TCTemplate: TrailO Timed Control Map Cards Generator

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  1. Set up an event in Purple Pen, ensuring the print scale is set correctly. Keep the event title short, so that it fits on one line in the control descriptions (it will not be shown in the finished product anyway).
  2. Go to Event->Customize Appearance. Untick Use IOF standard sizes. Set the Control circle diameter to 6 mm (current recommended size) and Scale item sizes to Do not scale. Tick Blend purple with underlying map colours and Use overprint effect for colors marked "overprint". Click OK.
  3. Mark each question control to be used, cut the circles as required and set the control description. The content of columns A and B does not matter, nor do the control codes.
  4. Create a course for each problem. Name it in the format name of station.i, where i is the problem number counting from 1. It is not recommended to include the word station in the name, and it is simplest to be just a number, although it could be warm-up. For example, the 3rd problem at the 2nd could be be named 2.3. Set the course type to score. The stations will be printed in the order of the 1st map at each station.
  5. Add the (single) control to the course. It doesn't matter whether a start and finished are also added, so long as they are outside the map excerpts.
  6. Move the purple number labelling the control out of the field of view. (At the time of writing, Purple Pen does not permit this label to be removed, which would be preferable here.)
  7. Set the print area for all courses (under the File menu) to have 0 margin, limit the printable area to the page size and untick Set Print Area Automatically. Select a paper size (custom size if necessary) that is large enough to include all parts of the map that are to be printed. Move the print area to cover all desired parts of the map and click done. (Each course/map does not need to have the same print area, although the author considers it easier to do so.)
  8. Create a single PDF of all the courses using File->Create PDFs->Courses and choosing to have one copy of each course all in a single PDF. Select all courses, including those not intended to be printed, but not the all controls map. If you will be printing the map cards, select CMYK as the colour model; if they are for use online, select RGB. Upload the maps PDF:
  9. Create a single PDF of all the control descriptions using File->Create PDFs->Descriptions. Choose fill one page with multiple copies of each course. Select all courses, including those not intended to be printed, but not the all controls. Choose a PDF printer with A4 page size. Leave the box size at the default of 6 mm, and leave the page margins at the default of 12.7 mm on all sides (appears as 13 mm in the main dialog). Upload the descriptions PDF:
  10. Save the Purple Pen file, then upload it to this wizard:
  1. Fill in the details of each station in the table:
Instructions and guidelines
  • Use the first row to overwrite the values for all stations. The values will update automatically.
  • Untick the box in the show column to exclude the station from the printed output.
  • The station name is read-only; to change it, rename the courses in Purple Pen, then reload the file.
  • The number of kites must be less than or equal to 6, and should be 5 or 6 (rule 16.10, IOF Trail Orienteering Competition Rules 2018).
  • Tick the zeroes box if zero (no kite correct) is a permitted answer. This should be ticked for TempO and unticked for PreO.
  • Heading is the bearing in degrees of the line subtending the left-most and right-most kite from the observation point.
  • The printed map can either be circular or square (IOF rule 15.7).
  • The circle diameter or square side length should be between 5 and 12 cm (IOF rule 15.7). Do not include the unit in the textbox.
  • The map scale is read automatically from the Purple Pen file. It may be changed here if the OCAD map file was set up incorrectly, although it will not change the print scale of the map excerpts. It should be 1:4000 or 1:5000 and be constant across all maps in a competition (IOF rule 15.2).
  • The contour interval must be stated in metres, without typing the unit in the text box.
Station name Show Kites Zeroes Heading Map shape Diameter/side length Scale Contour interval
cm 1: m

Customise layout

Print layout: All measurements are in cm. There are no sanity checks here, so check the output carefully.

Station name Page order boxes Pointing boxes
Font size Width Height Number font size Remove font size Height Letter font size Phonetic font size

Online layout: Files for TempO Simulator should have aspect ratio 1000:300 and be no more than 200 kB.

Resolution (DPI) Width (px) Height (px)
  1. Select template
  2. Save map cards again Save debug log
  1. Print the produced PDF file on A4 paper in colour and single-sided. Make sure the scale is set to 100%; do not fit to page. See instructions for professional printing.
  2. Cut along all of the red lines.
  3. Laminate the cards. Keep the plastic rectangular, except for rounded corners; do not cut out the notches on the right hand side. Make sure the plastic is sealed; there must be a few mm between the edge of the paper and the plastic card.
  4. Have a successful competition!
  1. Unzip the files.
  2. Upload the files into TempO Simulator.