(061) New Feature (02/16/11/JPR):  The Utilities / Coords / Longitude/Latitude -> UTM, Longitude/Latitude -> State Plane, State lane -> Longitude/Latitude, and UTM -> Longitude/Latitude programs have been consolidated into a new program titled "Longitude/Latitude <-> UTM <-> State Plane".

This new program provides much greater flexibility for converting between longitude/latitude, UTMs, and State Plane coordinates.

For example, it is now possible to convert from SPCS-feet to UTM-meters.

(060) New Feature (02/16/11/JPR):  The RockPlot2D / Utilities / Lon/Lat->UTM and UTM->Lon/Lat options have been replaced by a new program titled "Convert Map Coordinates".

The new Convert Map Coordinates program provides more options for converting maps from one coordinate system to another including the State Plane Coordinates.

(059) New Feature (02/16/11/JPR):  The RockPlot2D / File / Export / KMZ program now includes options for converting diagrams that are in SPCS (State Plane Coordinate System) units to be converted to longitude / latitude (a requirement for importing diagrams into Google Earth).

(058) New Feature (02/15/11/JPR):  The Utilities / Coords / Jeffersonian Polygons -> XY program now includes options for saving the output in SPCS (State Plane Coordinate System) units.

(057) New Feature (02/15/11/JPR):  The Utilities / Coords / Jeffersonian Points -> XY program now includes options for saving the output in SPCS (State Plane Coordinate System) units.

(056) Removal (02/15/11/JPR):  The x-offset and y-offset options have been removed from the programs that deal with PLS (Public Land Survey) data.  These options were intended to be used as a crude method for dealing with SPCS (State Plane Coordinate System) data.  Now that these program support direct SPCS conversions, these offsets are superflourous and confusing.

(055) Cosmetic (02/15/11/JPR):  The "UTM Projection & Zone" tab within the Project Dimensions menu has been renamed to "Projections & Zones" to accomodate the new State Plane Coordinate options.

(054) New Feature (02/15/11/JPR):  The Borehole Manager / Map / Borehole Locations (Google Earth) now supports datasets in which the eastings and northings represent decimal degrees and state plane coordinates.

(053) Bug Fix (02/15/11/JPR):  The Borehole Manager / Map / Adjust Borehole Coordinates / Compute Longitude Latitude / Based on UTM Meters program now works correctly.

(052) Bug Fix (02/15/11/JPR):  The Borehole Manager / Map / Adjust Borehole Coordinates / Compute Longitude Latitude / Based on UTM Feet program now works correctly.

(051) New Feature (02/15/11/JPR):  The Utilities / Map / Land Grid / Section Map program now includes options for handling projects in which the project dimensions represent SPC (State Plane Coordinates) or decimal degrees.

(050) Bug Fix (02/14/11/MIW):  Unsupported characters within DXF layer names are now replace with underscore characters ( "_" ).

(049) Bug Fix (02/11/11/MIW):  Exporting solid  models to Google Earth no longer causes and "Out of Memory" error.

(048) Bug Fix (02/11/11/MIW):  Exporting large models to Google Earth no longer creates model file names that Google Earth can't read.

(047) Bug Fix (02/11/11/MIW):  Fixed a bug in the new Borehole Selector for the XY coordinate table that caused the easting coordinates to be sent instead of the eastings and northings.

(046) New Feature (02/10/11/MIW):  Points for an XY coordinate table can now be added by borehole name.

(045) New Feature (02/09/11/MIW):  The Truncate options has been added to the straight-line stratigraphic cross-sections.

(044) Cosmetic (02/07/11/MIW):  The Borehole Symbol & Label options dialog has a new, cleaner look.

(043) New Feature (02/07/11/MIW):  Numerical optional fields within the Location table can now be gridded and contoured.

(042) New Feature (02/07/11/MIW):  Numerical optional fields within the Location table can now be displayed as a "Bubble Map" from the Borehole Map menu.

(041) Removal (02/05/11/JPR):  All references to automatically calculated UTM zones have been removed.  Instead the UTM zone for all RockWorks programs is always considered to be that specified by the user within the main Project Dimensions tab.  Good riddance to a well-intentioned idea that created a wealth of confusion.

(040) Bug Fix (02/05/11/JPR):  The Utilities / Map / LandMap / Section Map program no longer omits sections whose area represents more than 1.5 square miles.  The internal omission threshold has been increased to 2.0 square miles.  This threshold is used to filter-out bad data within the BLM/USFS/USDA-based lookup-table (LandBase).

(038) New Feature (02/02/11/MIW):  Borehole map labels can now include the option fields from the Location Table.

(037) New Feature (02/02/11/MIW):  The Borehole Manager / Stratigraphy / Stratigraphic Thicknesses / 2-Dimensional (Isopach) program now allows the user to generate thickness maps base on the top or base of any stratigraphic unit and the top or base of any other stratigraphic unit thereby allowing the user to group multiple units into a single isopach.

(036) New Feature (02/02/11/MIW):  Striplogs will now plot stratigraphic data when only the tops are defined.  This is accomplished by automatically setting the lower depths to the top-depths for the next lowest unit.  The depth to the base of the lowest entry is assumed to be equal to the TD (total depth) for the borehole.  In addition, stratigraphic units may now be repeated.

Caveats:

• This "relaxation" of the depth-to-base requirement does not effect any of the model-based programs (e.g. stratigraphic modeling, model-based cross-sections, etc.).  These programs will ignore any stratigrahic interval data that does not include a depth-to-base.

• Subsequent processing with this type of data should be limited to the following programs;

  • Stratigraphy / Structural Elevations / 2-Dimensional

  • Stratigraphy / Structural Elevations / 3-Dimensional / One-Surface

  • Stratigraphy / Structural Elevations / 3-Dimensional / All-Surfaces

  • Stratigraphy / Stratigraphic Thicknesses / 2-Dimensional

  • Stratigraphy / Section / Straight

  • Stratigraphy / Fence / Straight

  • Stratigrahy / Fence (ESRI Format) / Straight

• All of the aforementioned programs will go "haywire" if the stratigraphy includes repeated units.  This capability was added only for users who wish to plot striplog cross-sections that do not include any type of stratigraphic correlation or modeling (e.g. striplog-only cross-sections).

• These changes were made for users who only work with structural tops and don't require stratigraphic modeling

(035) New Feature (02/02/11/JPR):  A new program titled "Meters to Feet" has been added to the Borehole Manager / Map / Adjust Borehole Coordinates menu below the new "Convert Collar Elevations From ..." sub-heading.  This program is identical to the program described below (#34) except that it converts collar elevations within the Location tab from meters to feet.

(034) New Feature (02/02/11/JPR):  A new program titled "Feet to Meters" has been added to the Borehole Manager / Map / Adjust Borehole Coordinates menu below the new "Convert Collar Elevations From ..." sub-heading.  This program converts collar elevations within the Location tab from feet to meters.

(033) New Feature (02/02/11/JPR):  A new program titled "Meters to Meters" has been added to the Borehole Manager / Map / Adjust Borehole Coordinates menu below the new "Convert Eastings/Northings From ..." sub-heading.  This program is similar to the program listed below (#32) except that it converts Eastings and Northings within the location table from meters to feet.

(032) New Feature (02/02/11/JPR):  A new program titled "Feet to Meters" has been added to the Borehole Manager / Map / Adjust Borehole Coordinates menu below the new "Convert Eastings/Northings From ..." sub-heading.  This program converts Eastings and Northings within the location table from feet to meters.

(031) New Feature (02/02/11/JPR):  A new program titled "SPCS83 (NAD83 State Plane Coordinate System) Meters" has been added to the Borehole Manager / Map / Adjust Borehole Coordinates menu below the new "Compute Longitude/Latitude Based On ..." heading.  This program is identical to the feature described below (#30) except that it treats the input (eastings and northings) as meters rather than feet.

(030) New Feature (02/02/11/JPR):  A new program titled "SPCS83 (NAD83 State Plane Coordinate System) Feet" has been added to the Borehole Manager / Map / Adjust Borehole Coordinates menu below the "Compute Longitude/Latitude Based On ..." heading.

This program is used to convert and export NAD83 State Plane Coordinates from the Easting and Northing location fields to the optional Longitude/Latitude fields.

(029) New Feature (02/01/11/JPR):  A new program titled "Longitude/Latitude -> SPCS83 (NAD83 State Plane Coordinate System) Meters" has been added to the Borehole Manager / Map / Adjust Borehole Coordinates menu below the new "Compute Eastings/Northings Based On ..." sub-heading.  This program is identical to the item listed below (#28) except that it outputs the eastings and northing in meters rather than feet.

