THERION FOR (PLAIN) CAVERS. INDEX 1- INTRO 2- HOW IT WORKS 2.1- GENERALLY SPEAKING 2.2- LRUD DATA 2.3- THERION AND XTHERION 2.4- HOW TO INSTALL 3- OLD LADIES' PROMENADE 3.1- THE PLAN 3.1.1- FIRST CONTACT 3.1.2- CENTERLINE DATA AND .th FILES 3.1.2.1- DATA STYLE AND ORDER 3.1.2.2- UNITS 3.1.2.3- DATE, DECLINATION AND OTHERS 3.1.2.4- SURVEY DATA 3.1.2.5- FIXED POINTS 3.1.3- THCONFIG 3.1.4- DRAW DATA AND .th2 FILES 3.1.4.1- BACKGROUND IMAGES 3.1.4.2- SCRAPS 3.1.4.3- POINTS 3.1.4.3.1- STATION POINTS 3.1.4.3.2- GRADIENT ARROWS 3.1.4.3.3- LABELS 3.1.4.3.4- SECTION 3.1.4.3.5- OTHER POINT TYPES 3.1.4.4- LINES 3.1.4.4.1- HOW TO DRAW STRAIGTH LINES 3.1.4.4.2- HOW TO DRAW CURVES 3.1.4.4.3- LINE TYPES 3.1.4.4.3.1- WALLS 3.1.4.4.3.2- OTHER LINE TYPES 3.1.4.5- AREAS 3.2- EXTENDED ELEVATION 3.2.1- HOW TO EXTEND CENTERLINE 3.2.2- EXPORTING EXTENDED CENTERLINE AS XVI IMAGE 3.2.3- DRAWING EXTENDED ELEVATION 3.3- CROSS_SECTIONS 4- HURT ME PLENTY 4.1- JOINING CENTERLINE 4.2- JOINING SCRAPS 4.3- SETTING THE LAYOUT 1- INTRO Therion is the next step in cave surveying software. It works under windows (9X-2000-XP), *nix and MacOS X. It's GPL-licensed. Usually, cave surveying software works with survey data only (from, to, lenght, compass, clino, etc ). From these data, a centerline is calculated, then this centerline is exported to drawing software like Illustrator, where walls and details are added. Therion is able to work with both data and draws. There's no need to export centerline data to drawing software. You can draw a line representing a pit, then set this line type to "pit" and Therion will draw a pit line as accepted by UIS or other caving associations. So you don't need to break Illustrator's restrictive copyright to achieve this. Therion is able to distort your drawings to adapt them to changes in your centerline. If your centerline data changes, usually you need to redraw walls, etc. This is not necessary with Therion. Their algorithms take care of things like underlying passages, etc. So your maps are always up-to-date. You don't need to redraw after loop closure, blunder fix or set symbol change. Therion is able to draw single-page maps. Maximum page size is 5 x 5 meters. It is able to draw a cave atlas too, with overlapping borders and navigation icon on each page. Therion is able to build 3D models without LRUD data. They are calculated from walls you draw, so Therion's 3D models look usually better than "square" 3D models made by other cave surveying software. Surface data can be included. Finally, Therion is able to export your centerline data in SQL format, ready to be loaded into a database system, so you can do exquisite searchs on these data, or use it on GIS software. This guide assumes that you aren't a geek-caver, but a plain caver with little or no IT knowledge. If you are a geek-caver, or need to use advanced features, you should read thbook.pdf. It is in your therion/thbook directory. There is another non-geek guide, Wookey's one, called "Therion - State of the Art Cave-Drawing Software", available in http://therion.speleo.sk/download.php. 2- HOW IT WORKS 2.1- GENERALLY SPEAKING For most surveys, you'll need to create 3 text files: 1) .th file with your survey data, 2) .th2 file with your drawing data, 3) thconfig file where you can a) list things which should be part of final work, b) set layout options as symbol set, wether to use legend, etc, and c) specify your output: map and/or atlas and/or 3D model and/or centerline data in SQL format. It's quite convenient to save all three files in the same directory, and to give this directory the cave's name. So you: a) go into text editor window to write your survey data in .th file b) go into map editor window to draw your walls, etc. They will be converted into commands and saved in a .th2 file c) go into compiler window, set your source, layout and export lines in a thconfig file, then press "Compile" button to get your instructions converted into finished map, 3D model or .sql file. d) go into model viewer window to see your new model, if you have instructed Therion to build it. Final .pdf documents can be viewed with Adobe's Acrobat Reader if you are on the dark side, or xpdf if you are on *nix. You could use gv too, but for big caves, gv is simply too slooooow. There are example data available. You should use it to do your first steps in Therion. 2.2- LRUD DATA Therion's original idea was that it's no necesary to take LRUD, since you usually draw to-scale sketches in your survey book while surveying. These sketches do have LRUD data implicit, so it was (is) expected that you scan them, then load them into map editor as "Background images". Then you draw over you own sketches. From 0.3.7 version, Therion can show centerline with LRUD data in map editor window, so you don't need to have neither scanner nor to-scale sketches. Instead you have the cave's skeleton so you can draw your walls, etc, accordingly. You can choose the method that best fits your needs, or combine both methods. This guide is focused to use LRUD data. To know how to work with scanned sketches, please read Wookey's guide and/or thbook.pdf 2.3- THERION AND XTHERION Therion is a command line program. It remains hidden, since we use Xtherion as graphic user interface. Xtherion's duty is basically to convert points and lines we draw into commands that can be processed by Therion when we press F9 key (anywhere) or "Compile" button (in Compiler window) 2.4- HOW TO INSTALL Download it from http://therion.speleo.sk On Windows, a double click on installer icon will start installation. Answer "Yes" and "Next" to each and every thing it asks for. Done. You can now start Xtherion by double-clicking