by jlillest » Dec 28, 2011 5:26 pm
Jeff, you're a riot!
Can we weight the results by number of maps drawn, length of caves drawn, etc?
I think people that are trying to into cave cartography are drawn to Therion because of it's perceived ease of completing maps. I made several maps in Therion before realizing (and wasting more hours than it was worth....) that I could only make simple caves with the software. That's about the time that I came across an article about Illustrator by Jeff and have been drawing maps (~20 or so) in Illustrator ever since.
I think it's also interesting to note that total votes for Illustrator (whether you use Compass or Walls) is equal to the number of votes for Therion. Just like in Therion where it doesn't matter what survey software crunches your data, the same should apply for Illustrator. Maybe the poll should be modified to only include the actual drawing programs that are used in making your maps.
Here's a potential list:
Hand-drawn (non-software, even if you scan into a PDF)
Paint, or other simple raster-based software program
Xara
Illustrator/Inkscape (ok, I know the pursist will hate to see the combination of the two, but they're almost identical these days)
Therion
Others?
In a separate debate (I'll sit this one out), we can discuss the merits of individual survey software packages. FWIW, I use Walls, Compass, Survex and some new dive survey program on a semi-regular basis in the projects that I'm involved in. I've come to the conclusion that we're never going to completely agree on a single cave survey software package so I've just learned each one as I go....