OCAD App Manual

The OCAD App is currently in beta testing. Although we have thoroughly tested the app, errors may occur.

This wiki page describes how the OCAD App works.
To the main page of the OCAD App | To the OCAD App Data Exchange page.

There are small differences between the operating systems Android, iOS and Windows. This documentation has been produced using all three so images may look slightly different at times.

Registration

The full functionality of the OCAD App is available after registration.
To register the user needs to enter a valid email address and their name.
Without registration, the user can only access the demo mode to evaluate the App.

If the user has multiple devices they plan to register, the same email address should be used and each device should have a unique name for that user.
For example: “iPad”, “iPhone”, “Android Tablet”, “Robs Phone” etc. If two devices have the same name it may make importing data from the App to OCAD Desktop confusing to the user as they may not know exactly which device the data comes from.

Email and Name

Enter a valid email address:

After entering a valid email address, the user is prompted to enter their name:

After entering a name an email will be sent to the address:

Tap on the link in the address to complete the registration.

The App will detect the confirmation, tapping on the Continue button will take the user to the Projects page.

Other Functionality

The User Interface Language can be changed.
Using the button, some settings can be changed.

Demo Mode

If an email address is not entered, then Demo mode can be used to evaluate the App. In Demo mode:

• The user can evaluate the App using two sample projects.
• The user CANNOT download or import any other project.
• No notifications or any other information is sent to OCAD in demo mode.
• The registration page will always be shown until an email address is entered.
• After entering an email address or choosing Demo mode the App will go to the Projects page.

Technical Notes

• The Registration requires an Internet connection.
• OCAD stores the email address and name for each registered user. It also stores a list of devices for each user, the device name and the device id is stored.
• Only one user can be registered at one time for the App on a single device.
• The user and device registration is NOT a login mechanism. There is no password.
• If the user wants to change email address or name, they must first unregister the user from the device – see User Settings.
• If the user is unregistered from the device all projects WILL BE PRESERVED on the device, they can continue to be edited, but the user CANNOT Upload or Export the project until a new registration is made.
• If a user has multiple devices, they will NOT be prompted for a name when registering the second and subsequent devices.
• If a user has multiple devices, then unregistering one will remove it from the list of devices for that user on the OCAD server. When the last device is unregistered, the user will also be deleted.

Projects

The projects page will contain a list of projects.

Add Project

To Add a project, it must be imported to the App. During this process, an OCAD file is converted into a native App format which provides better performance for drawing and viewing large maps.
Tap on the button to add a project.

When adding a project, it will first be downloaded, then processed, this could take a few minutes for large projects and depends on Internet speed and device performance.
The App does not write changes directly to the OCAD file which is stored on the device, all data and changes are stored in internal storage.

From QR Code

If your device has a camera that is accessible from the App (permissions may be required) then the user can scan a QR code from OCAD Desktop to download and import a project.

The user can now also scan a QR code using the camera on your device and it will open the OCAD App and start the import of that project.

From Project ID

The OCAD Desktop produces a link in the App Data Exchange process; this link contains an ID which can be pasted into the entry field. If a link or id is detected on the clipboard it will be automatically pasted into the ID field.
For example: https://app.ocad.com/project/6da31400-4a94-43e8-7ae6-8e8ece235b04

The user can paste the whole link or just the ID.

If the user has this link in an email or other message it can now be tapped/clicked which will open the OCAD App and download the project.

From Folder

Although it is generally preferred and recommended to use the OCAD Cloud Transfer Services to move projects back and forth from the OCAD Desktop to the OCAD App, there may be times when manual copying of data is required. For example:

• The user has no internet connection
• The transfer project or even map file has been lost on OCAD Desktop so the user cannot use the cloud-transfer to retrieve the map.
• The user is concerned about the security of their project being on the internet.

There are slightly different techniques depending on whether the device is Android or iOS. The process involves:

1. OCAD Desktop export
2. Copying to the iOS or Android device
3. Importing on the device
4. The user makes changes to the project on the device
5. Export from the device
6. Copy from the iOS or Android device to the Windows computer
7. Import to OCAD Desktop

Information about these processes can be found on the OCAD App Data Exchange page.

Sample Projects

The two sample projects can be downloaded at any time.

Download a Sample Project

The two sample projects can be downloaded at any time.

• The sample projects can be edited in any way, note that certain functions may not work fully such as the GPS functionality which requires being at the real location of the sample maps.
• The user CANNOT upload the sample projects to the OCAD server.
• The user can delete and re-import the sample projects any time.

The projects page

Refresh the Projects List

To refresh the projects list, tap on the button. See Project Update from Desktop for more details.

