Tunnel

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Tunnel is a free Java program for drawing cave surveys based on Survex-compatible data.

Cave surveys are special because the drawings need to be distorted whenever the survey changes, usually due to a loop closure. Also, the areas you draw can cross over another at different depths. This means that a standard drawing package like Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator won't do. The most similar projects to Tunnel are Therion and Walls, although the important differences are discussed in Other Cave Software.


Contents

What's new?

  • Survex data will be kept in labels rather than in directory structures, allowing for Tunnel use to be considerably simpler.
  • Frame sketches that are images will replace background images and their relative positions will be imported with the sketches.
Further details, see Matienzo version

Less new 2

You can now in the middle of a sketch define new subsets and their inclusion into other subsets using a frame. This can be done by creating an area signal connective path anywhere in the diagram and clicking "Copy" on it. 

<sketchframe
 sfscaledown="1.0"
 sfrotatedeg="0.0"
 sfxtrans="0.0"
 sfytrans="0.0"
 nodeconnzsetrelative="0.0"
 sfsketch=""
 sfstyle="">
<subsetattr name="Duke&space;Street" uppersubset="level5"/>
<subsetattr name="PaceyP" uppersubset="level6"/>
</sketchframe>

This feature is normally used upload values from the text window onto the path for a future "Paste" operation of its values on some other signal, but it also keeps an internal copy of which subsets are in which which can be used as though they are normal subsets defined in the fontcolours.xml file. They appear in brackets in the treeview.

To create a new subset in the sketch for which there are no paths, make a new line in here of the type: 

<subsetattr name="Your new subset" uppersubset=""/>

and press "Copy". The new subset will appear under "_Framerefs_" where you can select it and start applying it. Once you set an uppersubset (say, "level6"), it will appear in that place in the tree.

With this feature it is now technically possible to control all the subset colouring in the image and in the frame sketches entirely from within the sketches and no longer reference it from a special fontcolours.xml file. Indeed, in the fontcolours.xml we only need to define a set of standard colours (including a semi-transparent one) and symbol sets for different scales, and then start using proper names for the small area subsets in the sketch. The mapping is totally done with the 

<subsetattr name="PaceyP" uppersubset="level6"/>

lines. It is possible that these lists will get long an unmanageable for big caves, like the scalebar definitions. However, the implementation will be feature complete, and we can worry about a better user interface later.

The whole managing of subsets issue regarding an improved user interface will take some serious consideration -- as will attempts to redesign the use of the mouse to avoid the need for modifier keys -- but for now it's best to get the functionality stable and workable before redistributing the controls.

Less new

  • The setting up of Frame Sketches has changed and allows the allocations of subsets into other subsets to which there are styles. See Subsets_and_styles#Frames.
  • When centrelines are rendered they now appear on top of the area they should belong to instead of underneath everything.
  • You can now include images as well as sketched in the printing of frames system.
  • It's now possible to reload fontcolours.xml while you are working so you can develop the colours you want there without closing down and starting up again.
  • Survex integration - You can now run cavern.exe and 3dtopos.exe automatically from within Tunnel in order to generate the pos files you need.

Future work

  • The most important missing feature is Elevations.
  • There's also an investigation into abolishing the Tunnel XML file format, and replacing it with a slight elaboration of SVG that would be compatible with all SVG readers, so you wouldn't have to use Tunnel to preview or make thumbnails of your files.

History and examples

Major surveys drawn in Tunnel that are accessible online:

Julian Todd has been writing Tunnel since 1997. It was originally for modelling the cave volume using prismatic shapes that joined between the cross-sections, but it turned out to be less useful than anticipated. Since 2001 it has developed into a drawing program that it is today, and has progressed in tandem with the CUCC Steinbrückenhöhle surveys, as drawn by Martin Green and Dave Loeffler.

The Steinbrückenhöhle 2005 survey won the Arthur Butcher Award at Hidden Earth 2005. The previous year it was won by Erin Lynch and Duncan Collis from Hongmeigui with their Tian Xing 2004 surveys and report.

Lately, Julian and Becka Lawson visited Hongmeigui in China and took over the drawing of surveys in the Houping area, and have completed San Wang Dong 2005 and Er Wang Dong 2005. The results may not be as good looking, but took a thousand times less work.

