new user ....

[Eric Madelaine]

Hi,

I'm Eric Madelaine, caver from the Nice area, in france.
I have been fiddling with survey softwares for a while (25 years? ),
even building one myself years ago (never get outside my club, but this
was in the glorious years of Multics and PL1... distribution was not
like it is now (;-))
I have been experimenting with therion for a couple weeks now, and i am
really pleased with the results I already have. The concept of morphing
vectorial drawings on the survey is of course the best we can imagine
today, and the way that therion authors have integrated that in a
specific survey tool in such a short time is impressive. A lot left to
do yet in terms of 3D modelling, and certainly for getting the software
accessible for non-computer people of course (;-)

I have a number of questions, starting with things I ran into during my
first tries( therion version 0.3.1 on Windows XP), for which I have not
found the answer neither in the therin book, nor in wookey's tutorial paper.

- How do you get a map (simple plan) with only the centerline, when you
have not yet drawn, or scanned, the scraps ?

- I have not been able to generate a correct extended elevation, it
comes completely distorted. Is it supposed to work? (i've not found any
example of elevation maps with the distribution)

- I'd like to get a series of cross sections drawn on the side of a map
page (or an atlas page), with only the cross-section lines drawn on the
principal plan or elevation. Is there a simple way to do that ? It's
rather difficult to attach those section points to a given scrap, that
could be very far on the map...

For more long term things:

- Is there any plan, or any contact taken,  for a french translation? If
not, and if you think that internationalisation could be easy enough in
the current version of the code, I could find the time to help you for
that...

- I have no clue on how the 3D models are generated, but I'm impressed
of what you get from a single plan.
I understand how you can guess proportionnal heights from the plan. I
also have played with passage-heigth point specs (with correct results
for tube-like passages, but much less success for rooms...)
Do you have any plans/ideas to use cross-section information when
available? to use both plan and elevation information when you have both
? or may be to use just LRUD data if you have nothing else ?

Eric.