Settings

Tapping the button will take the user to the settings page, see Settings

Internet Status

At the bottom of the Projects page there is a small cloud icon beside the App version information:

Tapping on the cloud will reveal the internet status and if the App is connected to the OCAD server:

If the user cannot download or upload a project, then it could be that the device has either:

• no internet connection – a red cloud
• a problem with connection to the OCAD server – an orange cloud

An error message will appear indicating the problem beside the cloud icon.
The App does not maintain a permanent connection to the OCAD server, it is only required when:

• Downloading a project
• Uploading a project
• Refreshing the list of Projects
• Registering the user

The Projects List

The list of projects can be displayed as tiles or as a list by toggling the button on the top right:

Tiles

List

The projects can also be sorted alphabetically by name or by modified date (newest at the top):

Project Management

Tap on the project to open it.

Tapping on the button will open the project options:

Open

Tapping on the project Open button will also open the project.

Upload

Once changes have been made, the project can be uploaded to the OCAD server, then imported to the OCAD Desktop.
A positioning file can be optionally included when uploading. This will make a position.db file available for import into OCAD Desktop.

Delete

A project can be deleted; a confirmation warning is shown. There is no way to reverse this action.

Advanced

Other functionalities may appear here such as Export if appropriate to the project and device.
Tapping on the Include positioning file checkbox above will also export the position.db file.

Project Status

The most recent download/upload action is shown below the project.
Beside it is a small green arrow, tapping this arrow will open the History below.

Tapping the small arrow or list will close it again.

For example, if there is a new update of a project on the OCAD server then refreshing the list will provide an indication of this, see Project Update from Desktop.

Project Update from Desktop

If the project has been updated and exported from the Desktop, then refreshing the Projects list will indicate that an updated version of the Project is available for download.

Tapping the button will update the Project on the App, or alternatively use the Update option:

Important! When updating, only Background maps and a few settings for the project are preserved. All other data is deleted, and new data is re-imported.
If the user has any changes that have NOT been uploaded to the OCAD Server and then imported and merged with the OCAD file on the Desktop, then those changes will be lost!

The other possible notification here is if the transfer project has been deleted on the OCAD Desktop.
If this is the case, and there are changes that need transferring to the OCAD Desktop, then the project will need to be exported from the App and manually transferred to the user’s computer.

Note: These notifications for cloud transfer projects will only appear if the App is connected to the Internet and the OCAD Server – see Internet Status.

Project Lifecycle

When a project is exported from the OCAD Desktop to the OCAD Cloud Transfer it will remain on the server for 7 days. After that it will be automatically deleted.

However, the project could still obviously be in use both on the App and on OCAD Desktop. The user can still upload (or export) the project and then import changes from the App.

Project Editing

After opening a project, the map and editing tools will be seen on the Project page:

Project Toolbar

Important: There is no Save button on the OCAD App. All changes are saved almost immediately to internal storage.
Note that some actions need to be completed before saving will occur – such as drawing a line or area object.

Close

The project can be closed using the button.

GPS Functions

GPS functions are accessed via the button. See GPS Functions for more details.

Map Layers and Notes

To open a panel containing information about map layers and notes tap the button.
This panel contains two tabs, firstly for map layers:

and secondly for notes:

This panel can behave as either a temporary “popup” panel or docked to the right-hand side by tapping the button on the right:

If the panel is docked, then the width can be adjusted by dragging the left edge of the panel.

Settings

Tapping the button will take the user to the settings page, see Settings.

Status Bar

Below the project toolbar is a status bar which provides various pieces of information such as:

• The stylus / finger / mouse actions that are available for the currently active tool.
• The type of selected objects and how many of each.
• The length or surface area if one object is selected.
• If a GPS is active on the device.

Interactions

The icon indicates that the map will accept a tap action on the map for the currently active tool, the associated text describes the behavior.

The icon indicates that the map will accept a swipe/drag type action on the map for the currently active tool, the associated text describes the behavior.

If the screen is too narrow to display the texts, then tapping the icons will display them:

Selections

Selecting many objects on the map generates a summary of the selection in the status bar.
Depending on how many objects are selected, this could be a single count or a count per symbol type:

In this case 3 knolls , 1 track and 4 green areas

Tapping on the symbol icons in the status bar will show a panel with details of the selection.
Tapping on one of the items in the panel will select that just that single item, or items of that type if there are many.
By recursively filtering a selection using this functionality the user can drill down to one specific object that they want to edit or delete.

In this example the user has tapped the first knoll symbol, which is then highlighted on the map.

Then they tap on the second green symbol, which is then highlighted:

More information about editing selected objects can be found in Editing Selected Map Objects.

To close the small panel just tap again on the map outside the panel.

