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COMPASS For Windows
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• Revision History: 99-21
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• About The Author
COMPASS For DOS
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 What is COMPASS?
COMPASS is a cave mapping software package designed to edit, process, analyze and view cave survey data using any Windows-based computer. The programs in the system allow you to enter cave data, revise the data, generate statistics on the cave, close loops, view plots from any angle and finally, print finished quality plots on almost any printer or plotter.

COMPASS has hundreds of powerful features, including a configurable survey editor, high speed real-time 3D  passage wall modeling, GIS and data base compatibility, sophisticated loop closure and blunder detection. COMPASS is extremely fast capable of animating of caves in excess of 150 miles in length. It is also very easy to use, with built-in wizards and tools that make it easy for novice users to manage and work with large cave systems. COMPASS will run on any modern version of Windows from Windows XP  to Windows-10. COMPASS is constantly being refined to add new features and take advantage of the latest technologies. 

For a complete description of all the Compass features, checkout the Compass Tour.

3D, Depth-Colored Model of Lechuguilla Cave

The Labarge Borehole area is in the foreground, the Tinsel-Town Maze is in the upper right, The Voids are to left and the purple passages on the left is the Deep Maze.
Latest Revisions and Features.
Update - 2-9-24
Project Manager Search Tools
The Project Manager now has a search tool that allows you to search Compass files for matching strings. The tool can search through all the files in a Project or all the files in a folder and all its subfolders. You can search for any text including station names, comments, survey team members and even numerical values The tool is very useful for organizing and tying survey files together.

Update - 12-19-23
Project Manager Improvements
The Compass Project Manager has been extensively rewritten to make it easier to build and organize cave projects. Here is a list of the new features:.
1. Splay Shots. There is now an option to flag individual shots as splay shots. Splay shots are shots to a passage wall, which are used to give a more precise representation of the passage shape. Shots flagged as splay-shots are highlighted and drawn with a user-selectable color and dot pattern.
2. Folders. Compass now has the option of having Folders in a Project file. Folders allow you to organize the data within a Project by grouping it into separate sections. For example, if you have a large cave, you can group parts of the cave together by area. Likewise, if you have a regional cave project, you can organize the data by area and cave.

For example, the following project shows the caves around a Williams Canyon in Colorado. As you can see, the folders group the caves by side of the canyon and by area where the caves are found.

3. Date Animation.  This feature displays a series of cave plots each one showing the extent of the cave at a particular point in time. In this way, the program shows an animation of how the exploration developed over time. 
You have the option of using color schemes that highlight the most recent surveys, so the areas with the most active exploration stand out. 

Animations can be saved as AVI-Movie files or GIF animations. The animated GIF to the right show Lechuguilla exploration over time.

4. Discovery Date. Compass now maintains two dates for each survey, the Survey Date and the Discovery Date. The Survey Date is the date on which the current survey was surveyed. The Discovery Date is the date the passage was first discovered. In many instance the Survey and Discovery date will be the same, but they can be very different. For example, the passage could have been discovered (and scooped) many months or years before it was surveyed. Also, the passage could be resurveyed one or more times, in which case the Survey Date no longer represent when the passage was first discovered. The Discovery Date is useful for Date Animations and Complex Plotting that use the date to highlight or display certain sections of the cave.

5. Dynamic Labeling. The Viewer now has the option of dynamically controlling the spacing between labels. In the past, if you were zoomed out on a large cave and enabled labeling, the labels would be printed on top of each other in a large mass. Dynamic labeling adjusts the spacing so the labels never appear on top of each other and they are always readable. If you are zoomed out on a large cave, only a small percentage of the labels will be printed. As you zoom in and there is more space for labels, more and more labels will be printed. When you are zoomed in far enough, there will be enough room for all labels and all labels will be printed.

This image shows Lechuguilla Cave with station labels enabled. As you can see, the labels are so crowded together that you can't read them.

This image shows the "Optimized Labeled" mode. As you can see, the labels are spaced so each label is easy to read. Pay attention to label C05, in upper part of the image.

This image is zoomed  on a smaller portion of the cave. As you can see, there is more room so more labels can be shown. You will notice that more labels have shown up around C05.

This image is zoomed in on an even smaller portion of the cave. As you can see, there are more e labels shown around C05. If you zoom far enough, all labels will show up.

6. Undo/Redo. The Project Manage now has an "Undo" feature that allows to you to undo up to 1,000 changes made to the project. This is useful when you make a mistake and delete an item from a Project or make a mistake the project structure. Each time you press the Undo Button, the program undoes a previous change. There is also a "Redo" option that allows you to redo changes you've made after you have undone them.

7. Not Found Feature. A Compass Project File contains a list of the survey files that will be processed and viewed together. The Project Manager now checks to see if the files are still available in the specified location. If they are not, Compass displays a warning message in the file tree
8. Moving Items.  Compass has always had the ability to move items in the Project Tree by dragging and dropping them with the mouse. To make it easier to organize the data, the mechanism for moving items in the survey tree has been improved. The drag-and-drop feature has been improved to make it easier to move and place items.
 In addition, there are now arrow-buttons that allow you to precisely place items.

9. Restoring Backups. Compass has always saved backup files whenever you make a change to a Project or a Data File. However, it was something of a hassle to find and restore a backup, in case you made a mistake. The Project Manager now simplifies restoring backup by display and list of the available backup and allowing you to restore one with the click of a button. The display also shows the contents of the files and highlights the differences between the current and previous versions:

10. File Explorer. To make it easier to manipulate cave data and windows folders, you can now go directly to the Windows directory of the current project directly from the Project Manager and the editor.
Update - 3-3-23
SMAPS RSD Import
SMAPS is a cave survey program that ran under DOS and was popular in the 1970's and 1980's. The last version of SMAPS supported the import and export through a file format called SEF. Compass supports importing and exporting SEF. Earlier versions of SMAP used a different format called RSD. The DOS version of Compass could import this format. However, it is no very difficult to run DOS programs under Windows, which makes it difficult to import RSD files. For this reason, Compass now supports the import RSD files. The tool will import multiple files at once and has the option of importing SMAPS Version-3 and Version-4 files.

Update - 11-27-22
Auxiliary Files
Compass now has an option to load additional files into the Viewer on top of the base file. This allows you to do things like compare different versions of a cave survey. For example, you could make close and unclosed PLT files of a cave and then compare them.  For example, here is an image showing closed and unclosed versions of Groaning Cave.

The files don't have to be the same cave. As long the caves are referenced to the same coordinate system and aren't too far apart, two or more files can be viewed at the same time.

You can selectively enable and disable the display of files. You can also set the colors for each file.

