(80) New Feature (12/30/09/JPR): Programs that generate profiles that include striplogs now include an option for plotting "stripmaps" along the top or bottom of the diagram.  These stripmaps depict the position of the logs within the search "swath" relative to the profile such that the horizontal axis of the stripmap is parallel to the profile diagram.  The vertical size of the stripmap is determined by the "swath" that is used when selecting the logs that will be included within the profile.

Stripmaps allow the user to visually determine the spatial relationship of a log relative to the projected section (profile).  For example, consider the stratigraphic profile below in which DH-33 does not correspond to the interpreted stratigraphy.  Be looking at the stripmap, we can see that DH-33 is over 100 meters from the profile slice therefore indicating the the stratigraphy varies between DH-33 and the profile.

The new stripmap options are contained within a new group of menu options as shown below.

The various swath-filling options are depicted within the following diagram.

This new capability applies to the following programs:

• Striplogs / Profile

• Aquifers / Profile

• Color / Profile

• Fractures / Profile

• Grid / Profile

• I-Data / Profile

• Lithology / Profile

• P-Data / Profile

• Solid / Profile

• Stratigraphy / Profile

• T-Data / Profile

(79) Bug Fix (12/28/09/JPR): The "View Larger Map" button within the Select Principal Meridian sub-menu (used by programs that perform Jeffersonian land-grid conversions) now works correctly.  The previous version would generate a cryptic error message.

(78) Improvement (12/28/09/JPR): The RockPlot/2D Hyperlink capability no longer determines which link to execute by checking to see if the cursor position is within the hyperlink symbol radius.  Instead, the program will simply display whatever hyperlink is closest to the cursor position.

(77) New Feature (12/27/09/JPR): A new option titled "Hyperlinks" has been added to the Symbol Options dialog that is used by many of the programs that create two-dimensional maps (e.g. Utilities / Map / EZ-Map, Grid-Based Map, etc.).

This new feature is used to create a hyperlink table that is used by the RockPlot/2D program to display additional information when the user clicks on a location within a map.  For example, consider the following scenario in which a column within your datasheet contains the name of a image ...

Activating the Hyperlinks option when creating a map will automatically create a hyperlink table as shown within the following example:

This program will also change the default name for the hyperlink file to the name designated within the Symbol Options menu so that any subsequent hyperlink selections within the RockPlot/2D window will use this table.

Once the Execute Hyperlink option has been selected, the program will load the linked file into whatever program is associated to that particular files' extension.  For example, if the file has a ".png" extension, Windows will load that file into whatever program is associated with ".png" files (e.g. a paint program).  The same logic can be applied to web pages (anything with a ".htm" or ".html" extension), Word files (i.e. the file will be displayed within Microsoft Word), Excel files (i.e. the file will be displayed within Microsoft Excel), etc.  In the preceding example, clicking on the symbol labeled "Bridge Piers" will display the associated image within the Windows Paint program as shown below.

When creating hyperlinks for images, it is sometimes useful to use the new Images option (see Revision #76 below) in conjunction with the new Hyperlink option to show small previews of the images on a map.  In this way, the original, larger image can be displayed by right-clicking on the smaller, preview image and selecting the Execute Hyperlink option from the popup menu.

(76) New Feature (12/27/09/JPR): A new option titled "Images" has been added to the Symbol Options dialog that is used by many of the programs that create two-dimensional maps (e.g. Utilities / Map / EZ-Map, Grid-Based Map).

To use this new capability, add a column of image file names to the datasheet as shown by the following example.

This new program will incorporate the images (as defined within the designated data column), into the final map as shown below.

Notice how the images are plotted on the lower "layer", meaning that any other sample information, such as the sample symbols and labels, are plotted on top of the images.

(75) Cosmetic (12/27/09/JPR): The Symbol Options dialog that is used by several programs (e.g. Utilities / Map / EZ-Map) has been re-designed to accommodate additional future items by grouping the major items (Uniform, Column-Based, Circles, etc.) along the left side of the menu.

(74) New Feature (12/20/09/JPR): A new option titled "Load Bitmap & Calibrate" has been added to the File menu within the Imagery / Digitize program.  This new option simply combines the Load Bitmap and Calibrate options into a single step.

(73) Improvement (12/19/09/JPR): When deleting multiple columns within the Utilities datasheet, the program no longer refreshes the display as each column is deleted.  This greatly speeds up the process.

(72) New Feature (12/19/09/JPR): A new item titled "CSV" has been added to the Utilities / File / Import sub-menu.  This program is used to import CSV (Comma Separated Values) files into the RockWorks datasheet. 

