TiM — Timed control map Maker

A simple tool for preparing timed control maps from SVG/XML files exported from OCAD. The tool creates SVG files with cover sheets, competition and solution maps, optionally converting them to other graphic formats and printing. TiM can also prepare maps for using directly on tablets with the ANT application. An excellent Users' Guide with OCAD sample files have been prepared by Ari Tertsunen. Thanx! [Preparation] [Samples] [Notes] [FAQ] [Competitions] [References] [Releases] New! 8 stations per solution page! Purple and green color adjustments.

4.2.1

OCAD versions supported:

• OCAD 9 (Professional version needed for SVG export)
  Full support; TiM can also make the column B description (A-E/A-F) by himself, so you don't need to worry about it (see the COLB option in the configuration file).
• OCAD 10 (Professional version needed for SVG export)
  Full support.
• OCAD 11
  Not tested. However, due to full support of versions 10 and 12 we believe in full support of this version, too.
• OCAD 12
  Full support. Moreover, it seems that this version includes SVG exporting even in the Standard version!
• OCAD 2018
  Full support.

Or, if you want to use TiM just for a single event, you can try to use the Trial version. It has limited number of courses and objects per course, so you have to make one OCAD file for each station and one TiM configuration file as well. If you want to make solution maps, you cannot use letter markers there. However, it still works...

Environment preparation:

Originally, TiM was written as a UNIX script.

Now, the version 4 of TiM is a Windows program. You can simply download it and run it. In TiM, you choose the File / New menu item and select your directory with OCAD exports. TiM tries to prepare a configuration file with parameters for you and you need just to tune them a bit (if you want) and add some more information (like contour interval, event title, logo etc.) in TiM's GUI.

If you want TiM to make not only SVG maps, but also PDF, PNG, PS or EPS, you will need a software for it. I use Inkscape even though it (like many other programs) sometimes has problems with some types of raster map symbols (marsh, undergrowth, semiopen...). This software must be also installed and you will have to configure path to the executable (using the System.WINPATH option).

Another way to produce PDF is any on-line converter. I tested this and the results are very good.

Event preparation:

The preparation differs a bit according to whether you wan to measure rotation angles manually or let TiM to calculate them by himself, and if you want to make also the Solution maps.

The last alternative is well described in the User Guide prepared by Ari Tertsunen.

Step	Configured angles	Automatic rotation	Solution maps
1	Check the View mode of the background map (save the map OCAD file as "Normal").
2	Create a course map with controls and control descriptions. You can also cut the control circles if you want/need but do not make too short arcs and check the result very carefully in this case! Using a file name with only ASCII characters (no national alphabet characters) is recommended.
3	Add a single start symbol (same for all stations) and place it next to the control clusters.
4	Make a single course for each station, name them properly (e.g. St1, St2, even if they are in separate files needed for the trial version of OCAD) and assign the start symbol and all tasks in correct order to each course. Using course names with only ASCII characters (no national alphabet characters) is recommended.
5	Not needed	Create OCAD symbols for the decision point ("chair"), correct flag, false flag and zero position. Correct flag means a flag correct for at least one task at the station, however, if you prefer not to distinguish between correct and false flags in the solution map, you can use just one type of symbol. All these symbols must be of the Course setting symbol/Finish type. Use OCAD symbol major numbers (before the dot) higher than 20 since the lower numbers are reserved for control description symbols. You can use a sample OCAD file and copy'n'paste (and modify if you want) the symbols. There are two sets of special symbols, use the set with a "T" in the icon. Do not rotate the chair symbol, TiM will do it by himself!
6	Not needed	Place all the above symbols to proper positions in the map and assign them to the particular course (behind the real controls!).
7	N/A	N/A	Optional step; if you want the flag letters in the solution maps: Create OCAD symbols for flag position letter tags ("A" to "F") and follow the instructions in step 4. They are also included in the sample OCAD file.
8	N/A	N/A	For each station, go to the Preview mode, move the numbers for "faked" controls (chair, flags, letters) somewhere aside and then place real task numbers properly. Another possibility is to switch off the task numbers in solution maps in the configuration (Solutions→Task numbers). Task numbers are not absolutely necessary, especially when making maps for the TempO Simulator (WEB mode).
9	Add a control description placeholder somewhere close to the clusters in the map (don't worry about covering clusters – TiM will remove the control descriptions from maps). Check that the area you will export contains all (entire) lines with control descriptions of real tasks!
10	Export all course maps to SVG files. Use menu File→Export, select SVG format, check Partial map and mark a region that covers both the station surroundings and the control description field, uncheck Compress file and then choose all courses (e.g. using the button Select all – do not use <All controls>).
11	Export the course list into an XML file — menu Course→Export→Courses (XML, IOF Version 2.0.3 or 3.0).
12	Measure the angles toward the Alpha flag and the rightmost flag.	N/A	N/A

