MDDescription: This utility is meant to be used as a complement for
QuickFort, so it's good to be familiar with how that one works beforehand. PaintFort takes an image that you can make in MSPaint or a similar program, or get it online, then turns it into a spreadsheet .CVS file for QuickFort to read and apply to your fortress.
How to use: Here's an example of an image PaintFort can use to create a neat blueprint:
On the image each pixel ends up as a designated tile in Fortress mode, and each unique color lets you designate something different like digging or channeling. I made the image like this so I can decide if those dark blue lines are going to be dug out or left blank for me to dig it later. If you zoom in, the colors you see inside each room are there for when I decide to make the "build" blueprint, so the (b)ed can go where the red pixels are and anything I wanna give to the dwarves goes on the other pixels.
Download the image and open it by clicking on "Select new image". Once it's done, a list of unique colors will appear with a separate field for each. Type in the header you want to use: it could be "dig" for digging or "build" for building, for more headers you can refer to the QuickFort user guide. Assign a value to each of the colors, or leave it blank to ignore that color; if you're digging then "d" would designate that space for digging, if you're building it will place a door and so on according to the Dwarf Fortress' hotkeys you have. For convenience, if you can't find where a particular color on the image is supposed to be, click on it's corresponding colored button on the left of each field and it will blink so you can see where it is. QuickFort will ask you to place the cursor somewhere on your DF map for reference to start laying out your blueprint, this is the starting position. Click the "Get starting position" button to manually select it by pointing at anywhere on the image. Leaving it in blank defaults to QuickFort starting from the top left. Finally, click on "Export CSV" when you're done to save the .csv sheet. Use it with QuickFort and see your blueprints come to life!
I also added a resize button to change the size of the window if it's too small or too big for you, but don't get too crazy with it ok? It resets after you close it though, so no worries.
Saving your work: When you have loaded an image and finish filling up the form, you can save what you've done so far with the "Save Data" button. This produces a .paintfort file that indicates where the image you used is located and all the information in the fields. It's just a text file, so you can modify it in notepad at your will. Load it with the "Load Data" button -or drag&drop it on the PaintFort executable- and everything will be just like you left it. There's no confirmation box when you close or load a file though, so be careful not to lose any progress.
Notes: Don't use images that are too big or have too many colors, remember that each pixel is a tile. For reference, use the image I showed you before, it should be sharp and usually small. Recommended formats are .bmp .png and non-animated GIFs. You can use .jpg and the others if you so desire, but beware though, each color in every pixel, no matter how similar, will be treated as unique, so it's recommended you draw with non-smoothed tools like the pencil in paint, or use some method to set a color threshold (e.g. in photoshop, save the image as GIF and use an adaptive palette). Make sure no compression artifacts appear when saving, specially on .jpg which is almost guaranteed to fail with this.
I appreciate input on ideas or any issues that you're having.
Enjoy!