Note:  This program is identical to the ASCII import program except that the delimiter is hardwired as a comma and the decimation option is absent.

(71) Bug Fix (12/15/09/MIW): Horizontal and vertical images within RockPlot/3D no longer display gray bands within regions that are supposedly transparent when running in the software version of OpenGL.

(70) New Feature (12/15/09/JPR): The Imagery / Digitize / File / Calibrate menu now includes an option that allows the calibration min/max to be defined within an ASCII text file.  This new capability can make life easier if you're moving back and forth between different diagrams.

The calibration file consists of four lines of real numbers as shown by the following example.

93763.4      <--- X-Maximum
146038.7    <--- Y-Minimum
97480.7      <--- X-Maximum
149190.0    <--- Y-Maximum

Note:  The annotation (e.g. "<-- X-Maximum") within the previous example is illustrative only.  You can include comments after the real numbers provided that there's a space between the number and the comment.

(69) Cosmetic (12/14/09/JPR): The "Clear Datasheet" button within the Imagery / Digitize "Data Window" now closes the status window once the data has been cleared.

(68) Improvement (12/10/09/MIW): Added a decimal places option for the output to the Utilities / Planes / 3-Points -> Planes / Multiple program.

(67) New Feature (12/10/09/MIW): A new export option has been added to the RockPlot2D program for converting two-dimensional diagrams (rk6 files) to MIF/MID files that can be used within the MapInfo product.  While various types of graphics can be combined in 1 MIF it is recommended that enabling and disabling RockPlot2D layers be used to create multiple logically organized MIF files. It’s also required that MIF files are exported in Longitude/Latitude Degrees and the conversion process has been built into this export.

(66) New Feature (12/10/09/MIW):  A new export option has been added to the RockPlot2D program for converting two-dimensional diagrams (rk6 files) to GIS features within Shape files that can be used within the ESRI products. 

The three shape types exported are:

• Points – Circles, Symbols, Text

• Polylines – Lines, Polylines, Arrows

• Polygons – Color Contours, Polygons

Note: Other, non-GIS items such as Legends will be ignored. 

All items will be exported with 3 fields: LayerName(c), Text(C) and Value(N). The data exported will depend on the item and the data present.

Since its highly recommended to limit the kinds of data being exported at one time, only layers that are enabled will be exported.

Note: If you want to export everything within a RockPlot2D graphic (i.e. a non-GIS export) to ArcMap/View/Info, use the DXF export option instead.

(61) New Feature (12/09/09/JPR): The Utilities / Grid / Filters / Limit program now includes a group of options that determine how the program will handle the data that extends above or below the limiting grid.

Truncation Types:

• Grid A Node = Grid B Node

  • High-Stop/Low Pass:  If a node within Grid A is above the corresponding node for Grid B, the Grid A node will be set to the Grid B node value.

  • Low-Stop/High-Pass:  If a node within Grid A is below the corresponding node for Grid B, the Grid A node will be set to the Grid B node value.Gr

• Grid A Node = Null Value

  • High-Stop/Low Pass:  If a node within Grid A is above the corresponding node for Grid B, the Grid A node will be set to a null value.

  • Low-Stop/High-Pass:  If a node within Grid A is below the corresponding node for Grid B, the Grid A node will be set to a null value.

• Grid A Node = User Defined Value 

  • High-Stop/Low Pass:  If a node within Grid A is above the corresponding node for Grid B, the Grid A node will be set to the user-defined z-value.

  • Low-Stop/High-Pass:  If a node within Grid A is below the corresponding node for Grid B, the Grid A node will be set to the user-defined z-value.

Examples:

(60) New Feature (12/04/09/JPR): The Borehole Manager / Striplogs / Single-Log (2D) program now includes a menu option for setting the "intended vertical exaggeration factor'.  This new setting will adjust various items within the output diagram based upon this setting.

(59) Bug Fix (12/03/09/MIW): The Utilities / Solid / Profile and Section program no longer generate an error message when plotting color contours using the "Classification" style.

(58) New Feature (12/02/09/JPR): The configuration sub-menus for the following two-dimensional striplog items now include a two new options for defining the vertical text position.

• I-Data Text

• T-Data Text

• Lithology Text

• Stratigraphy Text

• Aquifer Text

• Well Construction Text

• I-Text

There two new options allow the text to start at the top of the interval or the base of the center of the interval.

(57) New Feature (11/28/09/JPR): A new program titled "RGB -> Decimal Colors" has been added to the new Utilities / Edit / Columns / Convert menu.

(56) New Feature (11/27/09/JPR): A new program titled "Decimal Colors -> RGB" has been added to the new Utilities / Edit / Columns / Convert menu.