their icon. As previously mentioned, you'll work primarily on Xtherion, wich is Therion's graphic user interface. On *nix, you could install a binary package if you are on Debian (Sarge). Apt-get will install it with all its dependencies. If you aren't on Sarge, you should compile it. Please read thbook.pdf to see how to do. 3- OLD LADIES' PROMENADE First of all, we suggest to do a example survey with a very simple cave. None of Therion's most advanced features will be explained in this chapter, but it will be enough to explain how to insert survey data, how to draw, and how to compile your maps. 3.1- THE PLAN 3.1.1- FIRST CONTACT So you started your Xtherion and got a (black) compiler window. What now? Well, you could place cursor over different control panels and buttons and see what they are for. From 0.3.7, when you place the cursor over a button or whatsoever, a help balloon will pop-up with a text string to explain what it is for. The same happens on status bar, at Xtherion's window bottom. Further, status bar will show also information about objects in map editor canvas. So you should pay attention to it. If you find these help balloons annoying, you can edit xtherion.ini. This file is located on therion's sources, in "xtherion" directory. Open xtherion.ini, search for the line: # set xth(gui,balloons) 1 and change it to: set xth(gui,balloons) 0 Next time you run Xtherion, balloons will not appear (but strings will continue being displayed in status bar). Of course, all control panels and buttons will be disabled until you open an existing file or create new one. Likewise, there will be control panels disabled until you insert something adequate, i.e, Point control panel will be disabled until you insert at least one point. Don't worry, status bar messages will appear even if controls are disabled. We suggest you to go to File -> Open and select a thconfig file from available examples. Then simply press "Compile" button or F9 key. Next to "Compile" button you can see now a yellow box which says "RUNNING". This means that Therion is creating things from commands found in thconfig, .th and .th2 files. When compilation is finished, mesagge box will display "OK" and you'll find, in example's directory, new .pdf, .thm (3D model) and .sql files. Open .pdf files with a pdf viewer. Open .thm file in Therion's model viewer window. Open .sql file in any text editor. Enjoy. 3.1.2- CENTERLINE DATA AND .th FILES Now that you have see what Therion is able to do, it's time to do your first steps. So please close example's thconfig file, then go to "Window" menu and choose "Text editor". In text editor window, go to File -> Open and choose template.th You'll find that template.th has a lot of lines beginning with "#". Anything between "#" and end-of-line is ignored by Therion. These lines are called "comments". We use them to explain what each valid line is for, which options are available, etc. So despite comments, template.th file really has about a dozen valid command lines only. Probably all you need is to read carefully template.th and perhaps do some little changes as suggested by comments. But we will give a more stepped guide here. 3.1.2.1- DATA STYLE AND ORDER A bare bones .th file could be: ####################################################################### survey FOO -title "FOO Cave" centerline data normal from to length compass clino (survey data here) endcenterline endsurvey ####################################################################### Anything between a survey/endsurvey pair of lines is part of the same survey. A survey can have a lot of things in it, first of all, other surveys. So each survey must have a name. This allow for a hierarchical structure (more on this later). For now, the interesting thing into a survey is the centerline. It can be called centreline too. You know, not all the people is a native english speaker. Within a centerline/endcenterline pair of lines there are a) data specification lines -units, declination, data order, etc, and b) pure survey data lines. In this example, there is only one data specification line into the centerline: the data style-and-order line. It specifies your survey style and data order. You can change it to fit your needs. "normal" means that you use normal style when surveying, this is, you use compass, clino and tape. If you use a topofil, change "normal" by "topofil". If you are a diver, change "normal" by "diving" There are other styles too, see thbook.pdf for more information. Survey data must follow same order that "data" line keywords. If you take your data in any other order (i.e. lenght is last reading on your notes) simply change keyword order. So in this case it would become: data normal from to compass clino lenght Or, if you take LRUD data, you could use: data normal from to lenght compass clino left right up down There are keywords for all needs, i.e, if you take direct and inverse readings there are keywords "backcompass" and "backclino", etc. Or if you are a diver, you could have "depth". Data order line can hold as many keywords as you need. For a complete list of available keywords, please see thbook.pdf 3.1.2.2- UNITS By default, lenght units are meters and angle units are (360) degrees. If you use (400) grades instruments and say, yards as lenght units, your .th file should have lines for it. Here is an example: ####################################################################### survey FOO -title "FOO Cave" centerline units lenght yard units compass clino grad data normal from to length compass clino (survey data here) endcenterline endsurvey ####################################################################### 