First, some limitations.

• Currently, the maximum size of ship that can have an SSD created is a mass 100 ship
• The directory structure is very important
• The process of creating the map can take a couple of minutes (depending on your machine)
• During this process, the ship SSD template becomes one of those annoying top most windows,
  blocking out other windows. This window must not be overlapped during the process

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OK, now that's out of the way, here are the steps to create your own SSD map

1. Create a GIF, BMP, or JPG of the outline you want in your favorite paint program.
   The background must be white and it needs to support at least 16 colors (4 bits per pixel)
2. In the subdirectory called "shipbuild" you will find some images. These images are the "place holders"
   for the items that will be placed on to the SSD
3. Copy these images, preserving the color depth, to your outline, placing them where you want them
   
   • images WF.gif, WA.gif, WP.gif, WS.gif, WB.gif are for weapons. The second letter represents
     the primary arc for the location.
   • only select ONE of the damage rows images
4. Make sure that you have the minimum number of fire control boxes for the class of ship you are modeling
5. After you have placed the images where you want, save the file and put it in the "shipimages" sub directory
6. Start the shipbuilder program. From the "Extras" menu, select "Create SSD Map"
7. Select your new image file that you just created.
8. Click the "Do It" button.
9. After the images has been scanned, select the save button.
10. Type in the name you want, the extension ".map" will be appended if it is not already there.

That's it. You now have a new SSD to use. If it is really cool, send the image to me and I'll include it in the next release.
If you look at the ones I've done so far, you should get an idea of how to do them

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Upcoming enhancements:

• Support for larger ships (probably not past 250 - 300, though)
• Limited drawing capabilities for the outlines
• Changes the way smaller ships are drawn when using a larger class
  i.e., using a capital outiline to draw a cruiser. Currently I need
  to draw images for damage rows from 1 to 50 for capital ships. If
  I go to a larger size, I need to draw from 1 to 75, 1 to 100, etc.
  I don't want to do that. I'm going to make it so that the smaller
  size class damage rows get centered in the larger's. That should
  make the job of including larger ship classes extremely easier