Update - 10-2-22.
Improved KML Export
The KML export feature now has the option of saving with each section/file as a separate object with its own label and "pushpin." That is especially useful for projects that contain multiple caves in separate files. This feature make the caves easy to identify in Google Earth and you can click on individual item in the Google Earth's "Places" list to zoom in on a cave.

 

Update - 1-10-22

Improved fixed location entry

The Node Editor has been improved to make it easier and more intuitive to enter Fixed-Station and Links. You can now enter and edit  values using standard editing  commands similar to those used in Spreadsheets.

Fixed stations are easily specified with a checkbox. You can cut, copy, paste and delete one more rows of data at the same time. Individual cells can also be cut, copied, pasted, deleted and edited.

Entrance Relative Elevations
If you use one or more fixed stations in a cave project and you use an elevation that is relative to sea level, all the elevations in the cave will be relative to sea level. This makes it hard figure out the depth of cave.

Compass now gives you the choice of displaying absolute, sea level elevations or entrance relative elevations.

Label Sections.
The Viewer now allows you to label sections of a project. Each section represents a survey file. For small caves, each file will contain the survey for a single cave so each section label will represent a different cave. For larger caves, each file will represent a section of the cave.  

Google Maps from Geo calculator

The Geo-Calculator now allows you to view a fixed station location in Google Maps, which makes it easy to insure tha the location is correct.
Update - 12-10-21
Project-Level Settings.
Compass provides a wide range of setting that control the way projects, surveys and shots are processed. These options can be set at different levels including the program, survey and shot level. It is some times useful to override all the options to make sure the cave data is processed the same way on every machine. This is useful when you have different surveys with different settings. It is also useful when you are sharing your survey data with other people.
To solve this problem, Compass now allows you to set Project Level options that can be used to selectively override most of the computer's default settings. In this way, the cave data will be processed the same way no matter what country the computer is in or how it is configured.

Since Compass allows you to have the different projects for the same data, you can process the data in different ways depending which project-file you use.

 

ProjectOptionsDlg
Update - 8-29-21
The SVG Exporter Now Handles Database Features.
CaveBase, the Compass database program allows you to create inventories of cave features. For example, you can mark the locations of formations, fossils, artifacts, signatures or any other feature in the cave that you want to keep track of.

In the past, only the Compass Viewer could display these features. Now, the SVG Exporter can include database features in the exported or merged SVG files. This makes it easy to add the features to hand-drawn, finished maps.

Database features show up in the survey list as green or olive colored folders. You can enable or disable the export of the features just like you can for individual surveys and shots. You have control over the color and font used to mark and label the features. It even allows you to export SVG representations of fonts that are only available under Windows such as the WingDings, symbol font.

The image below shows the location of moonmilk in Fulford Cave. The "Stars" WingDing symbols are not normally available in SVG files.

Duplicates Stations and Markers eliminated from SVG  files.
SVG files can be very large because of the number of surveys shots in a cave. This can make loading and working with the file into Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape difficult and slow. One of the reasons that the files can be large is the fact that survey stations may appear multiple times in the survey data. This result in multiple copies of the same station label and the same station marker.

To solve this problem, the SVG Exporter now optimizes SVG files by removing duplicate Station Names and duplicate Station Markers. This can reduce the SVG file size by as much as 20%.

Update - 7-8-21
Improved Animations and Passage Modeling.
There have been several improvements to the Animation Tools in the Compass Viewer.

1. Interpolation. The interpolation between animation points has been improved to make it more linear and smooth. In the past, the zoom would happen faster than panning so the animation would appear to zoom in before it panned to the destination. This was disorienting because you would be zoomed so tight that you'd lose your perspective on where you were going and how you got there.

2. Animated GIFs. You can now save cave animations as animated GIFs. GIFs are a simple image format that supports animation. Animated GIFs are useful because all browsers support them so they can be inserted in web pages like the images to the right.

3. Distance Color/Passage Modeling. The passage modeling fill colors now support the option of coloring by distance. In this mode, far passages are colored a different color from near passages. This makes the cave look more three dimensional.

For example the image above colors far passage blue and near passage red. Because of the way the eye focuses different colors, the blue passages seem further away.

Update - 1-28-21
Graph Exclusions

The Graph Tool now allows you to exclude shots that have the Length (L), Plot (P), Total (X) or Closure (C) flags set. This prevents shots that over represent passage trends from contributing to the analysis.
Update - 10-4-20
Survey Team Analysis
Compass can now analyze all the survey teams that have worked in a cave and display complete statistical information on all surveyors who have contributed to a project. The program totals the length of all surveys worked on by each surveyor, as well as all the number of surveys and shots.
The display can be sorted by name, survey length, survey count, and number of shots. This makes it easy to see who has done the most work and made the largest contributions to a project.
The program also displays a graph of the amount surveying done on various dates through the history of the survey. This makes it easy to see periods when surveying is most active and when surveying is dormant.  
Similar information can be broken out by surveyor, including which surveys a surveyor may have worked on. Finally, there is a graph that shows when a surveyor has worked on the project.

Update - 5-8-20
Incremental Improvements and Bug Fixes.
Column Resizing. The Complex in the Viewer now allows you to resizes columns on the Color Surveys and Color Sections pages. The corresponding buttons resize accordingly. This makes it easier to see larger survey names

Month Names. Windows allows you to specify the format in which dates are displayed. In the past, Compass only allowed the entry of numerical months. Compass now fully supports all Windows data formats, including the display and entry of month names.

 

Update - 1-13-20
New Magnetic Declination Models
All the Compass programs that calculate magnetic declination, including the "Geo-Calculator," have been updated to use the latest models. The program will now calculate magnetic declination for any year from 1900 to 2025.
Update - 12-20-19
Blunder Location - Improvements to the Tie-In Tool.
One of the most common ways of causing is a large error in a cave survey is by tying a shot to the wrong station. For this reason, one of the Compass blunder tools, displays a list of shots that may be tied to the wrong station.

One of the ways that mis-tied shots can occur is by making a typo during data entry. When there is a typo during data entry, the correct and incorrect names will be very similar. For example, if you meant to type ABC1 and you accidentally ABD1, the two names would only be different by one character. If you saw those name in

To help determine if the blunder is caused by a typo, Compass now displays a count of the number of characters that different between the old and new tie-ins. This makes it easy to find shots where the old and new tie-ins that have similar names and might be mis-tied: Here is a picture of the Tie-in list:

The column label "Diff" shows the difference between the old and new tie-ins. As you can see, there are two shots where the difference in tie-in station names are only one characters. Those are places where there may have been a typo during data entry, especially considering that changing the tie-in, reduces the error from 300 feet to 54 and brings the STD from 11 to 1.8. 