3.1.2.3- DATE, DECLINATION AND OTHERS You can add other specification lines to your centerline data. In fact, you should specify (at least) date, declination, team members and data style-order. Add units lines if not using degress and meters default. Precission surveyers should have sd (standard deviation) and calibrate lines to fine-tune their instruments, etc. Again, for a complete list and description of available lines, you should read thbook.pdf. If you are going to have more than one survey, it would be better to have declination specified on survey, not in centerline. This leads to automatic calculation of declination. More on this later. Here is an usual plain-caver .th file. It's the same template.th file you can find in "Examples" directory, without comments: You should edit FOO parts, etc, to suit your needs. Note this is for 400º compass and 360º clino. LRUD data is used. ####################################################################### survey FOO -title "FOO Cave" centerline date YYYY.MM.DD declination -3 degrees team "Firstname Lastname" team "Firstname Lastname" # add as many team lines as you need units compass grad data normal from to length compass clino left right up down (survey data here) endcenterline endsurvey ####################################################################### 3.1.2.4- SURVEY DATA Simply write it as tab-separated text. Once you have a data style-and-order line, you could press the "Scan data format" button on "Table data" control panel. Textboxes order will change accordingly to your data order line. If your data line has more keywords than textboxes in "Table data" control panel, they will be created. Now you can write readings in a more visual way, but since you still need to press "Tab" key to pass from one textbox to next, you will not save any typing. So your data will probably have the usual format, say: 0 1 16.25 345 -10 1.00 0.85 6 1.60 1 2 4.10 275 1 0.30 0.90 2 1.60 I'm pretty sure that you have seen this data format before ;-) 3.1.2.5- FIXED POINTS To give real world coordinates to centerline, you need to have at least a fixed station point. This is, a station point with real coordinates. You should add to survey data a line like this: fix 0 575628 4476124 1250 As you can guess this fixed point is station 0 with UTM coordinates. You can have as many fixed points as you need. The more fixed points, the better. I usually write them at the beginning of survey data, so my final .th file could look like this: ####################################################################### survey irurixo -title "Irurixo Koba" centerline date 2005.02.26 declination -3 degrees team "Mac Theknife" team "Juxe Euskalduna" # add as many team lines as you need units compass grad data normal from to length compass clino left right up down fix 0 575628 4476124 1250 fix 42 575100 4476655 1310 0 1 16.25 345 -10 1.00 0.85 6 1.60 1 2 4.10 275 1 0.30 0.90 2 1.60 (more survey data) endcenterline endsurvey ####################################################################### Well, we are now ready to create our first thconfig file, so we can export an xvi (xtherion vectorial image) with our centerline data. This image will be loaded in map editor window as "Background image". 3.1.3- THCONFIG Go to "Window" menu and choose "Compiler". Then go to File -> Open and choose "thconfig". Again, this is a template file with comments. The bare bones thconfig could be: ####################################################################### source template.th layout xvi-export scale 1 1000 grid-size 1 1 1 m endlayout export map -fmt xvi -layout xvi-export -o irurixo.xvi ####################################################################### There are three parts in thconfig file: "source template.th" is the input part. So we specify here which file will be processed by Therion. Second part are layout specifications. Anything between a layout/endlayout pair of lines is part of a layout. Layouts should have a name so we can choose wich layout to apply to our exports. We can have as many layouts as we need (or like). "scale 1 1000" sets output map's scale to 1:1000 "grid-size 1 1 1 m" sets grid size to 1 meter in X Y Z directions. If working on a big survey, this setting could lead to memory problems when compiling, so in such cases it would be probably better to set grid-size to 10 10 10 m. Again, you can specify other units than meters. Third part is output specifications. For now, we have only one export. We will export a map (single page, not atlas). This map will be in xvi format (-fmt xvi option). This map will use xvi-export layout. This is specified by the "-layout xvi-export" option. Finally, the "-o irurixo.xvi" option sets the name of the output xvi file we are going to create. OK? Press F9 key or "Compile" button, and wait until text box next to compile button shows "OK". Your new xvi file should be in example's directory now. If you got an "ERROR" message, you can see in the lower half of Compiler window what happened. This lower half shows therion's log file, and usually error's cause is visible here. You can go to bad lines, correct them and press F9 key or "Compile" button again. We are now ready to draw over our centerline data. 3.1.4- DRAW DATA AND .th2 FILES 3.1.4.1- BACKGROUND IMAGES Go to Window -> Map editor. Then go to File -> New. Black canvas should be yellow now. It's time to give a name to and save new .th2 file, so relative paths to other things (as background images) can be stablished. The "Background images" control panel is at the bottom of the right part of map editor window. Click on "Insert" button. If you haven't saved .th2 file yet, a warning message will be displayed asking for it. Press OK, then a "Save" window will appear. After new .th2 file is saved, another window will appear. This time it asks for image you want to load. Choose the new .xvi one. You don't need to care about other buttons in this panel: they are intended to be used with scanned sketches. There is a zoom control in "Drawing area" panel, just over the "Background image" panel. Click on rectangle next to "Zoom 100%" to see zoom menu. Also, you can scroll the canvas. Now you are ready to begin your first scrap. 