CUCC Expedition Handbook - New Cave

Creating a new cave in the online system

Great, I have discovered a new cave...

So, you have staggered off the plateau with a fist-full of notes and surveys, and you want to let the world know of your massive discovery.

• If you have not yet learned how to record your prospecting and survey your leads, read the
  • prospecting introduction and
  • survey handbook which tells you how to record survey information in your waterproof notebook. But first you should read the
  • Cave Surveying training course slidepack.
  
  
  This page outlines step 1 of the survey production process. Each step is documented separately.
  1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8

  Process

  After 40 years or so, we have a well-defined process which you will need to learn. Read all this list first, then follow the instructions section by section which tell you how to actually do these things.

  • Write up your trip in the logbook including rigging sketches
    
    
  • Put notes in a new wallet
  • If it is a new cave, fill out a paper New Cave form
  • Scan the notes (see "new wallet" for the filenames to use and how to use the scanner)
  • Type in survey data (in the right place in the file system) in survex format.
    (This includes passage descriptions and open leads known as QMs: Question Marks).
  • Run survex to create a centre-line printout (online in a browser or on your computer)
  • Transcribe your sketches onto centre-line paper
  • Scan your centre-lined sketches
  • Use therion or tunnel to digitise your centre-line sketches
  • Connect your survey to the surveys of other caves by fixing the entrance location.

  and either later or at the same time, you will be doing these other tasks

  • Upload your GPS track to the cave and file photos of the entrance
  • Create a new folder in the file system for the wallet data (automatic when using the Upload form)
  • Create a new folder in the file system for the survex data (automatic when using the online survex edit form)
  • Create a "new cave entry" for the guidebook description
  • Write the full cave description into the correct html files. (This will mean copying the passage descriptions from the survex files.)
  • Update the index tick boxes on paper in the wallets lever-arch file in the potato hut: as your wallet progresses through this process
  • Update the online record of those tick boxes using the online form, e.g. for wallet 2022#01
  • Check the online list of outstanding survey tasks for all the wallets for the current year: 2022.
  • Back in the UK

  This documentation assumes that you have recorded your survey data in a waterproof paper notebook. If instead you are using a PDA to record the survey readings digitally for your first cave, don't. Use the paper process first, then when you are familiar the overall process, look at the PDA additional notes.

  The Process in brief

  New cave process │ ├── 1 Creating a new cave in the online system │ ├── Prospecting introduction │ ├── Survey handbook │ ├── Cave Surveying training course slidepack │ ├── Logbook write-up │ ├── GPS track upload │ ├── list of outstanding survey tasks │ ├── PDA additional notes │ └── How to use the scanner ├── 2 Creating a new survey wallet │ ├── New cave data sheet │ ├── What is a wallet? │ └── Maintaining the online wallets ├── 3 Creating a new survex file │ ├── How to create a survex file - PDF - Brendan's guide │ ├── From muddy book to survex plot │ ├── Cave description │ ├── Adding QMs (Question Marks) │ └── Fixing the entrance location ├── 4 Drawing up your survey │ ├── How to use Tunnel - PDF - Brendan's guide │ ├── Guide to using Tunnel - PDF - David Loeffler's guide │ ├── Upload Drawings form │ ├── the Uploads Folder │ ├── uploads/my_new_subfolder │ └── Cave Mapping - Sketching the Detail ├── 5 New rigging guide ├── 6 Creating a new cave in the online system │ ├── new cave file method │ │ ├──cave_data template │ │ └──entrance_data template │ ├── New Cave form │ ├── Edit this cave │ └── the full list of data-entry fields ├── 7 Creating a new entrance in the online system │ ├── Entrance entry page fields │ │ ├──cave_data template │ │ └──entrance_data template │ └── Entrance locations in more detail ├── 8 Next steps │ Back in the UK

  Now go the the next page [2] in this sequence Creating a new survey wallet".

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  Next survey guide page - 'Base Camp: drawing it up'