Update - 10-25-19
 Navigation
The Viewer's navigation controls have been extensively reworked to make it easier to move around through the cave. Here are the highlights:

1. Drag mode option is enabled by default. The Viewer has two mode of navigating through a cave: Box-Mode and Drag-mode. In box-mode, the mouse manipulates a selection box that shows you exactly what part of the cave will be selected. In drag-mode, the cave is dragged by the mouse to whatever position you want. 

Since the drag-mode is more intuitive and allows easier control of the cave, drag-mode is enabled by default.

2. Control turns on Drag-Mode. Holding down the control-key, unconditionally enables drag-mode. This is useful when you are using one of the Tools, which takes over the mouse. For example, if you are using the Find-Survey tool, the mouse-navigation features don't work because the tool uses the mouse to find surveys and stations. Holding down the control-key overrides tool, and the program switches to drag-mode. This makes it easier to navigate while you are using tools.

3. Animated Zoom. You can now double click anywhere on the cave and Compass will pan and zoom into the spot where you clicked. The pan and zoom are animated, so it smoothly transitions from the current view to the new on. This makes it less confusing than instantly jumping from one view to another.45

4. Quick Compile and View. A common data-entry operation is making changes to the data and then viewing the result. To do this, you have to reload the cave into Viewer, which resets all the panning, zooming and rotations. The Viewer now has the option of reloading a cave without resetting the pan, zooms and rotations. In addition, there is a quick-compile button in the Project Manager that compiles the project without running a new copy of the Viewer, All you have to do to view changes, is press the quick-compile button and reload the cave in the Viewer.

5. Fixed Loops. If a cave has two or more fixed stations that are connected by a survey, this will form a loop.  Part of the loop is made up of the shots that connect the fixed-stations and part is made up by an imaginary line  that connects the two fixed-stations. In other words, only part of the loop is made up of surveyed shots and part is made of an imaginary shot-line. Compass now tracks each part of the loop separately. Among other things, this is useful for determining if a loop is a natural loop or an artificial loop that only exists because of fixed stations.

Update - 10-18-19
 Improved Survey Finding Tool.
The Survey/Station finding tool has been improved to make it easier to find surveys and stations. The new version of the tool puts both the survey-list and the station-list on the same page. When you select a new survey from the list, the corresponding stations instantly appear in the station-list so you don't have to switch back and forth between the two page. At the same time, the survey and the selected station

Update - 6-29-19
Non-US Date Formats
The Compass editor now supports non-US date formats. The US date format is typically mm/dd/yyyy, where as the format for other countries can be virutally any other pattern. For example, many countries use this date format:  yyyy/mm/dd. Compass now tracks the order specified in the Windows regional settings.
 
Update - 6-1-19
Compass Website, SSL and HTTPS
A few months back I received some emails from people complaining that they were having problems accessing the Compass web site. When they went to the Compass web site, they would get a message saying the web site was unsafe and warning them not to enter. When I tested the web site, I didn't get the message. I tested it in several browsers and didn't see a problem, so I assumed it was an erroneous message.

A few days ago I received notification from Google that they want all web sites to use SSL encryption so people can connect to web sites using HTTPS. They warned that web sites not using SSL/HTTPS might be blocked. That made me realize that Google had probably rolled out the feature early in some parts of the world and that was causing the warning.

The Compass web site uses CloudFlare, which makes it easy to switch on SLL and allow HTTPS encryption. The Compass web site has been switched over so traffic can now use SSL encryption. I've also configured it to force SSL encryption even when the browser doesn't request it.

The Compass web site was never really unsafe and now it is even safer. If you have been avoiding the Compass web site because of the warning messages, they should now be gone now. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. If you notice any problems with the change to SSL, please let me know.
Update - 6-21-18
Shapefile Export Improvements
The 3D Exporter in the Viewer now creates a ".prj" "projection-file along with the other shapefile components. Also, since some programs prefer to have shapefiles zipped before they can be loaded, you have the option of creating a zip file that includes all the component files.
Update - 5-15-18
General Text/Spreadsheet Importer
There is now a general-purpose import tool that can read text files of virtually any format and convert them to Compass files. For example, it can import standard spreadsheet and database format such as comma-separated files and tab-delimited files.

You can choose any ASCII character as the separator. You can also choose any data order. Imported data is saved to standard Compass files so it can be used with any Compass project.

For more information, click here.

TextImport-Main

Update - 1-3-18
Improved Loop Display In Viewer
The Viewer now has improved Loop tools. It can now color-code the loops according to the errors in the loop. Loops whose errors exceed 3 standard deviations are color coded red. Loops between 2 and 3 are color coded yellow and loops less than one are color coded green. This allows you to see which parts of the cave have the most errors and are the least accurate.

The new version also allows you to color the non-loop part of the plot gray to make it easier to see the loops. Finally, the new version allows you to sort the loop-list by column. In other words, you can sort the list by error level, number of shots, common shot etc.

The new features can make it easier to find and correct errors. For example, the image to the right shows a portion Lechuguilla cave with loops highlighted according to error level. As you can see, the errors tend to concentrate in certain areas of the cave. This may indicate that certain survey teams, certain instruments or certain eras of exploration produce more errors. It also may indicate that a poorly surveyed passage is shared among several loops.

   

 Backsight Agreement Statistics.
The Project Manager now has the option of displaying a list of all shots that include backsight information. Each item shows the difference between the fore and back-sight values.  You can limit the list to items where the fore- and backsight difference exceeds a certain value. For example, you can limit the list to shots where difference between fore and back compass values exceed 2 degrees.  This is very useful for zeroing in on shots or surveys that need to be resurveyed. It is also useful for finding transcription errors.

Access Editor from Blunder Detection Tool
It is often useful to make changes to the data while you are trying to find and correct errors and blunders in loops. To make this easier, you can now access the editor directly from the Blunder Detections Too..

Update - 8-20-17
Display Survey Comments, Station Comments and Annotations.
Compass now has the ability to display Survey and Station comments in the line plot. You can also add Annotations to the display that weren't originally entered in the Editor. These annotations can be saved to one or more separate files so you can use different annotations for different circumstances.

You can selectively enable the display of any combination of comments of individual Survey Comments, Station Comments and Annotations.

The image to the right shows the new tool that is used to selectively display survey-comments. Checking the box next to any survey-comment will cause that comment to be displayed in the plot. Like wise, un-checking the box next to a survey, hides the comment for that survey. 

