MappSmith — Ski resort builder

• How are European and Japanese runs graded?

  The way the resort grades them. A resort in the US or Canada uses green circle, blue square, black diamond and double black. A European resort uses blue, red and black pistes, green for a beginner slope where one is marked, and itineraries and freeride routes as their own group. A Japanese resort...

• How do I change the resort or look after building it?

  Press "Change resort or look" on the Product card. The builder reopens where you left it.

• How do I choose which runs are on the map?

  Open the Runs step. Runs are grouped by trail sign (green circle, blue square, black diamond, double black; or green, blue, red and black runs and itineraries at a European resort). Tap a run to take it off or put it back. "All" and "Clear" work on a whole group, and on every run at the top. Lift...

• How do I make a ski resort map?

  In the Layers panel, set Product to "Ski resort". The ski builder opens. Resort: type the resort or mountain name and pick it. Look: choose Raised or Carved, a finish, and how the mountain is built. Runs: every run starts switched on. Take off any you do not want, or keep only the ones that matt...

• How do I set the colours on a printed ski map?

  Choose the Printed look, then on the Details step pick a style (Classic trail map, Vintage or Night) and set the ink for each trail sign. Reset to trail colours puts green, blue and black back.

• How tall does the mountain stand?

  Under Height, pick Low, Natural, True to life or Dramatic. They are fractions of the mountain's real height at the size of your board, turned into a number of sheets. The builder shows how tall it stands and how tall the real mountain would be at that scale. More settings lets you set the steps y...

• What are the finishes?

  Lodge: birch mountain, walnut runs and a walnut frame. Bluebird: pale maple mountain with oak runs and an oak frame. Night skiing: dark walnut mountain with maple runs.

• What are the horizon mountains?

  Turn on "Mountains along the top" for a white range across the top of the board, behind the resort, with the rock picked out in engraved shading, and the wood land running down to the bottom of the board. The range sizes itself to the board. In the panorama you can use drawn peaks or the real rid...

• What does Shaded mean for the mountain?

  Shaded draws each contour line heavier on the side facing away from the light, so a flat engraved or printed board reads as lit relief. Lines draws them all the same weight.

• What do the piste signs look like on a European or Japanese map?

  On a printed map every piste is a disc in its own colour, as on the resort's own map, and an itinerary or freeride route is a broken ring. Itineraries print as a dashed yellow line. Burned into wood there is only one colour, so the shape tells them apart: blue is a disc, red a square, black a dia...

• What do Trail signs, Trail colours and Run names do?

  Trail signs engraves a circle, square, diamond or double diamond beside the top of each run (European and Japanese resorts get their own signs; see the question on piste signs). Trail colours cuts each run from green, blue or black acrylic instead of one wood, or blue, red and black at a European...

• What goes in the words along the bottom?

  The resort name, a line under it (the state, by default), a line for names and a date, the summit, vertical drop and run count on the left, and a compass on the right. You can drop a heart, star or pin on a favourite run. The lettering can be any font in the library.

• What happens to bowls and glades?

  Open terrain (areas marked as glades or backcountry, or named Bowl, Glades, Chutes and so on) is Shaded with fine engraved lines by default. Choose Raised to cut it like a run, or Off to leave it out. Trails mapped as areas are runs, not bowls.

• What is the difference between Raised and Carved?

  Raised builds the mountain up in steps of wood, and every run is its own strip glued down the steps it crosses (or engraved into the steps, for fewer layers). Carved is a flat board with every run cut down into it; with trail colours on, each run gets a green, blue or black acrylic piece set in. ...

• What is the panorama view?

  Instead of looking down from above, the resort is drawn as seen from its base, looking up the main face: the runs fall down the board, the land rises to the real skyline, and the range sits behind it. Looking sets the camera from across to down; Steepness exaggerates the height. It reads best on ...

• What is the Simple look?

  The hand-made trail map: a wood mountain with every run as one bold white piece on top, and trees if you like. Few pieces, wide ones, easy to glue. Choose Layered (backer, mountain, trails, trees), Two layers (trails glued onto one board) or One piece (one board with the trails cut through). Trai...

• Where do the summit and vertical numbers come from?

  From the resort's own highest and lowest run in OpenSkiMap, in feet for a US or Canadian resort and metres elsewhere. Type over them if your resort quotes different numbers.

• Which resorts can I find?

  Every ski area in OpenSkiMap with downhill runs: about 780 in the US and Canada, and thousands more in the Alps, the rest of Europe, Japan and beyond. OpenSkiMap rebuilds every ski area from OpenStreetMap each day and ties every run and lift to its resort. Type at least two letters. Accents do no...

• Why are the summit and vertical in metres?

  A European or Japanese resort quotes its heights in metres, so the builder starts there. US and Canadian resorts start in feet. Switch with Heights on the Board step. Switching writes the line afresh in the new units, so type any changes after you switch.

• Why are trees off for resorts outside the US and Canada?

  Forest is only mapped for US and Canadian resorts so far. Without it the trees would land on any open ground off the runs, glaciers and bare summits included, so they start off. Turn them on under Trees if you like the look anyway.

• Why does the builder recommend a trail weight?

  After the first preview it measures how close together the runs are. If Bold would leave almost no wood between them, it switches to Medium (or Fine on very busy resorts) and marks the choice with a star. Pick any weight yourself and it stops choosing for you.

• Why is a run cut into several pieces?

  On a raised map the mountain is built in steps. A run that crosses three steps is cut as three strips, one glued onto each step, so every piece lies flat.