When you download a PDF map, the mapping nicely fits inside the outer border. It’s not that simple however – the mapping data often extends beyond this border, but is visually clipped so that only the data inside the border is shown. Any external data is still there, but hidden – and takes up space…

The current contour generation process queries a database for all the contours in a certain area. It then drops any very short contours as these are likely to be artefacts that aren’t useful, and draws tick marks to show slope direction. To make sure the ticks appear on shorter contours, the frequency of tick marks…

Although Scotland’s Environment Protection Agency makes available its LIDAR data (at https://remotesensingdata.gov.scot/data#/list), it isn’t easy to download the data in bulk, so I’ve not been able to download the full dataset and use to generate contours. The data is available as 5 separate datasets that overlap considerably, downloadable only as small areas (5km x 5km)…

The LIDAR data at https://oomap.dna-software.co.uk/ currently covers around 85% of England, including most urban areas. Annoyingly there have been significant gaps in the coverage in my home county of Hertfordshire, which have meant that some of our Street-O events have been unable to use LIDAR contours. While the composite English LIDAR dataset is incomplete, individual…

I’ve just reactivated a hidden option in oomap, which is to allow the map creator to tag the event with a club name, selected from a drop-down list. As well as tagging the event (for possible future use…), the renderer picks up the club name and adds the corresponding logo to the top-right corner of…