 

The tool bar on the left allows you to check large blocks of surveys at once. The buttons in the tool-bar allow you check or clear all the surveys with one click. They also allow you to set, clear or toggle large blocks of highlighted surveys. Finally, it also allows you to search through the list for a specific survey, comment or certain words in a comment.
The new features also allow you to display a 3D box that shows the extent of the survey. You have complete control over the font and color of text used to display the comments. Likewise, you have complete control over the color used to display the 3D boxes.

The image to the right shows the survey comments and boxes for the selected surveys shown above. The image shows the  Entrance section of Lechuguilla Cave.

Similar features are available for station-comments. Plus, if you put a special {P} symbol in a station comment, the Viewer will automatically check that comment when the plot-file loads

Survey comments are displayed at the bottom-left corner of the survey extent. Station comments are placed next to the station.

Update - 5-24-17
 New Version of CaveXO 3D Cave Viewer
Speed Increases. CaveXO is now many times faster than previous versions. Caves now load and animate much faster.
 1. Load Speed. For example, here are the load speeds for 124 miles (198 km) of Lechuguilla Cave:

Old Version: 32 seconds.
New Version:  6 seconds.

That is more than five times improvement.

2. Animation Speed. Here are animation speeds for Lechuguilla:

Old Version: 2 Frames/Sec.
New Version: 16.4 Frames/Sec

Old Version: 1.7 million triangles/sec
New Version: 16.7 million triangles/sec

The increase in display speed makes it much easier to animate large caves like Lechuguilla. These times are for a somewhat older graphics card, newer computers and graphics cards should be much faster.

 
Improved Station Labels/Marks. The old version displayed station labels with text that was drawn using scaled lines. This meant that if you were zoomed out, the text was too small to read and if you were zoomed in, the text could be too big to read. Also, the labels only faced in one direction, so you couldn't read them from the side and would be backwards if you looked at them from behind.

The new labels are a fixed size, no matter how much you are zoomed in or zoomed out. Likewise, they always face toward the front, so they can be read from any angle.

Finally, in the old version, station marks consisted of a small cube or tetrahedron, which was very small when you zoomed out and got progressively larger when you zoomed in. In the new version, station labels stay the same size whether you are zoomed in or out. They also face the same direction

 New Compass Features Editor
Although the Compass Editor has always allowed you to set the order of the shot measurements, the fore and back compass and inclination measurements were always grouped together. The new version of the editor allows complete freedom to put the measurements in any order you want.

Update - 12-11-16
Display Closure Exclusions and Length Exclusion. The Viewer now has the ability to high light shots that have been excluded from loop closure. The option is enabled by selecting the "Display->Show->Show Closure Excluded Shots from the Viewer menu bar. All shots that were excluded will then be highlighted. It also has the option of highlighting shots that have been excluded from the length totals. The option is enabled by selecting the "Display->Show->Show Length Excluded Shots" from the menu bar.

These options are useful when you are trying solve loop closure problems, find errors and looking at an overview of how the survey data is organized.

Update - 10-22-16
Patterned Lines. The Viewer now has the ability to draw plot lines using combinations of dotted and dashed lines. This makes it easier to distinguish different parts of the cave, particularly when the cave is printed using black and white colors.

You can use different dot/dash patterns for different surveys or sections of the cave. The dotted/dashed lines can be combined with other properties such as color, and line thickness to emphasize or distinguish certain part of the cave.

 

There is a standard set of dotted and dashed lines.
Custom Patterns. In addition to the standard line patterns, you also create custom patterns. The patterns created by specifying widths of the lines and spaces that make up the pattern. You can enter up to 16 widths to form complicated patterns of dots and dashes. This is useful printing on high resolution printers where the pixel resolution is too high for the dots/dash to be seen.

There have 10 other improvements and bug fixes to Compass in the last year. Click here for a complete revision history
Update - 9-5-15
General Improvements.
1. Survey Manipulation Tool. The Survey Manipulating tool has several improvements.

A. The Up/Down arrow buttons can move multiple surveys at once. If you have more than one survey highlighted, all of them will move when you press the up/down arrow buttons.

B. You can now drag and drop multiple surveys at once. If you have multiple surveys highlighted all the highlighted surveys will be moved.

C. You can now delete multiple surveys at once. If you have multiple surveys highlighted all the highlighted surveys will be deleted. The program will warn you before the files will be deleted.

D. The Up/Down arrow buttons will auto repeat if you hold the button down. This speed up the process of moving surveys into position.

2. Project Manager Error Log. The "Error Log" in Project Manager is no longer on a separate page. It has been moved to the bottom of the main window. This avoids the need to switch back and forth between the two pages to compile or look at error messages.

 

3. Passage Models. The Project Manager now generates more accurate passage wall models. In the past, when Compass processed junctions, it used the last LRUD for all shots radiating from the From station. Now it uses the LRUD associated with each shot's From station unless the data is missing. If the data is missing it uses the best LRUD for that station.

4. Line Size. The Viewer now allows you to set the line size for the shot lines, features and the passage walls separately. These sizes can also be saved as defaults.

5. Help Files. All the Compass help files have been improved by adding dozens of new screen images of the Compass programs, dialog box and screen displays. This should make it easier for people to following the instructions in the help files.

6. Pocket Topo Imports. I have fixed several problems with the Pocket Topo import feature.

Update - 8-22-15
Merge File Tool
The Project Manager now has a tool to make it easier to merge two or more survey files into a single survey file. You simply create a list of the files you want to combine, specify a destination file and Compass will merge the files into a single file.

The files can come from any where so you can combine different directories, different drives and different devices. You can also drag the files to the list from any Windows file folder. The files can be combined in any order. The input file list can contain the output file because program does not overwrite the output file until all the files have merged together. This allows you to add or concatenate new files to existing file. To protect you from accidently overwriting valuable data, the program creates multilevel backups  for the destination file.

Update - 2-24-15
New Installer
As pointed out earlier, the Compass programs and installation packages are now digitally signed with a Windows an Authenticode Certificate from Comodo. This allows anyone to check the authenticity of Compass files to insure that they haven't been tampered with or corrupted. The purpose was to prevent antivirus programs flagging and removing Compass files. It turned out that this was not enough to deal with all the antivirus programs. As a result, the Compass installer has been upgraded to one that is recognized by antivirus program. This has eliminated almost all downloading and installation problems. Click here for more detailed information on the problems and how to deal with them.
Update - 2-14-15
Import PocketTopo Files.
Compass can now import PocketTopo files and convert them to the Compass data format.
Compass Files Digitally Certified and Signed.
 Windows and Antivirus programs are now getting more and more picky about what programs they will allow to be installed on a computer. Many antivirus programs rely on the creation date of a program to determine how safe the program is. New programs are often flagged as unsafe because so few people have used them that they the antivirus program will be worried that the file might not have made it into the virus/malware databases. Since I frequently update Compass with new features and bug fixes, Compass programs are often just a few weeks old. As a result, they are often flagged as suspicious.
 