(55) Cosmetic (11/26/09/JPR): A new menu sub-category titled program titled "Convert" has been added to the Utilities / Edit / Columns menu.

(54) New Feature (11/25/09/JPR): The Utilities / Grid / Directional-Analyses / Grid -> Rose program now includes an option for limiting the analysis to regions where the slope of the surface exceed a user-defined cutoff.  This capability has been added for cases in which sub-horizontal areas (e.g. floodplains) are masking the fabric.

The following case study provides an example of how this new slope filtering may be used to selectively view the orientation of steeper regions within a terrain model.

Case Study: Topographic Directionality Southwest of St. Louis, Missouri

A digital terrain model (DTM) based on a three arc-second sample spacing was obtained for a region southwest of St. Louis, Missouri.  This data was re-gridded at a 500-meter spacing by using a closest-point interpolation algorithm.  A contour map depicting this grid is shown within the following diagram.

Note the large, relatively flat regions created by the Missouri, Meramec, and Mississippi Rivers.  A rose diagram that depicts the relative distribution of strike directions for all facets (triangles formed between grid nodes) within this terrain model is shown below.  Note how the distribution is diluted (no pun intended) by the large, sub-horizontal floodplains.  The net result is a rose diagram that shows a uniform (random) distribution of 1,020,000 strike directions without any preferred directionality (fabric).

DEM Directionality (Minimum Dip = 0 Degrees)

By adjusting the minimum slope cutoff value within the Utilities / Grid / Directional-Analyses / Grid -> Rose program, it is possible to essentially remove the floodplains from the analysis thereby highlighting any directionality within the region.  The following rose diagram depict the effects of various slope cutoff levels.  Notice how the population of extracted data decreases within increasing cutoff levels.  This highlights an inherent danger in extracting so few points as to render the analysis meaningless.  For example, the last diagram in the example below only represents 0.005% of the total triangles (facets) within the original surface model.  In other words, be careful.

(53) Bug Fix (11/24/09/JPR): The Utilities / Grid / Directional-Analyses / Grid -> Stereonet program no longer generates an error message if the "Normalize" option is disabled.

(52) New Features (11/23/09/JPR): Hexidecimal color conversion has been added to the Grafix / Color Converter program.

(51) Improvement (11/12/09/MIW): Printing for RockPlot2D has been speeded up and the amount of memory needed reduced.  Be sure to check with printing embedded graphics to large paper size.  Check to make sure that the quality of the images is acceptable.

(50) Bug Fix (11/12/09/MIW): Lithology text (and other "wrapped" text) within 2D logs are now clipped properly.

(49) Bug Fix (11/12/09/JPR): The "Hybrid" gridding now works correctly if the Triangulation algorithm is included.  The previous version would not assign the weights correctly if triangulation was used.

(48) New Feature (11/12/09/JCJ): A new option titled "Current Borehole Name" has been added to the Borehole Manager / Striplogs / Single Log (2D) menu.  Clicking on this option will cause a new dialog (titled "Current Borehole Name) to appear.  This new dialog allows the user to select a different log from a listing that includes all of the logs within the current database.

(47) New Feature (11/12/09/JCJ): New to RockWorks/15 is an import from an ADO source database to the RockWorks/15 Utilities Data Grid.

(46) Bug Fix (11/11/09/JPR): The "Save Numeric Model" option within the Borehole Manager / Stratigraphy / Model menu now works correctly.  The previous version would not save the model unless the "Interpolate Surfaces" option was turned on.group.  In other words, it is now clear that a solid model can only be generated as part of the surface interpolation.

(45) New Feature (11/06/09/MIW): The status bar in RockPlot2D has been redesigned to offer more functionality and a clearer picture of the current editing status. The panel on the left now appears as a button, down when in Edit (selection) mode and up when in any other mode. In addition, when the status button is up it now displays a red rounded rectangle width a white cross to show that you can exit the current mode (return to edit mode) by clicking on the button.

(44) Cosmetic (11/06/09/JPR): A new option titled "Imagery" has been added to the main RockWare Utilities menu.

