Leslie and all the TSS officers, Thanks for making this great opportunity available, especially during the weekend where folks from out of town can take advantage of it.
I’m very sorry I won’t be able to attend as I have a previous engagement I really can’t break. However, I would encourage you to offer this opportunity again later in the year (maybe every quarter). I’m sure that similar training on the commercial market would be worth hundreds of dollars and would encourage anyone with an interest in cave mapping to attend. Not only will you learn some great skills, but you’ll also meet the movers and shakers of Texas caving. Thanks, Geary Schindel From: Leslie Bell [mailto:bellem...@yahoo.com] Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2011 11:26 PM To: Texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: [Texascavers] TSS Survey Mapping Workshop - 3rd announcement TSS Survey Mapping Workshop 24 September 2011 You just bought the TSS Map CD. Congratulations! Time to put more cave maps in your grotto presentations and trip reports for The TEXAS CAVER, right? But wait, these scans haven’t been cleaned yet! Worse yet, the maps for the caves you really want to talk about are not even there yet! What do you do? Come to the TSS Survey Mapping Workshop, that’s what! We will walk you through all the steps of digitizing hard copy cave maps, rotating, cleaning, editing, and relabeling them using PhotoShop and GIMP, a similar (but free!) software. We will also briefly introduce you to producing your own map entirely digitally, straight from your survey notes, using WALLS and Inkscape, both free programs. This workshop will run from 10:00 to 6:00, and will include pizza and drinks, for a suggested donation of $10. Bring any cave maps (preferably no bigger than 8.5”x11”) you have that you want to digitize, a flash drive to take your maps home, and survey notes of a small cave if you wish to get started on the drafting process. If you don’t have hard copy cave maps or survey notes, don’t worry! We have plenty! There are 8 workstations currently available at the TSS office, or you can bring your own computer if you have the software already loaded before the workshop. GIMP http://www.gimp.org WALLS http://www.utexas.edu/tmm/sponsored_sites/tss/Walls/tsswalls.htm Inkscape http://inkscape.org Any finished maps of Texas Caves will be added to the TSS archives, and placed on the next edition of the Map CD. Topics for the first portion of the workshop (map editing) include: Sources of maps needing work Overview of PhotoShop/GIMP Scanning hard copy maps (settings, resolution, output format, etc.) Editing graphic files (mode, resolution, rotation, contrast and brightness, filters, erasing “noise”, moving map elements, re-lettering, saving and exporting) Using maps in publications and talks Topics for the second part of the workshop (digital drafting) include: Scanning hardcopy survey notes Introduction to WALLS (data entry, file management, data reduction, scaling maps, exporting lineplots) Introduction to Inkscape (creating projects, working with layers, importing survey scans and lineplots, common drawing tools, adding scale bars, north arrows, and text, and exporting and printing) Texas Speleological Society Survey Mapping Workshop Saturday, September 24th 10AM - 6PM J.J. Pickle Research Campus, Building 18-A Austin, TX Workshop instructors are TSS Directors and Associates. For more information, or to register, contact Jim Kennedy, TSS Office Manager, at jkenn...@batcon.org or Leslie Bell at bellem...@yahoo.com. Leslie Bell <http://www.squeezebot.com>
