At British Orienteering’s Development Conference 2025, we gave an update on the current app development and talked about possible work steps before exporting print PDFs.
Also, we recently presented OCAD news at the Swiss Mapping Commission.
We have added some new features to the OCAD Sketch App.
To update the app, go to Google Play Store (Android) or Apple App Store (iOS), search for OCAD Sketch and update the app.
See here a short video of what has changed.
– Sketch colors can now be filtered and sorted.
– Zoom buttons can be hidden – see project settings.
– The Eraser can be resized – see project settings.
– The Sketch layer can be hidden or just dimmed – see layers menu.
– All background layers can be shown or hidden all at once – see layers menu.
– Bug fixes and performance improvements.
We hope you all had a good start to the new year and wish you all the best for 2024.
In this blog post, we take a look at what has been added to OCAD over the last year in terms of functionality and learning aids.
OCAD Route Analyzer 2.0
The Route Analyzer 2.0 now also takes into account the relief and the runnability. With it, the fastest routes can be calculated in urban as well as in classic forest terrain.
Optimized DEM for Course Setting Available
To ensures that the climbing and slope gradient are included in the route calculation of Route Analyzer 2.0, an optimized elevation model can be embedded directly into the map or course setting file. This significantly reduces the file size of the DEM and makes it easier to exchange.
OCAD Sketch App Improvements
Improvements have also been made to the OCAD Sketch App:
– A scale bar to improve the distance feeling within the app
– Additional colors for sketching
– Improved position display of the internal GPS on Android devices
Learning Aids
The following symbol sets have been updated in 2023:
– ISMTBOM 2022
– ISCD 2024
On mobile devices, you can zoom in and out at will. Zooming in is appreciated by the map makers as it allows more precise drawing and sketching and more accurate display of the background map.
However, by zooming in and out, map makers are not working at a fixed scale and so the sense of distance within the map is lost. This was easier when mapping with pen and paper where the scale was fixed.
A few things can be done to improve the feeling for the scale on a mobile device:
Working with the OCAD Sketch App
Working on a Windows Tablet
In OCAD you can draw sketches directly using the Sketch toolbar or import them from the OCAD Sketch App via the OCAD Sketch App Data Exchange tool.
What is the best way to manage these sketches? How do I make sure that I draw all sketches?
Manage Sketch Features
All sketches are listed in the menu Sketch > Manage Sketch Features.
When a sketch is selected in the list, the OCAD drawing area is centered on it.
Show Sketches
Under Menu Sketch > Options there are different display options that make sense depending on the situation. We recommend testing different transparency and opacity settings, e.g. if sketch features should be behind map objects or not.
Hide sketch features: All sketches can be hidden in the toolbar or under menu Sketch > Hide. Advanced users can also use a Shortcut.
Delete Sketches
The following options are available for deleting sketches.
Visual Inspection
At the end of the final map work, the question arises: Have I worked through all my sketches?
In case the sketches were deleted or erased during the final map work, you can check the list under Sketch > Manage Sketch Features.
If the sketches were not deleted during the final map work, a visual check is necessary. To make the sketches clearly visible, the map and background maps can be displayed transparently or not at all.