3.1.4.2- SCRAPS Drawings are divided into "scraps". Anything between a scrap/endscrap pair of lines is part of the same scrap. Into the scraps, we will find points, lines and areas. You'll see scraps and their contents in "File commands" control panel. For simple, small caves like this, all the drawing can be done in only one scrap. However, if cave would be bigger, making only one scrap could lead to memory problems when compiling. This is not the case with our example. Also, if there were parts of the cave overlapping underlying passages, the only way to do is to have more than one scrap, because scraps can't intersect themselves (more on this later). For now, we want only to learn how to draw, so we will do only one scrap. Go to "File commands" control panel, and press the "Insert scrap" button. The "Scrap control" panel will open. Xtherion will suggest "scrap1" as scrap's name. It's fine for now. Next, you'll need to choose a projection for the scrap. Since we are drawing cave's plan, choose "plan" from the menu (click on triangle to see it). You can press "Update" button to be sure that Xtherion will save this changes, but usually there is no need, because it's done automatically. Scrap is now created, and you can see a pair of lines in "File commands" list. 3.1.4.3- POINTS Go to "File commands" control panel again. Click on rectangle next to "Action" to show action options menu. Choose "Insert point". The "Insert scrap" button will change into "Insert point". Press it to begin inserting points. All this steps could be done by pressing "Ctrl-P". We are in "point insertion mode" now. Look at the bottom of the window: you'll see a red box showing what we are going to do: insert point. By default, Xtherion will create points with last type you used. So the fastest way is to create all points of the same types (i.e., stations) then change type (i.e., stalactite) to insert all stalactites, and so on. 3.1.4.3.1- STATION POINTS First of all, we will draw and reference stations. The .xvi image shows centerline with stations. Click on one of them. Point control panel will open. Therion will set type "station". In "options" box, you'll see "-name X", where X is station number (or name) as it is named on centerline data. It has been referenced automatically, because xvi image holds the necessary information to do it. So -when working over .xvi images- you don't need to care about referencing drawed station points to real centerline points. This would not be the case if you were working over scanned sketches. You can exit the "point insertion mode" by pressing "Esc" key, or by clicking twice in the same point. Now the red box at the bottom of the window is green, and shows a "select object" message. Now you can click on points to select them. Once selected, you can move them by dragging. To delete a point, select it, then go to "File commands", click on "Action" menu, choose "Delete", then press what is actually "Delete" button. Or select the point and simply press "Crtl-D". Each scrap needs to have at least two centerline-referenced station points. From these two points, scaling and rotating can be calculated, since we have point's position on screen (pixels) and point's coordinates (from centerline data). I usually reference all stations, not two. If there aren't at least two referenced stations in the scrap, it must be scaled by hand. This is always the case when you select projection "None". It is used to do cross-sections, so don't care about hand-scaling for now . 3.1.4.3.2- GRADIENT ARROWS So you have already referenced all your stations in the scrap. What now? Well, you could place your gradient arrows. Enter point insertion mode, click to insert new point, then go to Point control panel and choose "gradient" from "type" menu (click on triangle to see menu). Gradient arrows need to point in some direction. To achieve this, check "orientation" checkbutton. Now, on the canvas, the point will show an arrow. Click on arrow's head and drag it to desired direction. The same can be done by typing angle in textbox next to orientation checkbutton (360º). Then you can click on another place to insert other gradient arrow, and so on. We know, it's still a point, not a gradient arrow. Xtherion is not WYSIWYG. You don't see any symbols on canvas, only points and lines. Don't worry: after compiling, symbols will be displayed in finished .pdf maps. And you can place the cursor over objects and see what they are in status bar. 3.1.4.3.3- LABELS Now you can insert some labels, like "P100" or "Entrance". Insert a point where label should be placed, then go to Point control panel and choose "label" from "type" menu. Next, write this on options textbox: -text "This will be displayed" As you can guess, after compliling, finished .pdf map will show "This will be displayed" text centered over label point's position. There are some tricks about labels. If you write this in options textbox: -text "This will be displayed" ... compiled map will show "This will be displayed" in italic. Another case: if you write... -text "This will be
displayed" ... compiled map will show the text splitted in two lines. Still another case: if you write... -text "This will be
