Compass Cave Survey and Mapping Software -Betas

This page contains Beta versions of Compass. Compass is constantly being upgraded. Sometimes new versions haven't been fully tested, but people need them because of bug fixes or important new features. As a result, new versions may be release before they are fully tested.

Current Betas

1. COMPASS for Windows - 4-23-2026
2. CaveXO - 12-29-2025

Here is a brief description of the new features in this version

CaveXO - Improved splay shot handling.
Optimized Label spacing. The Viewer now has an option to optimize label spacing. In the past, if you were zoomed out on a cave, the stations could be so close together that the labels would be printed on top of each other, making them illegible. In this mode, the program will only display a station label if it doesn't fall on top of a previously displayed label. This means that the maximum number of labels are displayed and everyone that is displayed is legible.
Grouping Folders. Compass now supports a special kind of folder that can be used to group files together. In the past, Compass could only close surveys inside a file. A loop that crossed between files could not be closed. Likewise, you couldn't connect shot to a station that appeared in file later in the project. Grouping Folders allows you process two or more files as though they were a single file. This allows you close loops that cross files. It allows you to have forward references to stations that occur in later files.
Prefixes. You can now set a prefix for each survey in file. The prefix string is added to every station in the survey. The feature allows you to have multiple stations with the same name. It is used to accomplish the same thing as linking, but it is easier to understand and use.
Splay Shots. Compass now supports splay shots. Splay shots are randoml shots from a survey station to a point on the wall. They are used more precisely define the passage size and shape than LRUDs can. A shot becomes a splay shot, by prefixing the "To" station with a right parenthesis. For example: "A1-> )A1a".
Check boxes. All the items in the Survey Tree now have check boxes that control whether specific files or folders are compiled. This allows you to process and view subsections of a project.
Undo/Redo. Any changes you make to the survey tree, including adding, deleting and moving files and folders around can be undone and redone.
Enhanced Comments. There are now comments for each Link or fixed station. Compass comments can now be multiline. There's a popup editor to make it easier to enter and edit comments.
File Comments. In previous versions, Compass could display the filename for each section in the cave. If the filename was descriptive, the information could be useful. But in many instances the filename was not very useful. For this reason, there is now a file comment that can be used to describe the information contained in the file.
Improved Error Handling. The Compiler and Loop Closer have improved file format error handling, specifying the exact location and line of text that caused the error.
KML Export. The KML Export feature of the Viewer has been improved to include:

Marking fixed stations
Putting passages, fixed stations and shot lines in separate folders
Allowing shot lines and passage models at the same time

New IG Models. There are new magnetic declination models for years 2025 to 2030.
Alias statistics. The compile statistics shows the information about alias stations.
Tools. Compass has several new tools that help to analyze and manipulate cave data:

File Search Tool. This tool allows you to search through a bunch survey files for a specific station name, comment or other piece of information. It can search a single directory, all the files in a project or multiple directories.
Connection Tool. This tool displays a network diagram showing how stations, surveys and files are connected together.
Links tool. The Links tool display a list of all the survey files in a project and visually show how the links connect surveys.
Prefix Tool. The Prefix tool shows a list of all the surveys in the project and any prefixes that are attached to a surveys. It also allows you to the prefixes for multiple surveys all at once.
Folder Structure tool. Because of the effects of folders and checkboxes, it may not be obvious how the files and folders will be combined a process. The Folder Structure tool shows which files will be combined and processed as a unit.
Duplicate tools. The Duplicate tool shows a list of stations that are used in more than one place in a file. This is useful for find station names the conflict with each other and might need prefixing to differentiate the files.
Project Archives Tools. This option allows you to make a copy of all the files in your project and save all the data in a single Zip file. This is makes it easy to share files with other cavers. It also makes it easy to create archival copies of the data.
Walls Importer.. While both Compass and Walls can import and export SEF files, transferring data loses information. For this reason, Compass now has an importer that will read a full Walls project and import it into Compass. The importer preserves a lot of information that is lost using SEF.
Merge Projects Tool. This tool makes it easy to merge multiple projects into a single project. In the past, you would have had to create a new project and then manually insert the files from different projects into the new project. With the new tool, you can combine all the files from multiple smaller projects into the new file. This is useful for things like combining multiple cave systems into a regional project.
Annotations. The Editor now allows you to mark individual comments as more important than others. These comments can be displayed more easily in the Viewer.
New Tools In the Editor. The Editor now has tools buttons that allow easier access to existing features and new tools. For example, Cut, Copy and Paste are available on the side toolbar. Also, there buttons to move a shot up or down. Finally, there are is an Undo/Redo feature.
Viewer-Print Preview. The Print Preview feature has the option to drag the cave plot into position on the simulated paper. The Print Preview dialog has several new features including more status information, more additional action buttons and a display of detailed printer information to help debug printer problems..

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