All of the image-related programs within the Grafix sub-menu have been relocated into the new Imagery sub-menu as shown by the following screen-shot;

• Animated GIF:  Formerly Grafix / Images / Animated GIF

• Append Raster:  Formerly Grafix /  Images / Append Raster Image

• Cubes:  Formerly Grafix / 3D-Utilities / Images / Cubes

• Digitize:  Formerly Grafix / Images / Digitize Bitmap 

• Drape:  Formerly Grafix / 3D-Utilities / Images / Drape

• Float:  Formerly Grafix / 3D-Utilities / Images / Float

• Horizontal:  Formerly Grafix / 3D-Utilities / Images / Horizontal

• PicShow:  Formerly Grafix / Images / PicShow

• Raster -> RKW: Formerly Grafix / Images / Raster -> RKW

• Raster Conversion:  Formerly Grafix / Images / Raster Conversion

• Rectify:  Formerly Grafix / Images / Rectify Image

• Vertical Images -> 3D Panels:  Formerly Grafix / 3D-Utilities / Images / Vertical

(43) Improvement (11/05/09/JCJ): When you run File | Transfer | Locations -> Borehole Manager the flag indicating that the XYZ values need recalculated will only be set if your transfer a column that updates Easting, Northing, Elevation or Total Depth.  So if you only transfer Enabled it will not need to recalculate the XYZ values. This way you can File | Transfer | Locations -> Utilities Datagrid, change the values and Transfer them back or save the info to an atd file.

(42) Improvement (11/05/09/JCJ): The RCL "PROJECT:" command will now work with RW15 without showing dialogs.

(41) Improvement (11/05/09/JCJ):  For the Advanced 3D point connectors to extended to a surface, if a point was outside of the project dimensions the z-value was assigned the null value -1e+27 (RW_Null). Now z-values below the null cutoff are ignored.

(40) Improvement (10/31/09/JPR):  The Widgets / Colors option no longer exists.  Instead, the two sub-options ("Color Numbers" and "RGB -> Windows") have been combined into a single program titled "Color Converter" and relocated to the Grafix menu. 

This new program is used to convert colors between a palette menu selection, red/green/blue designations, Windows 32-bit color numbers, Munsell color codes and descriptive color names.

(39) Cosmetic (10/26/09/JPR): A new submenu heading titled "Import" has been added to the Borehole Manager / Colors submenu.

(38) Bug Fix (10/25/09/JPR):  The variogram editor no longer generates an error message if the major or minor axis adjustment slider bars are dragged to the zero position.  Instead, the variogram ellipse will simply disappear until the slider bar is dragged back do a reasonable position.

(37) New Feature (10/21/09/JPR):  A new option titled "Colors" has been added to the 2D Striplog Designer.

The new option read the data from the new Colors table (see Revision #38 below) and generate 2D striplogs that depict the actual core/cuttings/outcrop color as shown by the following diagram.

The following diagram depicts some geophysical logs combined with color information.

(36) New Feature (10/21/09/JPR):  A new option titled "Colors" has been added to the 3D Striplog Designer.

The new option read the data from the new Colors table (see Revision #38 below) and generate 3D striplogs that depict the actual core/cuttings/outcrop color as shown by the following diagram.

(35) Improvement (10/21/09/MIW):  When draping RockPlot/2D graphics over a grid model within RockPlot/3D, any items that overlie null nodes within the grid model will be omitted from the output.

(34) New Feature (10/21/09/JPR):  A new data table titled "Colors" has been added to the Borehole Manager.

This table is used to store information about the color of the material that has been encountered within the associated borehole or measured-section.

(33) Cosmetic (10/20/09/JPR):  Two new columns of data titled "Sample #" and "Color" have been added to the "xyzg.atd" sample file.

These new data columns are used to illustrate the usefulness of the column-based sphere coloring and the sample labeling within the Utilities / Map / 3D-Points program.

The settings above (note the use of the "Color Column" and "Label Column" were used to produce the following diagram that depicts the actual sample colors as 3D spheres.

(32) Cosmetic (10/20/09/JPR):  A "Soil Color" column has been added to the "soil_properties.atd" sample file.

This column is used to illustrate the usefulness of the circle-filling capability within the Symbol Options sub-menu.

The diagram below shows how the circle-filling capability can be used to show the actual sample colors.

(31) New Feature (10/16/09/MIW):  Fence, Section and Profile Location Selection maps can now plot an ellipse/diamond at the base of non-vertical boreholes. 

This new capability helps to distinguish between the tops and bottoms of the boreholes.

(30) Improvement (10/15/09/MIW):  Three new "menuless" variables have been added to the RCL scripting language.  By "menuless", we mean that these variables have no corresponding menu item.  The new variables allow users to pick a solid model layer through an RCL script.

   To set the slice orientation ...

      MODEL_SLICE , ORIENTATION

         1 = horizontal layer (z coordinate, default)

         2 = East/West (y coordinate)

         3 = North/South (x coordinate)

   To set the slice coordinates ...

               MODEL_SLICE  , COORDINATE

         a global x, y or z coordinate

   To display the slice dialog box ...

           MODEL_SLICE  , DISPLAY_DIALOG

        false (default)

        true