Monthly Archives: December 2020

Orienteering With Virtual Controls

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The Corona Pandemic created the need to offer orienteering trainings which can be done individually and over a longer period of time.

In this blog we present 2 nice (and free) apps, which make orienteering courses available year round with no need for flags to mark the control points. Instead, the apps track your location via GPS from your smartphone and make a sound when you have found the control points.

The two apps we have tested are:

MapRunF, developed by a keen orienteer in Brisbane Australia.

UsynligO, developed by Trond Benum from Norway.

To set up a new event, both apps require a map file and a course setting file. These can be easily created and exported with OCAD. Due to the use of GPS, it is important that the files are georeferenced correctly.

For a new map we recommend to start it with the New Map Wizard. In addition to the correct georeferencing, geodata can be imported directly. But also old maps can be georeferenced afterwards.

The georeferenced map file can then be loaded as background map in the course setting project. Now the courses can be set.

MapRun

To upload maps and courses to MapRunF, you need to export…

BTW: The map above was created within 5′ by importing Open Data with New Map Wizard and processing LiDAR Data with the DEM Wizard.

UsynligO

To upload maps and courses to UsynligO, you need to export…

  • The course setting project itself as PDF via menu File > Export >PDF

For more information about the apps, please visit their websites.

The information above is also available in our Wiki.

Timesavers in OCAD

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In the last OCAD Blog the different drawing modes were introduced. As you have probably already experienced, drawing objects requires practice and takes time. It becomes tedious if you have to draw an object apparently twice, for example a border line with a fill area.

Fortunately, you can duplicate objects so that you don’t have to draw them twice.

To only duplicate an object, you can use the Duplicate or Move and Duplicate function. Or simply select an object in the drawing window, press CTRL+C and CTRL+V.

Now let’s take the Fill or Make Border or Duplicate Identically function. As its name indicates and as you can see in the picture below, you can fill areas, make borders or duplicate object identically. Select e.g. a water area and add a border line with just one click.

To duplicate (or only move) a line, line text or area object parallel with a certain distance, there’ s the Move/Duplicate Parallel by Specified Distance function.

Last but not least, there’s the Move Parallel function, with which you also have the possibility to duplicate objects by holding the CTRL+SHIFT keys.

In the example below we have only drawn the main street and added the labelling and the watercourse with the function Move Parallel. Besides the time saving, the absolutely parallel course of the objects should be mentioned.