With the last update, the Define Paper Size function was added to OCAD. 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.
You can find detailed information about the function in our OCAD Wiki.
Thanks to the Background Favorites option, you can quickly and easily switch between different background maps when drawing.
In the Manage Background Maps dialog, you can make a background map visible in the background favorites by turning on the eye icon in the corresponding cell.
In this example, four different background maps are loaded: An areal image, a slope gradient map, a hill shading map and a vegetation height map. The last two are marked as background favorites.
As you know, the topmost visible background map is displayed in OCAD. In this example, the aerial image is therefore displayed, when we switch to Draft Mode.
If you now switch to the Draft Mode (Only Background Map Favorites), the two background maps marked as background favorites are displayed (in our example the hill shading map and the vegetation height map). The hill shading has been set as transparent so that both files are visible together.
You can switch the View Mode in the Status Bar (see image above) or in the View menu. You can also set a Shortcut to quickly navigate through the different View modes, e.g. Alt + V.
Which View modes appear in the loop can be set in the OCAD Preferences. For example, if you are not working with Spot colors, you can omit this mode.
The OCAD Basics exercise teaches both basic and advanced drawing and editing functions in an interactive way. Many tips and tricks for working efficiently with OCAD are also presented.
The exercise file is therefore not only suitable for beginners, but also for experienced users who want to refresh their OCAD knowledge.
It can be found in the OCAD program under Menu File > Open Sample Maps in English, Swedish or German (OCAD Basics_EN.ocd, OCAD Basics_SE.ocd or OCAD Basics_DE.ocd).
If the files are not visible, please download the latest OCAD Update.
More OCAD Tutorials can be found here.
In this article we present different ways of drawing stairs in OCAD and what to look out for.
If stairs are drawn too small or too narrow, this greatly impairs legibility and the staircase can easily be mistaken for an impassable object (especially if the print quality of the circles is poor).
How is the stairway symbol defined?
Steps of a stairway shall be represented in a generalized manner. Contour lines shall be cut out for better legibility, if they touch stairways.
This means that when you are drawing stairs you should make sure that…
By the way: In addition to the symbol definition, the IOF O Map Wiki also contains images with correct and incorrect examples.
Draw steps individually or use stairway symbol
There are basically two ways to draw steps:
Use stairway symbol
The stairway symbol is suitable for straight staircases. The minimum width and tread width comply with the IOF specifications. The stair filling (colour. 44 Brown 30% – stairs) covers the contour lines, so no cutting of contour lines is needed.
Problems arise with curved staircases (2) or staircases with varying widths. Often the predefined width does not fit and leads, for example, to thick edges (3). In such a case, the predefined stair symbols can be duplicated and the width changed afterwards. The whole width of the staircase should be visible and if not, building, walls, etc., should be reduced in size (4).
When drawing, it is also important to note that the beginning and end of the stairs (1) must be examined and edited if necessary.
Draw steps individually
You get the most flexibility when you draw steps individually. For that, you can use the symbol Step or edge of paved area (symbol 501.100).
This blog post is about how to compare 2 versions of an OCAD file.
What are possible ways to find out what has changed at object level between two versions of a file?
#01: Select by Date
You can select objects by their Creation date or Modification date in the menu Select > Select by date.
You will get a list of all objects which have been created or modified during a specified period of time.
#02: Load as background map
Another method is a visual inspection by loading one map as a background map.
#03 Tile window
You can also open both files and tile the window vertically for visual inspection.
