Tips & Tricks for preparing to learn underwater cave survey?

[Aotus]

Ah yes, that is another question:

What software is used now for mapping (not illustrating, I can do that). I'm hoping to ultimately run analyses using ArcGIS or similar GIS software.

[Kelly Jessop]

Are there some other tricks that might help my preparation and/or hone other skills relevant?

.

Depends on what grade of map you intend to make. If you plan to use a tape to measure side walls then your accuracy will be good,but often times people estimate distance,and that is where I see some of the biggest errors,especially when a side wall is 20ft+. Learn to estimate distance with backing it up with a measured reference to improve your accuracy while learning.

[FW]

Ah yes, that is another question:

What software is used now for mapping (not illustrating, I can do that). I'm hoping to ultimately run analyses using ArcGIS or similar GIS software.

I use Walls. It is actually designed for "dry" caving, but rchrds came up with a neat trick to use depth instead of inclination. It is about the most flexible cave survey softer there is. It can export in a format to use in most any GIS program.

[FW]

Here is a sample map, overlaid on Google Earth.

Attachment 9791

[PfcAJ]

arianes line is neat for mapping.

[Aotus]

That attachment didn't work Forrest, but I'm interested to see. You could email it to me

[FW]

That attachment didn't work Forrest, but I'm interested to see. You could email it to me

I just gave you access to the forum it was posted in, try it again.

[Aotus]

I see it now. Thanks.

[jlillest]

I use Walls. It is actually designed for "dry" caving, but rchrds came up with a neat trick to use depth instead of inclination. It is about the most flexible cave survey softer there is. It can export in a format to use in most any GIS program.

Walls is the most flexible cave survey software available, it'll handle most any format or measurment system that cavers use, especially knotted line dive survey. Jason gets a lot of credit for showing people how to use Walls for dive survey but there's no trick to it. Using it just requires reading the manual.

The only better software out there would be survex, and that's only because you can modify it as you please when your own requirements change. (But, I will say that survex is currently behind in the feature category and you'll need an appreciation for computer science to use it)

Walls exports to shapefile, and from there you can find all sorts of open source tools to convert to other formats.

-Jon

[Aotus]

Awesome. Thanks.