Survex

Survex is an open source cave surveying software package, licensed under the GPL. It is designed to be portable and can be run on a variety of platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix. Survex is very powerful cave survey software, and is actively developing into a complete cave visualization package.

Centreline data is entered using plain text files, which are processed by 'Cavern'. The text files contain a hierarchy of cave surveys, each of which consists of a list of survey legs, which join survey stations. This program calculates the real world coordinates of survey stations, taking into account loop closure errors using least-squares minimization. [cite journal
last = Warren
first = Patrick
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Distributing Misclosure Errors in Surveying
journal = Cambridge Underground
volume =
issue =
pages = 19–30
date = 1986-7
url = http://cucc.survex.com/archive/jnl/1986-7/errors.htm
doi =
id =
accessdate = ] This processed data can then be visualised using a GUI front end called Aven. Survex has no arbitrary limits, and so is particularly good for large complicated cave systems, or areas where you need to see the relationships between multiple cave systems.

Survex was started in 1990 by Olly Betts and Wookey, and more recently Mark Shinwell has developed 'Aven'. Like most cave surveying software, the motivation for its creation arose from a particular surveying project - Cambridge University Caving Club's explorations in Austria. [cite journal
last = Wookey
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = History of Survex
journal = Cambridge Underground
volume =
issue =
pages = 63–66
date = 1996
url = http://cucc.survex.com/archive/jnl/1996/survex.htm
doi =
id =
accessdate = ]

Survex is currently being used in many large scale survey projects, across the world, for example: UK - Easegill, [cite web
last =
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coauthors =
title = Easegill resurvey project
work =
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date =
url = http://www.rrcpc.org.uk/easesur.htm
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doi =
accessdate = 2007-09-23] Ogof Draenen, [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Ogof Draenen
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.oucc.org.uk/draenen/survey/survex/draenen_survex_data.htm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-09-23] Spain - Picos de Europa, [cite web
last =
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title = Oxford University Cave Club - Expedition Reports
work =
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date =
url = http://www.oucc.org.uk/expeditions/expeditions-spain.htm
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accessdate = 2007-09-23] China, [cite web
last =
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title = Hong Meigui Cave Exploration Society - Expedition Reports
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.hongmeigui.net/
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-09-23] Austria - Dachstein, Totes Gerbirge, [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Cambridge University Caving Club Expedition
work =
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date =
url = http://cucc.survex.com/expo
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doi =
accessdate = 2007-09-23] Indonesia, [cite web
last =
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coauthors =
title = Subterra Indonesia
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.subterra.or.id/
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-09-23] Mulu [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Mulu Caves Project
work =
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date =
url = http://www.mulucaves.org/
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-09-23]

References

External links

* [http://www.survex.com Survex Home Page]
* [http://www.caves.org/section/sacs/surveysw.html List of cave surveying software (valid in 2001)]