On Station survey software

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On Station survey software

Postby tncaver » Jul 8, 2011 11:41 am

Has anyone used cave survey software called ON STATION created by Taco van Ieperen in 1998?
I am interested in using a simple to use program to draw up a line plot using existing data.
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Re: On Station survey software

Postby Aaron Addison » Jul 9, 2011 8:25 pm

Yes. I think I even still have a copy of it somewhere. We used it on a couple of Mexico and Texas caves.

Not sure if it would run on current Window OS versions or not though.

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Re: On Station survey software

Postby tncaver » Jul 9, 2011 8:37 pm

Aaron Addison wrote:Yes. I think I even still have a copy of it somewhere. We used it on a couple of Mexico and Texas caves.

Not sure if it would run on current Window OS versions or not though.

AA



Aaron,
I have Windows XP Home edition. Do you think it would run on that?
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Re: On Station survey software

Postby Aaron Addison » Jul 10, 2011 12:08 am

Best bet would be to just download and try: https://sites.google.com/site/shatterthefog/onstation

Taco has email link on that page, and I know he is on FB if you want to chat with him.

Cheers,

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Re: On Station survey software

Postby tncaver » Jul 10, 2011 6:06 am

Ok. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
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Re: On Station survey software

Postby chac » Jul 10, 2011 3:50 pm

On Station works on WinXP and Win7 Amateur :tonguecheek:

A survey project in Quintana Roo shares their data from a large cave with us. On Station opens and displays their data without any difficulties. I can't speak about entering data, or relying on the program to process survey data reliably. :shrug:

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Re: On Station survey software

Postby ian mckenzie » Jul 10, 2011 6:51 pm

Main problem is exporting the line plot to a drawing program. Can't be done?
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Re: On Station survey software

Postby tncaver » Jul 10, 2011 8:22 pm

ian mckenzie wrote:Main problem is exporting the line plot to a drawing program. Can't be done?


How about just putting the line plot on a topo map? Is that doable with the On Station software? Can it be put on DeLorme or some other
kind of topo map software?
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Re: On Station survey software

Postby Aaron Addison » Jul 10, 2011 8:47 pm

tncaver wrote:How about just putting the line plot on a topo map? Is that doable with the On Station software? Can it be put on DeLorme or some other
kind of topo map software?


Maybe, but I think you will find that the functionality of On Station pre-dates DeLorme and most other consumer grade mapping software.

Sorry,

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Re: On Station survey software

Postby LWB » Jul 12, 2011 7:09 am

Do you have some reason not to want to use Compass or Walls or another well used program?
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Re: On Station survey software

Postby tncaver » Jul 12, 2011 8:00 am

LWB wrote:Do you have some reason not to want to use Compass or Walls or another well used program?


I've never used any computer survey software. I Googled easy to use free cave survey software and On Station is what popped up.
Is Compass or Walls beginner friendly? I only need it for a line plot that I can hopefully put on a topo map scan.
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Re: On Station survey software

Postby LWB » Jul 12, 2011 8:53 pm

I'm a Walls user - which is easy to do line plot in, but not very user friendly because it was really designed to handle huge amounts of data. But, if you had a Walls user to help, you could quickly accomplish your line plot and learn to do it yourself. But it is overkill for what you need.

I think Compass might be a better candidate for you. Howard Kalnitz posted a link to his cave survey class powerpoints in another thread. I think he has one on using Compass for the line plot. Compass has a big following, I will let those with experience comment on it.

Go here:

http://www.cavecartography.com/Survey%20Training.htm

Scroll down to "Class 1 - Using Compass"
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Re: On Station survey software

Postby Chris Chenier » Jul 19, 2011 11:29 am

ian mckenzie wrote:Main problem is exporting the line plot to a drawing program. Can't be done?


Over a decade ago, I wrote functionality to export export DXF format from within OnStation; Taco integrated it into the software. So yes, you can export.

OnStation is very much user-friendly, but it is no longer being maintained. I used it for years but I have since moved on.
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