RockWorks: Playlists, faults, time-based modeling, interface updates and much more!
All of the modeling and graphic power of RockWorks is now offered with the easy-to-use Playlist for program automation, time-based modeling and animation, updated search tools, and many other new features and functionality. Read about it below and/or view the video from our What’s New Webinar.
Lithologic Models are now displayed with a New Menu box within the Lithology Model Options that allows the user to turn on and off lithologic units. Volumetric calculations are updated with each change.
A new program titled “Migration Simulation” has been added to the Graphics / Animate menu. This program will create animations in which the low values migrate to the high values or vice-versa.
A new program titled “Distance to Point” has been added to the ModOps / Solid / Filters menu. This program will replace non-null nodes with values equal the straight-line distances between the nodes and a specified point source.
Added menu item under ‘Edit’ which will allow user to combine two data types in the Types Table.
This new tool works for Stratigraphy, Lithology, Well Construction, Aquifers, Bitmaps, I-Data, I-Text, P-Data, P-Text and T-Data Types Tables.
RockWorks Keeps Improving! Review the full Revisions List HERE.
Other Recent Improvements in RockWorks:
- Added a Location Map program to the >Borehole Operations >Maps menu. This programs allows users to create a location diagram for previously created and saved sections, profiles and fences that are stored in the project database.
- The Utilities / Stats / Sieve Analysis program now includes an option for plotting vertical lines indicating where the sieve curves intersect a user-defined threshold. This provides a visual indicator that shows the grain sizes above or below a percentage threshold.
- Capability for ‘auto offsetting’ of text boxes when displaying blocks of text on symbol maps.
- A program titled Radial Diagrams has been added to the Utilities / Maps sub-menu.
- In the Polygon Table Editor, you can now import from a datasheet that defines polygon perimeter points.
- The Density increase and decrease button within the Pattern Selection sub-menu now increase and decrease in 0.25 increments thereby minimizing the need to manually specify the Density.
Program Automation
The RockWorks Playlist offers easy automation – just click a button to add a program to the current Playlist. Then, click a button to run your Playlist to create models, maps, diagrams while you have lunch. Available for Basic (5 items), Standard (5 items) and Advanced (unlimited items).
The Playlist provides:
- Turn-key tools for colleagues or clients who need to use RockWorks capabilities without any downtime spent learning how to use it.
- A memory aid for projects that are infrequently re-visited.• An audit trail to serve as a record of what was done and all of the associated menu settings.
- Automation of data processing in which new data is being introduced on an ongoing basis (e.g. resampling and monitoring).
- A template for processing different data sets/sites using a streamlined workflow.
Recent Playlist Improvements:
- Launch an external program from within the Playlist to automate data transfer.
- Load dimensions from a sub-site within the project, and from a saved coordinate list.
- Easier navigation with multi-select cut/copy/paste.
- Playlist Button: Add the current application to the Playlist.
- Favorites Button: Add the current application to your Favorites List.
- Output Options: Export diagrams and reports directly to the desired output format.
RockWorks Command Scripting for Advanced users – start with a Playlist and go for it!
Improved Faulting Tools
Use the Faults tab in the main program window to manage 2D and 3D faults in a single database table.
Import faults from a variety of sources, including:
- Lines and polylines in the RockWorks datasheet or drawn on a map
- XYZ points, dip direction, dip angle, and up/down projection distances listed in the datasheet
- XYZ triangles in the datasheet
- RockWorks grids
- RockWorks17 fault tables and fault files
- Transfer faults between projects, import/export to Excel and text
Apply Faults
- Click the Faulted check-box in the Gridding Options or Solid Modeling Options tabs to apply the enabled faults to the modeling process.
- Fault names are embedded in model metadata.
- Grid smoothing honors fault barriers.
Display Faults – plot enabled faults in…
- 2D maps showing all fault triangles, or intersections with a plane or a surface. 2D fault maps are offered as a standard layer in all other RockWorks maps.
- 2D cross sections and profiles and projected section diagrams.
- 3D scenes as panels using the colors and fill defined in the table. 3D fault displays are offered as a standard layer in all other programs which generate 3D output.
Available for Basic (3 faults), Standard (3 faults), and Advanced (unlimited faults).
Interface Features
- Search option lists the programs that contain your search terms.
- Favorites Option: Create your own menu list of frequently-used programs
- Borehole Manager Tab: New features including database comparisons.
- Playlist Tab: Automate multiple tasks in an interactive fashion.
- Faults Tab: Redesigned to manage all faults in 3D as a database.
- Dock/Undock: Arrange main RockWorks program tabs in any configuration.
- Full-Expand Option: Stretch the main RockWorks menu across multiple screens.
- Expanded Project Dimensions Summary: View more information at a glance.
- Update Project Dimensions using a rectangle drawn on a map.
- New Layout Options: Save and retrieve up to 5 different main menu layout configurations.
- Execution History Tab: Review program history to diagnose problems.
