Survex 1.1.5 - A couple of LRUD features

[Olly Betts]

On Thu, Oct 06, 2005 at 12:26:12PM +0100, Mike McCombe wrote:
> Olly Betts wrote: 
> > It's a one line fix, which will be in the next snapshot (hopefully
> > quite soon).
> 
> I'm keen to see what you can do with LRUD data with "missing" dimensions so
> I'll wait with eager anticipation!

Don't get too excited - currently a missing dimension is replaced by "0"!

> I haven't done anything with Extend, but I'm uncomfortable with the idea
> that we have to deduce whether a 3d file contains an extended elevation
> depending on whether the data looks "flat".

I think Mark originally wrote that bit of the aven code, and I assume
his thinking was that it makes sense to lock any planar survey so it's
viewed "square on" (it's done for flat surveys in the XY, XZ, and YZ
planes.  It seemed reasonable enough to me too, though in reality you're
only going to see the extended elevation and "survey done without a
clino" cases.

I think now we have more than just centreline data, we should probably
remove this feature, if only because you might have a survey done
without a clino but with LRUD data.

> I'd rather see as part of some
> "attribute" information stored in the 3d file header (i.e. after the title,
> datestamp and version fields but before the first "item". Sorry this means
> another change to the file format!

Good idea, though I think I'll leave that for the next time I change the
format.

For now I'll do what the printer drivers do, which is to look for "
(extended)" at the end of the title!  That's added by extend, and
perhaps fortunately, it never got put in the translated message list.
We'll want to do that for existing extended 3d files anyhow.

Cheers,
    Olly