Matienzo version
From Fs_wiki
A way towards a major simplification of Tunnel has been established where it will behave more like a standard desktop application, such as a word processor or web-browser, where multiple documents can be loaded or saved anywhere within the file system. The rigid structure of a directory tree (the "Open XML dir" thing) and its preprocessed SVX files are going to be abolished. In place of this, SVX data will be stored in the form of text in a very large label, and from there the centreline geometry can be generated. Other improvements in the implementation of the background images will allow for their importation.
To get through to these features a serious amount of hacking has happened. What we have is an unstable prototype that is mostly compatible. Please back-up your old version of Tunnel before you update to the latest version. The features are not well integrated into the user interface; once they have been proven to work, I'd like to abolish the old ways of doing things to make space for a better integration. This cross-over period may last a few months until we are sure the new ways are sufficiently powerful.
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Sketch files
The only file type that Tunnel will load as a document will be a sketch file. It will be possible to import SVX data and reference bitmaps, but the operation "Open SVX" on the MainBox (the file explorer thing that's not the sketch) will be removed. In fact, the MainBox window will gradually be phased out.
For now, the "Open XML dir" is retained to allow the loading of multiple files. Copy all the sketches you are working on into a single directory and use "Open XML dir" on that directory to access all those files, and use as before. Eventually it will be possible to load new files from anywhere in the file system, as one does when using a word processor.
The "Preview Down Sketch" and "Import Down Sketch" functions work as before, between files in this directory. Tunnel will automatically work out the correspondences between the centrelines in two sketches by scanning through all the station names and determining the likely prefix relation. Previously, this was done using the relational directory structure containing the sketches and the "tunneldata-exports.xml" files.
The correspondence algorithm is very reliable between sketches that could have been imported before. However, looser correspondence may in future be possible by matching the measurement data on the legs rather than the names, so that it can handle a rearrangement of the SVX data and its equates resulting in different names being assigned to the survey stations.
SVX data
To import SVX data into Tunnel, create a sketch, create a connective line in it, and click on "Write Text" to change it to a label type.
Now click on "Import" | "Survex Label" | "Import Centreline File" to load the survex data into that label. Tunnel will dereference all the *include commands to convert it into all one piece of text. There is a Label style "SVX" which hides this text, but the important point is it is all embedded in the sketch which means all further processing can be done without reference to other files.
Putting the SVX data into a label also means we have a way to apply Tunnel to very simple caves -- type the survex data directly into the label and away you go.
When a connectinve line bearing a label containing survex data is selected, the other "Import" | "Survex Label" commands can be used to preview the centreline in Aven ("Aven Cavern"), in Tunnel ("Wireframe Non-Cavern"), or in Tunnel after executing the loop closure algorithm ("Wireframe Cavern"). You can then choose to import the centreline for the sketch using loop closure or not -- necessary when Tunnel is not correctly set up to call the Survex executables on your computer.
Eventually an improved text area for editing the SVX data will replace the minimal one used for editing label text. Such an editor could have syntax colouring and folding blocks as well as equate highlighting as it moves towards being a graphical interface to Survex which is especially useful for smaller caves.
Background images
The old implementation required you to add an image into the background, select it using a drop-down box, and position it by drawing 2 or 3 node paths and clicking on "Shift Ground". One of its main limitations was that the positions of these background images were not imported with the sketch.
The frame sketches feature -- the way you embed windows into other sketches into areas to design the layout for a poster -- also allows the embedding of bitmap images. Clearly this duplicates the background images feature, although without the convenience of being able to move and shift it into position.
After much work, it is now possible to move frame sketches and images in the same way -- if you can handle the wrecked interface. Frame sketches and images can be displayed in the background even when not associated to an area (in which the frame image is conventionally displayed).
To show an image in the background, you no longer click on "Add Image" in the background tab (note: it's been greyed out). Instead, draw a connective line, click on "Area Signal" and select "Frame". Now click on "Image" and select the file.
If you have selected one of these connective lines that carry a frame image, you can lock it by clicking on "Copy", as well as maximize it's appearance on the screen by clicking on "Max". You can adjust the values present in its XML format to adjust the scale and the angle, and then click "Copy" to apply it. To reposition the image (for example to align it with the centrelines), it must be locked into the background, and then you can make 2 or 3 node paths and click on "Shift Ground" as before.
This feature also applies to framed sketches, which will make their positioning in the windows of a poster far easier to manage.
When you import a sketch that contains these framed images (or framed sketches) the images will be repositioned according to the distortion applied to the connective line. This will make it possible for the original survey traces to still appear roughly aligned and in the correct places on the final master survey.
Obviously there's going to be a problem if there is a proliferation of frame-typed connective lines all over the place. Already these frame-typed lines are being used to apply subset mapping in the sketch view, and this just makes the problem worse. Also, that XML view of the information on a frame-type is not acceptable.
There are answers. For example, the frame-type line for a bitmap image could be drawn in the shape of a rectangle to show where the background image will be, and the subset mapping types could be moved to a drop-down box.
The XML view problem will have to wait for some stabilization, until the conflicts due to using the frame image feature
Future timescale
point of no return. cross sections old background images old survex importer