displayed" ...compiled map will show text in two lines, right-aligned. , and
tags have effect only if there is a
tag too. 3.1.4.3.4- SECTION This is used to anchor cross-sections. Each cross-sections drawing must be in their own scrap with projection "none". More on this later. Insert a point where a cross-section has been taken, chosse type "section" from menu, then write on options textbox: scrap This is, you are referencing another scrap where cross-section is drawed. 3.1.4.3.5- OTHER POINT TYPES As you can see in point type menu, there are more point types than mentioned here. Most of them are symbols for speleothems, passage fills, passage ends, equipement... We will don't mention them here, because it's only an introductory work. Many of them don't need any option tobe used (i.e, speleothem points). We suggest you to try these points. If, after compilation, they don't show as expected, go to thbook.pdf and read about this point type options. You'll find it on pages 18, 19 and 20. 3.1.4.4- LINES Usually, wall lines are the first thing we draw on map editor window. However, we have explained points first. Since this is an introductory work, it's probably better to explain things from the simplest object. Simplest object is, of course, a point. Lines are made from points, so there is some logic explaining them after stand-alone points. You can either draw lines or points first, it doesn't matter. To draw a line, press "Ctrl-L" or do the usual way to "File commands" panel, choose "Insert line" and press what is actually "Insert line" button. Again, you'll see the red box at the bottom of the window, this time it says "Insert line point" 3.1.4.4.1- HOW TO DRAW STRAIGTH LINES As previously mentioned, lines are made from points. Now that we are on "line point insertion" mode, click on canvas, then click again in another place. You should have a straigth line between 2 points now. You can extend your line by clicking where needed. So you'll have a line made from straigth segments between line points. To finish a line (i.e, to exit line point insertion mode) you can a) press Esc key, b) click again on the last point you made. Red box at the bottom of the window is green now, and you are back on "select object" mode. So you can click press Ctrl-L again to insert another line, or click on objects to select and edit them. To delete a entire line with all its points, select the line and press Ctrl-D, or go to "File commands control" panel, choose "Delete" from "Action" menu, and press what is actually "Delete" button. When clicking on a line, there will be always a selected point. You can identify it because it has a red circle. Usually you click on the interesting point. If you click on the line itself, then next point towards end of the line will be selected. When a line point is selected, you can move it by dragging. Try it now. As you see, you can select and drag any point on any line. To delete only a line point (not entire line) select it, go to "Line control" panel, clic on rectangle next to edit to see menu, and choose "Delete point" To insert a new point in the line, you must select the point next to desired place towards the end. Then go to "Line control" panel, click on rectangle next to "Edit" to see the menu, and choose "Insert point". Now you can click on the line to insert new point(s) in desired place. When finished, you can press Esc key or click again on point you selected at beginning. You can split the lines. Select the point where the cut will be done. Then go to "Line control" panel, clic on rectangle next to "Edit" to see menu, and choose "Split line" If you need to split the line and there is no line point at the rigth place, you'll need to insert a line point in this place first. It's time to notice the yellow tick displayed at the beginning of each selected line. If you look from the first point towards next, yellow tick will be always on the left. It's important because this will be the side on wich many things will be drawed. I.e., ticks for floor-step will be drawed on this side. When you are drawing cave walls, it's expected that you draw them counterclockwise, so this yellow tick should point toward indoor, not outdoor. If you draw the line in the bad direction, don't worry. It's enough to go to "Line control" panel and click on "Invert" button. This effectively reverses line points order, so first point becomes last one and yellow tick will be displayed on the opposed side. You can draw a closed area. To do it, simply click on the first point of the line. Area will be closed and you'll be back in "Select mode" automatically. Also, you could go to "Line control" panel and check "Close" 3.1.4.4.2- HOW TO DRAW CURVES As you have seen, to draw straigth lines it's enough to click where you want a point to be. To draw a curve, you need to drag instead. This is: choose a convenient place for your point, do click and hold the mouse's button down. Now move the mouse, always holding button down. You'll get a curve. The more you move the mouse, the more pronounced the curve is. Play a little bit. When your curve looks OK, release mouse button. Done. Notice that last point drawed is still selected and has 2 little red squares. They are called handlers. They control the curve. First one controls curve before the point. You can drag it and see how the curve is modified. Second one controls curve from this point. Just now, there is not curve after this point so it could seem to be useless, but as soon as you create next segment, it will do its work. There is a third handler, a magent one, on previous point. This is how second one will look