Measurements

If one object is selected, then its length or area is shown.

Length

Area

Map

Below the main toolbar and status bar is the map.

Finger Gestures

All the tools have various gestures, most of which are intuitive such as the two-finger pinch to zoom in and out.
This gesture works on all tools. Other gestures are described in the sections for each respective tool.

Buttons

Near the top of the map is a compass and some buttons:

Note that if the user’s device does not have a GPS or Compass then some of these buttons may be hidden.

• The button which zooms to the whole extent of the map. This button can change to the button if the map is not orientated to north on the device.
• The button can be used to zoom in.
• The button can be used to zoom out.
• The button can be used to re-center the map to the user’s position – if the device has a GPS. By double-tapping the button it will change to and the device will keep the map centered as the user moves.
• The button can be used to orientate the map to north on the device. Double-tapping it and the button will change to which means the device will keep the map orientated to north as the user moves.

Scale Bar

At the bottom of the map is a scale bar.

Map Toolbar

Central to all map editing is the toolbar which could look something like this depending on the type of editing tool selected:

It can be moved to a new location using the button on the bottom left. It can also be docked to the bottom of the App – see Settings - Toolbar Position.

It can be resized using the button on the bottom right.

Button Themes

Some buttons have a background theme:

• Green – confirmation button to complete a process.
• Red – destructive button to cancel a process or delete something.
• Blue – a behavior to change how a tool works – only one or none can ever be active.
• Yellow – an option to change how a tool works – none, one or many can be active.

Button Rows

There are four main types of rows in the toolbar:

• Top row – contains behaviors, options, and actions appropriate to the current active tool.
• Notes + Sketch row – contains the Notes button on the left and the sketch color buttons.
• Symbol buttons – in the example above there are two rows of symbols, to access other symbols not in the two rows tap on the symbol selector button to the left.
• Bottom row which contains:
  • The Drag button.
  • The Undo and Redo buttons, see Undo - Redo.
  • The Pan button.
  • Sometimes the symbol selector button can appear here if there are no rows of symbols above.
  • The Select button, see Status bar Selection and Editing Selected Map Objects.
  • The Draw button which changes icon depending on what is to be drawn (in this case showing a red, medium width sketch tool). The icon can be either a Sketch color & width or a symbol, see Drawing New Map-Objects and Sketch – Drawing.
  • The Sketch Erase button, see Sketch - Erasing.
  • The Quick Configuration button, see Map Toolbar.
  • The resize button on the bottom right.

Note that the Sketch/Note and Symbol rows can be scrolled horizontally if the screen device is not wide enough for all buttons:

See also Settings – Drawing and Settings – Symbol favorites for more configuration options.

The Quick Configuration Button

The quick configuration button displays a panel where the user can quickly perform the following options:

• Turn on or off editing Sketches – this will hide all Sketching and erasing tools.
• Turn on or off editing of map objects – this will hide all Map-object editing tools.*
• Change the symbol toolbar rows to a different Symbol favorites. See Settings – Symbol favorites for more information.
• Tapping the button will take the user to the Settings page and Symbol Favorites tab.

* If the current project was exported without the permission for Map-Object editing then the Edit map objects option here will be Off and disabled.

Drawing New Map Objects

There are point, line and area Symbols, each have differing behavior, option, and actions buttons.

To start drawing tap on one of the symbols, this symbol becomes the active drawing tool which can be seen in the lower toolbar.

To select a different symbol which is not in the user’s rows of symbols tap on the symbol selector button to show a panel with all other symbols:

An alternative way to change the symbol is to select a map object of the desired symbol type. Note that this will NOT change the active tool in the App to the drawing tool.

In the above example a green object is selected, and so the drawing symbol type is changed to the green symbol.
The selection tool is still active. To start drawing green symbols just tap on the green symbol drawing button in the toolbar.

Points

Point objects can be created with a single tap to screen. If the point objects can be placed directionally then tap and drag to adjust the orientation, releasing the drag will create the object.

Lines and Areas

The default behavior for drawing lines is to use the curve-and-straight behavior

If the user taps and drags the stylus/finger/mouse a Bezier curve will be created, but if the user taps and releases, then taps again elsewhere then straight lines will be created between the tapped points.

The rectangular behavior can be used too:

Use the backspace button to remove the last added point.

Re-using Geometry - Following

When using the curve behavior, it is possible to follow the geometry of one or more other existing line/area objects by using the follow option.
In the following example the green area is drawn following the track to the north, then the edge of the yellow, then across the white forest and then follows the dashed track.
When the finger/stylus/mouse is following a line, it shows a light blue cursor on that line:

Finishing or Discarding

To finish drawing a line or area tap on either the finish or finish-and-close buttons:

This will save the object on the device. Note that area objects only have the finish-and-close button.

