New Features in Encom Discover(TM) 2012

• A free Discover 3D Viewer, allowing Discover 3D sessions to be shared with anyone.
• The automatic notification of maintenance release availability.
• New data capture tools, including customisable style libraries and on-the-fly field validation.
• Visualisation of both 3D vector models (such as mineralisation wireframes) and Voxel / Block models on 2D cross-sections as attributed polygons, for advanced analysis / refinement / interpolation.
• Intuitive 3D navigation with a new interactive onscreen control.
• Projection support has been added to Discover 3D, including the automatic reprojection of datasets.
• Display and model multi-banded grids using independent Red, Green, Blue (RGB) bands/channels, as well as an Intensity (shading) channel.

• Multiple ECW Images can now be bulk imported with Discover in one step, whether in the same or differing projections.
• Creating 3rd party vector formats with the Export Vector tool, such as KML, GPX and DXFs, can now include a Z/height field assignment, as well as an attribute/label field
• (this is therefore great for looking at soil sample results or collar names on simple GPS devices).
• Users can now batch import multiple ASCII files in one step.
• Support for reading and writing ESRI/Arc and Geosoft formatted projection metadata files, for both surface grid and vector data. This includes tools such as Vector Export and Vector Import, File > Open > Grid Images.

• Create and apply user-defined style libraries to both existing and new objects, greatly streaming the object creation process e.g. digitizing geological units or land-use polygons.
• Enter data into a new or existing MapInfo Professional table with on-the-fly field validation, including functionality such as:
  • - user-defined picklists
  • - auto-incrementation
  • - default values
  • - numeric range limits.

• Drillhole project creation and data validation is now a far more intuitive and smooth experience, with many new automatic checks implemented across file paths, table structures as well as datasets.
• Display the intersection of 3D vector models (such as alteration volumes or fault surfaces) on 2D cross-sections, enhancing the interoperability between the 2D and 3D environments. For example, users can now visualise a wire-framed mineralisation model on multiple cross-sections as polygons, for detailed evaluation and / or refinement against down-hole high-grade 2D intercepts. This supports both DXF models as well as Discover 3D feature database (FDB) models.
• Users can now create multiple custom layers for drillhole cross-sections en masse. This allows a far greater control over user-created content (e.g. geological polygons can now be created into a separate layer to fault interpretations).

• Share grid files (such as DEM or geophysical surfaces) with other users as fullresolution raster images, honouring the cell size of the input surface.
• Display and model multi-banded grids using independent Red, Green, Blue (RGB) and Intensity (shading) bands/channels.
• Coherently and accurately visualise multiple grids using the same data break values.
• Grid colour schemes can be saved and reapplied, for consistent and repeatable visualisation of different grids.
• Custom grid colour schemes can be previewed and applied during the grid creation process.
• Enhanced grid transparency allows both specified data ranges and edge clips to be set to transparent.
• The Overlay grid utility has new options for handling overlapping regions (such as min, max, average, first, etc).
• The Batch Grid Utilities have an expanded range of functionality, including:
  • - Flip
  • - Rotate
  • - Surface Area
  • - Grid to Grid Clip
  • - Vectorize tool now replicates the input grid colouring in the output vectors.

Completely new for 2012 is a stand-alone Discover 3D Viewer. This allows any complex Discover 3D session to be shared and viewed with anyone (even if they do not have MapInfo Professional).

• Free
• 'Lite' (less than 50MB download)
• Software independent - it does not require any existing pbEncom products to be installed

The release of Encom Discover 3D 2012 from pbEncom reinforces it as the geoscientist's essential 3D platform for the MapInfo Professional/Discover GIS environment. Discover 3D 2012 introduces a more accessible 3D environment, including intuitive new onscreen navigation controls, full projection support and logical TAB file handling. Modelling and analytical capabilities are also enhanced; users can easily display voxel models on their cross-sections for detailed 2D analysis, as well as clip point clouds to defined volumes for advanced calculations.

• A new interactive onscreen 3D navigational panel provides an accessible and intuitive control interface to users.
• Discover 3D now incorporates projection support, including the automatic reprojection on-the-fly of datasets into the same session projection. This ensures an experience similar to MapInfo Professional.
• Support for reading and writing TAB, ESRI/Arc and Geosoft formatted projection metadata files, for both surface grid and vector data. This includes tools such as Vector Export and Vector Import, File>Open>Grid Images and any files opened directly in Discover 3D.
• Logical handling of MapInfo Professional TAB files in 3D space: drag and dropping of these into the 3D environment will now automatically open them in the most appropriate type (such as an image, surface, etc).
• Users can now clip a point cloud with a vector volume such as modelled mineralisation polyhedron, returning only the contained point data, for more advanced resource calculations/focussed analysis.

• Visualize block / voxel models on 2D drillhole cross-sections as fully attributed polygons, allowing for more advanced interrogation / analysis / comparison in 2D sections.
• Substantial improvements have been made to the processing speed of the many powerful Voxel Utilities. This means much quicker results can be generated from these advanced processes, such as assigning the average grade of all contained block/voxel cells to a series of mineralisation volumes.
• Thresholded Voxel models can be exported as DXFs for more efficient handling / sharing.