To solve this problem, all Compass executable files are digitally signed using an Authenticode Certificate from Comodo. Before I could get the certificate, I had to verify my address and business credentials. Once I had the certificate, I could sign all my executable files with a code that cannot be forged. The certificate ensures that the file came from Fountain Computer and that it hasn't been tampered with. As a result, Antivirus programs are less likely to flag it and Windows won't warn you about the trustworthiness of the file. There still may be some issues at first, but as the Fountain Computer digital signature makes it into more databases and develops a trustworthy reputation, the problems should fade.

If you have any question about the authenticity of any Compass executable file, you can verify that the file right from Windows in a few seconds. Just right click on the file, choose the "Properties" option and select the "Digital Signatures" page. If the Digital Signatures page does not exist, it means the file has not been signed. If the Digital Signatures page does exist, it will give you detailed information about the certificate.  All the details should match Fountain Computer through Comodo.

Update - 1-10-15
Magnetic Declination Models. The magnetic declination models have been updated to use the latest data. Compass can now calculate declinations for any date between 1900 and 2020. The new data has improved accuracy for dates between 2010 and 2015. The changes apply to the main Compass distribution package and the Dem Reader. You can down load these programs here.
Update - 11-20-14
 I. Hidden Shots
Each shot that is entered into the Editor can be marked so it is excluded from plotting using the "P" flag. You now have the option of displaying those hidden shots. To display hidden shots, select the "Display -> Show -> Show Hidden Shots" option from the menu bar.

When the "Hidden Shots" mode is enabled, the program will display and highlight the excluded shots. The Highlight Color is controlled by the "Feature Highlight" color in the "Color/Fonts Dialog Box" "This option does not display shots that were flagged with the "Total Exclusion" "X-Flag." When hidden shots are displayed, all other options are enabled. For example, if station labeling is enabled, station labels will be displayed along with the hidden shots. The Hidden Shot feature does not support passage modeling.

Note: You must recompile your caves with the latest version of the Compiler before the feature will be available. Old versions of plot files and older versions of Compass don't support this feature.

Here is an image of Fulford Cave showing small, nearby caves disconnected from the main cave. This is because the surface surveys are hidden using the "P" plot-exclusion flag.

 

Here is an image of Fulford Cave showing the hidden shots.The hidden shots are highlighted using a user-selectable color.
Update - 7-6-14
 I. Loop Viewing Improvements
 The Loop option in the Viewer has been enhanced. It now shows two different types of loops: Standard and Optimized.

1. Standard Loops are the same loops used to close the cave and the same loops used by the Project Manager to calculate loop statistics and locate blunders. They have the same name and order as the loops shown in the Project Manager. You would use this option when you are trying to understand loop errors or fix blunders.

2. Optimized Loops are calculated on the fly from the compiled data, optimizing the loops for minimum overlap and minimum size. As a result, the order and configuration of the loops may be completely different from those presented in the Project Manager. Certain loops, such as those that are closed via Fixed Stations, will not appear in the Optimized loops. Likewise, shots that are excluded from plotting won't be shown. You would use this option when your are trying to find minimum sized loops for resurvey work.
 

 

  II. Viewer Menu Reorganization.
The menu system in the Viewer has been completely reorganized to make it more logical and easier to use. Since people are used to the old system, they may not be able to find certain features. To solve that problem, I've created an alphabetized table of commands that will help figure out where the your favorite features have moved. The table of commands is also available in the Viewer help files.
Update - 4-22-14
Plot To Dat Converter
This new Compass utility allows you to reconstruct surveys from Compass PLT files. This is useful when the original survey files have been lost and you only have access to PLT files. The Program generates a Project File and all the individual data files for the Project.

The program won't generate an exact duplicate of the original survey files. This is because compiling survey data into a PLT file may change things in the data. For example, loop closure, magnetic declination and UTM convergence alter the station positions so that when the surveys are reconstructed, shot length, compass and inclination angle will have changed. Nevertheless, compiling the reconstructed survey files will produce an exactly duplicate of the original line-plots

 

Update - 3-17-14
Cave Volume Tool
Compass now has a special tool to more accurately calculate cave volume, rock volume, overall cave density and porosity. The Tool is built into the CaveXO 3D passage viewer.

Points. The program starts by extracting a set of points that correspond to each station in the cave. Those points define the boundaries of the cave.

The image to the below shows a simple cave, with the blue lines representing the survey shots and the yellow points representing the survey stations.

Triangulation. The program then breaks these points down into a set of triangles. (This set of triangles is called the Delaunay Tessellation.) The triangles for sample cave are shown in the image below.

The triangles will be used analyze the points and will be used to create a bounding box that closely approximates the shape of the cave.

Convex Hull. The program then uses the sides of the outer most triangles to enclose the points in a polygon. This polygon is called a Convex Hull because no part of the polygon is concave. In other words, no part of the polygon deviates into the cluster of points. The image to the right show the cave enclosed in a Convex Hull.

Concave Hull. Because the cave may have gaps in the mass of points, the program needs to generate polygon that traces these gaps. A Concave Hull will follow the gaps. A Concave Hull is generated by selectively removing outer triangles and drawing the polygon into the space left behind.


Only triangles with an exposed sides longer than a minimum length are removed and the triangles with longest exposed side are removed first. By adjusting the minimum length, you can control the depth of the concavity.

The image to the right shows the same cave passage and stations with a Concave Hull around it.

Anomalies. Since the program works by analyzing the positions of survey stations, the Hull may sometimes cross the passage. That would mean that part of the cave would fall outside our bounding box.

To solve this problem, the program has the option of adding extra points along the path of the passage, For example, you can add points that represent the Left and Right passage walls. You can also subdivide passages that are longer than a certain length This helps prevent the passages from falling out the of hull.

 

In the bottom center of the first image above you can see the hull crossing the blue shot-line. In the next image, the passages have been subdivided to add additional points have been added along the length of the passage. Points for the LRUD passage dimension have also been added.. As you can see, the hull no longer crosses the passage.
Layers. Since caves are three-dimensional object, different levels of the cave can have different outlines. For this reason, the program allows you to process the cave in layers.

