RockWorks Revision History

RockWorks/17 Revision History
2015/Q3 (07/01/15-09/30/15)

(010) New Feature (09/03/15/JPR): A new program titled "GeoBody Filter" has been added to the Utilties / Solid / Filters menu.

This program is used to identify contiguous blocks of voxels that have the same, or close to the same, G-values. Example applications include;

Hydrogeology: Consider delineating aquifers and aquitards within a lithologic model. A clay unit that overlies an aquifer may be essentially impermeable, but if it's not laterally contiguous the aquifer may not be "confined".
Mining: Consider mineralization along a shear zone. The GeoBody Filter can be used to identify the contiguous ore-grade zones like beads along a chain. Eliminating the sub-economic "beads" can assist in a the creation of a profitable extraction plan.
Petroleum: By GeoBody Filtering a pay-zone, we can predict just how much of the zone can be effectively drained.

The GeoBody Filter program creates a new model in which contiguous groups of like-valued voxels are reasssigned to unique, sequential values. Options include;

G-Value Tolerance: This determines the G-Value range that is used to determine if adjacent voxels are similar enough to be consider the same. For example, if the voxels within a geochemical model range between zero and 10,000ppm, you might want to group voxels in 500ppm groupings in which case, the G-Value Tolerance should be set to 250.
Minimum # of Contiguous Voxels: Contiguous clusters of voxels whose volume falls below this threshold will be eliminated from the output model and report.
Create Geobody Top & Bottom Surfaces: If desired, the program can create grid models that represent the tops and bottoms of each geobody. Each grid will assigned a name that begins with the "Prefix For Grid Model Names" followed by the unique GeoBody index number followed by a "_Top" or "_Base" suffix. Example: "Geobody_456_Top.RwGrd"

For example, consider a lithology model as shown below ...

The GeoBody filter program will reassign the contiguous voxels to new g-values that represent the geobody index number. These numbers are shown within a separate tab labeled "Contiguous Units".

As can be seen by the auto-colored diagram and the Contiguous Units table, the program identified 156 contiguous geobodies, the largest of which is geobody #76 which corresponds to a lithotype of 2.0 (sand). The diagram below shows just geobody #76.

A useful feature within the Geobody Filter is the "Create GeoBody Top & Bottom Surfaces" option. Since we don't want to generate surfaces for all of the small, isolated geobodies, we'll set the filter to only generate geobody for the top 10 (by volume) geobodies by setting a volumetric cutoff of 10,000 voxels. The result is 20 grids representing the tops and bottom surfaces of each geobody. Note: These surfaces simply represent the highest and lowest voxel elevations - they do NOT account for other geobodies that may be "inside" a geobody.

By listing these geobodies within a datasheet (see below), we can create block models, fence diagrams, etc. for the 10 largest geobodies. For this example, we'll use them to create a profile showing just the surfaces (below).

Superimposing these geobody surface profiles onto lithology profiles (see below) and applying some careful scrutiny can be useful in identifying hydrostratigraphic zones for subsequent input into MOFLOW.

In the example above, the geobody surfaces indicate that;

(A) the two upper gravels do not hydraulically "communicate" with the lower gravel,
(B) the green siltstone lens is enclosed within a thick gravel that with hydraulic communication between the gravel above and below the lens,
(C) the thin layer of gravel hydraulically communicates with the thick gravel.

This information is obviously useful when when identifying zones for subsequent input into MODFLOW (lower diagram).

(009) New Feature (08/14/15/JPR): If an Internet connection is not available, the Welcome tab will now display a message that extols the advantages of having an Internet connection.

(008) Removal (08/13/15/JPR): The Help dialog that appears (by default) when RockWorks is initially activated has been removed. The corresponding option to enable/disable this dialog has been removed from the Preferences menu.

(007) New Feature (08/12/15/JPR): Most of the main Help options (see question-mark in the upper-right corner of the main RockWorks menu) no longer displays a pull-down menu when clicked. Instead, the help messages are displayed within your default web browser.

The rationale behind the separate dialog box is to allow the user to position the help messages elsewhere such that the content may be read/viewed in conjunction with the main menu and/or application menus. Users with large or multiple monitors can now display the help information on one screen while working with the program on another screen.

A separate Help dialog is generated every time the Help button is clicked thereby providing a means to view multiple help topics simultaneously. The only limitation is screen "real estate".

(006) New Feature (08/11/15/JPR): A new option titled "Compute Volumetrics" has been added to the Borehole Manager / Stratigraphy / Model menu. In the previous versions, volumetric compuations were always computed. Disabling the volumetric computations can shorten the amount of time required to generate large models.

(005) New Feature (7/15/15/MIW): When adding a slice to a RockPlot3D IsoSurface or Voxel model a combo box provides a choice for changing the drawing style of the IsoSurface or Voxel Model.

(004) Bug Fix (7/15/15/MIW): The RockPlot3D / Zoom combo box on the tool bar now populates correctly and can be updated by typing a new zoom factor.

(003) Enhancement (7/15/15/MIW): Enhancement: Added an Up/Down button next to to the RockPlot3D / Zoom combo box for easy access the +/- Zoom options. The up arrow increase the zoom by a factor of 1.5 while the down arrow decreases the zoom by a factor of 0.75.

(002) Enhancement (7/15/15/MIW): Multiple child nodes in the RockPlot3D tree can be activated or deactivated by selecting the parent node and using the right click popup menu's Check All Children (Alt+C) or Uncheck All Children (Alt+U) options.
Note: Can't use the +/- keys since they're grabbed by the tree but would consider other hot key options.

(001) Cosmetic (07/14/15/JPR): The EarthApps have been relocated under a single menu within the Utilities.