OCAD for Homebrewing

There are some tips and tricks that make home-brewing OCAD editing much easier. Most of them can be found in the internets, but I have not seen nice sources.

1. Hiding of symbol
1. How:
1. Select an object or symbol
2. On keyboard: F4. 
3. All of the objects with the given symbol disappear.
4. Do what you need to do
5. select the symbol that was hidden.
6. Click f2.
2. You can do this also do a group of symbols - select everything and say F4
3. This is useful for doing work in complicated/dense areas where lots of features are not allowing to draw clean lines. For example, when you are in a steep section with lots of contour lines, you may want to hide them.
2. Following another line
1. Why: 
1. there is a road somewhere and you need to have green on one side and yellow on other.
2. you don't want to get the green on the other side. 
3. and you don't want the green to be away from the road.
2. How:
1. start drawing the line.
2. press control, keep pressing it.
3. click with mouse (left button) on the line you want to follow and keep holding it
4. now move the pointer to the place till which you want follow
5. release mouse
6. the new line should be following 
3. Sometimes even with this feature you can see tiny white line. OCAD has bugs.
4. Once you have two lines together and you need to shape them somehow together, you are in bad luck - I do not know how to do that nicely.
3. Custom shortcuts:
1. Why:
1. once by computer, you need to be working fast, don't waste time
2. use shortcuts!
2. I use the following:
1. ctrl+d for duplicate in place (fill, make border, duplicate identically in object menu)
2. ctrl+f for forcing a different symbol (usually duplicate in place, then choose a symbol and then force a symbol on top)
1. this is useful when creating borders of sorts or just making some contour line a lake or similar.
3. ctrl+r - for reverse a feature - if you have a cliff with ticks to one side, this is how you can get them to another
4. ctrl+t - for removal of vertices 
3. This was mentioned here.

Usage of NW trails/Switchbacks data

In some of the Homebrew maps I have been using NW Trails data - it has been in most cases used as a reference, but nevertheless, it has been.
So I need to give proper attribution.
From now on, I will make sure this happens better.

Their license, btw:
"Copyright © 2012 Jon Stanley

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the author(s) be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

The accuracy of the data contained in this dataset varies greatly. These maps and data are to be used for reference purposes only. The author(s) are not responsible for any inaccuracies and no responsibility is assumed for damages or other liabilities due to the accuracy, availability, use or misuse of the data presented. Installation and use of this data is at your own risk.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this data for any purpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions:

1. The origin of the data must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you recorded and compiled the original data.
2. If you use this data in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation is required.
3. Altered versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original data."

For amazing resources see this website:
http://www.switchbacks.com/nwtrails/

Willows training

Ing, Gunta and Rick participated in Willows training on rainy Sunday, April 7th.
This is the map:

PDF file can be acquired on request.
Note the forbidden and private areas - mostly ones with no trespassing signs.
Posession of the map does not grant you permission to go there.
Use it at your own risk.

Quincy 2 days have finished!

Excellent racers, excellent volunteers, excellent weather!

Quincy West:

Fast courses with shorter legs.
Some confusion was caused by Finish on first day - "Navigate to finish" says the description sheet.
https://www.5z.com/urban/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=130&kieli=
http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?page=classes&databaseId=24649

Quincy South:

Some longer route choices with a mix of shorter legs.
https://www.5z.com/urban/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=131&kieli=
http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?page=classes&databaseId=24650
* Hannah's results are not recorded.

Special thanks to volunteers:
Help with children - Gunta & everybody else.
Control pickup - Nikolay, Dushka, Peteris, Richard, Andrew, Will, Susan, Barry.
Help with electronic equipment - Debbie, Ing, Don, Jan.
Routegadget - Jan
Cascade OC for renting me their SI stuffs.
Afterrace food - Marianne and Dobby.
(I am missing someone here, sorry about that).

Electronic maps of the race will be shared upon request.

2.5 or 5 meters?

2.5 or 5 meter contour lines, that is the question.

Thoughts?
I think I will go with 2.5 meter ones.

Homebrew OC Winter 2012 1 results, Mt Tiger

These are approximate results, they will be corrected.

Place	Orcs	Race Time	Start time	Notes
1	Nikolay	1:07:59	12:20
2	Will	1:24:00	12:17
3	Kean/Rick	1:48:00	12:15
4	Miles	1:57:00	12:07
5	Aaron/Brice	2:07:00	12:09
6	Murray/Christi	2:20:00	12:05
7	Debbie/Ing	2:28:00	12:01
	Hobbits	Time
1	Jan	1:08:32	12:03
2	Ina	1:23	:00?	Course backwards
3	Eileen	2:00:18	12:11
4	Don	1:30:00	12:22	Skipped 1&2
5	Doug/Alan	DNF	12:13	skipped a bunch
6	Sergiy, Valery and Max

Course Setter: Peteris
Start&Finish: Gunta&Emily
Refreshments: Rick&Eileen
Course pickup: Eric Bone
Route gadget: Jan Urban

More information will be provided as it becomes available. 

Rules of home-brewing

When doing homebrew orienteering race there is only one rule:
The map is new or it is updated from the previous bad state to a not-so-bad state (but most likely still pretty bad state). That means that the map will most likely be very far from a good quality map, but we must try hard to make it enjoyable.