Isometric tileset tile cutting issue and how to export referenced tileset images to map folder

Questions
1

I’m using Tiled to work with maps from the classic game Chinese Paladin 98 (The Legend of Sword and Fairy 98). The game uses an isometric (45-degree) view, and the map is built from diamond-shaped tiles that are 32x15 pixels each.

I extracted some objects from the original maps – for example, fruit, vases, chairs, etc. Each of these objects is made up of at least 4 diamond tiles (since they are larger than a single tile). I copied these objects into a new isometric map, hoping to use that map as a kind of “asset library”. The idea is that I can later drag and drop these pre-assembled objects directly from this library map into other maps I’m working on, which would save a lot of time.

Here’s the problem: if I export my library map as an image and then try to import that image as a tileset, Tiled automatically cuts the image into 32x15 rectangular tiles. When I place those tiles onto an isometric map, they don’t align correctly – they become a mess, because the original objects were diamond-shaped compositions, not rectangular cuts.

I’ve thought of a workaround: instead of exporting to an image, I could just keep all these assembled objects on a single map file (my library map). That way the diamond composition is preserved. But then I have another issue: I want to make sure all the tileset images that this library map references are saved into the same folder as the map file. This would make it easier to back up or share the whole library.

So my question is: Is there a way to export (or copy) all the tileset images that a given map depends on, and put them into the map’s folder? Or is there a better approach to build a reusable object library for isometric maps in Tiled without running into the rectangular-cut issue?

Thanks for any advice!

2

I’m not 100% sure I understand what you’re doing, so please bear with me if I say some obvious things.

Generally in isometric games, larger objects aren’t made of multiple tiles, but are a single larger tile each. It sounds like you’re starting with artwork like that. So, instead of importing them as tilesets with 32x15 tiles, you should be importing them with a tile size set to the object tiles’ size, e.g. 64x30 or whatever.
If you have these objects as separate images (one object/big-tile per image), you don’t need to place them into a single image and then have Tiled slice them at all, you can import them as images in an Image Collection tileset. Then, that tileset can be your asset library, easily mixing together tiles of different sizes, as is a common need in isometric games.
If you want/need them to start in a single library map, then you’d either copy+paste them as multiple source tiles from that map always, or split the map up into several maps so that it’s one object size per map, and load those as tilesets with different tile sizes.