Creating Cave Maps Using Inkscape

These images are very different from the kind of paper maps that people like to publish, enter into salons, and display on the wall. To solve this problem, Compass allows you export cave data in as SVG files. SVG files are especially useful for cave cartography because they can be exported to many different drawing programs. They are also "vector" based files, which means that they can be scaled and adjusted mathematically in a variety of useful ways.

Many people export SVG files to programs like Adobe Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator is an excellent program for creating cave maps, but it is quite expensive. It sells for around $500. Even if  you are a student or work in education, the current cost is over $200, which is more than many students and itinerate cavers can afford. As an alternative, I have focused the Compass SVG tools on Inkscape.

Inkscape. Inkscape is a open-source drawing program that is similar to Adobe Illustrator. It has several advantages over Illustrator. First, it is free of charge. Second, it is a cross-platform, which means that it will run many different computers, including some that Illustrator doesn't support. Third, there are tons of tutorials on the internet to help you learn to use it. Finally, as an open source project, it is possible for cavers to get involved in the project and influence the development of the software. Cavers with programming skills could even add special features that would make it easier to create cave maps. To help cavers use Inkscape, I have created the following tutorial to illustrate the process of creating cave maps with Compass and Inkscape.