Warning! Do not use layouts in OCAD. OCAD cannot generate SVG output in this case.

Input samples:

• A sample OCAD file with chair, flag, zero, flag letter and answer letter symbols. WARNING! This file is new for the 4.1.10 version. If you have an older one, you should use this, or change all additional course setting symbols (chair, flags and flag letters) to Finish type. WARNING! Do not rotate the chair symbol! TiM will do it by himself... :-)
  • ISSprOM 1:4000 OCAD v2018
  • ISSprOM 1:4000 OCAD v10
  • ISSOM 1:4000 OCAD v9
  • ISSOM 1:5000 OCAD v9
• A sample OCAD event files by Ari Tertsunen (map and course prepared for TiM maps + solutions).
• Configuration samples for making maps for ANT, version for 7" and 9" tablets.

Output samples:

• Two A5 maps on one A4 page (an SVG version).
  The SVG output can be displayed and printed directly in some browsers. Or you can use some other software that can display it (e.g. Inkscape).
• Two A5 maps on one A4 page (a PDF version).
  Conversion to PDF by Inkscape is sometimes not perfect, you should check the maps, namely rasters.
• A 6-station solution map from a real event (an SVG version).
  The chair and flag/zero symbols are taken from OCAD, so you can have your own ones.
• A 6-station solution map from a real event (a PDF version).
• A 7-station solution map from a real event (an SVG version).
• A 7-station solution map from a real event (a PDF version).

• If you have more classes, stages etc., you can prepare separate configuration file and sets of SVG files for each class and use the CLASS option to distinguish among map sheets for various classes (the class will be printed in the map heading).
• The answers for solution maps can be either configured in particular Station section, or they can be prepared directly in the OCAD as column H control description symbols. In the latter case you must add the symbols in OCAD and use symbol major numbers (before the dot) lower than 20.
• If you have your own OCAD symbols for anything, check that these symbols do not have major number (before the dot) from ranges 0-20 and 701-703. These numbers are used for control description and course settings and TiM uses these symbol numbers to recognize various parts of the exported SVG.

