<em>At cave sketch notes [July of course, not June]</em>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<ul>
<li>We won't be able to see where your cave may link in to others <b>if we don't know where it is</b>.
<li>We won't be absolutely sure that your cave is actually a new cave <b>unless we can check it off</b> the locations in our records.
<li>If your cave does link to another, we need to know where the entrances are <b>with respect to each other</b> so that we can compute the loop-closure errors and improve the quality of the surveys.
<p>Now, in 2023, we have mobile phones which can get a GPS location directly from the satellites without requiring a 'mobile signal'. We find that relying on one of the party recording a continuous 'track', and then extracting the locations later, is very prone to human error. The worst and most common error is that everyone forgets to do this.
<p>The (strongly) recommended procedure is to take a specific GPS measurement at a well-defined point and to write down the location on your prospecting survey notes. Then for a new discovery it will be copied onto the New Cave data sheet.
<p>Note that we record the location in degrees and decimals of degrees: <code>47.69055 13.80841</code> and the altitude is in metres.
<p>The altitude is not nearly as vital as the lat/long numbers. GPS altitudes are still pretty bad, and even the new Galileo system won't promise anything better than ± 0.4m in 2030. (If you take the altitude from a track while moving the altitude can easily be 15m wrong.)
<em>Before</em> you click on that link, you need to make sure that you are logged in. In the top-right of troggle-generated pages there is a menu item "Log in", if
all your browser pages are handbook pages, click <ahref="/accounts/login/">here</a> to get to the log in page. The username is "expo" and the password
is the usual cavey:beery one which is written up on the whiteboard in the potato hut.
<p>
Now click that link <ahref="/survexfile/caves-1623/2050-BH-03/easybimble.svx">/survexfile/caves-1623/2050-BH-03/easybimble.svx</a> and a survex-file editing page will open, pre-populated with an example template
for survex data.
<p>Most of the template data you will delete and replace. Edit this template and type in your own data. OK, so if you have never typed
a survex file before, go to <ahref="#newbie">this section</a> below on this page.
<p>You can save your work by pressing the "Save this edited svx file" button <em>below</em> the edit box, but it
will refuse to save until you have hand-edited out all the template material in [square brackets].
<p>As you edit it, you can
press the "Differences between edited and saved versions of this file" and the differences which
comprise your recent typing will be listed below the edit window.
<p>Before you finish typing, use the third button "Run 'cavern' on this file".
<br>
- If you haven't yet removed all the [square brackets] stuff, nothing will happen except a message
<pre> SAVE FILE FIRST</pre>
below the edit window.
<br>
- If you try to save before editing out the [square brackets] stuff then you will get a message
<pre>Error: remove all []s from the text.
Everything inside [] are only template guidance.
All [] must be edited out and replaced with real data before you can save this file.
</pre> below the editing window.
<br>
- But if you have done all that, then survex will process your new survex file and tell you interesting things about
your survey data below the editing window. ('<ahref="https://survex.com/docs/manual/cavern.htm">cavern</a>' is the
survex engine which we use to process survex files.)
<pstyle="margin:4%">
<em>Technical Note:</em> When the survex file is saved, it is being saved to the permanent store on the expo file
server. It is also being automatically registered in the version control system. So don't worry about losing data. A super-git-nerd can always recover it (not a job for an ordinary nerd though).
<h4>Understanding the messages</h4>
<p>You may see a number of error messages below the editing window: <em>read them and understand them</em>. If you
don't understand them, <em>ask someone</em>.
<p>So using the online system gives you a very, very easy way of syntax-checking your data entry and
typing up your notes.
<p>The output you get from 'cavern' will look like this (yes this really does take less than 0.01s):
<pre>
LOGMESSAGES
Survey contains 21 survey stations, joined by 23 legs.
There are 3 loops.
Total length of survey legs = 305.80m ( 305.79m adjusted)
Total plan length of survey legs = 253.09m
Total vertical length of survey legs = 125.24m
Vertical range = 44.74m (from galactica.1 at 0.35m to galactica.20 at -44.39m)
North-South range = 99.31m (from galactica.19 at 28.14m to galactica.12 at -71.17m)
East-West range = 53.27m (from galactica.1 at 1.12m to galactica.9 at -52.15m)
3 1-nodes.
13 2-nodes.
3 3-nodes.
2 4-nodes.
CPU time used 0.00s
</pre>
<h4>Folders and subfolders</h4>
<p>If you have a complex cave like 204 or 161 with many separate exploration zones then you can put subfolder names in the
<h3id="survexformat">Typing in the survey data with a text editor</h3>
<p>The survey data typed up must include all the notes, including station details and passage
names. A simple copy of the export from a digital device will not do. We need names, dates and description. Make a backup copy to another machine or USB stick as soon as you have typed it in.
<p>
New users will be using the online form to create the .svx file , not by editing a text file with a text editor,
so don't confuse newcomers by showing them how you (an expert, of course) do it.
<li><ahref="getin.htm">From muddy book to survex plot</a> - the survex file format (to be revised)
<li><ahref="qmentry.html">How to add QM data and cave descriptions</a> - and why this is vital
<li><fontcolor=red>[survex software docm.]</font><ahref="https://survex.com/docs/manual/svxhowto.htm">Contents of .svx files</a> - How do I?
<li><fontcolor=red>[survex software docm.]</font><ahref="https://survex.com/docs/manual/genhowto.htm">How do I Create a new survey</a> - example with several surveys joined
<li><fontcolor=red>[survex software docm.]</font><ahref="https://survex.com/docs/manual/datafile.htm">Survex data files</a> - all the sections and keywords explained
<li><fontcolor=red>[tunnel software docm.]</font><ahref="/expofiles/tunnelwiki/wiki/pages/File_Formats.html">Survex data files</a> - introduction and explanation
<h3><aid="location">Entering the Entrance location data</a></h3>
<p>The location of the cave is, eventually, stored in a survex file, just <em>not the same survex file</em>.
<p><b>If you are doing this for the first time</b>, don't bother with this *fix stuff. Just type the latitude & logitude numbers into the <ahref="ententry.html">New Entrance form</a> and someone else will do the *fix stuff.
