Question on Maps

I would like to re-ask Kathleen's question now that five years have gone by. I have watched Nathan Porch's video demo of Open Office Draw.  (https://youtu.be/mhwGMo8mZx8) That certainly seems adequate and the price is right but I don't want to invest a lot of time learning it only to find out everybody else is using Autodesk Sketchbook (also free) or something else that is much better than either of those.

The nice thing about Open Office Draw (besides it being free) is that it doesn't take long to learn to use it.

Below are a couple other tutorials of mine that are a good bit shorter and simpler than Nathan's.

Open Office Draw basic functionality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFUPmNJomrU

Open Office Draw for making certification maps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDtIoT-Yv4

I downloaded only the Draw portion of Open Office.  It crashes about every 30 minutes.

I am running Windows 10 Home on an HP Pavilion x360 laptop with 8GB of RAM.  This platform has never crashed before now.

Any advice?

I didn't know it was even possible to download only the Draw portion. I would suggest doing a standard download and install of the whole OpenOffice package.

I have been using Open Office Draw for about 3 years after watching Nathan's Youtube video a couple of times. I will never be an "Illustrator" or reach the level of  map making that the program is capable of but it is a 100% improvement over my hand drawn maps and cut my map making time dramatically. I can make a basic 5k map in about 30 minutes. Maybe another 30 minutes tinkering around with it to be sure it is descriptive and correct. It works for me. 

Jingle Bell 5k Map

Nice map, Winston. I wish there were more maps like yours. On a recent search for a course for a new race, I encountered some maps that are, generously, less than perfect. Open Office Draw is completely adequate for most measurers. Nathan and some other measurers have taken O.O.D. maps to a high level. For amateur measurers, this seems to me to a worthwhile program to learn and use, and likely it is the best of them all. I encourage anyone interested to take the time to view Mark's videos and Nathan's.

For those of us who certify course as part of our profession, I think it is worthwhile to use a higher-level program such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. Take a glance at these beautiful maps by Oscar Wagner and Duane Russell.

I went ahead and played with a free trial version of AI Saturday morning.  The learning curve is steep as it the price but I think I am going to go this route.  A lot of experienced measurers tell me they spend more time of maps and paperwork than they do on measuring.  That could end up making free software a false economy in the long run.  Videos like this one:  https://youtu.be/fIJeGM2VOzM make Illustrator pretty enticing (If only I could figure out what The Design Ninja is doing .

I applaud your decision, Frank. I use Corel Draw, just because I got a free version of it many years ago and because it was cheaper to buy updates than to buy Adobe Illustrator outright. Corel Draw and A. I. are very similar programs. They do have a steep learning curve.

I struggled before I figured out how to easily draw parallel lines to represent roads. But the result in A.I./Corel is far better, IMO, both in ease of production and in appearance, than O.O.D. And of course, these high-end programs readily handle any image formats, which is important when you produce a map for a sponsor who has strict guidelines for how their logo appears, for instance.

There are some pretty fine maps in the database that were created using O.O.D. For my money, though, when you compare these to the best made with A.I. or Corel, the difference is obvious. 

Keep watching the many videos. They are a great help. Best wishes.

Flattered that my Haunted Half is included above.  I use Inkscape.  It is free but like all layered vector graphics programs, quirky with a steep learning curve.  Inkscape, believe it or not, takes spells of not working / grinding to a crawl because unwittingly changed one of about 50 global preferences and can't figure out what the problem is.  After many Inkscape uninstalls and reinstalls, I tried Draw this morning and could barely make a straight line.  This forum log on was to search for Nathan's Draw Tutorial which received rave reviews when he did it originally. 

The Open Office mapping videos (and other useful info) is available on the USATF website in the "Additional Tools" menu item.

http://www.usatf.org/Products-...dditional-Tools.aspx

Or you can find a more direct route to them by going to the RRTC website.

http://www.rrtc.net

and scroll down.

If any of you Illustrator users have advice about how to tackle that "steep learning curve", I'm all ears.  I've ordered the 2019 Classroom in a Book and will probably sample some of Tony Harmer's (Design Ninja) Lynda courses this weekend.  Other than that, all I know to do is just start using it.

Frank, I can save you some time by showing you how to do nice streets. I do not know about A.I., but I had to dig in the materials for Corel to find the basic info, which wasn't totally accurate for my needs but which allowed me to noodle out the problem. Once you get this little technique down, you have mastered more than 50% of what you need to know to draw fine maps. Contact me off list if I can help.

Thanks.  I am going to try to get my AI fundamentals in place this weekend and, time permitting, go through this: <iframe width='560' height='315' src='https://www.lynda.com/player/embed/736533?fs=3&w=560&h=315&ps=paused&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=embed+video&utm_campaign=ldc-website&utm_content=vid-736533' mozallowfullscreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' allowfullscreen='true' frameborder='0'></iframe><div style="margin-bottom:10px"><strong><a href="https://www.lynda.com/Illustrator-tutorials/Drawing-Simplified-Maps-Illustrator/667365-2.html" title="Learn how to create a simple, easy-to-read map in Illustrator, and enhance it with motion and interactivity.">Drawing Simplified Maps in Illustrator</a></strong> by <a href="https://www.lynda.com/author/2980818">Tony Harmer</a></div>

I have drawn one map with AI sort of learning by doing.  It is not as pretty as it should be.

As I have been thinking about this, it has occurred to me that map making is kind of a specialty thing that does not have a lot to do with measuring.  Seems to me that a measurer should be able to provide enough information to a mapmaker to get a solid first effort.  A couple of iterations later you've got a best in class map in a fraction of the time that the measurer would take.  Do you know if anything like this has ever been tried?  Subcontracting the map making that is?

My experience with Adobe (Premiere and PhotoShop) is that you have to use it often to maintain your skills and maybe even basic competence.  Seems that a lot of measurers do less than 10 courses per year.  Unless they are using their chosen software for something else, their skills will likely suffer.

I'll PM you on where I stand next week.  I actually enjoy fooling around with programs like AI.

Sorry for all that HTML gibberish.  This is the course I want to take: https://www.lynda.com/Illustra...trator/667365-2.html