NAME

       aven - sophisticated cave viewer

SYNOPSIS

          aven [--survey=SURVEY] [--print] SURVEY_FILE

DESCRIPTION

       Aven displays processed cave surveys in a window and allows you to manipulate the view.

       If  SURVEY_FILE  is an unprocessed survey data format which cavern can process, then aven will run cavern
       on it, and if successful, display the processed data.  If there are any warnings and errors, it will show
       a log window with the output with clickable links to open the affected file at the problematic line.

       SURVEY_FILE can also be processed survey data - a Survex .3d file, a Compass .plt file  or  a  CMAP  .sht
       file.   It  can  also  be  a Survex .pos file or a CMP .una or .adj file, but for these only stations are
       shown, not any legs (for .pos this is because the format only records station  positions).   (All  Survex
       programs which read .3d files can also transparently handle these formats.)

   On-Screen Indicators
       There  is an auto-resizing scale bar along the bottom of the screen which varies in length as you zoom in
       or out.  You can left-button drag on this to zoom, and right click gives a menu to select units  or  hide
       the scale bar (to get it back go to the Control->Indicators menu from the menu bar).

       In the lower right corner is a compass indicator showing which way is North.  You can drag this to rotate
       the  view;  if  while  dragging  you  move the mouse outside the compass the view snaps to 45° positions:
       N/NE/E/SE/S/SW/W/NW.  Right click gives menu to change the view to N/S/E/W, select  units,  or  hide  the
       compass (to get it back go to the Control->Indicators menu from the menu bar).

       Just  to the left of the compass is clino indicator showing the angle of tilt.  You can drag this to tilt
       the view; if while dragging you move the mouse outside  the  clino  the  view  snaps  to  90°  positions:
       plan/elevation/inverted plan.  Right click gives menu to change the view to plan/elevation, select units,
       or hide the clino (to get it back go to the Control->Indicators menu from the menu bar).

       In  the upper right is a colour key showing the correspondence between colour and depth (by default - you
       can also colour by other criteria).  Right click gives a menu to choose what to colour by, select  units,
       or hide the colour key (to get it back go to the Control->Indicators menu from the menu bar).

   Mouse Control
       Using  the  mouse to move the cave will probably feel most natural.  We suggest you try each of these out
       after reading this section to get a feel for how they work.

       If you hold down the right button then the view is panned when you move the mouse - it effectively  feels
       like you are dragging the cave around.

       If  you  hold down the left button, then the view is rotated as you move left or right, and zoomed as you
       move up and down.  If you hold down Ctrl while dragging with the left mouse button, then  moving  up  and
       down  instead tilts the view.  Tilt goes 180 degrees from plan view through elevation view to a view from
       directly below (upside down plan) - aven deliberately doesn't  allow  going  beyond  horizontal  into  an
       inverted view.

       If  your  mouse has a middle button then holding it down and moving the mouse up and down tilts the cave.
       Moving the mouse left and right has no effect.

       And if you have a scrollwheel, this can be used to zoom in/out.

       By default the mouse moves the cave, but if you press Ctrl-R, then the  mouse  will  move  the  viewpoint
       instead  (i.e. everything will go in the opposite direction).  Apparently this feels more natural to some
       people.

   Keyboard Control
       As with mouse controls, a little experimentation should give a better understanding of how these work.

       All keyboard shortcuts have a corresponding menu items which should show the  keyboard  shortcut  -  this
       provides a way within the application to see the keyboard shortcut for a particular action.

       Delete  is  useful  if you get lost!  It resets the scale, position, and rotation speed, so that the cave
       returns to the centre of the screen.  There are also keyboard controls to use

       P and L select Plan and eLevation respectively.  Changing between plan to elevation is animated  to  help
       you  see  where you are and how things relate.  This animation is automatically disabled on slow machines
       to avoid user frustration.  You can force skipping the animation by pressing the key again during it,  so
       a double press will always take you there quickly.

       Space toggles on and off automatic rotation about a vertical axis through the current centre point (which
       is  moved  by  panning  the  view  or  by  selecting  a  station  or survey).  R toggles the direction of
       auto-rotation.  The speed of auto-rotation can be controlled by Z and X.

       Crosses and/or labels can be displayed at survey stations.  Ctrl-X toggles  crosses  and  Ctrl-N  station
       names.  Ctrl-L toggles the display of survey legs and Ctrl-F of surface survey legs.

       Ctrl-G toggles display of an auto-sizing grid.

       Ctrl-B toggles display of a bounding box.

       O  toggles  display  of  non-overlapping/all names.  For a large survey turning on overlapping names will
       make update rather slow.

       Holding down Shift accelerates all the following movement keys:

       The cursor keys pan the survey view (like dragging with the right mouse button).

       Ctrl plus cursor keys rotate and tilt (like the mouse left button with Ctrl held down).  C/V do the  same
       as Ctrl plus cursor left/right, while Apostrophe ', and Slash / do the same as Ctrl plus cursor up/down.

       [ and ] zoom out and in respectively.

OPTIONS

       -p, --print
              Load the specified file, open the print dialog to allow printing, then exit.

       -s, --survey=SURVEY
              Only load the sub-survey SURVEY.

       --help display short help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

SEE ALSO

       cavern(1), diffpos(1), dump3d(1), extend(1), sorterr(1), survexport(1)

COPYRIGHT

       1998-2025

                                                  Mar 20, 2025                                           AVEN(1)