Apple Look Around Viewer added to OCAD

Leave a reply

With the Open Geoviewer function, you can click in the drawing area and specify a viewing direction. OCAD opens by default a web browser with Google Street View at the chosen position and direction.

The Apple Look Around Viewer now offers itself as a real alternative, as it can be more up-to-date and more comprehensive depending on the area, see example below.

Select the Open Geoviewer icon in the toolbar, click into the drawing area and drag a direction.
Google Street View is opened by default. Date of recording is 2014 (upper left in the picture).
However, Apples Look Around Viewer is more up-to-date and more comprehensive for this area. Date of recording is 2021.

How to access Apple Look Around Viewer in OCAD

  • Switch to the Apple Look Around Viewer in the OCAD Preferences
  • Select the Open Geoviewer icon in the toolbar
  • Click into the drawing area and drag a direction
  • OCAD opens the web browser with Apple Look Around Viewer at the chosen position and direction

The prerequisite for using Geoviewers is that the map is georeferenced and covered by the Geoviewer service.

Why you should use Geoviewer?

The use of Geoviewer can be very helpful for sprint maps, as many objects can already be drawn at home or a certain scene can be checked again afterwards. This reduces the amount of field work. It is advisable to test different Geoviewer services.

Recording of OCAD presentation at ICOM available

Leave a reply

The video recording about recent and ongoing developments in OCAD at the 21st International Conference on Orienteering Mapping (ICOM on 03.11.2024) is available on our YouTube Chanel:
https://youtu.be/UZpF2_2b4CU

The following topics are presented:

– Function Define Paper Size
The paper size is visible in the drawing area and the area outside is grayed out. This is useful for displaying a print area or creating a map layout.

– Function Feature Maps
The Feature Map can be used to recognize objects close to the ground such as stones, walls, tree trunks, fences, or cars which were previously not or only poorly recognizable on background maps that can be created with the DEM Wizard in OCAD.

– Prototype of the OCAD Sketch App further development
The further development of the OCAD Sketch App will support vector objects.
You will be able to easily switch between sketches and vector objects to enable efficient mapping in the terrain.

OCAD Presentation at ICOM on 3rd November

Leave a reply

The 21st International Conference on Orienteering Mapping (ICOM) will take place on 3rd November 2024 (postponed from 29.09) as an online event.

We will present the latest functions in OCAD and give an insight into where our development focus currently lies.

A link to the meeting and a detailed timetable is published on the IOF website.

Participation in the conference is free of charge.

ISSkiOM Update

Leave a reply

The International Specifications for Ski Orienteering Maps have been modified and released as ISSkiOM 2019 Revision 3, which is valid from 1st December 2024.

The most important changes:

  • New symbols for tracks which must be stayed on
    Sometimes due to special considerations, competitors are required to stay on the track and are forbidden to leave the track to the side or join the track from the side. These tracks are shown on the map with orange color. (IOF ISSkiOM 2019 Revision 3, chapter 2.5)
  • For a better readability, a white mask (0.15 mm on each side) is used under all green and orange track symbols
  • New Symbol for Dangerous section

How to work with the new specifications?

To work with the updated symbol sets already now, you can download a so-called silent update in OCAD under the menu Help>Download Update. The next complete OCAD update is planned for November.

To update an existing ski orienteering map to the latest symbol set, use the Update Symbol Set function.


Canvas – Map Exchange and Map Flip now also supported

Leave a reply

The Canvas function now also supports Map Flip and Map Exchange.

If a Map Exchange (new map) or Map Flip (turn the map over) is inserted in a course, a different canvas can be assigned for each map extract in the canvas function.

Example

  • A Map Flip has been added to a course.
  • In the canvas function, two map extracts appear for this course (#1 and #2). The first map extract is assigned to Canvas East, the second to Canvas West.
  • When exporting, both map extracts are exported as PDF files.
  • PDF with first part of the course.
  • PDF with second part of the course after the Map Flip. Note that the map extract and map layout is different to the first part of the course.

The above example can be downloaded here as OCAD file together with other Canvas examples.