Rules Rules Rules

[Gross]

3.1.4 The site of each control shall be shown as the centre of a circle of 6mm diameter.

So says the BOF Rules.... shame that at the BOC - arguably the UK's premier competiition this rule was ignored & the control circles were 9mm on my mao!

[graeme]

see B 3.1.12

[Gross]

looks like I was 'wrong' again.... The question then is should the rules say shall or shall we just ignore them or should we follow them??

And about BOC... it was good to see the packing tape for descriptions at the start:)

[Kitch]

OK

here's one

At BOC some of the control circles on point features appeared off centre.
This was because the flag was on a specific side of the feature, so the circle was centred to that side. It looked kinda, wonky.
I tried this at BUSA but as I thought it looked wonky I centred circles on the centre of point features, even if the flag was on one side. that looked better to me.

Is there a rule / convention on this ?
what do people prefer ?

[Adventure Racer]

In CF the circle is centered on the flag

[MarkC]

Is there a rule / convention on this ?

It's covered by the second paragraph of B 3.1.4:

"If the control feature is shown on the map symbolically rather than to scale, the circle should be drawn so that the symbol lies exactly at the centre. For example, this means that if you use the east side of a dot knoll as a control site then the circle should be drawn around the middle of the symbol, not the east side of it."

I think it looks nicer as well...

This is unambiguous as far as controls on point features are concerned, although there is a subtle difference between the BOF Rules and ISOM 2000 (which it is paraphrasing); according to the former the circle should be centred on the "site of each control", whereas the latter defines its position by "the precise position of the feature" - it would be interesting to know if this variation is deliberate.

[Adventure Racer]

But what about controls like 159, 160 and 161 on this course?

[Simon E]

there is a subtle difference between the BOF Rules and ISOM 2000 (which it is paraphrasing); according to the former the circle should be centred on the "site of each control", whereas the latter defines its position by "the precise position of the feature" - it would be interesting to know if this variation is deliberate.

I think you are trying to read more into this than is really there. We certainly weren't trying anything clever when we wrote the BOF Rules like this. Accept the simple interpretation and everyone gets the idea. Start thinking about it and it gets horrible.

Consider the dot knoll example. A dot knoll is 0.5mm diameter at 15,000, which means it is 0.75mm diameter at 10,000 (50% enlargement). The difference between centering a circle on the edge of the dot or the centre of the dot is therefore 0.375mm on the map: just about enough to notice.

But this represents 3.75m on the ground, so drawing the circle round the edge of the feature on the map probably means it is several metres from the dot knoll on the ground (for a typical south east dot knoll which struggles to be 1m wide).

Then you remember that the dot knoll has itself probably been displaced to make it look right relative to everything else on the map. It all comes down to the problems of generalisation when the map symbols are significantly bigger than the features they represent.

So are we talking about "the precise position of the feature" or the "site of each control" on the ground or on the map? See, I told you it got complicated.

[Tom R]

In CF the circle is centered on the flag



aye but thats just summit to do with the computer stuff to make the punching work

[NeilC]

Advantages of displacing the control circle to the edge of a point feature:

1) It can be spotted by the runner and help lead them to the correct side/edge etc of the feature

2) When using OCAD / PICOVER / CONDES etc it's useful when checking control descriptions

Disadvantages:

1) Doesn't look quite so nice

2) More risk of control circle moving during printing

3) On a cluttered map it may not immediately focus the brain on the correct feature

On balance I feel (indeed felt) that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. Never met a controller who was too fussed either way - though I'm sure there are some out there.

[Spookster]

But what about controls like 159, 160 and 161 on this course?

There's always an exception to the rule. And that was a really big boulder, like the size of a small house!

[Barny of Blandford]

2) More risk of control circle moving during printing - quote from Neil C

I thought the whole point of using modern lazer printing systems was that the control circles cannot move during printing especially when set up by OCAD and CONDES
Or am I missing something here (sorry - I am trying out the pretty symbols - got to get used to these new ideas)

[NeilC]

Laser printing is still not the norm for major championships.

[HOCOLITE]

Interestingly the BOC map did not have an accreditation to the printer.

[NeilC]

Interestingly the BOC map did not have an accreditation to the printer.

Mick Lucking did the individual day maps - I offered him the opportunity to add his company logo etc. We checked the registration of all the maps and only a small handful were rejected.