If the user wants to discard the entire new object before finishing, they can tap the button.

Editing Selected Map Objects

The user can select one or many objects at the same time when the selection tool is active.

As mentioned in Status bar - Selection, the status bar at the top contains information about what is selected.

De-selecting Map Objects

To de-select map objects either:

• Tap outside the area covered by the selected objects.
• Tap again on the select tool .

Edit Actions

When objects are selected:

• They can be deleted using the delete button on the toolbar.
• They can be converted to objects of a different symbol type using the change-symbol action:

It is only possible to change points to points, but lines and areas can be changed to lines OR areas. Here five objects which are of three different green symbols are changed to an orange symbol.

• They can have their direction or side changed using the side/direction action if the selected symbols have such attributes:

There are different behaviors that the finger/stylus/mouse can have when using the selection tool: edit, cut, re-shape, and add/remove points, these are described below.

Edit Selection Behavior

Important: There is NO button for this default edit behavior, it is active when NO OTHER behavior is selected.

When using this behavior, the user can either:

• Move objects.
• Edit the object’s geometry.

To move all the selected objects, tap and drag the dashed selection rectangle.

To edit the geometry, the user can tap and drag one of:

• A rectangular object’s blue square corner vertex:

• A curved object’s blue square side handle to change the size of the object:

• A curved object’s blue circle Bezier handle to change the curvature of the side:

Cut Selection Behavior

Select an object and activate the behavior.

Tap on the edge and draw a cut line across the object:

Tap on the finish button to complete the cut. There are now two objects selected as can be seen in the status bar:

Either part can now be moved or modified independently:

Note that the current implementation only allows cutting an object in two pieces. Cutting a hole is not [yet] implemented.

The Re-Shape Selection Behavior

The geometry of an existing object can be changed by using the re-shape behavior, select an object and tap the behavior button:

Starting on the edge of the object, draw the new geometry, finishing on the line again:

Tap on the finish button to complete and save the re-shaped map object:

There is still only one object, but it now has a new geometry.

Add & Remove Points Behavior

Geometry points can be added or removed using the Add/Remove Points behavior button, select an object:

Tapping on the point on the left will remove it. Tapping on the edge on the right will create a new point:

Note that Bezier control points (round blue circles) cannot be removed.

Editing Holes in Areas

There are no specific tools to add or delete holes in areas (at present), however the points in an existing hole can be moved, added or removed.
By removing all the points for the hole part of an area the hole can be deleted.

Editing Protected Map-Objects

Protected map-objects are not normally selectable because their symbol type is protected. However, the user can edit them, by either:

• Moving the protected symbol to another “set” in the symbol favorites (recommended if changing many objects)
• Selecting the symbol using the symbol selector , then changing to the selection tool . While the protected symbol is the active symbol it will be both selectable and the user can create new map objects of that symbol type:

Minimum Distances

There is currently no specific tool or way to show the minimum distance between features on a map. We hope to add such functionality sometime in the future.

Map Layers

To manipulate the visibility, opacity and transparency of the various layers in the App, open the right-hand details panel and select the layers tab on the left.

The layers in this list are drawn in the order of the list, so background maps are drawn on the screen first, then the map, and finally the sketches and notes. Only the background maps can have their draw-order changed.

The visibility of any layer can be changed by tapping the Checkbox

The sliders are used to adjust the opacity of each layer. Except for the notes where the slider adjusts the size of the note icon on the map.

The transparency of a background layer can be turned on/off user the button.

The order of the background layers can be adjusted using the drag buttons. When the panel is docked and narrow, the names of the background layers are abbreviated while trying to keep them unique in the list.
To find the actual name of an abbreviated layer name tap on it and a message will briefly appear with the full name.

The buttons turn on/off all background layers at once.

The button will turn on/off the currently selected layers – the App will remember the currently selected layers, which only get updated when tapping on a checkbox or using All or None.
The number on the button indicates the number of layers the toggle is operating on.

Sketches

Sketches are raster drawings placed on top of the map. Using sketches for line and area type objects can be faster and more convenient than drawing map objects on a small device. They are also transferred to the OCAD Desktop.

Drawing

The App has different Sketch colors and widths for making sketches.

Each color always remembers the width used with it, so the user does not have to change width each time they change to a different color. The widths of each color are also visible in the button icons (for example the thick dark green in the image above).

Filtering and sorting unused colors can be done in the Settings - Drawing - Sketching.

The visibility and opacity of all Sketches can be adjusted using the Map Layers panel.

