<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>Handbook - Starting a new Survex file</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/main2.css" /> </head> <body> <h2 id="tophead">CUCC Expedition Handbook - New Survex file</h2> <h1>Creating a new survex file</h1> <h2>Great, I have discovered a new cave...</h2> <p>If you have not come to this page from the sequence starting at <a href="newcave.html">Starting a New Cave"</a> then go and read that first. <div style="width:100%;height:50px;background:#C8E1E2" align="center"> This page outlines step 3 of the survey production process. Each step is documented separately.<br /> <!-- Yes we need some proper context-marking here, breadcrumb trails or something. Maybe a colour scheme for just this sequence of pages --> <a href="newcave.html">1</a> - <a href="newwallet.html">2</a> - <a href="newsurvex.html">3</a> - <a href="drawup.htm">4</a> - <a href="newrig.html">5</a> - <a href="caveentry.html">6</a> - <a href="ententry.html">7</a> - <a href="cavedescription.html">8</a> </div> <h2>Process</h2> <p>You do not need any software to create a survex file. You can do it using the online editor in your web browser. So you do not need to have installed survex on your laptop at this point. </p> <p>Once you used the online system, which tries to give useful feedback, you can type up survex files using a text editor. <p>If using a digital survey device, initially cut and paste the surve data from an exported file into the online survex editor form. <div class="centre"> <figure> <a href="/survexfile/caves-1623/204/midlevel/110_bidet.svx"> <img src="notex.jpg" width="700px"></a> <figcaption style="font-variant-caps: small-caps;"> <em>Typical raw survex data - 'bidet' in Steinbrückenhöhle, Martin Green 2000-08-14</em> <br />Click to see in online editor. </figcaption> </figure> </div> <h3>Fixing the location of the entrance</h3> <div class="onright"> <figure> <a href="/walletedit/2023:17"> <img src="fix-2023-js-02-notes.jpg" ></a> <figcaption style="font-variant-caps: small-caps;"> <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. </ul> <p>So this is important. <div class="onright"> <figure> <a href="/walletedit/2023:17"> <img src="fix-2023-js-02-new.jpg" ></a> <figcaption style="font-variant-caps: small-caps;"> <em>New Cave Sheet location and altitude</em> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <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 almost useless: we get better altitudes by using the lat/long numbers together with a laser scan of the plateau topography. GPS altitudes will continue to be 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.) <p>See <a href="#location">the bottom of this page</a> for how the location information is typed in. <h4 >Two ways to type in survex data</h3> <ul> <li>Use the online system using a web browser from any computer anywhere. You will need to be somewhat confident of the name (the 'surveytrip' id) you will be using, which will typically be the name of your new passage (e.g. "easybimble") and the number used for the cave: either an existing one such as 1623-290 or a completely new one such as 2050-BH-03. <li>Or you can create a new file with a text-editor on the <em>expo laptop</em>. Instructions are <a href="#survexformat">at the bottom of this page</a>. </ul> <h3><a id="onlinesvx">Using the direct online system</a></h3> <p>This is where you type up the hand-scrawled notes directly into a a web browser, creating a new online survex file automatically in the right place on the online system. <p>You will be over-writing a template file with lots of comments and optional examples in square brackets, but first you need to find the right place for everything. <h4 id="rightplace">The right place</h4> <p>Having confirmed the right name to use for your passage and your cave, including whether it is in area 1623 or 1626, the survex file will eventaully be in e.g. <pre> caves-1623/2050-BH-03/easybimble.svx </pre> The way to start is to open a web browser on the equivalent page <pre> http://expo.survex.com/survexfile/caves-{area}/{cave}/{surveytripid}.svx </pre> where {area} will be 1623 or 1626, and for a new discovery, {cave} will be something like 2050-BH-03 if it is the third cave disovered by Dr. Bunsen Honeydew on the 2050 expo, e.g. <pre> <a href="/survexfile/caves-1623/2050-BH-03/easybimble.svx">/survexfile/caves-1623/2050-BH-03/easybimble.svx</a> </pre> <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 <a href="/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 <a href="/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>Overwrite the name of the survex file "-1623/2050-BH-03/easybimble.svx" with the right data for your cave and <em>press return again</em> to make sure that the browser 'knows' that it is working on your survex file and not the mythical one in 2050. <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 <a href="#newbie">this section</a> below on this page. <p>If you have several parts of the cave surveyed on one trip, create several distinct .svx files. <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. ('<a