Help requested for a Condes Klutz

[campervan]

I'm doing something wrong , its probably simple but I cant work it out.
When planning a new course i am putting in New controls, but i'm not getting the course rubber bands between the controls.
I've been to the help F1 help. Foot O, Normal settings, Start and finish selected, then New course, add a control, and no lines between control to start and finish.
What am I doing wrong?

[EddieH]

When you say "ADD A CONTROL" what do you mean? Are you clicking on the control symbol on the right? If so you go out of course planning mode into all controls.

If I am right go back to your new course "edit courses" and instead of clicking on the control symbol on the right, click on the "insert control" icon (3rd from left at top) You can then select any existant control, or indeed create a new one by clicking where none currently exists.

[Scott]

If you're just planning "normal" courses (no fancy gaffling or map exchanges), you may want to try PurplePen, which is a bit simpler and more intuitive than Condes (and has the added advantage of being completely free).

[andypat]

Youre having the same problem as me a couple of weeks ago Kevin by the sounds of it. if so Eddie's advice is correct. You are problaly marking controls rather than a course.
What you do is set out all the controls as you are doing then go into the edit courses bit on the left and string them all together. From memory you just double click on them to add and press delete to remove. Takes a bit of practice to get them all in the right order but the end result should be OK.

[seabird]

Only use Condes occasionally, and have repeatedly hit this barrier. Eddie's answer is absolutely right - but it only sinks in with frequent use.

I much prefer using Ocad, but unfortunately unless you are a mapper, they have rather priced themselves out of the market.

Scott is right about Purplepen. Novice planners are able to use it without difficulty and without inundating more experienced planners for advice, as they do with Condes and Ocad. Once it can handle map exchanges it will be a very simple and effective tool for most events.

[Paul Frost]

Hilary Quick (SOA Development Officer) has written a short user guide to get you started in Condes, you can get it from the Scottish Orienteering website.
There is also a lot of support stuff on the Condes website.

The Condes user licence is good for all club members, so it's "free" if your club has one (240Euros is not unreasonable for a club).
The advantage of using Condes (rather than Purple Pen) even for simple events is that it allows people to get used to using it, so when more complicated things come along they are not starting from scratch.

So whilst Condes is not as intuitive (until you get used to it), it is more poweful and has a very active and responsive developer, and some things in life are worth paying for.

[EddieH]

Further, should you have any problems Fin Arildsen who wrote Condes is immensely helpful if you have a problem - he replies to e-mails quickly and succinctly. His contact detais are on the Condes website.

[campervan]

Eddie was right.
Thanks.
Thanks for making me feel as if all you guys had made the same mistake too.

[Adventure Racer]

I agree with the recommendation for the SOA user guide - found that on google when I was trying to work out how to do something else, and it quickly gave me the info I was after.

The problem I found with Condes (having planned with OCAD before) is that it's not all very intuitive and doesn't follow normal Windows UI protocols - ie you can't do everything from the top menu bar, as you can with most apps. Instead you sometimes need to click the right hand bar, sometimes right click with the mouse to get what you want, and then follow through inconsistent menu sets. Having said that, once you have learnt how to use it it does seem very flexible and you can certainly do stuff you can't in OCAD (at least in the last version I used).