as soon as you create next point. Still, you can drag it to make the curve more or less pronounced, but now it's impossible to change the direction: its fixed. Since both consecutive line points have influence over the intermediate segment, transitions would be always smooth. What if, after doing a curve, you want next segment to be straigth? Well, you could drag the second red handler until it's over the line point. This effectively reduces its influence to zero, i.e., no smoothing will be done. But there is a better method: Go to "Line point control" panel. You'll see three red (so checked) checkbuttons marked "<<" (previous), "smooth" and ">>" (next). Uncheck ">>". Second handler is now missing. Notice that "smooth" checkbutton was unchecked automatically. So, next transition will not be smooth. Also, you can uncheck "<<" and get previous transition unsmoothed. Not satisfied? Check "smooth" again to get both transitions smoothed. Check "<<" or ">>" if you want only given transition smoothed. Again, you can edit line points after the curve is done. You can a) click on any point to select it, then drag it to new position, b) draw the handlers to get a more or less pronounced curve and transitions. If you can't see a handler, probably "<<", "smooth" and/or ">>" are unchecked, so if you need the handler, check it again. You will get 2 red handlers on selected point, which you can drag on any direction independently, and 2 magent handlers, each in previous and next points to selected one, which can only be dragged in one direction. You don't need to create a lot of points. With little practice, it's easy to draw anything clicking only on center and corners of curves. While maintaining shape, the less points you draw in a line, the better. Now you can mold a line in any shape you want. Time to see Therion's line types. 3.1.4.4.3- LINE TYPES Line types are choosed on "Line control" panel. Clic on triangle next to "type" to see menu. Choose what you need. Draw your lines. Remember, by default Xtherion will create lines with last type you used. So the fastest way is to draw all lines of same type (i.e., walls) then change type (i.e., contours) to draw all your contours, and so on. 3.1.4.4.3.1- WALLS This is the default type suggested by Xtherion, so you probably have already at least a "wall". Walls are the limits of the scrap. Most simbols are clipped if they are out of scrap's limits. This is handy, because you don't need to adjust other lines exactly. I.E., after your walls are drawed, you can extend your countours out of the walls. Those out-limit parts will not be printed. So you don't need to care about adjusting contour ends to wall exactly. In fact, since areas are limited by lines that intersects, it's better to be sure that your lines intersects well. More on this later. Most simbols are clipped by scrap's limits represented by walls. To disable this default behaviour with a symbol (be it point, line or area), you can go to "options" textbox and write: -clip off So this concrete symbol will not be clipped. You can also specify "-clip on" to get it clipped. However, some symbols never will be clipped (e.g.; labels). Now imagine this: you have a passage that splits in two. After some meters, they join again into only one. So inner walls could be seen as a kind of "pillar". This can be confusing for Therion, because there are now four walls. What is out limits and what is not? In this case, we need to select inner walls and write this in "options" textbox: -outline in So Therion will know wich wall are outer walls and wich are not. Other options that apply to walls are "subtype options". If you need an appropriate line to draw a presumed wall, you need to write in options textbox: -subtype presumed Other wall subtypes are: underlying, unsurveyed, sand, clay, pebbles, debris, blocks, ice. In each case, you'll get a distinctive line as assigned by the symbol set (UIS, etc) you choose. 3.1.4.4.3.2- OTHER LINE TYPES Most line types are self explanative and don't need any option. As you can guess, countour is used to draw contour lines, pit is used to draw pits, and so on. Rock-border and rock-edge are used to draw block borders and block inner lines respectively. Section is used to draw a line showing cross-section position. This line type is somewhat tricky. It will be explained extensively with cross-sections. Slope is used to draw a contour line with a tick pointing slope's direction. This symbol needs to have "L-size" checkbox checked on "Line point control" panel. Border is useful when you need to draw a closed line to define an area. In this case, you'll probably want it to be invisible. To do this, write in "options" textbox: -subtype invisible And this border will be invisible. This "invisible" subtype apply to most line types, not only borders. For more information about line types and options that apply, please see thbook.pdf. You'll find line types in pags 21, 22 and 23. 