DAE’s admittedly-not-at-all-comprehensive notes on using OCAD 9 (from a 2006 and 2008 Meet Director’s training class)

1. Download and install the free “demo” version of OCAD from www.ocad.com, if you haven’t already (DOES NOT WORK ON APPLE COMPUTERS).

2. Download the desired map, 1:10000 scale bar, legend, logo, etc. from the club website to your computer.

3. Start OCAD.

4. Use menu selections: “File->New->Course Setting->Course setting 10000.ocd->OK.” Select 10,000 scale regardless of final scale of your map. All of our maps are at 10,000 scale (though you don’t have to print them at that scale…and you shouldn’t if you can use a better scale, say 1:5,000 or 1:7,500, for readability).

5. Then: “Background map->Open...(browse to and open map that you downloaded from the club website)->Open” (if you still have a blank screen, try: “View->Entire Map”)

6. Next: “Course->Courses->Add (type the name of the course…e.g., “White”)->OK.” (Leave everything else as-is. Can do multiple “Add”s before clicking OK.)

7. Use the zoom tools to zero in on the area of your meet.

8. Add start, finish, and all control locations to map (magenta triangle, double circle, and single circle in upper RH window). Must be in one of the drawing modes to do this (toolbar->curve mode, e.g.) Accept default start and finish codes. Enter codes for the controls (the number on the control flag itself) now or later.

9. To move symbols around after placing them, click on the “Edit Point” icon in the toolbar (solid arrowhead), click on symbol to select it, and then click and drag the small square in the symbol to desired loc’n.

10. After placing all of the controls on the map, create each course by selecting the course name in the pulldown in lower RH window, then double-clicking on controls (either on the map or in the upper RH window) in the order they will be visited. To delete a control from your course, select it in the LOWER RH window and hit the delete key (in “not preview” mode). To insert a control between two controls, in the lower RH window, click between them (a short horizontal bar will appear between them) and then double-click on the control to insert (either on the map or in the upper RH window).

11. To automatically put event title on map (e.g. “Ian’s Billygoat O”), use the magenta “Event” object. To automatically put the course title on map (“Red”, “Orange”, etc.), use magenta object “H12”. To create a white background for these, use the “white background” object (magenta square) while in rectangular mode (toolbar->rectangular mode…first two clicks on horizontal leg of white background box, third click to establish vertical leg)

12. To change size of symbol or text (might have to do this if you use a scale other than 10,000), in upper RH window, right-click on the desired object and “Edit” it.

13. In preview mode: Adjust location of control numbers so they don’t hide significant features. Also, if a control circle hides important features, use the “scissors” to cut away part of the circle. “Drag” the scissors across the area to be cut. Do this in “not preview” mode.

14. Use a small “gap” between the control circle and the connecting lines by pull down: Course->options (try 1mm) Or, in preview mode, click on a line and drag its end “handles” away from the control circle.

15. On White courses only, add text course descriptions to each control (in the lower RH window, in the blank text box below the “Change Code…” button.) For all others, use the symbols.

16. You may need to split meet into multiple files for different scales and proper placement of north arrow, legend (only needed for the White and Yellow courses), club logo, scale bar, etc.

17. To print the control card: Course->print->course descriptions->symbol course descriptions (use “text” course descriptions for White)

18. Add scale bar, logo, and, for White/Yellow, the legend to your map (if no integral bar, legend, and logo): With your map open in one window, “File->Open…(browse to the desired bar, legend, or logo file)->Open” to open the object in another window. Select entire object, copy, switch to map window, and then paste into your map. You can also open the objects in OCAD, File->Export it to the graphic format of your choice, and then “photoshop” into the map. Always import the 10,000 scale bar, even if you’re going to print at another scale. If you want to print a course at a different scale than 1:10,000, merely change the text of the scale bar. For example, if printing at 1:5,000, edit the text part of the 10,000 scale bar and change the 10,000 to 5,000. Don’t mess with the scale bar symbol itself…it doesn’t need to be changed. Whatever you do, be sure that the 500 meter tic marks in the scale bar are at the same spacing as the vertical lines on the map.

19. In lieu of putting the legend on the maps, consider just printing out a number of copies of the legend (by itself).

20. Print the map using the “largest” scale possible so that map features are as legible as possible (for example, 1:10,000 is better than 1:15,000), but provide a sufficient “over-run” buffer area around the course so people don’t get lost.

21. To print the map: “Course->Print->Courses (select course to print).” Typically also click on “One page” option and adjust the “frame” on map to fit your course. Print on color laserjet printer (not inkjet – runs when wet) or save as PDF and have printing service print it for you. Check that colors, symbols, etc are right size, color, etc. If you are printing a PDF, be sure to print with scaling set to “None.” Use a ruler to verify that the 500 meter lines or tic marks on the scale bar are at the proper spacing (e.g., exactly 50mm apart if your map is printed at 1:10,000 scale).

22. Save the file. The resulting file holds only the course info (controls and course routes)…not the background map with all the topo and land features (that’s in the file you downloaded to your computer from the website – it remains unchanged.)