If you have not come to this page from the sequence starting at Starting a New Cave" then go and read that first.
After typing in all the data in survex format , run aven (the GUI interface - installed when you installed survex) and print out a centre-line plan.
OK if this is your first time doing this, you need to go through the "How to use survex" training procedure.
to be documented
Use aven to print out the centre lines of the passages. Now you will have to decide whether to use Tunnel or Therion. Expo has a polciy decision on this: if it is an entirely new disconnected cave, then use Therion. If it is a passage in a cave where previously we used Tunnel, then use Tunnel. See also Comparison of Tunnel to Other Cave Software.
Now scan your sketch, transfer the file to the expo laptop and open it in Tunnel (or Therion). Using a mouse on the screen within Tunnel (or Therion), you will then trace over the image and thus create a vector drawing of the cave. Very detailed instructions for doing this in Tunnel are in Tunnel Wiki: Raw Sketch Data
The files of your scanned and re-scanned sketches should be stored in the same folder as the scanned notes, i.e. (for wallet #19, for expo 2018) you would put them in: /home/expo/expofiles/surveyscans/2018/2018#19/ (but this is not where you will put your finished Tunnel or Therion vector files.)
Tunnel only produces plan surveys, but they are very pretty.
The tunnel (or therion) vector files should NOT stored in the same folder as the scanned notes. They will eventually be uploaded to the version control repository drawings but for a first attempt store them on the expo laptop in /home/expo/drawings/{cavenumber}. Look at what is in there already and ask someone which directory to put them in. It will probably be a folder like this: /home/expo/drawings/264-and-258/toimport/
This is the last thing to do for a new cave. The rigging guide sections will have been written into the logbook, and the passage descriptions will have been written into the survex files, with more lyrical descriptions written into the logbook for each trip.
Write a passage descriptions by copying and extending the descriptions given in all the component .svx files.
This should be detailed enough to be followed by someone in the cave who hasn't been there before, and should include all passage names, lengths of pitches and climbs, compass directions when this makes left/right/ahead clearer. See If your passage is a connection it is worth while writing descriptions from both directions. You will eventually copy the collected descriptions into the online system using the"New Cave" form but for now just ensure that you have it all collected together.
In written descriptions, underline passage names the first time they are mentioned, or when they are "defined".
You will type this description, and pass it on to someone more nerdy who will file it in the right place. This will involve "creating a new cave" using the troggle system.
Complementing the passage description in vertical bits is a Rigging Guide. Keep notes on this as it is the next step after drawing up the survey.
Make sure the drawing clearly shows the point of connection to previous surveys (look at the relevant drawing in the old survey book to ensure the sketches match and you really have connected where you think). Make sure you note which Question Mark was addressed by this survey and show the location of any new question marks, with an estimate of quality and any difficulties which will be encountered (eg. if it is a climb, are bolts going to be needed ? If a dig, is it a few loose boulders or a crawl over mud?)
The actual published cave-survey is produced by software these days. These notes come from a different age but reading them will make your tunneling better and more polished:
Drawing a cave entirely by hand is not easy but anyone can learn to do it. Read the brief Cave Mapping - Sketching the Detail" 5-page llustrated guide by Ken Grimes which makes everything clear. For preliminary exploration (Grade 1 surveys) this is still appropriate.
CUCC use a set of symbols pretty close to the standard ones promulgated by the BCRA, with occasional differences - such as large-enough boulders which are sketched to scale using the US symbol. The current state of standardisation for cave survey symbols (a useful guide to what we should be using where possible) has been documented by Häuselmann, Weidmann and Ruder (1996), but this is up for discussion in 1997. An alternative set of standards can be seen from the Australian Speleological Federation here.
Make sure that you draw both plan and elevation (the latter should be an extended section, rather than a projected elevation) for horizontal passage. For pitches, several plans at different levels may be easiest (rather like the cross sections at each survey station used in horizontal passage). Also projected elevations may be useful in addition to the extended section. But learning a good set of procedures for using survex is the way to go.
If you did all that properly, there should be very little left to do in the UK, unless you have volunteered to help with drawing up the final survey. (Fool!) However, it is as well to check that you have done all you can before BCRA conference, by reading the Back in the UK page.
Back to the previous page in this sequence Starting a new survex file.
Now go the the next page in this sequence Creating a new rigging guide".