Erasing

The eraser tool can be used to delete sketches. The size of the eraser can be adjusted using the slider at the top of the map toolbar.
The eraser is round and removes sketches when the user taps and drags the eraser across the map.

Resulting in all sketches being removed:

Single Color Erasing

The single-color eraser allows the user to erase sketches of a specific sketch color. The Single-Color Eraser behavior button appears on the top left of the Map Toolbar whenever a sketch color is selected.
Tapping on another sketch color switches back to sketch drawing.
In this example the red sketch color is selected, and the “erase single color” behavior is activated:

Only the red sketches are erased when dragging across the map:

The dark green and white sketches remain.

Notes

Notes are temporary objects like sketches, placed on top of the map; they have a text field and a color. They are also transferred to the OCAD Desktop.

Creating a New Note

Tap the Notes tool button to start the notes tool which has three behaviors (create, move, select):

The add note behavior button should appear.
Tapping on the map should create a note in that position on the map:

The note is represented by an icon on the map. At the same time, a note editor panel will appear on top of the map.

The text editor contains unique default text Note 1,2,3 etc.

The color of a note can be changed by selecting one of the other colors below the text editor using the buttons. Note that other colors can be added here by changing the list of colors in Settings – Drawing - Notes.

Tapping the button to the right of the colors will navigate the user to Settings – Drawing - Notes.

When the user starts to create a note, the create-note behavior button changes to a move behavior button, this will allow the user to reposition the note they are currently editing.

To save the note tap on the button below the text editor.

To discard a note without saving, tap on the button below the text editor.

If the user’s device supports speech-to-text technology, the user can use spoken text to record a note:

Important: If the user changes tool before confirming/saving a note then the note will be automatically saved. If they did not want this note they could tap undo or delete it.

Selecting Notes

When the note tool is active the other behavior is the select notes button. The user can select one or many notes by tapping or dragging a rectangle on the map:

When notes are selected the user can:

• Start to edit the note using the edit-note button – ONLY appears if one note is selected.
• Zoom to the selected notes on the map using the zoom-to button.
• Delete the selected notes using the delete button.

To de-select all notes tap elsewhere on the map.

The Note Icon

The note icon changes slightly depending on whether it is:

• Being edited (red arrow below)
• Is Selected (2 purple arrows below)
• Is not selected or being edited (the other purple note)

The currently edited note always has a thick border and is shaded; selected notes have shading and a thin border.

The Notes List

The details panel on the right-hand side of the App also has a notes tab containing the list of notes and other sorting and filtering functions:

The notes selection on the list and map is synchronized so selecting one in the list will select it on the map and vice versa.

After selecting one or more notes in the list the user can use the zoom-to button on the map toolbar to find those notes on the map. And the button on the map toolbar deletes those selected notes.

The items in the list only display the first line of a note, the user must edit a note to see the rest of the text.

Double-tapping a note in the list will:

• Zoom to that single note.
• Start the editor for that note so the user can change the text or color. Then the user can:

• Use the button to save changes.
• Use the button to discard without changing.

Notes Sorting

The user can use the sort button to re-order the notes in the list – this button has four toggle values which cycle when tapped:

• Alphabetical descending
• Alphabetical ascending
• Modification date descending
• Modification date ascending

In the following images in the next section variations of the sorting button can be seen.

Notes Filtering

The notes list can be filtered by either:

• Text
• The Notes appearing in the current map viewport.

Note that the filter only hides notes from the list, not from the map.
Enter text in the filter field and the list will be filtered:

Tapping the button will clear the text filter.

Turning on the viewport filter button will show only the notes currently visible on the map:

In this case AAA and BBB cannot be seen in the list because they are outside the map’s visible area. Zooming in and out or panning the map will modify the notes in the list as they become visible or hidden.

Deleting

There is no warning when deleting one or more notes because it is an undoable action, see Undo-Redo.

Notes on OCAD Desktop

To see notes on OCAD Desktop they must be imported in the same way as Sketches. They can then be managed using the Sketch menu:

Undo - Redo

The Undo and Redo buttons provide a way for the user to revert an action or re-do one that was recently reverted.

All editing actions are undo and redo-able as single atomic actions. Atomic actions affect one or many objects at the same time. Some examples of these actions are listed below.
If an example has the word confirm afterwards then the undo action occurs when tapping the green confirm button.

• Creating a point map-object.
• Creating a line or area map-object - confirm.
• Deleting many map objects of different symbol types.
• Moving many objects at the same time.
• Cutting one object – confirm.
• Re-shaping one object - confirm.
• Adding or deleting a single geometry point.
• Changing direction or side of many objects at the same time.
• Changing many different objects of differing symbols to one symbol type.
• Drawing a single sketch.
• Erasing many sketches with one drag on the map.
• Erasing sketches of a single color.
• Creating a note - confirm.
• Editing a note – includes changing text, color, or position - confirm.
• Deleting many notes at the same time.
• Generating a sketch or line/area map-object from the GPS – confirm.

