{"id":2200,"date":"2025-08-25T09:26:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T07:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/?p=2200"},"modified":"2025-08-25T09:26:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T07:26:37","slug":"print-courses-to-different-scale-than-map-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/print-courses-to-different-scale-than-map-scale\/","title":{"rendered":"Print Courses to Different Scale than Map Scale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The scale for an forest orienteering map is 1:15&#8217;000 or 10&#8217;000 and for sprint maps 1:4&#8217;000. What should be done if a course needs to be printed on a special scale rather than the map scale, e.g. 1:7&#8217;500 (forest) or 1:4&#8217;300 (sprint)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/PDFExportDialog.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"580\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/PDFExportDialog.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/PDFExportDialog.png 580w, https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/PDFExportDialog-300x155.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Scenarios in which the scale of a course differs from the scale of the map<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>To improve visibility, it is becoming increasingly common to print orienteering courses at different scales. Therefore, certain categories are enlarged to a scale of 1:7&#8217;500 (forest orienteering) or 1:3&#8217;000 (sprint orienteering).<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In order for the entire running area to fit on an A4 paper, the course must be printed on a scale of 1:4&#8217;300 instead of 1:4&#8217;000. (1:4&#8217;300 is not an official scale, but it&#8217;s an easy workaround for trainings or smaller competitions so that you don&#8217;t have to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocad.com\/wiki\/ocad\/en\/index.php?title=O-training_with_OCAD#Map_Change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">print on A3 paper or use map flips<\/a>.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Best Practice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An orienteering map should be drawn to an official scale. OCAD provides standard symbol sets for forest (1:15&#8217;000 and 1:10&#8217;000) and sprint orienteering maps (1:4&#8217;000). <br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The course project must be created using the same scale as the map scale. For example, if the map has a scale of 1:10&#8217;000, the course project must also be created using a scale of 1:10&#8217;000.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If a special print scale is desired, this must be specified during PDF export (menu <em>File > Export<\/em>) or Printing (menu <em>File > Print<\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Examples<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>#01: The map file has a scale of 1:10&#8217;000. The courses are to be printed on a scale of 1:7&#8217;500.<\/em><br>&#8211; Start with a new Course Setting Project in scale 1:10&#8217;000<br>&#8211; Open the map file as background map<br>&#8211; Set courses<br>&#8211; Go to menu <em>File > Export<\/em> and choose 7&#8217;500 as export scale<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/PDFExportDialog.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"580\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/PDFExportDialog.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/PDFExportDialog.png 580w, https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/PDFExportDialog-300x155.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>#02: The map file has a scale of 1:10&#8217;000. The courses are to be printed on a scale of 1:7&#8217;500, 10&#8217;000 and 15&#8217;000.<\/em><br>&#8211; This is a use case for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocad.com\/wiki\/ocad\/en\/index.php?title=Canvases#Example_Map_Scale\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Canvas<\/a> function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Canvases_Blog.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>#03: <em>In order for the entire running area to fit on an A4 map, the course must be printed on a scale of 1:4&#8217;300 instead of 1:4&#8217;000.<\/em><br>&#8211; Create a map in 1:4&#8217;000 scale<br>&#8211; Start with a new Course Setting Project in scale 1:4&#8217;000<br>&#8211; Open the map file as background map<br>&#8211; Set courses<br>&#8211; Go to menu <em>File > Export <\/em>and choose 4&#8217;300 as export scale<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What if you receive a map that has a special map scale, e.g. 1:4&#8217;300?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Option A: You leave the map scale at 1:4&#8217;300<\/em><br>&#8211; Start with a new Course Setting Project in scale 1:4&#8217;300 (see screenshot below)<br>&#8211; Open the map file as background map<br>&#8211; Set courses<br>&#8211; Go to menu <em>File &gt; Export<\/em> and choose 4&#8217;300 as export scale<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/NewCourseSettingProject4300-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"580\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/NewCourseSettingProject4300-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/NewCourseSettingProject4300-1.png 580w, https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/NewCourseSettingProject4300-1-300x155.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Option B: You convert the map back to 4&#8217;000 scale<\/em><br>&#8211; Open the map in scale 1:4&#8217;300<br>&#8211; Menu <em>Map &gt; Change Scale<\/em> (see screenshot below) and change the map scale to 1:4&#8217;000<br>&#8211; Start with a new Course Setting Project in scale 1:4&#8217;000<br>&#8211; Open the map file as background map<br>&#8211; Set courses<br>&#8211; Go to menu <em>File &gt; Export<\/em> and choose 4&#8217;300 as export scale<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ChangeMapScale.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"580\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ChangeMapScale.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2206\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ChangeMapScale.png 580w, https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ChangeMapScale-300x155.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The scale for an forest orienteering map is 1:15&#8217;000 or 10&#8217;000 and for sprint maps 1:4&#8217;000. What should be done if a course needs to be printed on a special scale rather than the map scale, e.g. 1:7&#8217;500 (forest) or 1:4&#8217;300 (sprint)? Scenarios in which the scale of a course differs from the scale of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,35,46,1],"tags":[8,65,9,51],"class_list":["post-2200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ocad-11","category-ocad-12","category-ocad-2018","category-uncategorized","tag-course-setting","tag-map-scale","tag-orienteering-map-making","tag-printing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2200"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2231,"href":"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200\/revisions\/2231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}