Getting Started

This section covers how to obtain the software, and how to unpack and install it, and how to configure it.

Obtaining Survex

The latest version is available from the Survex website. It is freely redistributable, so you are welcome to get a copy from someone else who has already downloaded it, and you can give copies to others.

If you want some sample data to experiment with, you can download some from the Survex website too: https://survex.com/software/sample.tar.gz

Installing Survex

The details of installation depend greatly on what platform you are using, so there is a separate section below for each platform.

Linux

Pre-built versions of Survex are available for some Linux distributions. See the Survex for Linux download page on our website for up-to-date information.

You’ll need root access to install these prebuilt packages. If you don’t have root access you will need to build from source (see the next section).

macOS

The easiest way to install a recent release of Survex on macOS is by using the Homebrew package manager. If you don’t already use Homebrew, you’ll need to install it first. See the macOS download page on the website for installation instructions.

Other versions of UNIX

For other UNIX versions you’ll need to get the source code and compile it on your system. Unpack the sources and read the file called INSTALL in the top level for details about building from source.

Microsoft Windows

This version comes packaged with an installation wizard. Just run the downloaded installer package and it will lead you through the installation process.

Survex 1.4.8 and later support installing for all users (which requires administrator rights) or just for the current user (which doesn’t). If installed for just the current user, other user accounts won’t see the file associations, menu entries, desktop icons, etc for Survex.

Note that if you have an existing installation the installer will see it and try to upgrade it, and if that installation was done with administrator rights (which any installation of 1.4.7 or earlier will be) you’ll also need administrator rights to upgrade. To change to a non-admin installation you need to first uninstall the existing admin install (which will need admin rights) then install the new version.

The survey viewer that’s part of Survex is called aven, and uses OpenGL for 3d rendering.

If you find that 3D rendering is sometimes very slow (e.g. one user reported very slow performance when running full screen, while running in a window was fine) then try installing the OpenGL driver supplied by the manufacturer of your graphics card rather than the driver Microsoft supply.

The installer creates a Survex group in the Programs sub-menu of the Start menu containing the following items:

• Aven

• Documentation

• Uninstall Survex

  Icons are installed for .svx, .3d, .err, and .pos files, and also for Compass Plot files (.plt and .plf) (which Survex can read). Double-clicking on a .svx file loads it for editing. To process it to produce a .3d file, right click and choose “Process” from the menu - this runs aven to process the .svx file and automatically load the resultant .3d file. All the Survex file types can be right clicked on to give a menu of possible actions.

  .svx

  Process

  Process file with aven to produce .3d file (and .err file)

  .3d

  Open

  Load file into Aven

  Print

  Print the file via Aven

  Extend

  Produce extended elevation

  Convert to DXF

  This entry used to be provided to allow converting to a DXF file (suitable for importing into many CAD packages) but this functionality is now available from inside Aven with the ability to control what is exported, and this entry was dropped in 1.2.35.

  Convert for hand plotting

  This entry used to be provided to allow converting to a .pos file listing all the stations and their coordinates, but this functionality is now available from inside Aven with the ability to control what is exported, and this entry was dropped in 1.2.35.

  .err

  Open

  Load file into Notepad

  Sort by Error

  Sort .err file by the error in each traverse

  Sort by Horizontal Error

  Sort .err file by the horizontal error in each traverse

  Sort by Vertical Error

  Sort .err file by the vertical error in each traverse

  Sort by Percentage Error

  Sort .err file by the percentage error in each traverse

  Sort by Error per Leg

  Sort .err file by the error per leg in each traverse

Configuration

Selecting Your Preferred Language

Survex has extensive internationalisation capabilities. The language used for messages from Survex and most of the libraries it uses can be changed. By default this is automatically picked up from the language the operating system is set to use (from “Regional Settings” in Control Panel on Microsoft Windows, from the LANG environment variable on UNIX). If no setting is found, or Survex hasn’t been translated into the requested language, UK English is used.

However you may want to override the language manually - for example if Survex isn’t available in your native language you’ll want to choose the supported language you understand best.

To do this, you set the SURVEXLANG environment variable. Here’s a list of the codes currently supported:

Code	Language
en	International English
en_US	US English
bg	Bulgarian
ca	Catalan
de	German
de_CH	Swiss German
el	Greek
es	Spanish
fr	French
hu	Hungarian
id	Indonesian
it	Italian
pl	Polish
pt	Portuguese
pt_BR	Brazillian Portuguese
ro	Romanian
ru	Russian
sk	Slovak
zh_CN	Chinese (Simplified)

Here are examples of how to set this environment variable to give messages in French (language code fr):

Microsoft Windows

For MS Windows proceed as follows (this description was written from MS Windows 2000, but it should be fairly similar in other versions): Open the Start Menu, navigate to the Settings sub-menu, and open Control Panel. Open System (picture of a computer) and click on the Advanced tab. Choose Environmental Variables, and create a new one: name SURVEXLANG, value fr. Click OK and the new value should be effective immediately.

UNIX - sh/bash

SURVEXLANG=fr ; export SURVEXLANG

UNIX - csh/tcsh

setenv SURVEXLANG fr

If Survex isn’t available in your language, you could help out by providing a translation. The initial translation is likely to be about a day’s work; after that translations for new or changed messages are occasionally required. Contact us for details if you’re interested.

Using Survex

Most common tasks can now be accomplished through aven - processing survey data, viewing the processed data, printing, exporting to other formats, and producing simple extended elevations.

A few tasks still require you to use the command line, and some functionality is available both via aven and from the command line, which allows it to be scripted.

The command line programs that come with Survex are:

cavern

Processes survey data. Since version 1.2.3 you can process .svx files by simply opening them with aven, so you don’t need to use cavern from the command line if you don’t want to, but it’s still available for users who prefer to work from the command line and for use in scripts.

diffpos

Compares the positions of stations in two processed survey data files (.3d, .pos, .plt, etc).

dump3d

Dumps out a list of the items in a processed survey data file (.3d, .plt, etc). dump3d was originally written for debugging, but can also be useful if you want to access processed survey data from a script.

extend

Produces extended elevations - this is probably the most useful of these command line tools. Since Survex 1.2.27 you can produce simple extended elevations from aven using the “Extended Elevation” function. However the command line tool allows you to specify a spec file to control how the survey is extended, which you can’t currently do via aven.

sorterr

Re-sorts a .err file by a specified field.

survexport

Provides access to aven’s “Export” functionality from the command line, which can be useful in scripts. Added in Survex 1.2.35.