Aug 2023		Hungarian TrailO Weekend (WRE), Zoltán Miháczi
Aug 2023		Philadelphia's Navy Yard TrailO (WRE), Russ Myer, Daniel Heimgartner
Jul 2023		WTOC 2023, Libor Forst
May 2023		Stadi TrailO (WRE), Ari Tertsunen
Oct 2022		Hungarian Autumn TrailO Weekend (WRE), Zoltán Miháczi
Jun 2022		PreWTOC 2022 (WRE), Libor Forst
May 2022		European Trail Orienteering Championships, Anna Jacobson
Whole 2021		Hungarian TORUS TempO Trophy, Zoltán Miháczi
Oct 2021		Slovak TrailO Weekend 2021 (WRE), Ján Furucz
Aug 2021		FinTrailO 2021 (WRE), Petteri Hakala
May 2021		TORUS Turus Tournament + Play-offs, Juha Hiirsalmi
Mar 2021		Kurpark Warmbad 2021 (TORUS Cup), Anna+Hanka Straube
Mar 2021		Vyborg 2021 (TORUS Cup), Sergei Rusakov
Feb 2021		Swedish Forest Cup (TORUS Cup), Christian Enberg
Oct 2020		Morstorp 2020 (TORUS Cup), Christian Enberg
Oct 2020		Marie Kerr Park (TORUS Cup), Clare Durand
Oct 2020		Colombia 2020 (TORUS Cup), Wilder Andres Guerrero Hurtado
May 2020		Mäntsälä (TORUS Cup), Lauri Mäkinen
May 2020		Virtual-O (TORUS Cup), Ján Furucz
May 2020		Suikkila 2020 (TORUS Cup), Juha Hiirsalmi
Apr 2020		From my Window, Juan Pedro Valente
Nov 2019		Finnish TempO Training Weekend, Ari Tertsunen
Nov 2019		Mšenské TempO, Jiří Kalousek
Jul 2019		Fin5 Trail (WRE) – long/TC + TempO, Sami Hyvönen
Jun 2019		WTOC – long/TC + Relay + TempO, Nuno Pires
Jun 2019		PIOM (ECTO/WRE) – long/TC + TempO, Inês Domingues
Mar 2019		Mrazivé TempO Prague, Pavel Kurfürst
Mar 2019		TempO NAOM Castelo Vide, Luis Gonçalves
Feb 2019		Slovak Nomination #3+#4 – long/TC + TempO, Ján Furucz
Feb 2019		Madrid Trail-o Cup – TempO, Hector Lorenzo
Feb 2019		Spanish Championship – long/TC, Joao P. Valente
Oct 2018		Iberian Championship – long/TC, Joao P. Valente
Oct 2018		ECTO #9+#10 – long/TC + TempO Prague, Pavel Kurfürst
Jul 2018		ECTO #5+#6 – long/TC + TempO Friuli, Remo Madella
Jun 2018		CRO-HUN-ITA-SLO League – Varaždin TempO, Jasminka Cindrić Perković
Apr/May 2018		ETOC – long/TC + Relay + TempO, Ján Furucz
Apr 2018		Italian Championship – TempO, Renato Bettin
Mar 2018		Italian Cup – TempO Monza, Remo Madella
Mar 2018		Czech Cup – TempO Malešice, Jana Kosťová
Nov 2017		Czech Cup – TempO Mělník, Miroslav Šimek
Oct 2017		ECTO #9+#10, Ján Furucz
Sep 2017		Norwegian TempO Championship, Martin Jullum

Ari Tertsunen, 16.11.2019

I found extreme power and efficiency in TiM when creating all documents for a two leg TempO event in early November.
A total of 14 stations with 5 tasks each was generated in minutes. Naturally after a proper setup in OCAD.
Specially I enjoyed the "Solution map" feature of TiM. The solution maps were fluent to specify and the outlook of the solution maps is just perfect.
Batch processing of PDF files work fluently.
What a great experience!!

Luis Gonçalves, 2. 4. 2019

This tool is a huge step ahead for TrailO...
Fully customizable, easy to understand and easy to use. Previously timed controls meant some hours of painful and risky work. Now in 15 minutes we are able to do all the work (cut, rotation, north arrows, numbering, control description) and if we miss something with 3 or 4 "clicks" everything is fixed.

Jasminka Cindrić Perković, 31. 5. 2018

I'm really happy and satisfied with TIM. Saving time and making it easier to create almost 50 minimaps for TempO, it also allows me to incorporate map corrections in the last moment. And the saved time I can spend on other organizational stuff :P
I have almost no comment on producing maps. That part is awesome :)
It helped me a great deal.