Dave Loeffler wrote an article about Tunnel in the Compass Points, March 2006, Issue 35 (2.2Mb pdf), the publication of the BCRA Cave Survey Group.

Downloads

Java SE Development Kit / JDK 6
You must have a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed on your computer in order to run Tunnel. Versions for most operating systems are available at the link above. You are advised, however, to install the much larger Java Development Kit (JDK), which contains the JRE as well as a compiler. This will make it easier to get bugfixes and feature improvements because you will have access to the sourcecode itself.

Easy Install for Windows Users

This is produced by User:Footleg to install Tunnel on Windows. The zip file contains instructions in a readme file. You will still need to download and install the Java Runtime Environment as explained elsewhere. This build includes all the presentation frame sketch features added recently, and is the last build of the code before the major rewrite of the survex data handling was started during the Matienzo Easter 2008 expedition.
Download Tunnel_Install.zip (dated 2008-04-23)

Note: This latest build requires version 6 of the Java Runtime.

The old Windows installer package is no longer maintained, as this simple zip file package is easier to update. But if you still want it the last version that was built is here: A Windows XP installation package (dated 2007-12-20)

Directly from the CVS repository on Source Forge (see instructions on the page)
This is preferable if you want the most recent version, particularly one incorporating the most recent bugs and features.
An online applet version
Not actually a download, but your browser is up to the job, this should give you a taste of the user interface without having the hassle of installing Java properly. Does not have the capability to save your work.

An example cave drawn by Neil Pacey using Tunnel is available from Media:Inlet7sketches.zip, but for the complete picture you will also need to download his original pencil drawings from Inlet7rawscans.zip (3.3Mbs).

Tutorial

The following is a sequence of short lessons that will give you a basis for drawing cave surveys Tunnel. Rather than dive straight into a worked example where you would have to start with lots of complicated stuff simply to set up a fresh drawing, it's arranged it in order of what you need to learn.

  1. Installing and Running - What you need to do to get things going.
  2. Loading and Saving - And a little bit about the what and where the information is kept.
  3. Viewing and Zooming Sketches - Seeing what you've got.
  4. Drawing and Linking Paths - The basics of everything.
  5. Making and Filling Areas - Extra structure that you get for free if you are careful.
  6. Positioning the Background - Readying the paper copy.
  7. Tracing the Image - Mice can't draw but they can trace.
  8. Symbols and Fills - The things you put into and outside of areas.
  9. Labels and Scalebars - Font technology combined with tactical black rectangles.
  10. One Quick Example - A recap of what you have learned so far, putting it all together.
  11. Drawing Up Your Own Survey - You now know enough to begin where you wanted to do at the start.
  12. Importing and Distorting - Merge your sketches into one and use last year's hard work.
  13. Subsets and styles - Partition your drawing for easy colouration.
  14. Printing - The final result, until you discover more.
  15. Quick Controls - A table of all the mouse clicks and buttons.
  16. File Formats - Descriptions of the files used and produced by Tunnel.

If you get stuck, please look at Why Tunnel is a pain in the arse before you quit.

Marco began another set of pages, which need to be merged in. They include

Advanced Tutorials

Help for users who have mastered the basics and want to learn more. This is the place to add any descriptions of more advanced features so please feel free to contribute any knowledge you have which is not already here.

  1. Custom fontcolours xml files - How to customise the fonts and symbol Styles on your survey
  2. Configuring the symbols xml - How to add new symbols for use in Tunnel
  3. Making Anaglyphs - How to create 3D surveys from Tunnel

CVS services

Julian Todd owns a colocated server called seagrass.goatchurch.org.uk. Free accounts are available to anyone who has understood the benefits of keeping cave survey data under Concurrent Version Control (CVS) (or any other version control software you know how to install on my server) in a form that should allow easy public access.

There needs to be a SourceForge for cave surveys, not just software. While seagrass won't necessarily be it, the starting point is to build up a few projects that could become the core of such a sustained project.

I am wholly against the "intellectual property" ownership of cave data (both survey measurements and drawings) on both practical and ethical grounds. However, if you would like to host cave data privately on seagrass, it's possible so long as you agree to abide by the Conditions for private cave data on seagrass.



Bugs and problems

These issues have been separated out into their own pages so they aren't overwhelming. Go to Deficiencies in Tunnel and add more if you find something that needs attention.


Image:Inlet7.png

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