This was the question that participants in the Swiss Orienteering course setting competition had to answer when they set an M10 and a WE course.
Start of the winning WE course
In its report, the jury summarized the most important points of a good sprint course and explained its decisions. Definitely worth reading.
The winner, Silvan Ulmann, is a familiar face: he was the course setter for the Knock-Out Sprint at the World Cup Final in Uster, which was voted Course of the Year 2025 in a WorldofO poll.
Winning courses of Silvan Ulmann: Concept / M10 / WE
OCAD AG provided each of the top three finishers in the course setting competition with a free annual license.
We have officially released the OCAD App! We are pleased to introduce the new app to you in this short video.
The OCAD App was developed to make mapping directly in the field as efficient and ergonomic as possible on mobile devices.
Let us introduce you to a few smart features of the new app that you will love.
Single Color Erasing The eraser tool (1) can be used to delete all sketches when the user taps and drags the eraser across the map. The single-color eraser allows the user to erase sketches of a specific sketch color. In this example the black sketch color is selected, and the “erase single color” behavior (2) is activated to only erase the black ‘T’ and preserve the other sketches.
Configurable Zoom Buttons The App has three configurable buttons which can be set to different zoom scales. They are not set to any specific numeric scale. When tapping one of these zoom buttons the app will go to the specified scale, auto-rotate and auto-center the map (if the device has a compass and GPS).
The Re-Shape Selection Behavior The geometry of an existing object can be changed by using the re-shape behavior. Select an object and tap the re-shape behavior button. Starting on the edge of the object, draw the new geometry.
Re-using Geometry – Following When using the curve behavior, it is possible to follow the geometry of one or more other existing line or area objects by using the follow option. In the following example the green area is drawn following the track.
You can find more information about the app at www.ocad.com/app.
Have fun exploring the OCAD App and its new features!
We have published an update to the OCAD App (version 0.9.1.60) with new features.
Note: The OCAD App is still in the beta phase. We plan to officially release the app in the coming weeks.
The most important changes
Directional point objects can now be rotated using a small selection arrow attached to the point. This arrow can be tapped and dragged around the point to change its direction.
Geometry vertex type can now be toggled between the value normal, dash and corner.
We hope you all had a good start to the new year and wish you all the best for 2026.
In this blog post, we look back at the most important OCAD innovations of the past year.
Improved PDF Export for Course Setting
You can now define a reverse side for PDF exports. This option allows you to export a PDF with two pages for double-sided printing. See this blog post for more information and application examples.
The reverse side option adds to a long list of useful features to make it easier to export orienteering courses. These include the Define Paper Size feature for displaying a print area and the Canvas feature for exporting orienteering maps in different scales or layouts.
License Management Improvements
OCAD licenses can be transferred if, for example, another person is to work with OCAD or OCAD is to be used on another device.
To transfer an OCAD license, you should use the License Transfer Utility in the OCAD Help menu. This function deactivates the OCAD license on your computer and allows you to activate this license on another device.
We added an option to the Colors dialog to define Base Colors, to makes color management easier for people who print maps.
This way, only a few base colors need to be defined, and each color in the color table can be assigned to one of those base colors, which determines its color value. When changing the CMYK values of the base colors, the derived colors change too.
At the end of 2025, we were able to announce another milestone in the history of OCAD AG. We released a beta version of the OCAD App, which replaces the OCAD Sketch App.
With the new app, we are taking mapping on mobile devices to a whole new level. While the previous OCAD Sketch App only allowed you to sketch, the new OCAD App enables you to edit the entire map. There are also many improvements to make mapping in the field even more ergonomic and efficient.