Embedded Files
Build a compass-and-pace course. Run it, or teach it.
Build a compass-and-pace course. Run it, or teach it.
Compass Course Navigator is built around two roles: an Instructor who lays out a course as a sequence of compass headings and distances, and a Student who navigates it — either with GPS assistance while learning, or "blind," GPS-hidden, when it's time to prove they can actually do it with a compass alone.
It's designed for orienteering instruction, land-nav training, and anyone teaching or practicing dead-reckoning navigation.
English, Español, Français, Deutsch, Português, Italiano, 日本語, 한국어
By accessing this application you hereby agree to the terms of our Software Disclaimer and of our Privacy Policy.
Free Features
Free Features
Instructor Mode
Set a start point and add any number of legs, each a heading and a distance
Delete legs as the course comes together
Unlimited waypoints — no cap pushing you toward Pro
Student Mode
Pace Count Practice. Measure how many paces it takes you to walk 100 m (or 100 ft) — with GPS measuring the distance, or on a taped course — and the app averages your last five trials into your personal pace count. From then on every leg shows its distance in paces ("≈ 64 paces"), and Practice mode shows the paces left to the next waypoint, so the number you'll count in Test mode is the one you've actually practiced. Your pace data stays on your device and is never included in a shared course.
Practice mode: GPS-assisted, so a student can see exactly where they are relative to the planned course while they learn the technique
Test mode: GPS hidden — the real test of whether someone can navigate by compass and pace count alone
Mark each waypoint as cleared while running the course
Student Performance Report (free, not Pro). After a test run, generate a PDF showing the planned course against the student's actual GPS track, with the error at each waypoint clearly marked. We kept this free deliberately — the whole point of the app is teaching, and a student's own performance record shouldn't sit behind a paywall.
Optionally enter your name before a run, and it's included on your performance report automatically
Sharing and Data
Share a course with students via QR code or link — declination travels with it, so the course lands on the correct heading regardless of what declination is set on the receiving device
JSON import/export for backup or moving a course between devices
Full data backup and restore, exportable as a file you control
Manual magnetic declination entry
Street and satellite base maps
Tap a shared course link and, if the app's already installed, it opens directly with the course loaded
Pro Features — What You're Unlocking (only available in IOS Application)
Pro Features — What You're Unlocking (only available in IOS Application)
Compass Course Navigator Pro is a one-time purchase. Here's what it adds, and why:
Waypoint Hints Attach a short note to any waypoint — "old oak tree by the creek," "cairn on the ridge line" — the kind of contextual detail that turns a bare heading-and-distance course into one that actually teaches terrain awareness. Students see these for free, on the map and in their waypoint list; authoring them is the Pro feature, not reading them, so nothing you build is locked away from the people you're teaching.
GPX Export Your course, in a format every GPS and mapping tool already reads — for cross-referencing against other planning tools, or handing off to someone running the course with their own GPS unit.
Saved Course Library Save named courses and reuse them — a real asset if you're running the same course for multiple groups, or building a library of courses at different difficulty levels.
Course Report PDF A polished, shareable report for the course itself: the full route on a map, a table of every leg (heading, distance, coordinates, and any hint you've attached), total distance, and leg count. Built for handing to a co-instructor, attaching to a lesson plan, or keeping as a record of exactly what was run.
Live Magnetic Declination Fetched automatically from a live geomagnetic model based on GPS position, instead of looking it up by hand — one less place for a training exercise to go wrong before it even starts.
Reorder Legs Rearrange a course's leg order directly, instead of deleting and rebuilding from scratch when the layout needs to change.
Offline Maps Draw the area you'll actually be running the course in and download it in advance — genuinely useful the moment training happens somewhere without reliable signal, which is most of the time worth training for in the first place.
Keep Screen Awake Keeps the screen on through a full course run, practice or test, so a lock-screen timeout never gets in the way mid-navigation.
By accessing this application you hereby agree to the terms of our Software Disclaimer and of our Privacy Policy.
Open Source Acknowledgments
Open Source Acknowledgments
This app uses the following open-source libraries:
Leaflet — Copyright (c) 2010–2023 Volodymyr Agafonkin, Copyright (c) 2010–2011 CloudMade. BSD 2-Clause License. https://leafletjs.com
jsPDF — Copyright (c) 2010–2025 James Hall and contributors. MIT License. https://github.com/MrRio/jsPDF
html2canvas — Copyright (c) 2022 Niklas von Hertzen. MIT License. https://html2canvas.hertzen.com
QR Code Styling — Copyright (c) 2021 Denys Kozak. MIT License. https://github.com/kozakdenys/qr-code-styling
html5-qrcode — mebjas (Minhaz Av). Apache License 2.0. https://github.com/mebjas/html5-qrcode
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