User Guide

Getting Started with Ordnance Survey Maps Compass

1. Open the application and select either Draw Single Leg or Draw Multi-Legged route

2. Select a starting location using the Survey Map Search Box and enter a city, town, place, or post code directly.

Panning and Zooming with Ordnance Survey Maps Compass

Once the compass is opened the map scale cannot be adjusted without restarting the application. To restart, select the 'New Routes' option from the left side menu.

Selecting and moving the compass

Click on the 'Show Compass' button that appears in the lower-left corner and the compass will appear on the map near your specified point. Drag the compass so that its centre sits on top of your starting point. Click on the compass to let you rotate it to the desired direction; click again to freeze it.

Fine tuning the compass bearing

A digital readout of the compass bearing appears in red in the top right hand corner of the map.The compass can be adjusted and fine tuned by entering the number of degrees in the box and then pressing the 'Enter' key on your keyboard.


Once the compass is opened the map scale cannot be adjusted without restarting the application. To restart, select the 'New Routes' option from the left side menu.

Fine tuning the compass

A digital readout of the compass bearing appears in red in the top right hand corner of the map. The compass can be adjusted and fine tuned by entering the number of degrees in the box. Press the Enter key on your keyboard to effect the change.

The example below shows the map bearing of 96° highlighted in the top right corner in preparation for changing. Enter a new bearing then press the keyboard Enter key.

Compass Menu

When the compass is opened, a Menu Button appears at the top left of the map that lets you:

• Undo/redo steps
• Clear everything and create new routes
• Preview and print the map(s)
• Preview and print the route information
• Load/Save/Import a Route
• Have a unique URL/ID emailed to you so that you can access/import it later
• Maintain a free online 'My Routes' account.

To open the menu, put your mouse over the 'Compass Menu' button:

Move your mouse out to close the menu.

The Menu button disappears when the 'Hide Compass' button is selected. Click the 'Show Compass' button to restore.

Direction of Travel Arrow Manual Resize

Drag the compass so that its centre sits on top of your starting point. Select 'Resize Arrow Manually' from the menu and a green circle appears at the end of the red Direction of Travel arrow on the compass. Adjust the length of the arrow by dragging the green circle. When it is at your desired destination, click the 'End Resizing' button. Click the 'Draw Route' button that then appears at the top right of the map.

Draw Single Leg Route

Clicking on the 'Draw Route' button at the upper right of the map will display a wide range of route information:
Clicking 'OK' on the display will adjust the red compass direction of travel arrow to compensate for magnetic declination.

The compass bearing display adjusted for magnetic declination (98.79º in the example below) will appear in the lower right corner. This is the bearing you set on your compass to navigate from Marker 1 (green) to Marker 2 (yellow).

The map or true bearing display appears in the upper right corner (96º in this example).

Clicking 'Cancel' on the route information display will leave the red direction of travel arrow unadjusted, and no compass bearing display will appear in the lower right corner.

Once you have finished, you can hide the compass, save and print your route.
The map cannot be moved if the compass is showing. In this case, click the 'Hide Compass' button, move the map to the required position, then click 'Show Compass' which will return the compass to its last position.

Draw Multi Legged Route

Clicking on the 'Draw Route' button will plot and draw a route to a marker at your selected point of destination. This is Yellow Marker 2 in the example below.

Click the 'Move Next' button to move the compass to the next point, Yellow Marker 2 in this example.
At Yellow Marker 2, plan a new leg then click 'Draw Route' to set a new marker - Green Marker 3 in the example below.
Click the 'Move Next' button to move the compass to the next point, Green Marker 3, and the three-legged route appears as shown below:
The route may now be saved and printed, or more legs added as required.

After saving the route and closing the Compass Tool, new legs may be added later by importing the route using the 'Import Route' menu button. The imported route will appear as Image 3 above.

You may hide the compass by clicking the 'Hide Compass' button as shown below. With the compass hidden, the Menu and Draw Route buttons will disappear.
The 'Show Compass' button will return the compass to its position in Image 3 above and the Menu and Draw Route buttons will reappear.

The map cannot be moved if the compass is showing. In this case, click the 'Hide Compass' button, move the map to the required position, then click 'Show Compass' which will return the compass to its last position.

