echarlie
commented
1 year ago The survex 3d format is relatively well-documented: https://survex.com/docs/3dformat.htm (and in theory should be possible to write with img.c/img.h from survex. Although the survex source code is also quite bearish, and img.c isn't well-structured as a library).
Exporting loop-closed data into 3d would support both the Aven 3d viewer (which is far more sophisticated than existing VRML), and would support drawing maps with Therion (which will take 3d files as a centerline source).
I think it would be a suitable candidate for replacing the existing (broken) VRML viewer, and possibly axeing the the whole walls3d tree as it exists. And survex supports several export formats (e.g. KML, DXF, compass PLT, etc), which could give users more flexibility while reducing codebase here.
But all this is predicated on having some documentation/understanding of Walls' internal representation of loop-closed data, and figuring out how to massage some things like loop error and xsects to match survex's understanding. Which are anything but trivial.
Walls has proven tricky for me to work on so I don't know how much I'll be able to implement new features... One thing you can do right now is import Walls data (including its loop closed XYZ) into Breakout (https://breakoutcavesurvey.com/) and Cavewhere (https://cavewhere.com/) which are good for 3D viewing. I've open-sourced some Walls parsers I wrote which the Survex team is welcome to use to support import, though I want to rewrite and simplify the C++ one (https://github.com/jedwards1211/dewalls).