Mapping

In order to deliver an orienteering programme that will enable progression within your school and beyond, we recommend that you commission the production of an orienteering map. Orienteering maps are produced to a specification and this section will give you advice on how to get a map produced.

There are two ways to go about getting a map of your school drawn:

• You may do your own surveying and cartography. Although this may appear to be cheaper, it is likely to take up a significant amount of your time and you may not have the equipment to do the job.

• You may choose to employ a specialist school orienteering mapper. Using a mapper can be an expense, but it will result in the production of a computer generated accurate and professional looking map.

You may wish to consider the following

• Decide on the area to be mapped. In most cases this will be your school site.

• If the site is larger than the area that you will use for orienteering, do you need to have a map of the whole site or just part of it? Or more than one map, it is fairly straight forward for the Mapper to produce individual, differing scales of a section of the map once the main map has been produced.

• Normal maps are produced in colour – if you wish to reproduce in black & white then please discuss this with the Mapper.

• We recommend that you make sure you agree before you commission a mapper what you are getting for your money.

Employing a Mapper

• Remember to ask your local club if a map of your school exists already. It may be old but still good as a base-map for a newer map. Ask also if there is a mapper willing to do the survey and what is the estimation costs, if there are any.

• You can ask to see a portfolio of the Mappers work. Our mappers old jobs are visible at the page SCHOOL MAPS.

• Always agree a price. Most school maps will take just 1 day for surveying and 1 day for the cartography. Therefore a minimum price will be in the region of €150 to €300 for a map, depending on the complexity and size of your site and the travel costs of the Mapper. A maximum price should be €800 to €1000.

• You can order a map from us at the page ORDER.

AERIAL IMAGE

Maybe the most common 'base map' to have as a reference when the mapper has to prepare a school map survey. Can be easy and free to get (Google Maps) and enough accurate.

MAPPER'S FIELDWORK

The mapper starts the field work, drawing on the printed 'base map' the buildings outlines and all other relevant objects. Each mapper has his own tools and technique.

COMPUTER DRAWING

When the fieldwork is scanned it can be imported on a drawing program (PS/Adobe) or a mapping program (Ocad/OOM) and the digital map is created.

FINAL PRODUCT

Last important thing is to add all info like school name, scale (and contour interval if necessary), north arrow and lines, map owner and commissioner, legend and mapper's name.

List of mapping/course setting software: