StickMaps Quickstart

Understand the basics in less than 25 images!

Log in to validate your license

After a successful validation, you can use StickMaps for 2 weeks without an internet connection.

Create a new file

For this example, we will choose to create a new project.

Choose a name for your project and the save location

In most cases you will want to name your project after the system you are surveying. Of course you can change both of them any time you want.

Import survey data

For this example we will import some data from a Mnemo .dmp file. Please see our documentation for other importing methods and/or formats here.

Select your .dmp file

Most of StickMaps file selectors will remember their last used path. The next time you want to open a .dmp file, the file selector will open in the same directory.

Provide survey details

Feel free to fill in every field of this screen; it will help you identify your survey later. Yet remember: “Everything is optional”. You can just skip through by clicking Next.

• see Mnemo import

Select the lines to import

In general, you won’t have to change anything in the default field, just select the lines you want to import.

Verify each line

Apart from naming your line and adding additional details, StickMaps might ask you to verify some stations. These stations have lower than usual accuracy and StickMaps allows you to change its default behaviour. If you want to know more about correcting inaccurate stations, see Verify Lines.

Import complete

After verifying your lines, you will be presented with a small overview dialog. It shows you some details about the import. Click Finish to complete your work.

View your import inside the Navigator

If the Navigator on the left side of your application window did not open automatically, you can do so by pressing Ctrl+[space bar] or go to the top menu and choose View -> toggle Navigator. The Navigator will hold all your data throughout the process of building your stickmap.

• see Navigator

Adding your first line to the map

When you hover your mouse pointer over your line, you will see the cursor change. Hover over your first line, left-click and hold, and move your mouse into the map area. You will see your cursor change again, and right at the moment you enter your map, your line will be shown under your cursor.

• Depending on the direction you have set for this line, you will either use the first or the last station as the reference. To change the reference: right-click your line and choose edit line, and change the Direction.

Dragging your line on the map

Now that your mouse pointer resides within your map view, you are provided with a preview of your line. Choose the approximate location of the start of the line.

• If you have the GPS coordinates of the entrance available, it doesn’t matter where you drop your line.

Provide last details and accept

If you have the GPS coordinates of the entrance available, this is the moment to use them. Also, if you used a reel for entering you can add the amount of stations before the permanent line starts. By doing so StickMaps will render your temporary line grey and dashed, making it easy to recognize.

Close your first loop

Some people might have noticed that the main line of the survey in this example is actually a huge loop and jumps back onto itself. So let’s close that loop by hovering the station we want to close and press and hold Ctrl.

Depth-aware station snap

If you now left-click & hold while moving your mouse, you will see that the line is following your cursor. This is our basic loop-close algorithm. When closing the loop it will average the difference over every station until either the moving line connects to another station or it ends. Now to complete our loop-close, hover a station that is in the same depth range as the one you are hovering. You will see it glow up, meaning you can connect your line at that place.

*Be aware that if the difference in depth between two stations is too big, it will NOT snap. To change the margin, go to top navigation -> file -> Preferences -> map and change the station max altitude difference to a bigger number.

Remove stations

In our example, we took 2 extra measurements after connection to the main line, helping us to identify the correct station. Now that we connected our loop, we can remove those stations. Hover over the station, right-click, and choose remove station. Accept the dialog and repeat the process for the last station in the line.

Mark our jump line

The loop we created contains a jump. The last 5 stations are actually temporary stations that we created while using our jump spool. Let’s visualize this by right-clicking on your line in the map view or within the Navigator and choosing edit line. Change the “Stations after line ends” to 5 and click Save.

You can clearly see the difference

As you can see, it is very clear to anyone looking at your map that we have just marked a jump and approximately where to expect the start and end of it. By consistently doing so, it becomes very easy to see the difference between a T or a Jump. Even Gaps can be marked this way, although they require you to either survey them as different lines (or import that line twice).

Dropping markers

That last end of our loop is a sidemount passage and we wouldn’t want to send people with backmount and multiple stages in there. It might also be beneficial to drop a marker at the entrance, so it is easy to recognize. Right-click on an empty space on the map and choose Drop marker. Choose an image, color, and title and press Save.

• You can drag markers to different positions by press & hold Ctrl and then drag your marker around.
• You can edit and remove a marker by right-clicking and choosing the appropriate option.

Adding additional lines

Now that our first line is complete, we can start connecting other lines to it. Drag the second line from your Navigator into the map and drop it on top of the station that it connects to. This will use the same depth-aware snapping as when we are closing loops, ensuring you choose the correct station.

No coordinates this time

As we are connecting our line to an existing line, we won’t be able to set the longitude/latitude. We would be able to set the amount of temporary stations here but as this is an actual T, this time we won’t do so.

Share your map

What is a map worth if no one uses it? CaveGuide is a mobile app that works as a viewer for StickMaps files. By publishing your map in StickMaps it becomes available in CaveGuide. We provide you a simple yet very powerful way of setting access rights to your maps. When you publish your map, it will only be visible in CaveGuide, and even if we would want to, we will not be able to load the shared map back into StickMaps due to missing data.