Remo Madella, 21. 11. 2017

Finally I had the chance to learn how to use ANT and TiM and I can say they are awesome!
Libor you are a genius!
TempO organizers... please use TiM, you will save countless hours and a lot of mistakes.
This is some light in the darkness of TrailO

Ján Furucz, 21. 8. 2017

I have to compliment Libor Forst and his automatic TrailO tool for creating sheets for time controls or tempo controls from OCAD source. 4 competitions, 2 categories, 2 stations and 3 or 4 tasks = 72 sheets about 20 minutes is miracle. Just print and laminate ... Many thanks

Release changes:

• v 4.2.1 (16.4.2024, thanx to Ari Tertsunen)
  
  • Better diagnosis of insufficient canvas and sheet size
• v 4.2 build 4 (27.9.2023, thanx to Ari Tertsunen and Evgeniy Lukatsky)
  
  • A new format of solution sheet allowing 8 station per page implemented.
  • Tiled printing to A3 implemented.
  • Added support for Inkscape 1.3.
  • TASK mode support ended.
• v 4.1.12 build 2 (11.6.2023)
  Purple and green color adjustmens.
  • You can define your own color instead of purple generated from OCAD.
  • You can darken green colors by a given ratio.
  • TiM eliminates the second part (column) of control description if they are too long not to fit to one.
  • TiM checks right number of flags in the map.
  • Better diagnostics of config and OCAD export reading.
• v 4.1.11 build 8 (14.2.2022, thanx to Ari Tertsunen)
  
  • number of OCAD flag position marker symbols was reduced to one; there is only "Flag" instead of "Correct Flag" and "False Flag" (old configuration files and maps still work, of course)
  • adapted inkscape calls according to a new behavior of inkscape version 1.x
  • the color of TiM special symbols can be changed to RED in TiM config (in section Solutions)
• v 4.1.10(19.4.2020)
  
  • changes in control description processing after renumbering of OCAD symbols in last OCAD version
  • changes in Inkscape call after releasing its version 1.0
  • minor improvements in map production for web TempO Simulator
  • minor improvements in New directory structure recognition
• v 4.1.9 (8.11.2019, thanx to Ari Tertsunen and Jiří Kalousek)
  
  • when selection a station, you can select more than one; in solution maps this means that exactly this set of stations will be printed (so you can use not only different scales but also different map sizes for particular stations)
  • slightly nicer default layout of window panels, toolbars etc.
  • slightly nicer design of solution maps
  • better detection of the number of tasks (simply count lines in the control description that have a symbol in the column C)
  • better recognition of course setting symbols and TiM special ones
  • TiM special symbols for chair, flag, zero and flag letters are now Finish symbols, so they do not have numbers in the map that need to be removed
  • TiM special symbols for flag and zero can have more parts (but still only a single color) and they are rotated correctly
• v 4.1.8 (12.9.2019, thanx to Luis Gonçalves)
  
  • tab order numbers may optionally contain a station number as a prefix
  • when circle maps are used, you can choose to add short pieces of north lines next to the map border to be printed
• v 4.1.7 (11.11.2018, thanx to Ari Tertsunen)
  
  • when generating a new configuration (menu File/New) in the STAT mode, TiM opens the first map and tries to guess number of tasks and flags and also whether the "standard" symbols for chair (790.1) and flags (790.2, 790.3) are used; in a standard situation, the newly generated configuration is now ready to produce the very first version of maps that can be only tuned a bit
  • TiM can prepare maps for stations with a single flag only (A/Z)
  • in the Finnish version of OCAD, nonstandard symbol IDs are used for control descriptions (outside the range 1 .. 19); TiM can now work also with these numbers
  • toolbar icons have tooltips
• v 4.1.6 (20.10.2018)
  
  • in the solution sheets, every station can have an individual scale for better readability
  • in competition maps, the north arrow can be now vertically linked to the control description instead of the map; this is better for maps used in the ANT application on smaller tablets (7") oriented vertically
  • the Source.Letters configuration parameter can be specified as the major number so that all such symbols are considered to be solution symbols; this allows add more symbols like "+" when you want to express in the solution map the fact that one control circle belongs to two tasks (e.g. "2+4")
  • a logo file for solution sheets is copied to the target directory whenever it has a different last modification date and time
  • BUGFIX: choosing of a subset from solution maps didn't work properly
  • BUGFIX: the Target.Dir parameter didn't work properly
  • BUGFIX: square shaped maps had incorrect clearing field
• v 4.1.5 (7.9.2018)
  