The first images to the above shows a cave without any layers. The next three pictures show the cave enclosed in one, two and four layers of Concave Hull. Generally speaking, the more layers, the more exactly hull fits the cave.
3D Display. CaveXO allows you to visualize the 3D bounding box. The bounding box is represented by a transparent outline that shows how each layer is wrapped around the cave. This allows you to see how close the box conforms to the cave passage. As you make adjustments to the bounding box, the display is updated in real-time so you can instantly see how your changes affect the the bounding-box. This  allows you to make adjustments to more fully wrap the cave passages. You have control over the transparency and the color of the bounding box.
Reports. The Reports Dialog allows you to build text-based reports of the Rock Volume, Cave Volume and Porosity that includes all possible Convexity Settings and all possible number of Levels. In other words, the program will calculate the values for each Convexity 1, 2, 3, 4 all the way to 100 and all Levels 1 through 10, for a total of 1,000 values.

The values will be displayed in the box on the right side of the window.

Blunder Detection Tool
The Compass Blunder Detection tool has been improved to make it easier to find the worst loops in a cave. You can now click on any column in the loop list to sort the items in the column in ascending or descending order. This makes it is easy find the worse loops in terms of the various measures of loop quality shown in the tool. For example, in the image shown below, the Vector Standard Deviation error column has been sorted from worst to best. This put the worst loops a the top of the list.

 

Update - 2-20-14 - Cumulative Update
Viewer Line Width Option. The Complex Survey features of the Compass Viewer now supports the option of selectively setting the line width for Survey and Sections. This makes the passages stand out from the smaller lines in the rest of the cave.

The feature is useful for highlight routes and to make them more visible in a cave map. It is also useful for emphasizing an area of the cave for presentations and publications. Like other features in the Complex options, the line-width feature can be combined with other features for more dramatic effect. For example, the image to the right combines yellow coloring with and a 3-pixel line-width to emphasize a particular route through the cave.

  

MapToDat. The MapToDat survey-reconstruction tool has been improved so you can generate branch surveys and survey loop. Branches are created by going back and selecting a different starting station. Once this is done, the next time you click on a location a line will be drawn of the selected station to the new point, thereby generating a side branch.

Loops are generated by selecting one station of the closing-station pair, holding down the Alt key and clicking on the other station. There is more information about MapToDat further down the page.

Correcting Magnetic Anomalies. Magnetic Anomalies can have large effects on cave surveys, even causes big distortions to a cave map. If you have backsights and a bit of additional information, you can find and correct these anomalies. John Halleck has written about extensively, but the process is a bit complicated and there are a lot of important details you have to get right. As a result, I have written a tutorial with step-by-step procedures for finding and correcting anomalies. Click here to read the full tutorial.

Saving Quad Maps. You now have the option of saving the plot data from each section of a quad map. This is useful when you are working on a project where individual cartographers are assigned to to different quads. It is also useful for exporting the individual quads to Shape, DXF, KML or VRML files. Click here for more information on Quad Maps.
Update - 12-17-13
Back Sight Correction Factors. Compass now supports correction factors for back sight instruments. You can correction factors for Compass and Inclinometer that are applied to the values separately This is used the case where a separate set of instruments is used for back sights.

There were also 20 updates during 2013 that included bug fixes, improvements and new features.

For example, you can now adjust the position of station labels in both the X and Y directions separately. You also have control over the shot line width. For a complete list of changes, click here.
Update - 9-2-13
Survey Reconstruction Tool. I've had a number of people report that they are working caves where some of the original survey data has been lost and all that is left are paper maps or sketch maps. Often times these surveys are in remote parts of the cave that are difficult reach or in parts of the cave that are not actively being explored or surveyed. It can be difficult to get surveyors to return to the area and resurvey the passages. In these situations, the only recourse is to reconstruct the surveys from the paper maps.
MapToDat is a program that allows you to reconstruct cave survey data from a paper or scanned map when the original data is lost. Ordinarily, recovering cave survey data from a paper map would require manually measuring the station positions, compass angles and shot lengths using rulers and protractors. After that, you'd need to perform a series of trigonometric calculations to convert the measurement to cave data. Finally, the data would have to be entered into the Survey Editor.

 

MapToDat Automates and simplifies the process. You simply load a scanned image of the map into the program and then click on the survey stations in the map. The program automatically calculates compass angles and shot-lengths for each shot. If have both a Plan and a Profile map, the program can also calculate inclinations from the Profile Map. If you don't have a profile. you can also manual enter elevations or inclinations. The resulting data can then be saved to Compass DAT files. Click here to download a copy of the program.
Update - 3-10-13
1. Automatic Backsight Validation. The Editor now supports automatic backsight validation. As you enter new data into the Editor, it is constantly testing all the backsights in the survey to make sure the agree to within a specified level of tolerance. All shots that don't agree are displayed below the main edit window, which allows you to be aware of any problems as soon as they are entered. 

Double clicking on any line in the display will take you to the line that contains the error and highlight the appropriate measurement.
2. Sketch Editor. Has been improved to so that it can handle much larger images without running out of memory. The editor now stores "undo" and auxiliary images to disk, rather than in RAM memory, saving it for direct display and editing purposes.
Update - 1-28-13
1. LRUD Associations. When Compass builds passage models it needs to associate the LRUDs with either the From Station or the To Station. In the past, Compass could only do this at the file level, which meant that every shot in every survey was handled the same way.
Compass now has the option of a controlling LRUD Handling at the Survey Level. In other words, every Survey can associate the LRUDs differently. The Editor now allows you to set the option in the header of every survey.

2. LRUD Tools. To aid in the process of converting files to the new system, Compass has new tools that allow you to set the LRUD Associations for large blocks of selected surveys all it once.

There are also new tools that allow you to shift the LRUDs forward or backwards one shots for selected surveys. This allows you fix surveys where the LRUDs were entered with the wrong station.

3. Overriding LRUD Settings. You can override the survey-level LRUD Flags by changing the settings in the Project Manager. These "Override Settings" can be saved either to the MAK file or as the Project Manager Defaults.

 Update - 1-1-13
Mark Fixed Stations. The Viewer now has the option of Marking Fixed Geographic stations on the line plot with a circle and crosshairs. The Fixed Station Markers appear as light blue and yellow dots in the picture to the right. 

The feature allows you to see the relationship between each fixed stations and the rest of the cave. This is useful for verifying that survey errors between fixed stations are properly adjusted out.

You have complete control of the size and color of the Fixed Station Markers. There is also a new feature that allows you to offset the position of the Station Labels. This makes it easier to read the Station Name when there are other markers and text near the stations. The example to the right shows Station Labels offset by about 5 pixels which provides enough extra room to see both the Fixed Stations Marks and the label indicating which station is the Fixed Location.

 

Tutorials. There are two new tutorials. The first one walks you through the process of Installing Compass on Windows 8. The second one explains some of the options for running Compass on a Macintosh.

