OCAD 9 Demo

OCAD 9 Demo version which we used for many years is no longer supported and won’t read our most up-to-date maps. 

Please consult the maps and software page for better options.

Install OCAD

  • The download is on a password protected page.  Contact a board member or another meet director for the username and password (same as for base maps).
  • Download OCAD 9 Demo

Download base map

Before you can create a meet map and set courses, you need to get a base map to load into OCAD.

  • Download a base map in OCAD format. 
  • The software is on a password protected page.  Contact a board member or another meet director for the username and password.
  • Download other map elements that you might need like the 1:10000 scale bar, legend, logo, etc.  You can  import these elements into your meet map as needed.

Load map in OCAD

You must load a base map into OCAD before you can create a meet map.

  • Start OCAD.
  • Create a new file by going to menu 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).
  • Load a base map by going to menu Background map->Open… to browse to and open the map that you downloaded from the club website.   If you  have a blank screen after loading, try going to menu  View->Entire Map.
  • Save the file. The resulting file holds only the course info (controls and course routes).  The background map with all the topo and land features is still in the base map that you downloaded.  If you copy this file somewhere else, be copy the base map as well.

Set courses

  1. 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.)
  2. Use the zoom tools to zero in on the area of your meet.
  3. Add start, finish, and 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 (for example, toolbar->curve mode). Accept the default start and finish codes. Enter codes for the controls (the number on the control flag itself) now or later. Double-circle finish control is only used if the finish isn’t at the same location as the start.
  4. 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 (or use the up/down/left/right cursor keys).
  5. 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).

Check controls with GPS

  1. First draw your courses using OCAD. When you go out to place controls, carry a GPS a create waypoints at each of the control locations (WGS 84 datum).
  2. OCAD can import waypoints and tracklogs directly from a Garmin GPS. If you have a different brand of GPS you will need to extract the information from the GPS and save in .GPX format to load into OCAD.
  3. In OCAD, set the coordinate system for the map using the “Options->Scales…” menu option. Choose “Real World Coordinates” and enter the values for the map that you are using from the following table:
    Map Name

    Map Scale

    Horizontal Offset

    Vertical Offset

    Map Rotation

    APU

    10,000

    350,000

    6,787,000

    21.6

    Bicentennial

    10,000

    349,000

    6,785,000

    21.6

    Crevasse Moraine

    10,000

    383,000

    6,829,000

    21.6

    Elmendorf

    10,000

    351,000

    6,796,000

    21.6

    Fossil Creek

    10,000

    361,000

    6,801,000

    21.6

    Kincaid

    10,000

    338,000

    6,782,000

    21.6

    Pia

    10,000

    349,000

    6,785,000

    21.6

    Russian Jack

    10,000

    350,000

    6,787,000

    22.0

    Section 36

    10,000

    352,000

    6,775,000

    21.6

  4. Click the “Change…” button for the coordinate system and set the inputs to UTM, Zone 6 North.
  5. Click “OK” to close the two dialogs boxes.
  6. Choose the “GPS->Import from GPS…” menu option. If your GPS is connected to your computer and turned on, the status should display “GPS Connected”. If the status shows “Unable to connect to GPS”, you may need to click the “Settings…” button to set the correct communications port and speed.
  7. Once the connection to the GPS is established, click the “Get Waypoints” button to import the waypoints from the GPS. Or, if you have already saved the waypoints to a .GPX file, click the “Load…” button and load the file.
  8. A list of the loaded waypoints should display in the left part of the form. Select (by clicking on) the waypoints that you want to use. If you want the waypoint name to show on the map, click the checkbox for “Set Labels”. Click the “Create” button to add the selected points to the map. It doesn’t look like anything as happened, but they should appear when you close the dialog box.
  9. Close the dialog box, then zoom the map to an area where one of the waypoints should be. You should see a small light-grey “+” at the waypoint location. If you created labels with the “Set Labels” option, there should also be some text for the waypoint name.
  10. You can change the symbol for the waypoints and/or the labels. Select one of them, then select the symbol that you want to use (from the symbol list on the upper right side of the screen). Click the “Change all Symbols” button from the toolbar at the top of the screen. The button looks like
  11. Look at each of the waypoints and controls to verify that they agree. They probably won’t match exactly due to lack of accuracy of the GPS and errors in our mapping, but they should be close. If you find that the waypoint shows up on a different feature from your control, you should probably go back out to re-check and fix the location. If you find that the waypoint is a significant distance from the control, but doesn’t appear to be on a different feature, it may be an indication that the map is inaccurate in that area and that perhaps it should be fixed or you should use a different control location. Once you are done checking the locations, delete or hide all the GPS points and labels so that they don’t print on the course maps.

Prepare map for printing

  1. To automatically put the 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 put the clue sheet on a map, use the magenta “right angle” object (to the left of the H12 object). 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).
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. If something doesn’t seem to be working, try changing from “preview” mode to “not preview” mode or switch from one of the “drawing” modes to the “edit point” mode.
  5. 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.
  6. 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, enter the symbols.
  7. 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. Or print the legend separately.
  8. Each map should have:
    • Meet name, date, and location
    • Course (e.g., Red, Green)
    • Map scale written in text (e.g., 1:10,000) and a graphic scale bar
    • Legend (for White and Yellow only)
    • North arrow
    • Club logo
    • Copyright statement (©Arctic Orienteering Club)

    Add scale bar, logo, and, for White/Yellow, the legend to your map (if no integral bar, legend, and logo): Have your map open in one window, make sure you are NOT in preview mode, select “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. At “smaller” scales, the scale bar might be too big to fit on the page – make it smaller by deleting one half of it.

Print map & control card

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.

Print to PDF and have the printing service make copies.  If you don’t have the ability to print to PDF, consider getting freeware with that ability.  You can also print to color laserjet printer, but do not use an inkjet, the print runs when wet.

  • Print the course maps by going to menu Course->Print->Courses. Typically also click on One Page option and adjust the frame on map to fit your course. If you are printing a PDF, be sure to print with scaling set to None.
  • Proof the map to make sure that all elements are there (logo, north arrow, scale), the colors are correct, symbols are the right size,  etc.
  • Verify the scale!  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).
  • Print the control cards by going to menu Course->Print->Course Descriptions->Symbol Course Descriptions.   Be sure to print the text course descriptions (not the symbol course descriptions) for the White course.
  • Save the file. The resulting file holds only the course info (controls and course routes).  The background map with all the topo and land features is still in the base map that you downloaded.  If you copy this file somewhere else, be copy the base map as well.