Discussion: OCAD 9 tutorial?

I am an O-CAD newbie and would like to learn more about its functionality, beyond what the OCAD 9 Help function provides. I have only use O-CAD for making minor map corrections and course-setting, but now I want to get into more serious mapping, starting with importing Lidar base maps. I can't seem to locate a more informative O-CAD 9 tutorial on-line - can anyone point me at one they have found useful?

You need OCAD 10+ to be really efficient with lidar, georeferenced sources, and other GIS functionality. You can do it in 9−, but it is more labor-intensive and you have to really understand what you are doing.

I can probably help you a bit with learning to organizing data. I'll be mapping in North Van in the near future, so perhaps I can give you a crash course on using data and GIS. Actually the map I will be working on would be a good example.... and I use OCAD 9 as well. Maybe you could make the map and I can just stay home ;-)

Tundra/Desert is right though. With OCAD9 you do often need to rely on other programs for organizing data. Ideally, obtain data in the right format and projection and just import it, or find someone to organize it for you.

And on the topic of GIS functionality, does anyone have comments on Qgis.
I don't use it (yet) as I have commercial software (outdated versions now), but I looked it over a while ago and it looks like it might be a good free gis possibility.

I use QGIS as a vital part of my workflow. I mainly use it as a GIS viewer. It relies on GDAL and GRASS for most of its processing functionality, and I find it easier to do that processing on the command line and just view results in QGIS. I almost never use the GRASS viewer now, since QGIS does on the fly projection.

I don't have OCAD10, or 11, so I don't do any GIS work within it. I find the GIS features of OCAD9 to just get in the way. I'd prefer OCAD to focus on being an awesome drafting program, and leave the GIS functionality up to other software that can focus on being a great GIS framework.

I have tried using QGIS to export DXF for OCAD-8, but was unsuccessful.
OCAD only reads the older style of DXF.

Thanks T/D; I can get the lidar-derived UTM geo-referenced contours as a shape file from the local district mapping office, so as long as I ask them for the right thing, I presume I will have a good starting point. Exactly how one imports the shp file into O-CAD and prepares it for use as a background map is not clear to me, however. That is why I was looking for some hand-holding (aka tutorial ;-) so that I don't screw it up, and also don't waste the district's time by having to go back to the well.

Hi, Bryan:
That would be great. When will you be in the Lower Mainland? I think you will probably be using a base map derived from the District of N.Van. lidar data, so our paths may be quite parallel (other than the fact that you know where you're going!). The mapping project I want to start is up on the Sunshine Coast, but with our planned Europe O trip this summer, I almost certainly won't get started fieldwork before late August.

You can convert the shapefile to DXF through many possible ways, for example Global Mapper or TNTmips. Georeferencing will be retained. Then import the DXF into OCAD. Your shapefile is most certainly in state plane coordinates, and most photos you get will be in UTM. You will need to choose one or the other system for your OCAD work; so, you will either need to reproject the contours to UTM, or the photo to state plane. Global Mapper can do both.

I convert and reproject contours with TNTmips, but have to work around the file size limiation in TNTmips. So, I would suggest some other tool for the conversion.

It is also possible to make the shp -> dxf conversion using OpenJump. However OJ:s dxf-export is limited to one layer only, which makes converting multilayer shp-conversion quite cumbersome.

Correction: in Canada, your contours are probably already UTM. Sorry didn't read where you were posting from.