Surveying software

[graham]

You probably right Graham, I understand the principle behind it, its just when they start on about files that and files this ...

It's a shame that there is no one good enough to write it in a straight forward English language 

I have certainly heard it said (in certain quarters) that if you cannot get your computer to do what you want by typing command line instructions then you shouldn't be using one.

That may well be true, Graham. However if we could all write software etc the marketplace would be very small.
Most of use want software that's user friendly, without the need to have a full understanding of it.

I would hazard a guess that most of us don't fully understand the mechanics and engineering in car - doesn't stop us from driving one though. 

Completely agree, mate.  It's not me that says that.

 

[prahja]

Does anyone out there use a tablet and pen type thing - rather than a mouse for this type of stuff. Seems like it would be much better. Im sure its what the CAD pro's use.

Any feedback from those that might (thinking of my mouse clicking induced rsi type elbow pain)

Yes - it is fantastically good and makes drawing up so much easier and quicker. If you get one you will wonder how on earth you coped without one...

Why don't the 'geeks' make the software more user-friendly so that we don't have to  trying to make sense of this jargon  :read: ? 

Because (mostly) they write the software to solve their own problems. An extra bonus is that you get to use it (usually for free). Also, it really is not that full of jargon - you just need to understand how to survey and draw up in order to use it effectively... (that sounded patronising - I mean that some understanding of the algorithms used to close error and how the data is handled etc. is useful). Also, *any* system you choose will require a fair bit of investment of effort.
Probably the most user-friendly software (IMHO) is compass or toporobot.
Survex is very nice and powerful, but requires a little more investment of effort to get the most return. It has the huge advantage of running on many differet systems - from handhelds to Linux boxes to Windows. (Ps: I can heartily recommend an Asus EEE PC - awesome expedition laptop !).
I have used early versions of Walls and Tunnel, but went back to plain ond centre lines. From all the positive feedback here it sounds like it may be worth looking at them again

I think the main point, though, is that all of them have a lot of "jargon", but once you are used to one (and have got over that hump), the others are simple to pick up...

Andy

 

[footleg]

I just spent a day surveying in West Kingsdale using this software (of which a new version was released this weekend!):
http://www.speleo.qc.ca/auriga/

I only came across it a couple of weeks ago. It runs on a Palm OS PDA and allows you to enter all your survey numbers underground, seeing the map updated as you go. If you close any loops on the trip it immediately tells you the closure error. I was very impressed and found it very handy to visually confirm that the data we were recording made sense while we were still there to be able to correct it. It was also handy to have all the previous collected data to hand underground to help tie up the ends and check things.

Problems come in getting the data off the PDA into Survex. At present only Compass is supported as an export format (plus Visual topo, but I can't get that to export). So I have to import the Compass file into a spreadsheet and reformat it to convert the data into a form I can process with Survex. I'm off to Matienzo tomorrow to test it out some more, but initial impressions have been very good.

 

[Peter Burgess]

If you close any loops on the trip it immediately tells you the closure error.

I assume you have to tell it that you have closed a loop by pointing out that you have returned to a previous survey point? Otherwise if your error was way outside any tolerance you set, it wouldn't know?

 

[footleg]

You enter the from and to station names as you enter each shot. So it automatically knows when a loop has been closed and immediately pops up a message on the screen with the closure error (total distance, and X, Y and Z distances between the end points). I was impressed. You can also enter a leg to equate two stations with different names to join different series of survey legs together. You can play with a copy of the software on a Palm Emulator which runs on a PC. Tthere is a link to this on the Auriga website.

 

[truescrumpy]

On the Survex ,
Tried to download a file to enable you to
process the data which is called cavern.exe - it just
won't open!

 

[footleg]

Try downloading the installer, installing it properly and following the instructions. Survey consists of several programs so to use it properly you need to install the whole package.

 

[truescrumpy]

Try downloading the installer, installing it properly and following the instructions. Survey consists of several programs so to use it properly you need to install the whole package.

You are a top bloke  8)
Thanks for all your help