You simply create a text file containing the relevant survey data, using a text editor, and save it with a suitable name with a .svx extension. The easiest way is to look at some of the example data and use that as a template. Nearly all surveys will need a bit of basic info as well as the survey data itself: e.g. the date (*date), comments about where, what cave, a name for the survey (using *begin and *end), instrument error corrections etc. Here is a typical survey file:
All the lines starting with ';' are comments, which are ignored by Survex. You can also see the use of 'DOWN' for plumbs, and *calibrate tape for dealing with a tape length error (in this case the end of the tape had fallen off so measurements were made from the 20cm point).
*equate chaos.1 triassic.pt3.8 *equate chaos.2 triassic.pt3.9 *begin chaos *title "Bottomless Pit of Eternal Chaos to Redemption pitch" *date 1996.07.11 *team "Nick Proctor" compass clino tape *team "Anthony Day" notes pictures tape *instrument compass "CUCC 2" *instrument clino "CUCC 2" ;Calibration: Cairn-Rock 071 072 071, -22 -22 -22 ; Rock-Cairn 252 251 252, +21 +21 +21 ;Calibration at 161d entrance from cairn nr entrance to ;prominent rock edge lower down. This is different from ;calibration used for thighs survey of 5 July 1996 *export 1 2 ;Tape is 20cm too short *calibrate tape +0.2 1 2 9.48 208 +08 2 3 9.30 179 -23 3 4 2.17 057 +09 5 4 10.13 263 +78 5 6 2.10 171 -73 7 6 7.93 291 +75 *begin *calibrate tape 0 8 7 35.64 262 +86 ;true length measured for this leg *end 8 9 24.90 - DOWN 10 9 8.61 031 -43 10 11 2.53 008 -34 11 12 2.70 286 -20 13 12 5.36 135 +23 14 13 1.52 119 -12 15 14 2.00 036 +13 16 15 2.10 103 +12 17 16 1.40 068 -07 17 18 1.53 285 -42 19 18 5.20 057 -36 19 20 2.41 161 -67 20 21 27.47 - DOWN 21 22 9.30 192 -29 *end chaos |
Once you have more than one survey you need to specify how they link together. To do this use *export to make the stations to be joined accessible in the enclosing survey, then *equate in the enclosing survey to join them together.
This is actually a large subject. There are many ways you can organise your data using Survex. Take a look at the example dataset for some ideas of ways to go about it.
The *fix command is used to specify fixed points (also know as control points). See the description of this command in the "Cavern Command