Left-right-up data

[Stacho Mudrak]

> I am new to Therion, and I am very impressed with what you guys have
> done. This is the most complete cave surveying software I have seen so
> far.


Thanks for the compliment and feedback :)

> What is the purpose of the "left right up" items in data? (These are not
> included in the Survex manual.) When I enter numbers into these fields,
> nothing happens.


Well, you are right :( . In the current version, these numbers are not used anywhere. In fact, we have added them after Wookey's requests and we want to implement them into 3D modelling in the future.

The problem is, that everybody interprets these numbers in a different way or better to say in a different direction. Somebody uses LR dimensions ortogonal to the previous shot, sombody in the axis of previous and next shot. The same with UD data - sometimes it is vertical, sometimes ortogonal to the shot (steep and vertical passages).

So we need to add also some flags, that will identify which cross-section orientation should be used for particular station. But these flags are nowhere standardised, so we have to introduce our own and this may take some time.

In fact, we have a holiday season right now, so therion developement is very problematic, but after holidays, we will definitely continue with 3D modelling and LRUD data will be also included into 3D model (you are not the only one who is asking for that).

> If these are for specifying LRUD distances to the walls, ceiling and
> floor, then how can I see the corresponding distances in the Map Editor?
> This would be very useful for drawing the walls.


Do you draw maps in xtherion without bacground images??? We thought, that everybody will use some hand-drawn scatches as a background, where passages are drawn and xtherion is only some kind of vectorization program. Well, if it is not true - I can imagine, that it is really very hard to draw something reasonable.

In the current approach, I'm afraid it is not possible to add something like that (may be in the therion with new user interface, it will be possible, but this is currently only our long-term dream :().

So if you would like to draw passages like that, I can see the only way how to do it. Use some other software (even we still use some of them :)), print centerline with LRUD dimensions. Scan this drawing and put as a background image into xtherion. OK, it is very dirty but it should work :)

But now I have another idea - in the near future, we want to implement inserting only centerline to the map. Now I see, that it would be probably very good to insert also passage dimensions, if they will be specified. This should enable drawing not vectorized parts of the existing caves where LRUD data exists.

> Are these data fields used in the 3D model?


Not now :( OK, tomorrow I'm leaving for the holiday, but I believe, we will do some progress in September.

Best regards, S.

> Thanks for your help!
>
> Ilker
>