 Update - 11-12-12
CaveXO now has additional features that make the 3D Rose Diagram more useful. You now have the option of displaying a 3D grid behind the Rose Diagram that gives the altitude of each Rose layer. The Grid can be enabled or disabled at anytime.The Base can also be removed to the Rose Diagram can be viewed from below.

 

Finally, the Rose base shows the thickness of each layer in the Rose Diagram. It also, since the length each pedal represents the accumulated length or frequency of passages in the specified direction, the Base now shows the radius of the outer circle on the base. This allows you to estimate the length of the individual petals.

 Update - 6-10-12
This update contains several bug fixes and useful features. Here is a list of the most important changes:
1. Saving Complex Setting. There is now the option to save all Complex values and settings. This allows you to build a complex display and then restore it later can restore the display without going through the task of manually setting each individual option. The option saves 41 Complex Parameters in an XML-type file so the data can be edited using a text editor and any one of a number XML editors.
2. Displaying LRUD Values. You now have the option of displaying the LRUD distance values on screen in association with the Passage Wall Marking feature. This is helpful for drawing maps and passage-wall tracing operations. It saves having to look in the survey book for the values.

  

3. Exporting LRUD Values. The Custom Export option in the Statistics section now has the option of exporting the LRUD values for each station.

4. Misc. Improvements. The processing of LRUDs has been improved so that erroneous values aren't propagated. LRUDs can now be exported along with other values in the Custom Export option. The Declination Calculation options have been simplified and clarified so they are easier to use and more logical.
 SVG Exporter Major Update - 3-19-11
There is a major new release of the SVG Exporter that contains many new features that help you deal with compatibility and corruption issues when working with SVG files.
The program now handles problems caused by the accidentally deletion and corruption of key layers that can prevent a file from being loaded or processed. It also handles changes made by Adobe Illustrator that can make the file unreadable by Inkscape and vice versa. The program can replace missing tags and layers and can remove extraneous tags that can cause compatibility problems. Click here for a complete description of the Compatibility issues and improvements.

 Major Update - 3-20-10
This is a major update for Compass. Here is a description of the newest features.
I. Cartography Tools. The Compass Cartography Tools are a new set of tools that helps you create presentation quality digital survey map from Compass files. The tool kit consists of the two basic pieces: the Sketch Map Editor and the SVG Exporter/Merge/Morph (round-trip) Tool. To download these programs, go to the Compass Download Page.
 
A. Sketch Map Editor. The Sketch Map Editor helps you to take the sketch maps you generate in the cave and use them as the basis for your finished maps. The Editor allows you to take a scanned bitmap image and edit it to remove flaws, align it to north, scale it to a standard scale, and trim the image to size. It also allows you to merge multiple images into single image, using transparency to precisely align the passages. Finally, it allows you to warp or "morph" the image so station positions in the sketch map, precisely match the positions in the cave data.
Once a combined image has been created in the Editor, the image can be loaded into a drawing program for tracing. Having a precisely aligned, single image makes producing a map much quicker and easier because you don't have to load and align individual images. Also, since the image has been warped to match the survey shots, you don't have to constantly shift the image as you are tracing.

To guide you through the process of using the Sketch Map Editor, I have created a detailed tutorial that will walk you through the process:

Click here to view the Sketch Map Editor Tutorial.

 
B. SVG Exporter. SVG is a widely used file format for drawing programs. Because it is so widely used, it is an ideal format for exporting cave data. For example, programs like Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw will read and write these file. Even more important there are Freeware programs like Inkscape that can read and write SVG files.
The SVG Exporter allows you to export cave survey data as SVG files. The SVG files contain a complete cave map on multiple "layers" that include stations, shots, passages, LRUD marks, a grid, a north arrow, a scale bar, a frame, and a colored background. The exported map also contains empty layers into which you can place your hand-drawn passage walls, floor details, a legend, notes, etc. This allows you to use the SVG map as the starting point for a high quality, finished digital map.

  

For a complete tutorial on using the SVG Exporter click here.
 
C. Converting And Adopting. The SVG Converter has special tools that allow you to use maps that were generated with different drawing programs. For example, Inkscape has different layering system than Adobe Illustrator so Illustrator layers do not show up in Inkscape.

In addition, programs like the Compass SVG Exporter and Walls, require certain layers to be in place before they can be merged, morphed, or round tripped. The SVG Exporter can add these layers to any SVG file, whether it was originally generated by cave survey program or not. As a result, the SVG Exporter can "adopt" an existing cave map even if it wasn't originally generated by Compass (or Walls.) Once the map has been "adopted," it can be treated like just like a map that was generated by Compass or Walls. In other words, It can be merged, morphed or round tripped.

Click here for a detailed explanation of the Converting and Adopting Process.

D. Using Inkscape. One of the big advantages of SVG is the fact that there are several Freeware drawing programs that support it. One of the best is Inkscape, a drawing program that is very similar to Adobe Illustrator.  Since Illustrator can costs hundreds of dollars, Inkscape is a perfect alternative for cavers on a budget.

Because Inkscape is free and works well for cave mapping, I have developed the Exporter to be compatible with Inkscape. (It will also work fine with other programs such as Illustrator.)

Because all sophisticated drawing programs require a lot work to learn, I have designed a detail tutorial on making cave maps using Compass and Inkscape. Here is a link to the Compass Inkscape Tutorial.

E. Working With Illustrator. The exported SVG files from Compass will work with Adobe Illustrator, but Illustrator has some anomalies that you need to be aware of. Click here for tips and techniques for working with Illustrator.
F. Merge/Morph Tool (Round-tripping). The final tool solves one of the biggest problems for cave cartographers: updating an existing map as the data changes. For example, if you survey a new passage, the new data will need to be added to the existing map. If the passage is extensive, you may have to reduce the scale, use bigger paper or even rotate the cave so everything fits on a piece of paper.
In addition to adding new data, you may correct errors in the data or improve the loop closure. When this happens, all the shots in the cave may move. This may change the angle that shots come together and passage intersect. When this happens all the carefully drawn wall details will need to be moved, stretched, compressed or warped to match the new shot position.

Normally these kinds of changes would require lots of painful and tedious hand adjusting. If the changes are extensive enough, it may even require starting a new map from scratch.

The image to the right shows a section of a cave map before a 30-degree correction is made at Station B7.

The Merge/Morph tool allows any SVG-based map to be adjusted even after passage lines have been drawn, floor detail placed and the map has been finished. It allows you to move, rotate and scale all the hand-drawn elements of a finished cave map, so the map can be completely re-configured without losing any of the hand-work in the map. The tool will also smoothly warp (morph) the passage walls, floor details and other hand-drawn elements so they track changes in the shot positions. For example, if the angle at a passage junction becomes tighter, the passage walls will be compressed to fit and still maintain the same relative distances from the shot lines.

