Author Archives: OCAD Team

6 Tips to Minimize Mouse Movements

Leave a reply

Your mouse pointer covers considerable distances while drawing. This is because you have to constantly switch between symbols, drawing and editing modes, and functions.

Use the following tricks to give your mouse cursor a breather.

#01: Toggle between drawing and editing tools

Select the following settings as shown below in the OCAD Preferences. When you draw an object, right-click to close it and get to edit mode. Another right-click switches back to drawing mode.

#02: Select symbol in drawing area

When you select an object in the drawing area, the corresponding symbol is auto-selected by default. This can be faster than selecting the symbol in the symbol box.

#03: Set preferred drawing tool

Edit a symbol to choose a preferred drawing tool. When you click on a symbol in the symbol box, the preferred drawing tool of this symbol will now be selected.
The symbols of the supplied OCAD symbol sets have a preferred drawing tool assigned to each of them.

#04 Work with shortcuts

Shortcuts help you to execute functions via key combinations, e.g. fill an object, reverse its direction or change its symbol.

#05 Customize toolbar

The toolbar contains many functions by default. Do you need all of them?
You can also dock the toolbars to the sides or move them to the drawing area.

#06 OCAD Tips and Tricks

Last but not least, if you master the OCAD tips and tricks, you will automatically minimize mouse movements and save a lot of time.

Get a free OCAD Starter License for World Orienteering Day

Leave a reply

World Orienteering Day (WOD) is a project of the International Orienteering Federation to increase the visibility and accessibility of orienteering worldwide.

This year, between the dates May 17th and May 23rd 2023, any orienteering activity held can be registered as a World Orienteering Day event.

As in previous years, we provide free OCAD Starter licenses to draw orienteering maps and set courses for this event.

How to get a license:

  • Register a WOD event here
  • Send an email to wod@orienteering.sport and request a license
  • You will get the license information by email from WOD

OCAD Starter does not only include the Course Setting Module, but also the New Map Wizard, with which you can create an orienteering map anywhere in the world with just a few clicks.

You can find out how to do so in our World Orienteering Day Tutorial.

Register now and become a part of WOD!

OCAD Tutorials Updated

Leave a reply

In order to provide our customers with an easy introduction to course setting and mapping, we have revised and updated our tutorials.

  • OCAD Basics
    Drawing tutorial for beginners and advanced users.

Here you find all OCAD Tutorials.

The simplest and most intuitive drawing mode

Leave a reply

To draw objects in OCAD, a drawing mode must be selected.

Probably the two most commonly used are the Curve mode (e.g. to draw contour lines) or the Straight line mode (e.g. for buildings).

The simplest way to draw objects in OCAD is to mix these two drawing modes.

First, the following settings must be made.

  1. Activate Right click toggel between drawing and editing tools in the OCAD Preferences > User Interface categorie.
  2. Activate the option Curve mode: Change to straight line mode when clicking in drawing area in the OCAD Preferences -> Drawing and Editing categorie.
Settings in the OCAD Preferences

Let’s draw something! It’s as simple as that:

  • Select an area or line symbol (1)
  • Choose the Curve mode (2)
  • Click in the drawing area. (3)
  • Each additional click inserts a new vertex.
  • Right-click to finish the object.
  • Right-click again to draw a new object.
Drawing with Straight line mode

You can also click+drag the cursor to draw a Bézier curve.

As you will notice, this way of drawing is very simple and intuitive.

However, in contrast to the Straight line mode, Normal vertices and no Corner vertices are inserted. This can lead to different representations of line objects.
It is recommended to visually check the line objects and possibly change the vertex types.

Left object: Corner vertices | Right object: Normal vertices

Note: For each symbol, you can define a Preferred Drawing tool. You can change the settings by right-clicking on a symbol in the symbol box.

64bit vs 32bit OCAD version

Leave a reply

The latest OCAD update no longer creates a 32-bit version for most users.

What version of OCAD is installed?

For OCAD Orienteering, OCAD Starter, OCAD Course Setting and OCAD Viewer, OCAD Setup will only install the 64-bit version.

Note: In the past, certain features were only available in the 32-bit version (e.g. real-time GPS). These features now also work in the 64-bit version.

For OCAD Mapping Solution, OCAD Setup still installs both the 64-bit and 32-bit versions.
The reason for this is that some database features are not available in both versions:
– Microsoft Access database files depend on the installed version of the Access Database Engine.
– dbf database file cannot be used in OCAD 64-bit version

What does this mean for you?

You may have to recreate some OCAD shortcuts.
Go to C:\Program Files\OCAD\OCAD 2018 Orienteering. There you will find the ‘OCAD 2018 Orienteering.exe’. Right-click on it and Create Shortcut.

Otherwise you will not notice any effect.

What’s the difference between the 64-bit and 32-bit versions of OCAD?

The 64-bit version of OCAD isn’t faster than the 32-bit version, but it can allocate more RAM. This is important when loading large raster background maps or DEM files.

Other things to note

Almost all computers today run a 64-bit version of Windows. However, if the installed Windows version is 32-bit, OCAD will only install a 32-bit version of OCAD.