(028) New Feature (02/01/11/JPR):  A new program titled "Longitude/Latitude -> SPCS83 (NAD83 State Plane Coordinate System) Feet" has been added to the Borehole Manager / Map / Adjust Borehole Coordinates menu below the new "Compute Eastings/Northings Based On ..." sub-heading. 

This program is used to convert the optional Longitude/Latitude fields to Eastings and Northings (in feet) based on the State Plane Zone that is defined within the new Project Dimensions / UTM Projection sub-menu.

(027) New Feature (02/01/11/JPR):  A new program titled "State Plane -> Longitude / Latitude" has been added to the Utilities / Coords menu.

This program is used to convert NAD83 State Plane Coordinates (in feet or meters) based on the current zone selection within the Display Project Dimensions / UTM Projection & Zone sub-menu (see item #25 below) to decimal longitude/latitude within the Utilities Datasheet.

(026) New Feature (02/01/11/JPR):  A new program titled "Longitude / Latitude -> State Plane" has been added to the Utilities / Coords menu.

This program is used to convert decimal longitude/latitude coordinates within the Utilities Datasheet to NAD83 State Plane Coordinates (in feet or meters) based on the current zone selection within the Display Project Dimensions / UTM Projection & Zone sub-menu (see item #25 below).

This new program, along with a slew of other, related programs described above, are based on the United States National Geodetic Survey
SPCS83 Fortran source code by Edward E. Carlson and T. Vincenty (2002).

(025) New Feature (02/01/11/JPR):  A new button titled "Index Map" has been added to the Display Project Dimensions / UTM Projection & Zone submenu.

When clicked, this button will display an index map that shows the various SPCS83 (State Plane Coordinate System - NAD83) zone numbers.

(024) New Feature (01/31/11/JPR):  A new option titled "SPC-1983 (State Plane Coordinate) Zone" has been added to the Display Project Dimensions / UTM Projection & Zone sub-menu. 

This pull-down menu is used to select the State Plane Coordinate System that will be used when converting State Plane Coordinate within other/future RockWorks sub-programs.

Please note that this new capability only applies to the latest state plane conventions (i.e. NAD83/SPCS83).  It does not apply to NAD27/GPPCGP conversions.

(023) Bug Fix (01/27/11/JPR):  The Borehole Manager / Map / Adjust Coordinates / Longitude\Latitude -> Easting\Northing program now works correctly.  The previous version would use the "automatic" zone setting (which has recently been removed from this portion of the program).

(022) New Feature (01/26/11/JPR):  A new program titled "GPX (Universal GPS) Waypoints" has been added to the Utilities / File / Import menu.

This simple program extracts the ID, longitude, latitude, elevation, and comments for waypoint data from a GPX file.  It is intended for users who need to transfer GPS data into RockWorks without the intermediate steps of importing/exporting the data into another product (e.g. MapSource).

GPX has become the quasi-universal format for GPS data storage.  For example, you can use this program to extract waypoint data from a Garmin 550T GPS by connecting the USB cable directly to the GPS, launching this program, navigating to the file of interest, and clicking on the Process button.

Note:  In order to use this program most effectively, you should configure your GPS to output longitude latitude in decimal degrees (hddd.ddddd°) as opposed to decimal minutes (hddd°mm.mmm') or degrees-minutes-seconds (hddd°mm'ss.s").  This elimates a step (i.e. converting to decimal degrees) later on when converting to other coordinate systems such as UTM Meters.

(021) New Feature (01/25/11/JPR):  A new program titled "GT-Compositing" has been added to the Borehole Manager / P-Data / Analyze menu.

This program reads a column of P-Data that represents grade values (e.g. eUranium) and computes a variety of GT (grade x thickness) statistical information based on user-defined minimum grade and maximum waste-thickness cutoff values.

The output from this program may be stored within an Excel-compatible CSV file, I-Data columns, or a special XYZ file that may be used for subsequent point-mapping and/or contouring.

The P-Data / Analyze / GT-Compositing program is identical to the I-Data / Analyze / GT-Compositing program (described as item #20 below) with the exception of how the input data is treated.  Specifically;

• The I-Data version does not require uniform point spacing whereas the P-Data version does.

• The I-Data version uses intervals that are defined by a depth-to-top and a depth-to-base whereas the P-Data version requires that the user specify the sampling interval  (see item #1 in menu example above).

