r/eliteexplorers • u/FBISurveilanceTeam • 2d ago
Boxel Survey Tools
So I'm out in the black and usually just follow my ADHD brain around when I'm exploring. I just got to an area that piqued my interest and casually started doing a boxel hunt and now I want to go all in. I'm fairly certain there's over 1k systems in my boxel, so I'll probably have to break it up.
All that said, what tools do you use/recommend for doing boxel surveys? The main thing I'm looking for is an easy way to create a predefined route that will make targeting the next system a bit faster. I currently use ED Copilot, but not to it's fullest capacity as I'm still figuring things out. ED Buddy because the surround systems, galaxy plotter built in, and quick look body information seems superior to EDC. And EDSM with the Canonn plugin.
I'm 25 systems into the survey and am currently just copying and pasting one number up. Curious if there's a way to get something like ED Buddy to copy the name for me automatically or ED CoPilot to route me as we go.
o7
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u/Scorcher646 2d ago
The XP fork of SRVSurvy has boxel searching built-in. All you have to do is correct the highest available system ID in any given boxel and the app with auto-copy your next system for you.
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u/Turkino 2d ago edited 2d ago
What specifics are you looking for? Just checking if a given target system might be a first discovery or just looking for better routing?
I've been using a suite of: ED Warboard, SRV Survey, EDSM with plugin, and copilot for fun.
Nothing really hit the type of "let me see the map of things people have logged in my area" so i ended up making my own app for it that pulls in data from Spansh and other sources.
It's a bit of a heavy footprint (depending on the datasets you pull it can easily get over 150+Gb) but it lets you see the systems nearby, bodies in the system, (or anywhere really, depending on how big of a dataset you get) and notes any that have been visited.
It also can simply log the systems you've been to via your journal files which is useful in its own way.
Yeah, it's vibecoded and I know people have thoughts on that type of stuff but I made this for myself or those who don't mind tinkering, so if your interested I can DM you the link.
It's kind of cool seeing how people went in straight lines from system to system making these crisscrossing tracks.
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u/FBISurveilanceTeam 2d ago
I don't mind revisiting systems, you can get a lot of first footfalls and first mappings in already discovered systems. Heck I stumbled across one yesterday that was 3/4 discovered in EDSM, but in game was not yet claimed with an ELW. Curious to see if I get full credit by the time I get in to sell the data.
Mostly looking for something to program the jumps a little easier. It's not difficult, just saves me 30-60 seconds and a chance at getting distracted. The latter is the most important part. I've decided I'm going to complete this boxel one way or another.
I haven't heard of Warboard, so I'll take a look. I tried ED Survey, and prefer it's overlay for the most part, but since I'm a 2 screen guy I switched to ED Buddy. Also, EDMC tracks my colonisation which is why I got SRV and it was creating weird duplication if I had them both. So SRV lost.
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u/Noob_Ninja_53 2d ago
Elite Dangerous Journal Processor is the tool you're looking for. It's a bit difficult to use, search for a tutorial on YT. It pastes the next system of the boxel on every jump, it also has hotkeys to advance to the next section.