Survex 1.4.6 released

Olly Betts olly at survex.com
Wed Mar 6 23:31:47 GMT 2024


Survex 1.4.6 is now available:

https://survex.com/download.html

Here's the full NEWS file entry for this release:

Changes in 1.4.6 (2024-03-07):

* cavern:

  + Workaround bug in PROJ < 9.3.0 with projected coordinate systems with
    northing/easting axis order (such as EPSG:3042) which results in the grid
    convergence being wrong by about 90°.  Reported by Patrick Warren on the
    mailing list.

  + If *declination auto was used before *cs out we would incorrectly calculate
    the grid convergence as 0.  We now handle this case correctly by
    calculating lazily when we first read a compass reading, and report an
    error if the output coordinate system hasn't been set by then.

  + When opening a file, cavern has fallback handling if the file isn't found
    to help people processing datasets from platforms with case-insensitive
    file systems.  Previously cavern would fold the filename to lowercase and
    retry.  Now if this fails, it will also try the lower case version but
    with the initial character of the leaf in upper case, and finally folding
    the whole specified filename to upper case.

  + Dynamically pick a suitable level separator character and store it in .3d
    file, instead of it being hard-coded to '.' (we still use '.' unless it
    has been *set as a "name" character, or for Compass DAT/MAK files unless it
    has been used in a station name).  This is a step towards addressing the
    situations raised by Thomas Holder in https://github.com/ojwb/survex/pull/4
    and https://github.com/ojwb/survex/pull/5 .

  + Compass DAT files:

    - The shot flag S is now understood to indicate a splay.

    - The shot flag P is now interpreted as marking surface data.  This flag
      is described as "Exclude this shot from plotting", but the use suggested
      in the Compass docs is for surface data, and legs flagged with it "[do]
      not support passage modeling".  Even if it's actually being used for a
      different purpose, Survex programs don't show surface legs by default so
      the end effect is at least to not plot as intended.

    - Surveys which indicate a depth gauge was used for azimuth readings are
      now marked as STYLE_DIVING in the 3d file.

    - Compass and clino corrections are now implemented for backsights.

    - The tape correction in Compass DAT files is now handled correctly.  The
      specified value is in feet, but cavern was incorrectly treating it as
      being in metres.

    - We now handle the newer 15 character "FORMAT:" encoding.  Previously
      cavern wouldn't detect when there were backsights in this case.

    - We now treat survey date January 1st 1901 as "no date specified" since
      this is the date Compass stores in this situation, and it seems very
      unlikely to occur in real data.

    - In Compass DAT files a dummy zero-length leg from a station to itself is
      used to provide a place to specify LRUD for the start or end of a
      traverse (depending if dimensions are measured at the from or to
      station), and so we no longer issue a warning about equating a station to
      itself for DAT files.

  + Compass MAK files:

    - The base location command is now understood.  This is how Compass
      specifies a location to calculate magnetic declination at, and we
      now handle this like Survex's native "*declination auto X Y Z".

    - Use specified datum and UTM zone.  Currently only datum "WGS 1984" is
      handled here. Other datums could be handled, but the mapping to EPSG code
      is less simple.  Also it seems Compass supports at least 24 datums but it
      doesn't document all the strings it uses for them. Please let us know if
      support for more datums would be useful to you.

    - Folder commands are now understood.

    - Flag fixed stations as entrances.  Experimentation with Compass shows
      this is how it treats them ("distance from entrance" in a .DAT file
      counts from 0 at these points).

  + We now support reading Compass CLP files.  These are very like DAT files,
    except they contain loop-closed data.  You might find this useful if you
    want to keep existing stations at the same adjusted positions Compass gave
    (for example to be able to draw extensions on an existing drawn-up survey),
    or if the original DAT file has been lost but you still have the CLP file.

* aven:

  + Fix OpenGL scaling on high DPI displays with wxWidgets 3.0. Reported by
    Philip Balister.

  + Split the filters for DAT and MAK files in the File->Open drop down list.
    It seems more likely you'd want to see one type or the other, not both
    together.

* aven/survexport:

  + Fix survey filtering when reading Compass PLT files.

  + .json,.kml: Enable export of surface legs.  Currently surface and
    underground legs aren't differentiated in these export formats when both
    are enabled.

  + .3d: The coordinate system is now set.

  + .svg: Equated stations now get their correct names in the id attribute
    of <circle> tags.  Previously one of the names would be repeated for
    all of a set of equated stations.

  + .plt:

    - Anonymous stations previously resulted in an empty name in the PLT
      file.  This isn't explicitly disallowed by the PLT format description,
      but Compass' viewer gives an error for such lines.  Now we invent names
      by encoding the station coordinates which should be unique.

