Dealing With Imported SEF Files

The program puts the converted data into two types of files: A Compass Project File (.MAK) and one or more Compass survey data files (.DAT). Here is detailed information about how to use the newly imported survey files.

1. Data Files. The program will generate one or more files with the extension ".DAT". These files contain the Compass raw survey data. They can be processed using any of the standard Compass tools such the Project Manager. The program will generate a new ".DAT" file for every new cave name that appears in the SEF file. Also, if you enable the option, it will generate a new file for every branch in the survey tree. In other words, each SEF file can have several ".DAT" files. The names of these files will match the cave names in the SEF file, not necessarily the SEF file name.

2. Project File. This file will have the same name as the SEF file, but it will have the extension ".MAK". If there are multiple Survey Files in the Project, the Project File will contain the information to organize and combine these files. It will also contain any Fixed Station information.

Some other survey programs require that every survey have a fixed station even if a real one is not available. As result, many SEF files will have a “zero” value fixed station with every file. Compass files are not required to have control points or fixed stations. As a result, for some small and simple caves, the Project file is not needed and can be discarded. In other words, if you don't have any real fixed stations and all the data is in one data file, you can discard or ignore the Project file generated by the import process.