Surveying

Compass
Generally sighting compasses from Suunto or Silva are used, such as the Suunto KB-14, Silva SightMaster or Silva Precision 80.

See http://www.suunto.com or http://www.silva.se.

Clinometer
A clinometer from Suunto or Silva is the standard, such as the Suunto PM-5 or Silva ClinoMaster. There are also Tandem models available from both companies, which are a combined compass and clino in the same unit.

Tape measure
Typically a 30 metre tape graduated in centimetres is suitable for most caving applications.

Disto
A brand name, but one that is used to generically describe a laser distance measuring device. Replaces the need for a traditional tape measure. For example, see http://ptd.leica-geosystems.com.

Shetland Attack Pony
An electronic compass and clinometer with USB connection for transferring data to your computer. Developed by a British caver. See http://www.shetlandattackpony.co.uk.

DistoX
An adapted Disto which measures length, bearing and inclination. The device can then transfer data via Bluetooth to a palmtop computer so that you can draw the cave survey as you go! Developed by a Swiss caver Beat Heeb, you buy the Disto yourself, he'll sell you the conversion kit and away you go. See http://paperless.bheeb.ch.

Survex
A homemade and constantly developing piece of software from British cavers. Powerful and fairly easy to use; you type your survey data into a text file and then process it to create a 3D model of the cave centreline. Downloadable for FREE at http://survex.com.

Cave Converter
A utility for converting survey data between various formats. Enables Survex format data to be imported into PocketTopo (the Windows Mobile PDA software used with the DistoX) and to convert PocketTopo data back to Survex format. Developed by UKCaving user Footleg. FREE to download from http://wscc.darkgem.com/caveconverter/.

Therion
A complex tool to archive data describing a cave, cave system or karst areas as well as a cave map drawing tool. Compatible with Survex. Developed by Slovakian cavers Martin Budaj and Stacho Mudrak (but available in English). FREE to download from http://therion.speleo.sk. The format is human readable plain text (excluding 3D models). The objects of map drawing are abstract, so they can be visualised in different symbol sets or after export to GIS one may add to objects attributes used in a particular GIS project. The interface is available in the following languages: Czech, German, Greek, English [UK/US], Spanish, French, Italian, Portugese [BR/PT], Russian, Slovak and Albanian so far. The maps, atlases, list of continuations and others could be exported from one project in enumerated languages (if typed), too.

One of the big advantages of therion is that a structure of map drawings is fully independent on survey data. It means that you can draw partial maps as you are exploring and surveying the cave. Once you have a more clear idea of the structure of the cave system, you can easily redefine structure of maps to better fit the cave. You can split the cave into layers and selectively display them, or generate an interactive atlas. You can define multiple independent "views" of map structure suitable for different purposes.

Check: Therion's wikipage, Projects made with help of Therion, Case studies and read Therion – Digital Cave Maps – an article presented on the 4th European Speleological Congress.

The import of survey data includes:
 * centreline in *.3d (Survex), *.plt (Compass), *.xyz (general) and PocketTopo Therion export file formats

The export includes:
 * model - 3D model of the cave
 * map - one page 2D map with wide modifiable look
 * atlas - modifiable 2D atlas in more pages
 * cave-list - summary table of caves
 * survey-list - summary table of surveys
 * continuation-list - list of possible continuations
 * database - SQL database with centreline

The following export formats for map are supported:
 * pdf (If the map was produced using georeferenced data then it also contains georeferencing information. This can be extracted by XTherion to produce georeferenced raster images.)
 * svg
 * xhtml
 * survex
 * dxf
 * esri53
 * kml (Google Earth) Maps produced in dxf, esri or kml formats may be further processed in appropriate software. These maps do not contain visualized map symbols
 * xvi (XTherion vector image) format, which displays centreline and LRUD information (and optionally morphed sketches) to serve as a background for digitization. Import from PocketTopo Therion export file will create xvi files including PocketTopo sketches.

The following export format for interactive atlas is supported:
 * pdf

The following 3D model export formats are supported:
 * loch (3D native format; default)
 * compass (plt file)
 * survex (3d file)
 * dxf
 * esri (3d shape files)
 * vrml
 * 3dmf (Toporobot's 3D model)
 * kml (Google Earth)

The following export format for database is supported:
 * sql

The following export formats for lists are supported:
 * html
 * txt
 * dbf

Compass
Compass is a cave mapping software package designed to edit, process, analyse and view cave survey data. The programs in the system allow you to enter cave data, revise the data, generate statistics on the cave, close loops, view plots from various angles on the screen and finally, print finished quality plots on almost any of dot matrix, laser, ink jet printer and a variety of line plotters.

Caves can be viewed as centreline, with walls showing or as a rendered model. The program can also produce fly-through videos.

Compass is available from http://www.fountainware.com/compass/

The following files can be exported:
 * Autocad DXF
 * Shape Files
 * Station co-ordinates as CSV
 * Google Earth kml files

Tunnel
A cave map drawing tool which works directly with Survex. Developed by UK cavers. FREE to download from http://www.freesteel.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Tunnel.

Adobe Illustrator
Some cavers use a standard, off-the-shelf drawing package such as Adobe Illustrator to draw up finished cave surveys. A number of specially designed, useful cave symbols are downloadable for use with this product. See: http://incavedigitalsurvey.com/board/YaBB.pl?num=1205991538  ''Note: This is no longer here' March 2013'

http://www.hongmeigui.net/survey-symbols.php

http://www.brandonkowallis.com/Pages/Resources.html ''Note: This is no longer here' March 2013'

Inkscape
An open source and free alternative to vector drawing packages such as Adobe Illustrator. Intuitive and easy to use. Availible at http://inkscape.org/

Survey and survey data repository

 * Survey data, notes, 3D models and finished surveys may be released to the public and archived for long-term safe-keeping on this wiki, here


 * The Cave Registry Data Archive is a repository that will track changes while allowing members to automatically maintain a local copy of the latest data. The service is available to BCA clubs for the storage and archiving of cave survey data.