Survex - No Output File

[Subpopulus Hibernia]

I've recently started using Survex and just tried to produce my first survey using it. The survey processes fine and I can read in the Terminal the stats, but it tells me that no output file was produced. I've tried a few other Survex files that I've gotten off the internet but the same result... I'm fairly certain that I've outputted .3d files on my laptop before, but that was when someone else was showing me how to use Survex.

Also what sort co-ordinate system does Survex use?

 

[graham]

I've recently started using Survex and just tried to produce my first survey using it. The survey processes fine and I can read in the Terminal the stats, but it tells me that no output file was produced. I've tried a few other Survex files that I've gotten off the internet but the same result... I'm fairly certain that I've outputted .3d files on my laptop before, but that was when someone else was showing me how to use Survex.

What errors are being reported in the log file?

Also what sort co-ordinate system does Survex use?

In essence any one that you want it to! If you do not specify any co-ordinates for any station then it will set an arbitrary co-ordinate origin of 0,0,0 for the 1st station in the file & relate all the others using a simple metric grid. If, however, you give a station (any station) an x-y-z (easting, northing, altitude) then it will generate all other station co-ordinates accordingly.

 

[Subpopulus Hibernia]

What errors are being reported in the log file?

Two errors, both: End of line not blank

Also what sort co-ordinate system does Survex use?

In essence any one that you want it to! If you do not specify any co-ordinates for any station then it will set an arbitrary co-ordinate origin of 0,0,0 for the 1st station in the file & relate all the others using a simple metric grid. If, however, you give a station (any station) an x-y-z (easting, northing, altitude) then it will generate all other station co-ordinates accordingly.
[/quote]

It's the entrance fix I don't get. Say I'm caving on Rockall and I want to fix the entrance into survey, well the WSG 84 coordinates are 57.597415, -13.688965.

However survex uses the syntax below. I presume the z coordinate is elevation in metres, but I don't get what the x and y represent.

fix entrance.0 32768 86723 1760

 

[graham]

What errors are being reported in the log file?

Two errors, both: End of line not blank

Check those lines, there is something wrong with them.

Also what sort co-ordinate system does Survex use?


In essence any one that you want it to! If you do not specify any co-ordinates for any station then it will set an arbitrary co-ordinate origin of 0,0,0 for the 1st station in the file & relate all the others using a simple metric grid. If, however, you give a station (any station) an x-y-z (easting, northing, altitude) then it will generate all other station co-ordinates accordingly.


It's the entrance fix I don't get. Say I'm caving on Rockall and I want to fix the entrance into survey, well the WSG 84 coordinates are 57.597415, -13.688965.

However survex uses the syntax below. I presume the z coordinate is elevation in metres, but I don't get what the x and y represent.

fix entrance.0 32768 86723 1760

That's 'cos you don't understand the WSG84 co-ordinates.  What do those two figures represent? In Survex they should represent the distance East and North from the grid origin.

read this page and take a look at this site.

 

[Rhys]

WGS 84 is latitude and longitude isn't it? In which case the eastings and northings are degrees. Survex can't handle that, it needs locations in a straightforward cartesian grid such as GB OS or Irish OS.

As for the "line not blank", you'll be putting information on a line that Survex isn't expecting, perhaps a comment that hasn't been prefixed by a semi-colon.

It should tell you which line or lines. Post them here (or PM me) and I'll try and spot it.

Rhys

 

[Subpopulus Hibernia]

WGS 84 is latitude and longitude isn't it? In which case the eastings and northings are degrees. Survex can't handle that, it needs locations in a straightforward cartesian grid such as GB OS or Irish OS.

As for the "line not blank", you'll be putting information on a line that Survex isn't expecting, perhaps a comment that hasn't been prefixed by a semi-colon.

It should tell you which line or lines. Post them here (or PM me) and I'll try and spot it.

Rhys

Just copped it. I spelled the cave name Pollr?nda, and the fada (the thing over the u) confused it. Having corrected it I now get a .3d file but it won't open. Just a blank grey screen. God damn.

I get the fixing situation now after a bit of head scratching. I'd always assumed that Survex behaved like a GIS programme and placed the caves in a global manner.

 

[graham]

Just copped it. I spelled the cave name Pollr?nda, and the fada (the thing over the u) confused it. Having corrected it I now get a .3d file but it won't open. Just a blank grey screen. God damn.

If it's not too long, post the data, or PM it & I'll take a look.

I get the fixing situation now after a bit of head scratching. I'd always assumed that Survex behaved like a GIS programme and placed the caves in a global manner.

Well, yes it does. Sort of. But you have to specify the spatial co-ordinates in a particular way and, being wholly concerned with the underground it takes no account of geodetics.

 

[graham]

OK, strange. That file processes perfectly well for me and produces visible output.

You're not using a ... Mac, are you? 

 

[Moose]

If you are using a Mac then double clicking on the .3d file will give you a blank screen.

The way round it is to open Aven then go 'file' - 'open' - blah blah and it should appear.

 

[wookey]

Just copped it. I spelled the cave name Pollr?nda, and the fada (the thing over the u) confused it.

Please file a bug about this at http://trac.survex.com/ (you'll have to register to do that - otherwise we get spammed to death). Then this has a fighting chance of getting fixed one day. Survex's UTF-handling is not great because it was originally written a long time before all that.

I get the fixing situation now after a bit of head scratching. I'd always assumed that Survex behaved like a GIS programme and placed the caves in a global manner.

No, survex just uses 'XYZ' - it knows nothing at all about real-world co-ordinates, or non-square representations like lat/long. We have just started some work on integrating libproj (http://trac.osgeo.org/proj/) which _does_ know about coordinate systems, because, obviously, the moment you want to mix survex data with any other data source that is in real-world co-ordinates it's useful if all you have to do is say 'this fixed point is in such-and-such co-ordinate system' and 'please generate output in 'whatever' co-ordinate system. As soon as you can do those two things then more or less anything becomes possible.

Currently the integration is just some post-processing of co-ordinates (see http://trac.survex.com/ticket/38, which is actually quite broken right now). Really it needs both input and output transformation options. Which isn't a huge job, but isn't trivial either. Anyone wanting to help make this actually happen is of course very welcome to send patches.