href="https://survex.com/docs/manual/cavern.htm">cavern</a>' is the survex engine which we use to process survex files.) <p style="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 URL bar e.g. <pre> <a href="/survexfile/caves-1623/2050-BH-03/murderalley/killerclimb/easybimble.svx">survexfile/caves-1623/2050-BH-03/murderalley/killerclimb/easybimble.svx</a> </pre> and the intermediate directories will be created on the server if they don't already exist. This is in addition to the directory name which is also the name of your new cave being created automatically. <h3 id="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. <p> The new survex data will live in the folder on the <em>expo laptop</em>: <pre> /home/expo/loser/caves-{area}/{cave}/{surveytripid}.svx </pre> example: <pre> /home/expo/loser/caves-1623/264/mongolrally.svx </pre> and tell someone nerdy when you have finished and they will ensure that it is <em>saved, committed, </em>and<em> pushed</em> appropriately to the :loser: repo. All of which is automatic if you use the online form. <h3 id="newbie">What goes in a survex file</h3> <ul> <li><a href="/expofiles/documents/surveying/survex-guide.pdf">How to create a survex file</a> - PDF - Brendan's guide. <li><a href="getin.htm">From muddy book to survex plot</a> - the survex file format (to be revised) <li><a href="qmentry.html">How to add QM data and cave descriptions</a> - and why this is vital <li><font color=red>[survex software docm.]</font> <a href="https://survex.com/docs/manual/svxhowto.htm">Contents of .svx files</a> - How do I? <li><font color=red>[survex software docm.]</font> <a href="https://survex.com/docs/manual/genhowto.htm">How do I Create a new survey</a> - example with several surveys joined <li><font color=red>[survex software docm.]</font> <a href="https://survex.com/docs/manual/datafile.htm">Survex data files</a> - all the sections and keywords explained <li><font color=red>[tunnel software docm.]</font> <a href="/expofiles/tunnelwiki/wiki/pages/File_Formats.html">Survex data files</a> - introduction and explanation </ul> <p>Once you have created the .svx file you will run survex to check that your format is correct without typos and to generate a centre line. Then you will print the survey line, manually transcribe your sketches from the wallet notes onto that paper, scan it again and then use that scanned image to digitise passage layout into tunnel or therion. <ul> <li><a href="athome.htm">Back in the UK</a> - not really part of the process <li><a href="/expofiles/presentations/cave_surveying_20130626.pdf">Cave Surveying - training course slidepack</a> <li><a href="../survexhistory96.htm">History of Survex (1996)</a></li> </ul> <p>[Nerds: survex cave data belongs in the <a href="../computing/repos.html">repository</a> :loser: so e.g. :loser:/caves-1623/264/mongolrally.svx". We are assuming that normal users have never worked with an distributed version control system at this point which is why we are telling them to use the online form.] <h3><a id="tickqm">Entering the QM data</a></h3> <p> QMs are the unexplored leads, they are Question Marks because we don't know where they go to. There is a specific format for recording them in survex files. </p> <p> Read this <a href="qmentry.html">separate description</a> about entering the QM data into a survex file. </p> <h3><a id="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 <a href="ententry.html">New Entrance form</a> and someone else will do the *fix stuff. <h3><a id="tickingoff">Entering the cave description in the survex file</a></h3> <p>The last part of the survex file is a description of the passage surveyed. Remember that this is intended to be read by people <em>who have not been to that bit of the cave themselves</em> <code> ;------------<br /> ;Cave description ;(leave commented-out)<br /> ; See 2017 description for details of GSH up to the 'p50'. Briefly, on the way to couldashouldawoulda a 22 m entrance crawl from the surface leads to a climb down and a junction. Left leads to easy c rawling passage for a short distance, then another junction where traversing over a shallow hole and down a stooping-height sandy passage to a sharp left turn and a sandy, easy 'squeeze' leading to a straighforward p10. </code> [from <a href="/survexfile/caves-1623/2017-cucc-24/couldashouldawoulda_to_bathdodgersbypass.svx"><em>couldashouldawoulda_to_bathdodgersbypass.svx</em></a>] </p> <p> Note that the description is often written as one long line. Use the word-wrap capability in your editor to make it easier for yourself. See more detail in the <a href="cavedescription.html">Cave Description"</a> handbook page which also describes eventual HTML publication. <div > <figure> <a href="../i/wolfhohle_1983-08-08.jpg"> <img src="../t/wolfhohle_1983-08-08.jpg" ></a> <figcaption style="font-variant-caps: small-caps;"> Wolfhöhle raw survey data 1983 - Austrian mud (click to enlarge) </figcaption> </figure> </div> <hr /> <p>Back to the previous page in this sequence <a href="newwallet.html">Creating a new survey wallet</a>. <br />Now go the the next page in this sequence <a href="drawup.htm">Drawing up your survey</a>. <hr /></body> </html>