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MapRun Street-O - planning

This page is in draft - comments especially welcome to Street-O Coordinator or Chair.

MapRun Street-O events should be planned as for older (up to 2020) Street-O events but with the following changes/additions:

Format

Scoring is 20 points/control, -10 points for each part minute late.

Control features should be Maprun-friendly. This means they should be accessible, point features that can be accurately mapped (to within a metre or two), typically using Google Earth and Streetview imagery. Good options are post boxes and lampposts; ideally these should not be obscured by tree cover.

Map

A map annotated with controls can be obtained from OpenOrienteeringMap or preferably this alternative (with 5m LIDAR contours). Look out for the coloured tips at the top right corner to get you started. Allow for this site being out of action for a few days at a time.
Check for obvious mistakes and missing features, especially short-cut paths. OOmap uses OpenStreetMap mapping, updated every night. If you are not (and do not wish to become) an editor of OpenStreetMap, the Street-O Co-ordinator can help or find someone who can.
If your map is a surveyed HH orienteering map, you can obtain it, and advice on planning software, from the Mapping Co-Ordinator. Take care to place control markers accurately on the map. Additional overprinting (out-of-bounds, crossings, questions, etc) is described below. See this example map.

For post-event DIY Street-O, we need to add more information to the map - there's no organiser there to tell people about anything, particularly as it affects safety. The Street-O organiser and one or two others can do this for you, but if you're up for it there are detailed instructions at the bottom of the page under 'Final Map Preparations'. If you do only one thing from that section, fine-tune the control positions.

Final map preparations

This is quite a detailed operation. The Street-O Coordinator can do it for you, or find someone to do it, if you prefer.

Before you start, make sure you are really happy with the position of every control, control number and its description in OpenOrienteeringMap, and that you won't want to add or delete any. You don't want to go through this rigmarole too often!

Save the PDF file from OpenOrienteeringMap and immediately afterwards the KMZ and KML files. They should all have the same filename, just different extensions.

Get your clue sheet. You can either type that separately into say a Word document, or enter the clues into OOMap, Get Clues, select the table, copy and paste into Excel (Word saves it as text not a table). You only need the 2 columns No and Description. In either Word or Excel, select the table and give it a White fill.

Fine-tuning control positions

The control positions need to be as accurate as possible and this is best done using Google Earth:

Open the KML file in Google Earth. Zoom into each control and accurately reposition on the chosen feature.
You may need to use the embedded Street View option to help if unclear or if there is tree cover.
Where Google Earth can't be used, you will need to record the GPS position on a ground visit, but this is very much a second best because a single device on a single day is unlikely to give a sufficiently accurate location. Consider moving the control to somewhere / something you can see in Google Earth!

When all adjusted, you can resave the KML file from Google Earth. Consider whether you have moved any controls far enough that you need to update the OOMap file - remember that this is the map that will be printed whereas the KML file tells MapRunF where to put the control. It's likely that if the control was near say a junction you're better off leaving it as on OOMap, because you will no doubt have put it on the right side. If you've had to move the control significantly along the street, consider moving the control on OOMap.

Preparing the map layer

Annotating the map can be done using Inkscape 1.0, which is free (Linux, Windows, mac). There are some fairly detailed instructions here but it's worth following each step to save you from inadvertently moving the wrong thing.

In Inkscape, Open your PDF file.
In either a separate layer in your file, or in a separate instance of Inkscape, open template.svg. It contains some useful stuff like logos. You should delete that layer afterwards.
The only thing you need to change on the map layer is to add the HH logo to the left of the event name. Select the event name (you may need to Ungroup once or twice to get just that). Move it right a couple of cm. Copy the HH logo from template.svg and paste it in before the event name.
You can - if really necessary - move control circles or numbers in Inkscape, but you may be better off going back to OOMap. If you are going to do it in Inkscape, best to separate the controls into a separate layer from the map [Create a new layer above the map (separate to the text layer) ; Select a control circle, then choose "Edit --> Select Same --> Fill & Stroke"; Choose "Layer --> Move selection to layer..." , and pick the new layer; Repeat, but select a control number. The dots, circles & numbers should now be in the new layer; In the layers dialog, change the blend mode to "Darken" for this layer. ]

When happy, Select All and Group, Lock this layer and create a new one above it called (say) Text Overlay.

Adding text overlay

You need to add 3 things: your clue sheet, general instructions such as 45 minute score etc, and safety information - at minimum "Take care crossing roads". Prepare each of them in Word, Excel or by editing the example in template.svg. Make sure the fill is White! You may need to divide your clue sheet into 2 or more parts, in which case put the title row at the top of al of them. For each of them:

Select the text block or table in your source app, copy and paste into the Text Overlay layer.
Immediately Group.
Drag or use arrow buttons to move to the right place.
You can resize but best if you lock aspect ratio first.

If needed, add text annotations such as "Busy road" to the map.

Add any forbidden route crosses needed.

Finally, make sure you have deleted the template.svg layer and save the whole thing both in .svg format (in case you want to update it again) and in .pdf.

The final PDF

Add the front page (safety preamble) from a previous DIY-O event. If you do not have paid-for Adobe Acrobat, the free PDFTK builder will do it. Name it <venue> final.pdf and send it to the Street-O Coordinator with the supporting files (.pdf, .kml and .kmz from OOMap, .svg).

What if things change?

You can replace just the map from OOMap. Make sure you are on the right layer in Inkscape. If it's not in the right place, Group everything before you move it.

Similarly, you can change just part of the clue sheet, or any annotations in Inkscape.

You'll obviously need to use PDFTK again.

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