Some things which are NOT undo-able:

• Tapping the backspace when creating, cutting, or re-shaping a line/area.
• Notes sorting and filtering.
• Panning or zooming etc.
• Filtering the map objects selection using the status bar functions.
• Changing anything in the Background layers tab.
• Changing any setting in the Quick Configuration Panel
• Changing anything in the Settings page and tabs.

GPS Functions

If the user’s device has GPS functionality, then both sketches and map-objects can be generated from GPS data. Start by opening the GPS panel using the GPS button:

This panel has the following buttons:

• The sketch and symbol – line/area selector button.
• The line / area, start & stop recording button.
• The pause recording button.
• The smoothing slider.
• The curve mode button if a symbol is being generated.
• The straight-line mode button if a symbol is being generated.
• The finish button if a sketch or line symbol is being generated.
• The finish-and-close button if a line or area symbol is being generated.
• The discard button.

Record a Sketch

To start recording ensure the device has GPS reception and you have positioning turned on – you should see a purple cross identify where you are standing on the map, use the button to center the map where you are standing.

Tap on the selector button:

Select the desired color and line width, tap the to close the selector panel. Start to move, the GPS sketch will start to be generated when the user has moved at least 1-2 meters:

While recording the button will change icon to a pause image and the border of the button will flash on/off to indicate that recording is ongoing.

The slider above is in the left position which means there is less smoothing, and more points are used. Moving the slider to the right removes lots of the intermediate points:

The slider can be adjusted while drawing is on-going. The user can also change color or line width while the recording too.

To finish the drawing tap the finish or finish-and-close button as above, the object is now saved.

Tapping undo will remove the sketch and re-load it into the recorder whereupon the user could resume recording again. This will only work if the GPS-finish was the last action performed.

Note that when drawing a sketch there is no Bezier curve fitting, it only does point reduction.

Record a Map Object

Open the selector again and change to the Symbols tab, only line or area symbols will be displayed:

Select the desired symbol type. Similarly to sketch generation the user can change symbol type at any time during recording.

Start recording. The slider is to the left so more points are used in the generation. The curve mode is active, so the line is a curve and smoothed.

Moving the slider to the right and less points are used to make the curve:

Changing to more points and straight-line mode and the map-object now looks like this:

And moving the slider to the right reduces the number of points used:

Once the user is happy with the best approximation of the object they are generating, they can tap on the finish or finish-and-close button. The object is then saved.

Tapping undo will remove the object and re-load it into the recorder whereupon the user could resume recording again. This will only work if the GPS-finish was the last action performed

Pausing Recording

Note that the drawing can be paused and resumed at any time, only while the recording is ongoing will points be added to the geometry. This means the user can:

1. Start recording, some points are added…
2. Pause recording.
3. Move away from the recording position to inspect and draw something else…
4. Move back to the approximate recording position and resume.
5. Some more points are recorded, then the user finishes.
6. The sketch/map-object generated will not include the movement in ‘3’ and ‘4’ above.

Undo-Redo

Both the Finish and Discard actions are undoable.

If the user taps on Finish the sketch or map-object is created. If then the user taps undo the sketch or map-object will be deleted and reloaded back into the GPS recording tool. The user can then:

• Re-start recording to continue adding points to the geometry.
• Change sketch color or width, or change symbol.
• Change the finish action to finish-and-close
• Change the smoothing or curve/straight option

If the user taps the discard button the geometry being generated will be deleted. Tapping undo will add the geometry back in to the GPS recording tool and the user can continue generating their geometry.

Redo actions generally have the inverse behavior of undo which would be re-finishing the sketch/object, but without changes; or discarding the geometry again.

Hiding the GPS Toolbar

If the user closes the GPS toolbar while recording, the generating geometry will be hidden on the map, but the main GPS button will still flash to indicate that the recording is on-going.
Opening the GPS-toolbar again and the geometry will be displayed again.
Hidden, but flashing:

Settings

The App currently has three variations of the Settings Page which contain one or more tabs depending on the context of the page. To show the Settings Page, tap on the settings button.

1. During email registration – a page a tab with support information is shown.
2. From the Projects page – a page with tabs for general, positioning, drawing, and support is shown.
3. From the Project page – a page with tabs for general, positioning, symbols, drawing, and support is shown.

Tapping the close button will close the settings page and return the App to whichever page was visible beforehand.

Conventions

On a settings page the user will see small arrow buttons.

