Page 1 of 2

Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 15, 2011 10:55 am
by laurieadams
OK, after reading many posts on this and other forums I must accept that I have been living in the 19th century, so please pardon my extreme ignorance and don't laugh too hard at my naive questions. I am not terribly computer literate, but I learn fast. I have produced many cave maps in the past, some have even won ribbons at NSS salons, but the methods I used are now considered ancient. I was a protractor and ruler plotter and a 2 dollar calculator data reducer. I now want to produce professional quality cave maps, without having to get too technical or invest a lot of money. It seems that the Compass software would work well for me, but I have a Mac and I understand that Compass is not compatible? Is this true. What if I acquired and downloaded Windows onto my Mac (I think I can do this), could I then use Compass? Is there another program that might be more suitable for me? I will be making maps of caves ranging from 50 feet to 6 miles. I'll have a zillion more questions, but we'll start with these. Thanks, Laurie Adams.

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 15, 2011 11:29 am
by Marlatt
I spoke with Larry Fish several years ago about porting Compass to Mac, but at least at that time he wasn't particularly interested. However, I have run Compass on a Mac using Windows emulation (VirtualPC), and currently have it running on a dual-boot MacBook with Windows 7 installed. I don't know what hardware you are running, but you should be able to install Windoze onto any Intel-based Mac. (I tried to run Compass under OSX using WINE a couple years ago, with only partial success. It should be do-able, but I didn't have time to work at it)

Compass is a great program - I think you'll find it well worth your time to find an implementation!

Stuart

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 15, 2011 2:04 pm
by Phil Winkler
Laurie,

Assuming your Mac is Intel based there is a program called Parallels that permits running Windows and Mac OSX at the same time. Mac provides Bootcamp which allows you to run either one, but not at the same time.

I recommend Parallels. Your Apple store or Bestbuy should have it.

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 15, 2011 2:17 pm
by bronzzhorse
I use a program called Walls... very simple UI, and only a slight learning curve..... Might want to give it a shot.

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 15, 2011 4:35 pm
by Aaron Addison
Phil Winkler wrote:...there is a program called Parallels that permits running Windows and Mac OSX at the same time


There is also a free VMware called http://www.virtualbox.org/ It was originally developed by Sun and now owned by Oracle. We have many students running WinXP and Win7 on their Macs with this tool.

Cheers,

AA

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 15, 2011 5:13 pm
by Phil Winkler
AA, does it run at the time as OSx? I would like to try it, if so.

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 15, 2011 8:17 pm
by Aaron Addison
If you mean at the same time as OSX, then yes. It should work very similar to Parallels or Fusion.

AA

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 16, 2011 7:18 am
by laurieadams
Thanks everyone for the advice. My computer runs Mac OS X, Version 10.4.11 with a 2 GH2 Intel Core 2 Duo processor. So with parallels and Windows installed I should be able to use compass?

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 16, 2011 7:25 am
by Phil Winkler
Aaron Addison wrote:
There is also a free VMware called http://www.virtualbox.org/ It was originally developed by Sun and now owned by Oracle. We have many students running WinXP and Win7 on their Macs with this tool.

Cheers,

AA

Laurie, I'd try this first since it's free.

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 16, 2011 8:58 am
by laurieadams
I tried downloading the VM software, but it requires OS X 10.5 or higher. Can I upgrade without having to pay the 30 bucks they want for the software?

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 16, 2011 9:06 am
by Tlaloc
laurieadams wrote:I tried downloading the VM software, but it requires OS X 10.5 or higher. Can I upgrade without having to pay the 30 bucks they want for the software?


You should upgrade to at least 10.6. It's worth the $30. This includes upgraded applications.

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 16, 2011 10:22 am
by laurieadams
Thanks, Tlaloc, I will.

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 16, 2011 2:06 pm
by chac
Laurie,

There is a lot of very good advice in this thread. The QRSS (Mexico) receives a good amount of Compass survey data from explorers and surveyors that use Compass on a Mac. The basic Compass features will work quite well with the most basic Mac>WIN software. However some of the mapping tools you can use with Compass are not at all happy if you use limited Mac>WIN software. :down:

Happy mapping!

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 16, 2011 3:17 pm
by Martin Sluka
Please don't loose your time, use therion! http://therion.speleo.sk

The software is not only about centerline and LRUD, but it is able to generate the 3D from passage outlines, passage heights, you may export many formats, check http://therion.speleo.sk/wiki/doku.php?id=skillen

This is the software for 21th century!!!

Re: Compass on a Mac?

PostPosted: Sep 16, 2011 4:09 pm
by lleblanc
Martin Sluka wrote:Please don't loose your time, use therion! http://therion.speleo.sk

This is the software for 21th century!!!


Albeit with a mid-20th century interface!

Alas, as one of the Therion team member told me, revamping the interface is a low-priority task for them. In the meantime, you better be a script-savvy geek :(