This image show how the passage and details are warped to accommodate a 30 degree change at B7. You will notice how the passage walls and details are stretched right at the corner and the rest of the passage is only moved and rotated, with no warping.
Click here for a complete tutorial on using the SVG Exporter's Merge/Morph Tools
III. Station Coordinates: You now have the option of displaying station coordinates next to each station. The coordinates can be displayed as UTM (Feet or Meters) or Longitude and Latitude in degrees or degrees minutes and seconds.

IV. Zone Crossing. In some rare instances, you may have two or more caves that aren't in the same UTM zones. This usually occurs when you have a cave system close to the Zone boundary.

Compass now allows you to handle that situation by extending the base zone so it encompasses the caves beyond it. This is standard practices in cartography.

V. Latest Magnetic Declination Models. This version of Compass has the newest magnetic declination models covering the years 2010 through 2015.
 7-20-08 Update
Google Earth KML File Export. Compass now supports the export of cave data to Google Earth in the form of KML files. This allows you to place the passage foot print of your favorite cave on the surface terrain and display it in Google Earth.

The image to the above shows Fulford Cave superimposed on the terrain around the cave. Exporting KML files makes it very easy to view the relationship between the cave and the surrounding terrain. It also allows you to share the latest cave data with project members without the delay of drafting maps. This is perfect for surveying and exploration projects.

KML files can be embedded in web pages to allow other people to view the cave. For example, if you have Google Earth installed on your computer, click on either of these two links to view some Colorado Caves:
Fulford Cave Fault Cave
The image to the below shows the image of another Colorado Cave called the "Fault Caves". These  caves are associated with tectonic faulting along the Front Range of Colorado and viewing them in Google Earth makes it possible to see how the caves relate to the geology.

The Compass KML exporter gives you complete control over the Fill Color, the Outline Color and the transparency of the passages. By making the passage partially transparent, you can see the details of the terrain through the overlay.

 11-17-07 Update
There are now printable manuals available for all the Compass programs. They are in the Microsoft Word "doc" format and can printed from Word Pad which comes free with every copy of Windows. There are more than 270 pages of documentation and you can download copies of the manuals by clicking here. 
 8-19-07 Update
With the release of Windows Vista earlier this year, we are entering a new phase in the development of PC. Unlike some previous versions of Windows, Vista makes some radical changes in the way programs work under the operating system. All Compass programs work fine with Windows Vista with one exception:

 CaveXO. CaveX uses DirectX "Retained Mode" to display cave passages. Vista doesn't support "DirectX Retained Mode" and so CaveX will not run properly under Vista. To deal with this problem, I have created a new version that uses OpenGL to render the 3D passage models. OpenGL is widely available across many computer platforms and most graphic cards provide drivers for OpenGL that will work under virtually any version of Windows. The new version is called CaveXO and can be downloaded by clicking here. The latest version of CaveXO has most of the features of CaveX. It also has Vista-compatible help files. The only features that aren't available are Joystick control and the ability to load and save X files. These featues will be added over the next few months

Help Files. The help files that were shipped with previous versions Compass don't work with Vista. The latest version of Compass now has all the help file converted to a Vista-compatible format. If you don't have the latest version, you can download it by clicking here.

 New Release on 6-1-07 - Over 26 Combined Changes
Unfolded Profiles or  Developed Profiles
Normally, when you view a cave in profile, some parts of the passage will run directly toward or away from the screen. In this case, the passage will appear to be just a short segment even though it could be thousand of meters long. You could rotate the cave to get a better view of the passage, but, at the same time you are likely to rotate other passages so their length becomes invisible.

The cave passage to the right is a good example. Basically, the passages form a descending spiral. Viewing it in profile, you cannot see three passage segments that pass directly toward or away from the screen. Because of the spiral shape, no matter how you rotate cave, some part of the cave will be hidden.

To solve this problem, Compass has a feature called “Developed Profiles” or “Unfolded Profiles.” The program basically unfolds or flattens out the cave so you can see the full length of every passage. This will distort some parts of the cave, but it will allow you to see the full lenght of every passage.

The image to the right shows the same passage as an Unfolded Profile. You can now see a full profile of every shot. Before, you could not tell anything about the slope of the hidden shots. With the new image, you can see the full length of every shot and see that cave slopes evenly down the entire spiral. (Note, the image has been scaled down so the unfolded length will fit on the web page.)

 Compass gives you several options for controlling the way the profiles are produced. For example, passages can be flatten using the "nearest-angle" method or the "fixed-angle-method." You can also control the angle of the plane to which the cave is flattened. Unfolded profiles are useful for maps of deep, winding pits where you want to display as much detail as possible.

Entrance Distance

This new option allows you to color the passage according to the distance from the entrance. This is not the straight line distance, but the actual travel distance required to reach a certain point in the cave. You have complete control over the colors and how much distance is covered by an individual color. This allows you to setup zone maps of the distance from the entrance that are perfect for expedition planning. For example, the map above shows the entrance distance in Lechuguilla Cave. Each color is represent 1/2 mile distance from the entrance. In this picture the green zone would be appropriate for day trips, whereas the purple zone would probably require overnight camping.
Italian Tutorial
 
Thanks to Andrea Maconi, we have a very nice Compass tutorial in Italian.  The tutorial is a well produced, PDF file complete with screen shots. It should make it a lot easier for Italian cavers to learn and use Compass.
Precise Distance Displays
You can also displays the precise entrance distance at each survey station. Again, this is not the straight-line distance, but the travel distance through the passages to get to the station. Like the Color-by-Distance, it is useful for estimating the difficulty of reach a certain point in the cave.

 It is also useful for orienting yourself in the cave by finding the direction back to the entrance. You have the choice of either meters or feet and the size, font and color of the distance-labels is configurable.
Displaying Shot Azimuth, Inclination and Length

 You now have the option of displaying the Azimuth, Inclination and Length of each shot. The image to the right shows a display of the Azimuth for each shot. Again, you have the choice of fonts, size and color.
Block Modify Options

The Block Modify Option in Compass allows you to make complex changes to survey data across a range of shots and surveys. This is useful repairing problems where large blocks of data were entered incorrectly. It is also useful for reorganizing the data. Text items can be selectively modified. Station names can be selectively prefixed or post-fixed. Numerical items can be modified. Shot flags can be selectively set or cleared. All these options can save hundreds of hours of manual labor.
Fit Cave to Screen

The Compass Viewer now has a special tool that will automatically fit the cave display to the current window size. This makes it easy to view the whole when you have resized the window to take up only part of the screen. This is particularly useful when you are looking at several caves at the same time.
 More Recently Added Features >>
 
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