CUCC Expedition Handbook - Your Survey laptop

Cave survey software

Your Survey laptop

You will have explored what you can already do on your laptop using the basic Expo laptop guide.

This is an attempt at a complete set of optional software for using survex, tunnel, therion, photos and GPS tracks to document our caves: using the existing data archive and processing new survey data.

If you want to do software development instead, go to configuring a troggle development machine.

Software

Long-standing Expo policy is to use open tools and protocols so we can retain control of our own data over the long term. And not to require expo-goers to sign up to external services or spend money on software. So we use FOSS software. You can use other software on your own machine if it is format-compatible and exports data in the formats we want, but all the recommended software here is open source (and please don't install proprietary software on the 'expo laptop').

Installing the software

For installing Survex, Tunnel etc. see this page which may be merged in here eventually.

The list of software:

• Installing surveying software - survex, tunnel, therion - specifically for expo use
• Survex, including the Aven visualisation tool.
• Survex related tools Carto, CaveScript (used by CaveView the 3D browser visualiser).
• Tunnel: 2.5D cave drawing program based on Survex-compatible data which can also read PocketTopo files. (Generally called 'tunnel' even though the project and executable is actually 'tunnelx'.)
• Therion - Therion processes survey data and generates maps or 3D models of caves.
• TopParser - to convert PocketTopo .top files from a DistoX into Therion.
• Footleg Cave Converter - to convert PocketTopo .top files from a DistoX into survex (Java)
• QGIS - A Geographic Information System
• GPSprune - to edit GPS tracks in GPX files (Java).
• Viking - an alternative to GPSprune. The code is on github.
• qgis3-survex-import - Patrick's plugin to import/export survex .3d files
• Vectr svg - quick and easy sketcher (browser-based, Chrome only) for making rigging topo diagrams: "free forever" committment, but not open source. Please export as svg not jpg or png.
• inkscape-survex - Patrick's plugin to export a traced inkscape line drawing to a survex file.
• inkscape-speleo - plugin to import/export survex, therion and pockettopo files to the drawing package inkscape.
• Imagemagick convert for re-scaling photographs and scanned images and converting from PDF to JPG. (NB you may need to fix this security issue)

Nearly all our Austrian surveys have beeen produced using Tunnel (or were hand-drawn) but many smaller caves and some areas of SMKsystem are done with Therion because Therion does elevations and Tunnel doesn't. Expo has a policy decision on which to use: if it is an entirely new disconnected cave, then use Therion. If it is a passage in a cave where previously we used Tunnel, then use Tunnel. See also Comparison of Tunnel to Other Cave Software.

Learning how to use this software

• Using Survex, Tunnel and Therion, see the Expo Handbook - Surveying section.

• Drawing Surveys with Therion (Wookey, Compass Points, March 2004)

• Therion - Digital Cave Maps Martin Budaj, Stacho Mudrák, 2008)

• The Therion Book v6.0.4 (2012-11-28)

• Intro to Therion: Drawing and Compiling Your First Scrap - YouTube. Which uses this Therion template stuff. By Christian DeCelle (18 Sept.2023).

• Introduction to using Tunnel - article by Dave Loeffler. This is really good and should be read first.
• The Tunnel tutorial - installation notes and a wiki of examples and tutorials
• Tunnel - master copy since August 2019. This is where the software is actively developed and is the most up to date copy, but the documentation is not as complete as in the other locations.

Logins to external systems

The Surveying and Data entry discussion areas on the Loser Expo Matrix chatroom are directly relevant. When we are drawing up the surveys after each expo we discuss things online here. Ask Wookey for an invitation.

• Expo Surveying chat
• Expo Data entry chat
• Expo issues list - Issues with data reduction for recent expos and software updates for tunnel (GitHub logon account required)
• Trac issue tracker and wiki for developing survex. You'll need a login to file bugs there.

Some expo survey stuff is tracked externally:

• CUCC CaveSurveying Bug lists and open issues discussed on github - issue list so you will need to subscribe to the Cave Surveying Group on github to participate.
• Expo-tunnel-workflows - a wiki on github discussing workflows to generate centerlines, GEOTIFF and QGIS integration.