- Videos Tab: Access the entire library of RockWorks instructional videos.
- Application Descriptions: Read program abstracts as you move your cursor over items within the pull-down menus.
- Consolidated Application Menu Ribbon: No more switching between program tabs.
Application Windows
- Nested Tab Menus: Replace hard-to-read expanding/collapsing menu trees.
- Expanded Spatial Filtering: Moved to the top of the menu and now applied to most applications.
- Expanded Time Filtering: Moved to the top of the menu and now applied to most applications.
- Instructions Checkbox: Enable/disable help messages.
- Restore defaults: Restore default settings for individual menus.
Programs that read data from the Datasheet now include an Example button, which will list one or more sample files that can be used to demonstrate the application.
Diagram Embellishments
To eliminate additional steps in combining and appending diagrams, common embellishments have been added to the programs that create sections, profiles, projected sections, maps, 3D diagrams and charts.
- Sections, Profiles & Projected Sections – Additional diagram layers include perimeter annotation, surface profiles, faults, infrastructure, up to five 2D graphics overlays, peripheral annotation (titles, title blocks, legends, and image), and a border.
- Maps – Additional map layers include a background image, labeled axes, map overlays, up to five additional 2D diagrams, peripheral annotation (titles, title blocks, legends, scalebar, and image), and a border.
- 3D Diagrams – Additional 3D layers include striplogs, draped images, floating images, control point spheres, a perimeter cage, legends, 3D infrastructure, 3D faults, and up to five additional 3D diagrams.
Expanded Output Options
2D, 3D, Google Earth, and Reporting programs now include output and export options that remove post-processing steps and facilitate uninterrupted Playlist scripting.
- All programs that generate 2D diagrams now include options for simultaneously exporting the output to PDF (as raster images) and/or PNG.
- New 3D output tab includes options for exporting the diagram to a PNG image using a variety of user-specified viewing parameters.
- New Google Earth output tab includes options for specifying the initial viewer location and viewing direction.
- Programs that create reports now provide options for direct output to CSV (Excel), Txt (Notepad) or RTF (Word).
- Striplogs – PDF Bulk Exporter – All of the boreholes within a database can now be exported in one step to a multi-page PDF (as raster images) file that can serve as a report appendix.
Other Database Features
New database comparison tool provides a quick and easy report of the differences between borehole data in different projects. This capability is especially useful when the same database has “diverged” (e.g. multiple users working on the same database without a shared version on a network server).
RockWorks now supports over 5,800 coordinate systems. Convert coordinates in the datasheet, database, maps, and data as it’s being imported.
Import multiple raster logs into the Borehole Manager at one time.
Modeling Features
- Time-Based Modeling – New T-Data Multiple Solids program automatically creates “snapshot” models at designated time intervals which can be constrained by a permeability model and output to a variety of animation programs. Refer to the TCE Site sample project and tutorial.
- New Automatic Polygon Clipping – All gridding and solid modeling programs now include an option for clipping the model based on an automatically-defined convex polygon defined by the control points, analogous to stretching a rubber band around the boreholes.
- Clip Grid Models using polygons in a table or a map.
- New Spatial Filtering – All programs that involve coordinates now include a spatial filtering option so that subsets (including zones between surfaces) can be selectively analyzed/modeled.
- New Time-based filtering options have been added to the Hydrochemical utilities (i.e. Durov Diagrams, Piper Diagrams, Stiff Diagrams and Stiff Maps) as well as any programs that might include striplogs (in order to filter water levels and/or T-Data).
- Create a depth to target grid model for specified values in a solid model.
- Calculate where two grids intersect, such as a water table and surface topography.
- Import 5 meter DEMs to a RockWorks grid model.
- Create a solid model in which the voxel values between two surface model grids are defined by another grid (e.g. ore grades).
Animations
New animation tools have been added for creating videos in which XYZ data, grids, and solids are transitionally “morphed” to show geochemical migrations over time. The output can be saved to AVI, Animated GIF, MP4, WMV, individual frames or exported as a Google Earth animation.
- Solid model reveal animations offer starting view, zoom, stretch, colors, and more. Include up to 12 different changes of direction.
- Solid isosurface animations offer 6 cutoff levels for finer detail.
- Automatically hide time-data striplogs with no data for the sampling date.
- Processing speed has been improved by 30%
Other Map and Diagram Features
- Borehole Location Maps – Display maps symbols from the database, or used fixed symbols.
- 3D Cylinders – Specify the number of sides in 3D cylindrical entities (such as logs) for faster display and smaller export.
- Display multiple surface profile polylines (such as ground surface AND water table) in cross sections.
Reporting Features
- Create a report that lists the change in mass of a contaminant over time, from a list of time-specific geochemical solid models.
- Restrict graphs and reports for subsurface quantitative data based on lithology types or stratigraphic units.
- Output a list of files/entries in the Project Manager.
- New report formatting and export options.