This is an expander button. If the checkbox is tapped, then the expander can also be tapped to display more options related to the setting.

When expanded there is a vertical green line below the checkbox indicating the scope of the sub-settings which appear below to the right:

The following sections describe the different settings on each tab:

General

This tab displays general settings:

Theme

The OCAD App has both light and dark modes:

The System defined option will use whatever mode the operating system of the device is using.

Language

The App currently different languages to choose from.

Button Size

The user can decide on the desired button size in the App by adjusting the slider:

The number of buttons across the screen width is also indicated, this may be useful when designing Symbol Favorites or when using small devices such as phones.

A smaller size may be suitable for use with a stylus, while bigger sizes are better with fingers.

Screen Margin

Some devices are insensitive to tapping around the edges, the user can increase the margin around the App, so the edge is not used:

Toolbar Position

The toolbar has two positions:

• Floating and moveable
• Docked to the bottom of the screen.

The default setting for this is Device defined which means that the toolbar will be docked at the bottom for smaller devices and floating for larger devices.

Zoom

These settings can be used to hide the zoom in and out buttons.

Compass

If the device has a compass (internal or external) then this setting is visible. The size of the compass can also be specified:

Status bar

The status bar can be hidden. If it is visible:

• It can be positioned at the top or bottom of the screen.
• The text tooltips can be shown or hidden.

Scale Bar

The scale bar on the map can be hidden:

North Lines

The App can display magnetic north lines overlayed on the map with an equidistance given in millimeters. Note that these north lines only exist in the App, they are not the same as drawn north lines.

Demo Projects

The two options to add demo projects to the App can be hidden with this checkbox.

User Settings

Tapping on the User Settings button:

Will open the User Settings page:

Tapping the Unregister button will unregister the device from the OCAD server. See Registration and Technical Notes for more information.

There is currently no way to change the email address or name without unregistering and re-registering.

Note: This requires an Internet connection.

Positioning

The tab contains generic settings for GPS and positioning functionality.

Positioning

The user’s current position on the map can be displayed using an indicator, the size, color and type can be modified:

Tapping the default color square will reset the color back to purple.
The number of GPS satellites available affects the precision of the position, the accuracy of the position can be shown on the map by tapping the “Show position precision” checkbox.
This will display a shaded circle around the location on the map. A smaller circle indicates a more accurate position.

Logging and tail

The App can also record the user’s position and display the tracking of where they have been.

Background logging can be enabled which means the app will continue to record its position even when another app is active on the device. This usually requires approving permission on the device.

The visibility and length of the tail can be changed, as well the Color.

Tapping the default color square will reset the color back to purple.

Symbols

The Symbols tab shows the configuration interface for editing “symbol favorites”. Symbol favorites are a way for the user to configure the symbol rows on the map toolbar, so they only need to see the symbols they use regularly.
But it is possible to have more than one symbol favorites, so the user can have one for sand-dune terrain, and another for mountain terrain. Or for city parks and another for indoor maps.
There is no limit to the number of different favorites.

The app comes with three predefined favorites:

• Forest Symbols
• Sprint Symbols
• No sets

These cannot be deleted but can be hidden if not needed.

The user interface for symbol favorites is split into two parts, the favorites selector, and the favorites editor.

Favorites Selector

At the top of the Symbols tab there are functions for selecting the active favorites and buttons for creating and duplicating favorites:

The create favorites button can be used to create new favorites.

The duplicate favorites button can be used to create a new copy of the current active favorites.

Use the drop-down menu to select the active favorites. The active favorites are the ones that will appear in the map toolbar. The user can also use the Quick Configuration Panel to change the active favorites. This will also select the favorites that can be modified in the Favorites Editor below.

Favorites Editor

The favorites editor can edit ONE favorites at a time.

The favorites have a name which can be changed (apart from the predefined favorites) to something appropriate such as Sand dunes, Indoor, Mountain or Forest Protected etc.

If the favorites are predefined then the Reset button appears, this will change the predefined favorites back to their original configuration.

The checkbox can be used to hide a favorites from the Quick Configuration Panel. This is useful if the user never makes Sprint maps, they can then just hide Sprint Symbols.

Sets

A favorites is made up of sets. A set represents a row in the map toolbar. It is possible to have up to five user-defined sets (or rows) in a favorites. Each set can contain many symbols, if there are too many for the width of the screen then row scrollbars are used in the map toolbar.

The number of sets and number of symbols in each set is up to the user to decide, but obviously the button size, screen size and orientation (portrait / landscape) will affect how the rows will look in the map toolbar.

To add a new set tap on the add set button. To delete a set tap on the delete set button beside the set to be deleted. The delete action will show a warning because deleting a set is not undoable, all changes are saved immediately.