• The P-Data version defines an interval in one of two possible ways;

  • If the P-Data represents the top of the interval (see item #2 within the menu example above), the interval top will be considered to be the original P-Data depth while the base of the interval will be considered to be the P-Data depth plus the user-defined vertical point spacing (see item #1).

  • If the P-Data represents the midpoint of the interval (see item #3 within the menu example above), the interval top will be considered to be the original P-Data depth minus half of the user-defined vertical point spacing while the base of the interval will be considered to be the original P-Data depth plus half of the user-defined vertical point spacing.

(020) New Feature (01/24/11/JPR):  A new program titled "GT-Compositing" has been added to the Borehole Manager / I-Data / Analyze menu.

This program reads a column of I-Data that represents grade values (e.g. eUranium) and computes a variety of GT (grade x thickness) statistical information based on user-defined minimum grade and maximum waste-thickness cutoff values.

The output from this program may be stored within an Excel-compatible CSV file, I-Data columns, or a special XYZ file that may be used for subsequent point-mapping and/or contouring.

Terminology: 

• Intercept:  This is a zone of contiguous material that meets the criteria defined by the minimum acceptable grade and the maximum acceptable waste thickness.

Menu Options:

• Input (Grade) Track:  This is the I-Data track that contains the grade data.  For example, this might represent %eU3O8 (Uranium Grade Equivalent), ounces per ton Gold, etc.

• Output:  The output from this program may be saved within a CSV file (described below), tracks (columns) within the I-Data table, and/or an ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) text file with xyz-style data for subsequent mapping.

  • CSV File (Excel Report):  If checked, the output from this program will be saved within a Excel-compatible CSV (Comma Separated Values) ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) file as shown by the following example.

    

    Because CSV files are "generic" (readable by a wide variety of programs - including RockWorks), there is no formatting.  As a consequence, any special formatting such as column title centering, font sizes, etc, must be performed by the user after the CSV file has been auto-loaded into Excel.  Note:  If a CSV file with the same name is already open when the program attempts to create this file, the program will notify the user and ask them to either close the CSV file within Excel or enter a different output file name.

    • File Name:  This is the name of the CSV file that will be created by the program and automatically loaded into Microsoft Excel (or whatever program has been associated, via your Windows settings, with the CSV file extension.

    • Report Title:  This is the title that will appear within the first row of the CSV file.

• I-Data Tracks:  Check this item if you want to export the output from this program into tracks (columns) within the I-Data table as shown by the following example.

  

  This I-Data may be incorporated within graphic striplogs as shown by the following example.

  

  Please note that the I-Data output columns must be defined within the I-Data table before this program is used.

  • Thickness:  Check this box if you want to store the intercept thicknesses.

    • Track:  I-Data column in which the Thickness computations should be stored.

  • Sum of Grade x Thickness:  Check this box if you want to store the sum of all grades multiplied by the thicknesses for each sample interval within the associated intercept.

  • Track:  I-Data column in which the Sum of Grade x Thickness computations should be stored.

  • Average Grade:  Check this box if you want to store the average grade for all sample intervals within the associated intercept.

    • Track:  I-Data column in which the Average Grade computation should be stored.

  • Maximum Original Grade:  Check this box if you want to store the maximum grade value for all of the sample intervals within the associated intercept. 

    • Track:  I-Data column in which the Maximum Original Grade values should be stored.

  • Minimum Original Grade:  Check this box if you want to store the minimum grade value for all of the sample intervals within the associated intercept.

    • Track:  I-Data column in which the Minimum Original Grade values are to be stored.

  • Depth to Maximum Grade:  Check this box if you want to store the depth to the maximum grade within the associated intercept.

    • Track:  I-Data column in which the Depth-to-Maximum-Grade values are to be stored.
      

• XYZ File:  If checked, the program will save an XYZ point within the designated file for each borehole.  The x-coordinate will contain the easting for the borehole collar, the y-coordinate will contain the northing for the borehole collar, and the z-value will represent the total for all "sum of grade x thickness" values for that particular borehole.

  

  This data is intended for plotting borehole location maps in which the point label represents a summary to the borehole's economic value.  These values may also be contoured, but (and this is important), inclined boreholes will produce misleading contour maps since the xy location for each point always corresponds with collar location.  Please note that creating an XYZ file only makes sense if you're processing all of the borehole (see "Apply to" option below).

