Attribute - A character or feature of one or more survey stations or vectors in a survey data file. The use of attributes is optional, and the names of attributes are specified by the user.
CavePlot supports the use of up to 60 unique station attributes. Each station in a CavePlot survey can be given all, some, or none of the 60 user-specified attributes for that survey file. Attributes can then be used to specify the color and plotting style for all stations that "do have" or "do not have" the user-specified combination of attributes.
CavePlot-Text - A format for a survey data file. CavePlot normally uses a binary data format. The binary format was designed for speed, not for editing, and hence is not easily viewed, printed, or edited without CavePlot. CavePlot's binary format is also undocumented and subject to change at any time. The CavePlot-Text format allows users to save survey data to disk as ASCII text, which can be opened, edited, or printed with any standard text editor. A formal description of the CavePlot-Text format is listed elsewhere.
Export - To save survey data to a file disk using a non-standard data format. CavePlot can export data to CavePlot-Text, Karst.SUR, and Compass.DAT data formats.
Import - To load into memory, from disk, a non-standard-format data file. CavePlot can import CavePlot-Text, Karst.SUR, and Compass.DAT formatted survey data files.
Lineplot - A lineplot is technically a plot (or drawing) of the survey lines for a given survey data file. Using CavePlot, a lineplot can show a combination of survey lines, stations, station names, point patterns, LRCF polygons, explanatory text, etc.
Loop - A sequence of survey shots (vectors) which can go from a station, around in a loop, and return to the same station.
Loop Closure - The process of adjusting the shots (vectors) within loops, such that the errors associated with the loops are “distributed away”. This forces loops to close (come back to the same place) rather than rather than remain open (miss by a little bit). Loop closure does not fix loop errors, it merely distributes (or averages) the errors. Sometimes station locations are more accurate after loop closure is done, but this is not always true.
CavePlot uses a “best-first sequential” method for closing loops.
LRCF - Shorthand notation for Left, Right, Ceiling, and Floor. It refers to the distances from the “To” station to the respective walls, measured in a direction perpendicular to the incoming survey shot (vector).
LRCF Polygons - A visual representation of the approximate size of the cave passages, using 3D polygons, based on the left, right, ceiling, and floor data (distances) in the survey data.
PICT - Macintosh shorthand for a “PICTure” resource or file. Lineplots can be saved to disk as PICT files. The cave picture displayed on the initial (Bat) window is also from a PICT file. You can load other PICT files to this initial window if you want.
Point - Another name for a survey station. In CavePlot, points have patterns (SICN's or small icons) associated with them, which can be drawn on the lineplot to show their location.
Profile - A side view. For CavePlot, a profile is a side view (the top is up) lineplot of the survey data in memory.
Section - An optional grouping of survey shots, which can be turned On/Off, colored, totaled, etc., as a group. There are currently 3 sets of 30 sections available in CavePlot. A station may belong to up to 3 different sections (1 section from each set).
Other cave survey programs often group stations together into “Surveys”. Surveys are similar to CavePlot’s “Sections”, with the exception that stations can only belong to 1 Survey (in other programs), while they can belong to 3 different Sections (using CavePlot). Another difference is that Surveys are assumed to be a collection of sequential survey stations, while Sections can be any user-chosen combination of stations.
See "Survey" listed below.
SICN - Macintosh shorthand for a “Small ICoN” resource. In practice, a SICN is a small, 16 by 16 pixel (dot) pattern. CavePlot uses SICN’s to show the location of survey stations (points) on lineplots.
CavePlot also uses various SICN’s to draw the bats and “picture buttons”, the buttons with a blue box around them.
Survey - A collection of linked vectors used for producing maps, or for determining relative or absolute locations. In CavePlot, a survey is a complete set of vector data, which may also include XYZ positions, section assignments, line types, colors, and comments.
In other cave surveying programs, "Surveys" are often considered to be small “logical subgroups” of the entire vector data set, with a “data file” being the complete data set. In CavePlot, these smaller subgroups are approximately the same as Sections, while a Survey is a complete data set.
XYZ - Refers to the X (north), Y (east), and Z (vertical) position of something, relative to an assumed 0,0,0 position. In CavePlot, XYZ refers to the location of a survey station relative to the start of the survey (or other specified location).
