drawing up - seeking advice

[Matt Ryan]

> Have you got any wise advice how to get the passage
> walls + other details into a computer in a manageable
> form?  Hopefully without too much expense on CAD
> packages!  (Assume I can use unix, or MS windows)

We routinely draw up A1+ size surveys.  Since what you draw is mostly
vectors you don't have too much of a problem with memory - you only ever see
/ use part of the scan at once to trace from.

Our technique is to print the centreline on lots of sheets of A4 then tape
together and draw up before scanning and digitally tracing before adding
labels etc - this way you only need to have a couple of A4 bitmap tiles
turned on at any one time.  If by any chance you do have the means to scan
your entire drawn up survey in one go then whether or not you cut it up
digitally you will save the first step exporting the Survex centreline at
the target scale onto a single sheet of paper the right size and using this
as a base layer to line up the scans.  We're currently using Illustrator for
tracing (some passage detail textures at www.hongmeigui.net) though have
used all sorts of things in the past, PSP included.

If you don't mind the VERY steep learning curve then Therion is quite a nice
way of drawing up caves - allegedly.

FWIW Peak Cavern is drawn up in Autocad and I think Easegill is in Corel
something or other.  A lot of the Chinese use GIS software - it's a bit
cheaper when you don't bother paying for it...

Incidentally, has anyone ever drawn up a reasonable size cave in XFig ?
I've not played enough to know if it'd be a goer or not but it seems the
fastest way of tracing passage walls I've ever come across.

-Matt

-- 
Matthew Ryan
www.mdryan.net