Survex for scuba dive surveys

[Wookey]

+++ Henrik Brautaset Aronsen [2015-04-13 12:55 +0200]:
> Hi Philip!
> 
> Thanks, this was extremely useful.  So for my example the .svx would be:
> 
> 
> * data diving FROM TO LENGTH BEARING FROMDEPTH TODEPTH
> A B 25 160 12 16
> B C 12 120 16 20
> 
> * data passage station left right up down
> A 1 2 3 4
> B 2 3 4 5
> C 3 4 5 6
> 
> 
> So, more questions!
> 
> - What does the "*data default" and "*end ice" signify?  Are they required?

You should probably try reading the manual :-)
http://survex.com/docs/manual.pdf
or more specifically:
description of all the *commands:
http://survex.com/docs/manual/datafile.htm
overview of survex files:
http://survex.com/docs/manual/genhowto.htm
specific questions like 'How do I Enter Diving Data':
http://survex.com/docs/manual/svxhowto.htm
(although to be fair the one sentence in there (saying 'use *data
diving') could be expanded upon.

you'll find *data types explained in there. (which sets the type/format of
the data you are entering) and *begin/*end (which
give you hierarchical survey structure).

> - Is uppercase/lowercase important? (Since "FROM TO ..." is uppercase and
> "station left right.." is lowercase)

No, not in commands - either will work. That's just style. It can be
important in station names. You can specify (with *case) whether
everything should be treated as upper case, everything lower case, or
cases considered different. By default everything is converted to
lowercase. 

And just a comment on the example you were sent, to avoid starting
with bad habits: You should use *date, *team, *title rather than just
comments to describe survey metadata

i.e. instead of:
; Ice Pick Lake dive surveys
; Surveyed: 11/1/2014
; Phil Maynard
; Alex Boulton

put:
; Ice Pick Lake dive surveys
*title "Ice Pick Lake"
*data 2014-11-01
*team "Phil Maynard" surveyor
*team "Alex Boulton" surveyor

This way the computer knows these things and can use the data for
useful things (like colouring by date, displaying survey names,
automatically correcting magnetic declination).

Wookey
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