    - The S shot flag is now set for splays, and the P shot flag (hide from
      plotting) is set for surface legs (which matches the use suggested in the
      Compass docs).

* img library:

  + Fix bug handling timestamps before 1970.  In C signed integer division
    rounds towards zero, which previously resulted in timestamps before 1970
    getting rounded to the end of the day instead of the start when converting
    them to a count of days so they'd be off by one day unless the time was
    midnight.  This affected reading v3-v7 format 3d files with IMG_API_VERSION
    set to 1 and writing v8 format 3d files with IMG_API_VERSION set to 0 (the
    default).

  + Improve Compass PLT support (many of these are Compass features added
    since Survex's support for Compass was originally added):

    - Survey dates are now handled fully.  We treat survey date January 1st
      1901 as "no date specified" since this is the date Compass stores in this
      situation, and it seems very unlikely to occur in real data.

    - LRUD data is now translated to img_XSECT and img_XSECT_END.

    - We now infer img_SFLAG_ENTRANCE for stations where the "Distance From
      Entrance" field is present and zero.

    - The shot flag L is now translated to img_FLAG_DUPLICATE.

    - The shot flag S is now translated to img_FLAG_SPLAY.  A station at the
      far end of a shot flagged S gets img_SFLAG_WALL set since the Compass PLT
      format specification says:

	  The shot is a "splay" shot, which is a shot from a station to the
	  wall to define the passage shape.

    - The shot flag P is now interpreted as marking surface data.  This flag
      is described as "Exclude this shot from plotting", but the use suggested
      in the Compass docs is for surface data, and legs flagged with it "[do]
      not support passage modeling".  Even if it's actually being used for a
      different purpose, Survex programs don't show surface legs by default so
      the end effect is at least to not plot as intended.

    - The d plot command is now supported (previously img failed to parse
      PLT files using this command) - it's like D but implies the P shot flag.

    - If a PLT file only uses one datum and it is "WGS 1984" then the UTM zone
      is converted to the appropriate EPSG code and this is reported as the
      coordinate system.  Other datums could be handled, but the mapping to
      EPSG code is less simple.  Also it seems Compass supports at least
      24 datums but it doesn't document all the strings it uses for them.
      Files with multiple datums could be handled too, but we'd need to convert
      coordinates to a common coordinate system in the img library, which would
      need it to depend on PROJ.  Please let us know if support for more and/or
      mixed datums would be useful to you.

    - Duplicate img_LABEL items are no longer returned - this used to happen
      for stations where more than two shots met within a single survey.

    - We now infer img_SFLAG_EXPORTED for any station that appears in more
      than one survey in the PLT file.

    - We now set flag img_SFLAG_FIXED for any station which is listed as
      a fixed point in the PLT file.

    - If there's only one non-empty section name in a PLT file and we aren't
      filtering by survey, we now report that section name as the title.  If
      there are multiple different non-empty section names, we still report the
      basename of the file as before.  If we're filtering by survey, we report
      the comment for that survey as before.

    - Fix bug handling PLT with omitted LRUD.  The format specification
      documents that LRUD may be omitted, though it seems Compass never
      actually omits it and at least some versions of Compass failed to handle
      it being omitted too.

* (Microsoft Windows version): Now using wxWidgets 3.2.4 (was 3.1.6).

* manual:

  + Document Compass support in detail.

  + Improve NATO mils example.

* INSTALL:

  + Add a link to the instructions for building from git.  Reported by Andrew
    Northall in https://github.com/ojwb/survex/pull/13

  + Document the requirement for a C99 compiler for building from source.
    We made this a requirement in 1.4.2, but only noted it in NEWS.

* doc/TODO.htm: Update.

* Replace references to "libav" with "FFmpeg" since the libav project seems to
  now be defunct, and we've always supported using either.

* Update build system to eliminate use of obsolete autotools macros and drop
  probes for features that we can safely assume now we require a C99 compiler
  and workarounds for obsolete platforms.

* Fix compilation warnings from newer compiler versions.

Here are SHA256 checksums should you want to verify the integrity of the
files:

fee8ed98c2975bf8612acc40fb43b68c903ab4a9edc94b9e28720df243a5203b  survex-1.4.6.tar.gz
aa25fdb8242b20de191eae8e9dcd35e2c7af9b46ea0d6ff484dd424eca525075  survex-win32-1.4.6.exe

There are also detached GPG signatures in the download directory:
https://survex.com/software/1.4.6/

There are "release notes" on the wiki, which I'll try to keep updated
with any issues found, so take a look there for the latest information:

https://trac.survex.com/wiki/ReleaseNotes/1.4.6

Please report any issues you find which are not covered in the release
notes to the bug tracker: https://trac.survex.com/

Cheers,
    Olly
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