The OCAD workflow

Two exports from one file, at one resolution. The fastest and most accurate way in.

Routster needs two views of every map: the colour map a player sees, and the impassability map that decides where a generated route may go. Exported from OCAD they are two renders of the same file and line up exactly, so this route skips both the automatic detection and the editing step.

The procedure is two exports, which have to match.

A — the colour map

Step 1. File → Export

Choose TIFF, full colour.

Step 2. Set the resolution to 508 DPI

Every generation job is computed at 508, and distances and line widths are derived from it. A file exported at another resolution measures wrong rather than looking wrong.

Step 3. Select Entire Map

Do not crop by hand: OCAD computes the bounding box, and the second export computes the identical one.

Step 4. Save the .tif

This is your visual upload.

B — the impassable-objects map

Step 1. Switch to the impassable-objects view

The map redraws showing only the elements a runner cannot cross — fences, walls, buildings, deep water, impenetrable vegetation.

Step 2. Save as TIF

OCAD reuses the resolution and the Entire Map setting from the previous export. Confirm both.

Both files must describe the same rectangle at the same resolution

If the two TIFs differ in dimensions, every route on the map is drawn offset from the terrain — and a small mismatch produces a small offset that reads as a rendering quirk rather than a broken map. Re-export both whenever you edit the OCAD source, not just the layer you changed.

Uploading

Choose the TIF-pair option and upload both. There is no impassability generation step and no editing step: the mask comes from the map's own objects rather than from a colour analysis of an image of them.

What you gain over an image upload

	TIF pair	PDF / PNG / JPG
Impassability layer	Exported from the map's objects	Detected from the image, then edited by hand
Extra processing time	None	One to three minutes, plus your editing
Accuracy at boundaries	Exact	Good, with gaps you have to find
Effort	Two exports	One upload and a careful review

Then tune the generation

The generation parameters decide how many challenges come out of the map, how hard they are, and how different the alternatives have to be. See the parameter guide, and common pitfalls for what to check before publishing.