3.1.4.5- AREAS Usually we use areas to point some fill on the passages, be it water, sump, clay, sand... Areas are limited by lines. These lines can be of any type, but they must intersect. To be sure that lines really intersect, it's better to draw lines beyond passage walls. This out-limits parts will be clipped. The same effect can be achieved inside passages by using line type border with "-subtype invisible" option. Remember that Xtherion will use last type you choosed as default value for next areas to create. So the fastest way is to define all areas of same type (e.g.: water), then change type (e.g.: clay) to define all your clay areas, and so on. As usual, you'll find an area "type" menu in "Area control" panel. To insert a new area, press Ctrl-A or walk the usual way to "File commands" panel, choose "Insert area" from "Action" menu, and press what is actually the "Insert area" button. Area control panel will open automatically and you'll be in "insert area border" mode, as stated by the red box at the bottom of the window. Now you can click succesively on lines that work as a concrete area borders. You need to proceed clockwise or counterclokwise. This is, you need to click succesively on lines that intersect. If you clicked in two border lines that don't intersect, you'll get unexpected behaviour. Notice that, when you clicked on a line, it gets listed in Area control panel as e.g.: 12-268-340. This is line's name (ID) as assigned automatically by Xtherion. Since we created these lines, they remained unnamed and it was fine, but now that we want them to be listed as area borders, they need a name. If you go to "File commands control" panel, you'll see that new name is displayed in selected lines. You can rename a line to a more descriptive name by selecting it, going to "Line control" panel and editing the ID on "ID" textbox. Back on the "Area control" panel, you can click a name in the list and press "Delete" button to get it out of the list. "Deleted" lines will not be removed, simply they aren't treated as area borders. When all borders for a concrete area have been listed, press Esc key. You'll be back in "Select object" mode so you can press Ctrl-A again to begin to define another area, or click on any object to select and edit it. However, it's not possible to click an area on canvas. You must go to "File commands control" panel, and click on the appropiate line to select an area. One of the borders of the area will become the selected thing on canvas, so you can see if this is the area you are effectively looking for. If you don't realized it yet, the same is true for lines and points too. If you click an object line in "File comannds" list, the object will be displayed on canvas as selected. If you select an object on canvas, its line in the list will we displayed in grey. Other panel lists work the same way, e.g.: line point list on "Line control" panel. To delete an entire area, select it on "File commands control" panel and press Ctrl-D, or choose "Delete" from "Action" menu and press what is actually the "Delete" button. For a complete listing of area types and options that apply, see thbook.pdf. You'll find it on pages 23 and 24. 3.2- EXTENDED ELEVATION To do a extended elevation, you work much the same way as you worked to do the plan. This is, you need to export a xvi image with extended centerline, then you'll draw points, lines and areas over it. So you need a) extend your centerline, b) edit thconfig file to export a xvi image with extended centerline and c) draw it the same you drawed the plan 3.2.1- HOW TO EXTEND CENTERLINE From 0.3.7, Therion by default will extend all points to the right. To change this, you can edit your centerline data to add some "extend". You can add "-extend left" to centerline line (in your .th file). All points will extend to left now. If you need to extend some stations to rigth, write "extend right" before the first one. After the last one, write "extend left". Done. Yes, it's so simple. If you are not a native english speaker, and -like me- always wonder wether to write "right" or "rigth" you can use "normal" and "reverse" instead. In this example we will extend stations to the left, but stations from 34 to 40 need to be extended to right. Further, we have two short shots corresponding to little prolongation of the passage that we don't want to be in the xvi image. It would look like this: ####################################################################### survey irurixo -title "Irurixo Koba" centerline -extend left # <<== MAIN CHANGE. ALL POINTS WILL EXTEND TO LEFT NOW date 2005.02.26 declination -3 degrees team "Mac Theknife" team "Juxe Euskalduna" # add as many team lines as you need units compass grad data normal from to length compass clino left right up down fix 0 575628 4476124 1250 fix 42 575100 4476655 1310 0 1 16.25 345 -10 1.00 0.85 6 1.60 1 2 4.10 275 1 0.30 0.90 2 1.60 (more survey data) 31 32 2.80 50.00 29.00 0.40 0.50 0.40 0.40 32 33 4.40 116.00 3.00 3.00 6.00 1.40 0.80 extend right 34 35 8.50 20.00 -5.00 1.00 2.00 1.25 0.25 35 36 3.70 45.00 4.00 0.80 2.00 0.25 0.25 36 37 3.60 51.00 13.00 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.15 37 38 2.00 41.00 16.00 0.00 2.50 2.00 0.20 38 39 4.60 115.00 20.00 1.50 1.00 2.00 1.00 39 40 4.00 393.00 -32.00 1.20 2.00 1.00 0.80 40 2 3.80 133.00 15.00 0.30 0.50 1.20 0.80 extend ignore 41 10 3.10 159.00 6.00 1.00 2.50 1.20 0.80 11 42 4.00 137.00 0.00 0.20 0.80 2.50 1.00 endcenterline endsurvey ####################################################################### 3.2.2- EXPORTING EXTENDED CENTERLINE AS XVI IMAGE You need to add a line like this to your thconfig file: export -proj extended -fmt xvi -o nombre_extended.xvi In the sample thconfig, simply uncomment the line. Now you can press or "Compile" button to build your axtended.xvi image. From here, you'll work exactly the same way that you worked on the plan. 3.2.3- DRAWING EXTENDED ELEVATION Of course, .th2 can hold many scraps. Scrap projection does not matter. Simply open your .th2 file and insert the new background image. You can place the image by dragging (double right click + drag) or, more precisely, giving coordinates in pixels for upper left corner of inserted image and pressing "Move to" button. Draw your lines, reference your stations, etc. As you can see, all this work is exactly the same you did for plan. 3.3- CROSS-SECTIONS Altough a cross-section with two or more stations on it is theorically possible, in practice this does not happen. Usually, if it's taken at same place as a station, there could be only one station. Often, there will not be any station in cross-sections. Therion needs at least two stations to scale scrap automatically. So we need to scale it manually. After drawing and scaling, we need to place it on appropiate location in plan and elevation scraps, and to draw a line pointing position and facing (towards cave bottom or towards cave entrance), always in plan and elevation scraps. We are going to see all these things in detail. 