Mark what matters.

During a survey or hike workout, tap Note from the drop pin menu. Type your note and confirm. The note is anchored to your current position on the Map Line or Hike Line and saved to the project immediately.

Notes appear in the Details tab under Project Notes, and in exported PDF reports.

Notes don't have to be tied to a specific point on a line. From the Details tab, tap + Add Note to drop a project-level note — useful for trip conditions, access notes, anything that applies to the whole project rather than a specific location.

Tap any note in the Details tab to edit it. Notes can be assigned to a specific survey station after the fact using the station picker — useful when you dropped a note mid-traverse and want to tie it to the nearest station.

Annotations are cartographic symbols dropped on your Map Line — the same symbols your grotto uses on paper survey sketches. They mark passage features, hazards, speleothems, and other points of cartographic significance. Each annotation stores a semantic type so switching symbol standards never alters the underlying data.

During a survey workout, tap Annotate from the drop pin menu to open the annotation radial picker. Select the symbol type and confirm. The annotation is anchored to your current position on the Map Line.

You can also drop annotations during a LiDAR scan using the Marker button on the scan screen — without stopping the capture.

SpeleoMap currently supports two cartographic symbol standards:

• NSS. National Speleological Society standard. The default for US cave surveys. 59 symbols covering passages, speleothems, hazards, and features.
• KSS. Kentucky Speleological Survey standard. Same 59-symbol set as NSS; glyphs diverge in a later rendering pass.

Switch standards in Settings → Profile → Appearance → Symbol standard. Switching standards changes how annotations display — it never changes the underlying data, so you can switch back at any time.

If your survey uses a standard not currently in the app, contact support — additional standards are added on request.

Tap any annotation in the Details tab to change its type. The annotation picker opens and lets you reassign the symbol — useful when you dropped the wrong type in the field and want to correct it later.

Annotations appear in the 2D plan view, PDF report export, and CSV station data. The semantic type is preserved in the export so downstream tools that understand SpeleoMap's annotation model can render the correct symbol for each standard. See Export.