Creating New Projects With The Project Wizard

When you create a large survey project, you have one or more survey files organized under a project file. Normally you only use project files when you are working with a large cave or a multi-cave system. The Project Wizard guides you through the process of creating a new project. To run the Project Wizard, select the "File|Project Creation Wizard" from the menu bar. There are three steps to creating a new project:

1. Select Existing Surveys Files For The Project. If you have already entered survey data in Survey Data files, you can use these files as a part of your project. Before you incorporate these files into your project, make sure that the files are in the folder (directory) you are planning to use for this project. If necessary, you can use Windows tools to create a new folder and move the files. Once, you have the files in the proper folder, you need to select the files you want included in the project. You do this by clicking on the Insert File icon. You can use the "Browse" button to select the survey files you want add to the project. Do this for each file that you want in the project.

2. Create New Survey Files For The Project. If you haven't entered the survey data for the project, you will need to create one or more new files to hold the data. You do this by clicking on the Create New File icon. Make sure that you save these files in the Windows folder you will be using for the project.

3. Finish. Once you have finished inserting the new and existing files in the project, click on the "Finish" button. At this point you can select a filename for your project and a folder where the project file will be stored. Generally, you want to choose a name for the project that is different from any of the data files in the project; otherwise, Compass may display the wrong files when you want to view the cave. Also, you will want to save the project file to the same folder as your survey data files.

Once you have finished, the files you have selected and created will appear in the survey tree.. Make sure that the files appear in the tree in the proper order. For example, surveys associated with entrance of a cave should appear before surveys at back of the cave. If they don’t, you can simply drag them to new locations in the “tree” and save the result.

4. Enter Data For New Surveys. If you need to enter data into the newly created surveys, begin by enabling the Show Surveys option and double click on one of the survey data files in the tree to display the surveys inside. Now click-on the newly created survey to highlight it and then click the Edit Cave Survey or File button. This will take you to the Survey Editor. Enter your survey data, save the data and exit from the editor.

5. Process The Data. Highlight the item in survey tree you want to view. You highlight an item by clicking on it. With a project, you can select either the Project File or one of the Survey Data Files. If you select the project file, you will view all the files in the project. If you select one of the data files, you only view that data. Once you have selected the file, click the Process And View Cave button. The data in your file will be processed and then displayed by the Viewer.