3.3.1- DRAWING CROSS-SECTIONS Open your .th2 file and insert a new scrap with projection "none". Next, press Ctrl-L and draw your cross-section. You can draw it anywhere on canvas, but obviously it's better to draw it where a grid is present, so it will be easier a) to-scale drawing, b) to set scale. 3.3.2- SCALING MANUALLY When you open a new .th2 file. there are 2 red squares at bottom corners of canvas. These points are used to set scale manually. After drawing plan and extended scraps, they could not be visible. If selected object on canvas is not a manually scaled scrap, they will NOT be visible at all. You need to go to "File commands control" panel, then click on the line representing cross-section scrap you create on last step. They should be visible now. However, if some zooming was done, they could be out of visual reach. You may scroll canvas or set zooming to 25% to see them. Once found, they can be dragged. Say, your drawed cross-section is roughly 5 meter tall and 2 meter wide. Place the first scale point in a grid intersection near the lower left corner of cross-section "box". Place second one in grid intersection near upper rigth corner. Go to "Scrap control panel" -> real scale points textboxes. Set coordinates for first scale points to 0,0. Set coordinates for second one to 2,5. Set units if needed (default: meters) Done It does not matter how big you draw cross-section: final output size will be result of real scale points you give. So, if you like drawing cross-sections bigger than plan and extended, you need to give fake coordinates, i.e., in previous case, if you were drawing plan and elevation in 1:1000 scale and want to have cross sections at 1:500, you'll need to give not 0,0-2,5, but 0,0-4,10 instead. 3.3.3- PLACING CROSS_SECTIONS Cross-sections are used in combination with plan or extended elevation, so you need to have section points *in plan and/or extended elevation scraps*. It's easy to insert section points in cross-section scrap itself. In this case, cross-section will not be displayed in final pdf output. Go to "File commands control" panel, look for appropiate plan/extended scrap and click any line inside it. Then insert a point and set type to "section". Xtherion will add new objects *over* clicked line, so don't click on "scrap" line itself or your point will not be in desired scrap. Anyway, don't worry if your point was inserted out of appropiate scrap, because you can click the line representing point section and move it with "Move up", "Move down" and "Move to" buttons, until it's placed in the correct scrap. Also, be aware that cross-section will appear centered over this point in final pdf output, so please draw it accordingly. After the section point is created in the corresponding plan/extended scrap, you need to give an option in options textbox: -scrap where is the name of scrap holding the cross-section. As you can guess, section point is calling cross-section scrap in order to get it drawed in final pdf output. You can place as many section points calling the same cross-section as you need (usually plan and extended elevation). 3.3.4- DRAWING SECTION LINES Section lines are used to a) point where a cross-section is taken, b) point in what direction it has been taken (towards entrace/towards-bottom), so we can identify left and rigth sides appropiately. They can form an L-shape which traverses passage. Long line joints cross-section with the place it was taken, and traverses passage but it's invisible while on passage. Thus short line is in the opposed side, and shows an arrow pointing direction used when cross-section was taken. In order to achieve this, some tricks are needed. We could guess that we need to draw a straigth line, and we would be wrong. We need to draw a curve instead, so there will be control points that will allow set line sizes in order to get them out of passage. Say you have a section point over a passage. You click below this point and drag until you reach passage wall. Then go to oposed side, click and drag until the other wall is reached. By dragging until walls are reached, you are placing control points next to walls, and both line parts will be draw accordingly on final pdf output. If you dragged into the passage, line parts will break into the passage. Even if you drawed a curve, you'll get a straigth line between the two points you clicked in, and long line parts will be as long as you dragged the mouse. To get the arrow, you need an option. Write in options textbox: -direction end This means that an arrow will be drawn on second (final) point. As previously explained obout lines, arrow will be draw on line's left side, as evidenced by the yellow tick on line's first point. So, to get a section line which points towards left, you need to draw first point lower than second one, and use "-direction begin" option so the arrow is drawn on first (initial) point. To get a section line wich points towards rigth, first point must be higher than second one, and you should use "-direction end" option. 3.4- GETTING THE FINAL PDF OUTPUT