  • File Name:  This is the name for the ASCII file in which the tab-delimited xyz data will be stored.

  • Z-Decimals:  Number of significant digits to use when saving the z-value (sum of GT values).  This setting is useful if the XYZ file is to be used for creating a two-dimensional map as shown below.
      

Cutoffs:  This are the primary filtering values that are used to determine the extents of the ore intercepts. 

• Minimum Acceptable Grade:  This value determines what is considered "acceptable" ore.

• Maximum Acceptable Waste Thickness:  This value defines the amount of waste, or "interburden" that is acceptable for zones that are bounded, above and below, by intervals that contain material that have "acceptable" grade values.

• Filtering:  These options allow the user to force the program to only consider input data within a specified depth and/or elevation range.

  • Depth Filtering:  If checked, this setting will cause the program to only process data that is between the specified minimum depth and the specified maximum depth.  We specifically avoid the terms "above" or "below" because the borehole may be inclined upwards (e.g. an underground exploration hole drilled upwards).

    • Minimum Depth:  Sample intervals between the collar and this depth will be ignored.

    • Maximum Depth:  Sample intervals between this depth and the total depth (TD) of the hole (TD) will be ignored.

  • Elevation Filter:  If checked, the program will ignore all sample intervals above the maximum elevation or below the minimum elevation.

    • Minimum Elevation:  Sample intervals below this elevation will be ignored by the program.

    • Maximum Elevation:  Sample intervals above this elevation will be ignored by the program.

• Apply to:  This program may be used to compute GT-related values for just the currently-highlighted borehole or all of the boreholes.

  • All Enabled Boreholes:  Compute GT-related values for all of the enabled boreholes (boreholes that have a checked-box next to their names within the Borehole Manager.

  • Currently Highlighted Borehole:  Compute GT-related values only for the currently "active" borehole as defined by an arrow adjactent to the borehole name within the Borehole Manager.

(019) Bug Fix (01/24/11/JCJ):  When using a database served by an MS SQLServer, stratigraphic data within Stratigraphy tab will no longer apparently disappear as it is inserted.

(018) Removal (01/23/11/JPR):  The "View Larger Map" button within the Principal Meridian selection dialog has been removed now that the dialog is resizable.

(017) Improvement (01/23/11/JPR):  The Principal Meridian selection dialog is now resizable meaning that the radio buttons will be automatically repositioned as the dialog size changes.

(016) New Feature (01/22/11/JPR):  The Utilities / Map / Land Grid / Section Map program has been re-designed to take advantage of the new LandBase PLS (Public Land Survey) database (see preceding New Feature listing below).  These changes are described as follows;

(1) The program now asks for the units that are represented by the Project Dimensions in order to search the LandBase based on coordinates in addition to the range, township, and section information.

(2) The map extents may now be defined by the current Project Dimensions.

(3) The map extents may now be defined by a user-defined "window".

(4) Section label dimensions are now expressed as a percentage of the diagonal size of a section.

(5) Township label dimensions are now expressed as a percentage of the diagonal size of a township.

(015) New Feature (01/21/11/JCJ):  The LandBase (Public Land Survey Range,Township,& Sections) database has been updated to include data for all of the Public Land Survey meridians based on BLM, USDA, USFS, etc. data.  An index map showing the new coverage is shown below.

The structure for the LandBase files and associated programs has been changed.  As a consequence, the new LandBase files must be downloaded from the RockWare web site (by selecting the RockWorks / Help / Downloads option) if you use any of the following programs;

• Borehole Manager / Map / Adjust Coordinates / Jeffersonian -> Easting/Northing

• Utilities / Map / LandGrid / Section Map

• Utilities / Map / LandGrid / Lease Map

• Utilities / Map / LandGrid / Lease Map for Google Earth

• Utilities / Coords / Jeffersonian Points -> XY

• Utilities / Coords / Jeffersonian Polygons -> XY

The new LandBase files are much larger (from 143mb to 351mb!) thereby requiring significantly more time to download from the RockWare website (e.g. overnight).

Note: Some of the programs within RockWorks that use LandBase may have unpredictable results when processing abnormal section or township data.  Utilities such as well-spotting and lease-plotting may produce unpredictable results when dealing with sections that are convex polyhedra.  For example, consider the hodgepodge of sections (below) within southern Louisiana.  The polygons that have been shaded yellow represent examples of problematic sections.