Obstacle Labels

Obstacle label sequence types

Obstacle labels are usually numbers, and indeed are often called "obstacle numbers." However, obstacle labels do not have to be numbers. There are three obstacle label sequence types that Course Designer 3 supports automatically: numbers, lower case letters, and upper case letters. When combined with the four obstacle label styles usually available (light circle, dark circle, light square, dark square), there can be up to twelve independant automatically labelled sequences of obstacles on a course. Changing an obstacle label's color does not change which of the twelve obstacle label sequences it is in.

To use a sequence of letters as obstacle labels, enter "A" as the label to start a sequence of upper case letters, or "a" to start a sequence of lower case letters. Subsequently added obstacle labels will automatically be given the next letter in the sequence, just like numbered obstacle labels are automatically given the next number in sequence.

Using obstacle labels efficiently

When creating obstacle labels initially, it is much more efficient to create multiple obstacle labels at once by using the Repeated Shape Creation button, or by using the Ctrl key, than to create each obstacle label one at a time. For more information, see Creating Shapes.

Once obstacle labels have already been created, changing obstacle labeling is usually most efficiently accomplished by adding or deleting individual obstacle labels. If you delete an obstacle label, the obstacle labels that come after the deleted label will automatically get relabeled, as long as the "Automatically relabel obstacle labels like this" shape property is selected. You can also insert a new obstacle label into the middle of a sequence of obstacle labels, by setting the label to a label in the middle of the sequence when you create it. Again, the remaining obstacle labels with that label or later will normally be automatically relabeled.

If you need to make major changes to obstacle labeling, it may be most efficient to delete all existing obstacle labels, and then recreate all needed obstacle labels from scratch. All obstacle labels can be quickly deleted at once, by using the "Edit / Select..." menu item to select all obstacle labels at once, and then using the Delete key to delete them all. For more information, see Selecting Shapes.

If you want to change the obstacle labels such that the dog takes all the same obstacles, but in the reverse order, the fastest way to do that is with the "Edit / Reverse" menu item. For more information, see Reversing a Course.

Unusual labels

To create multiple obstacle labels with identical labels, for example to create multiple obstacles labeled "1" on a snookers course, deselect the "Automatically relabel obstacle labels like this" obstacle label property to prevent obstacle labels from being relabeled automatically, and enter the desired labels manually.

Some organizations sometimes need subsequences of obstacles. For example, there may be a need to label obstacles as being "4a", "4b", and "4c". To accomplish this, just enter the needed label manually when creating the obstacle labels.

Course Designer recognizes subsequences when performing automatic relabeling of labels. For example, suppose a course contains the obstacle labels "1", "2", "3", "4a", "4b", and "4c". If you then add "2" as a new obstacle label, and if the "Automatically relabel obstacle labels like this" property is selected, then Course Designer will relabel the original obstacle labels "2", "3", "4a", "4b", and "4c" as being "3", "4", "5a", "5b", and "5c", respectively.

Course Designer 2000 Circled Text shapes

"Obstacle numbers" in Course Designer 2000 were always purely numeric, and were always automatically numbered. Course Designer 2000 had an additional shape called the Circled Text shape, which looked just like the obstacle number shape, but could take any label. The Circled Text shape was often used to create obstacle labels with unusual labels. All such labels can now be handled by Course Designer 3's Obstacle Label shape. When loading an old course created by Course Designer 2000 or earlier, Course Designer 3 turns all old Circled Text shapes into obstacle labels.

Unfortunately, there was a second common usage of the Circled Text shape, which was to indicate people on the course. For example, "H" was commonly used for the handler, "J" for the judge, and "TS" for a timer and scribe. In Course Designer 3, these people should all be indicated with the new Person shape, which did not exist in Course Designer 2000.

Course Designer 3 does not try to determine which old Circled Text shapes should be turned into Person shapes instead of Obstacle Label shapes. For one reason, Course Designer 3 would have no way of knowing which way to make the Person shapes face. As a result, when opened by Course Designer 3, some courses created by Course Designer 2000 will contain "obstacle labels" which actually represent people on the course.

If you reuse courses you created in Course Designer 2000, you should replace any "obstacle labels" which actually represent people with Person shapes. You should only represent people with Person shapes in new courses you create in Course Designer 3.

Obstacle Labels and Dog Paths

Obstacle labels do more than just identify a particular obstacle; they also identify a particular entrance to an obstacle. For obstacles other than jumps, the entrance indicated by the obstacle label is the entrance closest to the obstacle label. For jumps, the dog is assumed to approach the jump from the side of the jump that the obstacle label is on.

Positioning obstacle labels correctly makes the intended path of the dog clearer to the people who read the course. Correctly positioned obstacle labels is also required for automatically created Dog Path shapes to take the obstacles in the correct direction.

See also: Creating Shapes, Selecting Shapes, Reversing a Course, Dog Path, Text