  • some browsers do not accept quoting in comments; so map object hiding is now done by removing instead of commenting out
  • opening a configuration by dragging and dropping a config file to an icon or TiM window is implemented
  • when generating image files (using inkscape), TiM checks age of source (SVG) and destination files and generates only recently changed maps
  • international alphabet words can be optionally printed together with the answer letters on the pointing board
  • a non-standard time limit can be configured
  • TiM recognizes also single-station events where the station number is missing in the course name
  • a bug in direct printing was fixed
  • other minor improvements and fixes
• v 4.1.4 (21.8.2018)
  The main aim of this version was to add a support for making maps for the TempO training page.
  • a new format of the Courses.xml (according the IOF XML version 3.0) implemented
  • timeout for the start of the Inkscape was increased
  • in the STAT mode, TiM saves timestamps of seen courses.xml and map files so that it can warn if next time only some of them are changed
  • TiM corrects SVG background incorrectly generated by OCAD
  • during map generation, TiM changes the window title so that you can easy recognize the finish
  • map generation can be interrupted by pressing a STOP button
• v 4.1.3 (13.6.2018, thanx to Jasminka Cindrić Perković)
  Solution maps are now more or less usable for real competitions.
  • support for making Solution maps essentially improved
  • map scale is read from OCAD exports (in STAT mode)
  • sheet target margin is processed properly
• v 4.1.2 (4.1.2018)
  
  • basic support for making Solution maps included
  • workaround for Windows registry bug added
  • fixed two-digit station numbers recognized and accepted
  • need for document saving tested at application exit/document closing
• v 4.1.1 (20.10.2017)
  
  • OCAD version 12 tested
  • automatic mode of Column B completing (TiM decides according to the original content)
  • dynamic allocation of all large data (map lines and objects)
  • more secure reading of OCAD map
  • colored tabs available (see Event.TABCOLOR parameter)
  • at start, TiM reopens ALL recently opened files
• v 4.1.0 (12.10.2017)
  Mass printing (at least in draft mode) solved!
  • added possibility to select only some maps to be created
  • added the PNG, PS and EPS output formats to the new GUI version, too
  • PNG output brings the possibility of mass printing of all selected pages (in raster quality) directly from TiM
• v 4.0.2 (10.10.2017, thanx to Martin Jullum and Ján Furucz)
  A brand new version for Windows.
  • automatic generation of starting configuration according to the directory content
  • per-station course possible instead of per-task ones
  • autocalculation of rotation if chair and flags markers included
  • possibility to hide additional symbols (like control number in the map)
  • extremely detailed configuration (colors, margins, sizes, ...)
  • answer pointing board added
• v 3.5 (5.9.2017, thanx to Martin Jullum)
  The main aim of this version was to add a printing capability. Unfortunately, Inkscape fails to print directly and, on Windows, I can't find a way how to print many graphics files from the command line.
  • added support for mass printing (on UNIX only)
  • control description color used by OCAD respected by TiM
  • added possibility of output to PostScript formats
  • spaces arround equal sign in configuration file ignored
  • configuration keywords are case insensitive
  • BUGFIX: incorrect export of cover sheet to PNG fixed
  • BUGFIX: fixed quoting for directory paths with spaces
• v 3.4 (22.8.2017)
  • works with both OCAD 9 and OCAD 10 export files
  • font sizes for cover sheet and map heading
• v 3.3 (21.8.2017, thanx to Ján Furucz)
  • cover sheet included
  • control description is removed from source SVG map
  • CLASS can be added to map title
  • north arrow optionally on either side
  • map border can have offset from map
• v 3.2 (18.8.2017)
  • including original map instead of referencing it only
  • control numbers are removed from map
  • printing multiple A5 maps to A4 page
  • tim accepts OCAD export in non 1:1 scale
  • inkscape path added automatically
  • output to PNG (e.g. for ANT maps)
  • pdf/png output is made via temp file => write permission is checked