Ordnance Survey Compass Route Information

Clicking on the 'Draw Route' button at the upper right of the map will display a wide range of route information including latitude and longitude coordinates, six figure grid references, map and compass bearings, magnetic variation or declination and distances:

Clicking on the Route Markers will display route leg information:

The latitude and longitude coordinates are provided for the last route marker:

The View/Print Route(s) Information function in the menu provides a detailed route summary:

Ordnance Survey Maps Compass Preview and Print Map Function

This function previews and prints large Ordnance Survey route maps by automatically centreing the map on the plotted route(s) and cropping the map into horizontal 'slices' which are then further cropped into printable 'tiles'. This overcomes the common failure of printers to handle large images, particularly map areas that lie outside of the immediate screenshot. To retain detail, the printable map is not reduced in size or resolution.



How is the size of each slice defined?

The maximum slice width is 960PX and the maximum height is 600PX. The Print Map function will try to create the slice with this width and height and if there is not enough space in the image, it will crop up to the end of the image width and height.



Changing Print Resolution

The Print resolution is controllable from the user end (Printing settings). The Google Compass Print Map function gives the user printable slices in the same Google Maps resolution without shrinking the image width/height. We recommend a printer setting quality of 300 dpi or higher for best print results.



Changing Printer Layout to Landscape Orientation

Landscape page orientation is where the page is turned sideways, so the horizontal dimensions are longer than the vertical. Printers are programmed to print in 'Portrait Orientation' by default, with text printed lengthways down a page orientated with its vertical dimensions longer than the horizontal. Since the printable map tile horizontal widths are greater than their heights (960PX * 600 PX), we recommend that users select 'Landscape Orientation' from their Printer Preferences options.



Example An online Ordnance Survey Maps Compass route example shows a four-legged route 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, and 4-5, where the Print Map function has automatically cropped the route into four printable slices or tiles. To print, this example should first be imported as Route ID 191: Ordnance Survey Maps Compass Print Preview Example. Option boxes appear next to each map segment, allowing printing to be deselected if not required.

	Width (PX)	Height (PX)
Slice #1	1500	600
Slice #1 Tile#1	960	600
Slice #1 Tile#2	540	600
Slice #2	1500	200
Slice #2 Tile#1	960	200
Slice #2 Tile#2	540	200

Tip

If the Print Preview window does not appear, you will need to disable your browser popup blockers for this site.

Save and Store Ordnance Survey Compass Map Routes

To save an Ordnance Survey Compass Map route, the 'Save Route' option should be selected from the upper left menu.

Open the menu and select the 'Save Route' option. A dialogue box opens with optional route title, route description and email fields.

The saved route is stored using a unique ID reference/URL. An email containing the URL is sent to the email address provided. The route ID/URL allows a user to access/import it later. The email address can be used to login to the 'My Routes' menu option and access a list of stored routes.

New legs can be added at any time to an Ordnance Survey Map route through the Import Route option selected from the upper left menu. The ID number provided when the route was saved should be entered in the Import Route dialogue window.

Ordnance Survey Compass Route ID 188 can be opened as a stand-alone page:

Route information can be viewed by clicking the route markers:

But importing the route through the import map route dialogue window returns the compass to its last position and allows new route legs to be added:

My Ordnance Survey Compass Routes

The email address used when saving a route can be used to login on the 'My Routes' dialogue window to retrieve a list of stored Ordnance Survey Compass routes.

The retrieved Ordnance Survey Compass Routes list includes the route ID, title, description, URL and the date created.

Google Maps Compass

Google Maps have been integrated within the Ordnance Survey Map Compass tool. Google Compass overlays a compass on a Google Map that matches the UK Ordnance Survey Map location. Google Map routes can then be plotted on a range of different map styles, with compass bearings, latitude and longitude coordinates, distances and magnetic variation or declination recorded.

Google Compass links can be found in the left side menu, map style menu and a button at the foot of the application.

Google Compass

Helpful tips

1. Use the 'Maximize This Map' option to generate a large map window to work with - it makes things a lot easier.

2. The current view of the map can be panned to a new position by pressing the left mouse button and dragging the map.

3. After saving a route and closing the Compass Tool, new legs may be added later by importing the route using the 'Import Route' menu button.

4. Bearings are given in both absolute map numbers, and compass-corrected for the local magnetic declination value, which is also listed. If your compass lets you adjust the magnetic declination, you have the option to do that and use the uncorrected map bearings.

Credits and End User Licence Agreement

Map Service

The Ordnance Survey Compass Web Application has been built on and is powered by the OS OpenSpace® service and the Ordnance Survey® Data feed.

End User Licence Agreement


Application Developer and Software Architect

Wessam Raafat Rady El Mahdy
http://www.newvitalsoft.com