The Other Set

Below the defined sets (1-5) will appear the “Other” set. This is where the user should put the symbols they do not use or only occasionally.

Important: The Symbols favorites are project independent, but when editing the favorites only those symbols which are in the current project will be shown. And the symbol icon for a particular symbol always comes from the project file. In one project the symbol number 100.001 could be a road and in another type of project it could be a tree. Internally favorites are just a definition of sets, and each set has a list of symbol numbers. When opening a project, the app makes a mathematical intersection merging each favorites with the symbols in the project. Any symbol in a favorite set that is NOT in a project will remain in that set but will not be visible. And any symbol not in a user-defined set but exists in a project will be placed in the Other set.

Symbols in the “Other” set appear in the symbol selector panel which appears when tapping the symbol sector button.

Note: The order of symbols in the Other set is not currently saved.

Protected Symbols

Protected symbols are those which are not normally selectable on the map and the user would not usually want to add or edit them. The Protected set appears below the Other set.

More information about protected symbols can be found in Editing protected map objects.

Editing Sets

The symbols in the sets are edited by dragging them from one set to another. The order of the symbols in each set can also be edited by dragging symbols to the left and right within a set.

The user can drag one or many symbols from ONE set into another, for example, the user is going to move these four water symbols from Other to Set 1 and place them before the rock symbols:

Result:

Note: only symbols from one set at a time can be dragged to another set.

A grey symbol selector button icon always appears at the start of the last user-defined set. This is to indicate a placeholder to the user that the symbol selector button will appear in this position in the map toolbar.

To deselect all symbols, tap on the deselect button here:

Delete a Symbol Favorites

At the bottom of a symbol favorites is a delete button which can be used to delete the current symbols favorites:

Note that this will display a warning as deleting a favorites is NOT undoable, all changes are saved immediately.

Example Scenarios

The following are three example scenarios demonstrating the possibilities of Symbol Favorites:

• Using a tablet in the mountains

Set up two favorites: Mountain and Mountain village.

Make all other favorites hidden, then when out in the field the user can easily swap between the two sets of favorites using the Quick Configuration Panel:

• Working with Protected Symbols

The user could set up different favorites for those times they want to edit protected map-objects:

While using this favorites the normally protected symbols are all editable. Revert to the normal Forest Symbols favorites afterwards.

• Phone

Working with limited space, creating a couple of favorites and using the No Sets favorites if doing a lot of sketching. In this case the user has decided that 8 buttons wide is about right for using their finger to draw. So, three rows of 8 symbols. The user can have common symbols between the sets if needed too:

Drawing

On the Drawing tab there are settings for the selection and order of colors for sketching and notes.

Sketching

By tapping a sketch color button, it can be turned on and off. Only those colors which are on will appear in the map toolbar.

To change the order of the colors, tap, hold, and drag one color at a time to a new position in the list.

Notes

By tapping a note color button, it can be turned on and off. Only those colors which are on will appear at the bottom of the note editor.

To change the order of the colors, tap, hold, and drag one color at a time to a new position in the list.

The Notes tool button can be hidden or positioned in different locations in the App.

Support

The Support setting tab contains advanced information and actions for sending information back to OCAD.

At the top is a Help section with links to the App Manual and the OCAD Wiki.

Log Settings

The app logs activity by the user in a text file on the device. If the user encounters problems with the App they are encouraged to turn on “Extra app logging” then send the log files to OCAD for analysis.

The log files are stored locally on the device. A new log file is created each day and once the log file reaches a certain size (16MB). Older log files are automatically deleted by the app regularly.

The user can send one or more log files to OCAD (internet connection required). When sending a log file, the user should also write a message to describe what they were doing and why they are sending the log file(s).

IMPORTANT: When describing what the user is doing please try and specify to the nearest minute when the crash or problem occurred – this helps us a lot!

When sending a message with a log file only the first 1000 characters are sent, to send more text see Sending Feedback below.

Each log file has a link which can be tapped to open it on the device, this could be useful if the user needs to send part of a log file to OCAD, or if the Send function fails.

Sending Feedback

The user can send feedback messages to OCAD using the Message function. There is no limit to the size of text that can be submitted.

App Settings

The app’s App settings contain small pieces of information like the color order of the notes, or the position of the floating toolbar. There are currently about one hundred different things stored here. To send a copy of the settings for the current device, the user can do so by selecting the App settings file checkbox and tapping the Send to OCAD button. Only do this if requested to do so by OCAD as it may be useful to help resolve problems.

Other Information

The current app version is displayed here.

If a project is open, then the ID of the project is displayed here, there is a copy button to the right which will copy the currently open projects id to the clipboard on the device.