Did you know that you can use optional fields in the RockWorks Borehole Manager Database, along with SQL statements, to easily enable groups of boreholes within a project?  We’ll describe how to do this in the post below.

RockWorks Optional Fields

The Location table in your RockWorks borehole database is really flexible – you can add any number of customized data fields to this table. You can even use a set of industry templates that are built into the program. These optional fields can be displayed in the Optional tab or in user-created tabs.

We’ll add a new “Groups” field to the database by clicking on the Optional Fields button, and then clicking New Field.  We’ll then populate the field with 1s and 2s to represent two groups within the project.

The RockWorks Playlist

The Playlist tab in the main RockWorks program window is used to automate tasks that you do frequently in the program. Let’s say that you need to quickly select different groups of boreholes as you are working in the program.  This can be done by creating and using a Playlist that includes SQL statements.

To add a SQL item to a Playlist, go the Add menu in the Playlist tab and choose SQL Statements.  Here are some examples of SQL Statements that can be used in this project:

• Item Title:  Disable All – This will disable all boreholes in the database.  If you are trying to enable just a single group of boreholes, you would want to run this before running any other SQL Statements.

UPDATE [Location]
SET Enabled = 0

• Item Title:  Enable Group 1 – This will enable all of the boreholes with a 1 in the “Groups” field in the Location Table.

UPDATE [Location]
SET Enabled = 1
WHERE (“Location”.”Groups” = ‘1’)

• Item Title:  Enable Group 2 – This will enable all of the boreholes with a 2 in the “Groups” field in the Location Table.

UPDATE [Location]
SET Enabled = 1
WHERE (“Location”.”Groups” = ‘2’)

This is what the Playlist looks like.  You can see that the different “items” can be turned on and off, and the Playlist can then be processed through the yellow button at the bottom of the window.

To enable only Group 1 in the database, uncheck Enable Group 2, and hit the Process Playlist button.  Group 1 will be the only boreholes enabled in the Borehole Manager database.

To enable the boreholes in Group 2, Disable All and Enable Group 2 should be checked on, and Enable Group 1 should be checked off.

Keep in mind that these SQL statements do NOT have to be limited to Optional Fields.  SQL statements can be created to query other Location fields (Easting, Northing, Elevation, Total Depth, Etc), Polygon tables, downhole data such as Lithology, Stratigraphy, I/P/T Data, or really any type of data that is stored in the Borehole Manager Database. 

Also, this is just one very limited example of how the RockWorks Playlists can make your life easier.  Playlists can be used to automate the creation of models, cross-sections, maps, or anything else that you would normally do through the RockWorks interface.  Playlists are available in the Basic, Standard and Advanced versions of RockWorks 2020.  If you haven’t taken a look at them yet, you should definitely check them out! Click here for more information about Playlists in RockWorks 2020!