Surveying Software
There is a large number of surveying packages available on various computer platforms, most of which have been developed by cavers with a basis in computer programming. Many of the packages perform particularly well for specific tasks, and as such many cave surveyors will not solely choose one product over another for all cartographic tasks.
A popular program for producing a centerline survey is Survex, which was originally developed by members of the Cambridge University Caving Club for processing survey data from club expeditions to Austria. It was released to the public in 1992. The centerline data can then be exported in various formats and the cave detail drawn in with various other programmes such as AutoCAD, Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape. Other programmes such as Tunnel and Therion have full centerline and map editing capabilities. Therion notably, when it closes survey loops, warps the passages to fit over their length, meaning that entire passages do not have to be redrawn.
Read more about this topic: Cave Surveying
Famous quotes containing the word surveying:
“As for my own business, even that kind of surveying which I could do with most satisfaction my employers do not want. They would prefer that I should do my work coarsely and not too well, ay, not well enough. When I observe that there are different ways of surveying, my employer commonly asks which will give him the most land, not which is most correct.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)