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Paper survey to digital tool

*In theory* you can always go from extended to projected if you have a centerline, whereas a projected elevation cannot be reliably extended. The software to actually do this for some input format e.g. th2 does not exist AFAIK. I think there is a way of getting Therion to output a projected version of an extended elevation but you don't get the drawing (forgotten how exactly).

Converting an extended th2 to a projected th2 in combination with the centerline, however, *should* be a relatively straightforward transformation for a programmer with a bit of time and nothing better to do. For someone who is happy to split bezier curves at arbitrary points and then reproject them as required, that is (I did think about this a bit more in the past).

For a cave with a one or small number of main descending routes that twist and turn, projected is horrible IMO. But for a complex system with a dominant axis, projected is certainly less horrible than hundreds of broken connections.
 
Something similar to this? https://github.com/patrickbwarren/inkscape-survex-export (this is a python script that exports inkscape data to a survex file, so you can import an old survey as an image, trace over it in inkscape and generate a survex data file from the trace).
I made some changes to this several years ago for helping get a centerline for the White Scar data - I think so you could get an extended elevation? Can't remember if the changes got included or not (and my version will be well behind now).
 
You may already be aware of this, but you can do individual parts of a projected elevation on any bearing you like and then manually insert them back into the final map output. For large sections of cave, you just create a new ‘map’, plot it as a pdf and then insert the pdf in the layout section all in one go. Our St Georges survey, linked in my signature, works like this. Create the project elevation, on the best bearing to avoid overlap, complete with elevation grid lines and then insert that into the main survey document.

For smaller sections of cave (eg a parallel shaft) you can create a projected xvi of the bit you’re interested in, insert this into a cross-section scrap and then draw over it. You can then insert this wherever you want into the main output using a cross-section point in a different scrap.

It’s all a bit manual, but that’s part of the skill of a good survey - make it readable and accurate.
 
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