Exporting to Survex for passage tubes viewing

Footleg drfootleg at gmail.com
Mon Feb 14 20:48:33 GMT 2022


My Cave Converter tool does a pretty decent job of generating Survex
passage data from splays. One of the main features of the program in fact.

Source code is here:
https://github.com/Footleg/caveconverter

Binaries (requires Java) are here:
http://wscc.darkgem.com/caveconverter/

Footleg

On Mon, Feb 14, 2022 at 3:40 PM Luc Le Blanc <speleoluc at gmail.com> wrote:

> Olly,
>
> Thanks for the answers. I adapted my code. Ghost lines are now gone
> from my cave sample, although I now get blanks in the tubes, but this
> seems to be due to side passages forking from the main gallery.
>
> I export station names as input by the user, but I notice Aven renders
> them all in lowercase. I can understand case-insensitivity, but why
> force lowercase?
>
> Two simple questions about the SVX format:
>
> - can I append LRUDs after each survey shot without having to declare a
> passage?
>
> - can backsight compass and clino now have a calibration?
>
> On minor addition I'd welcome in Aven in a File/Close menu item to
> close the current cave without having to exit the program. This would
> be convenient to reload an SVX after changes to my export routine.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> --
> Luc Le Blanc
> http://www.speleo.qc.ca/Auriga
>
>
> Le dim. 13 févr. 2022 à 18:12, Olly Betts <olly at survex.com> a écrit :
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 20, 2022 at 07:26:21PM -0500, Luc Le Blanc wrote:
> > > An Auriga user tells me the SVX files exported by Auriga do not allow
> > > viewing passages tubes. Another cave fiddled with his data and
> > > returned a tube-capable SVX file. When I compare both SVX files, I see
> > > each shot line (data normal) is now followed by more than another
> > > passage dimensions (data passage) line, providing the passage
> > > dimensions at a station that is not part of the current survey shot,
> > > but that is connected to the dimension-bearing station of the current
> > > shot.
> > >
> > > Question: in the example below, if station 1 was also connected to,
> > > say, station 4, that happened to bear passage dimensions too, should
> > > we have another data passage line for station 4 after those two?
> > >
> > > *data normal from to length compass  clino
> > >             0             1      4.05   109.9       1.0
> > > *data passage station left right up down
> > >             1    0.86    0.00    0.82    0.28
> > >             2    0.00    0.91    1.44    0.10
> >
> > The documentation for the `PASSAGE` data style seems to answer all the
> > questions you ask above:
> >
> >         PASSAGE
> >                 This survey style defines a 3D "tube" modelling a
> >                 passage in the cave. The tube uses the survey
> >                 stations listed in the order listed. It's
> >                 permitted to use survey stations which aren't
> >                 directly linked by the centre-line survey. This
> >                 can be useful - sometimes the centreline will step
> >                 sideways or up/down to allow a better sight for
> >                 the next leg and you can ignore the extra station.
> >                 You can also define tubes along unsurveyed
> >                 passages, akin to "nosurvey" legs in the
> >                 centreline data.
> >
> >                 This means that you need to split off side
> >                 passages into separate tubes, and hence separate
> >                 sections of passage data, starting with a new
> >                 *data command.
> >
> >                 Simple example of how to use this data style (note
> >                 the use of ignoreall to allow a free-form text
> >                 description to be given):
> >
> >     *data passage station left right up down ignoreall
> >     1  0.1 2.3 8.0 1.4  Sticking out point on left wall
> >     2  0.0 1.9 9.0 0.5  Point on left wall
> >     3  1.0 0.7 9.0 0.8  Highest point of boulder
> >
> >                 Each *data passage data block describes a single
> >                 continuous tube - to break a tube or to enter a
> >                 side passage you need to have a second block. With
> >                 Survex 1.2.30 and older, you had to repeat the
> >                 entire *data passage line to start a new tube, but
> >                 in Survex 1.2.31 and later, you can just use *data
> >                 without any arguments.
> >
> >                 For example here the main passage is 1-2-3 and a
> >                 side passage is 2-4:
> >
> >     *data passage station left right up down ignoreall
> >     1  0.1 2.3 8.0 1.4  Sticking out point on left wall
> >     2  0.0 1.9 9.0 0.5  Point on left wall opposite side passage
> >     3  1.0 0.7 9.0 0.8  Highest point of boulder
> >     ; If you're happy to require Survex 1.2.31 or later, you can just use
> >     ; "*data" here instead.
> >     *data passage station left right up down ignoreall
> >     2  0.3 0.2 9.0 0.5
> >     4  0.0 0.5 6.5 1.5  Fossil on left wall
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 31, 2022 at 02:40:28PM -0500, Luc Le Blanc wrote:
> > > * is placing passage dimensions after each survey shot in the SVX file
> > > a requirement, or is the quoted behavior a mistake?
> >
> > A `*data passage` after each shot sounds like a bad idea to me - you'd
> > end up having to repeat the dimensions of each station (except for
> > those at a dead end or entrance).
> >
> > > * are splay measures used to build the tubular view? (it seems they
> aren't)
> >
> > No.  Given the rise of disto-based surveying, it certainly would be nice
> > to create passage skins from splays automatically.  I don't think it
> > would make sense to force this into the rectangular cross-section tube
> > model though - `*data passage` really just attempts to provide a useful
> > way to represent data from LRUD measurements.  Skins from splays would
> > probably happen in Aven.
> >
> > > * when activating the tubular view, I get very long ghost lines that
> > > do not correspond to any survey shot - could this be a loop-related
> > > bug?
> >
> > As per the docs, each `*data passage` block is a continuous tube - your
> > "long ghost lines" are presumably because your data tells Survex that
> > the tube continues into what's actually an entirely different passage.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >     Olly
>
> --
> Survex https://lists.survex.com/mailman/listinfo/survex
>


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