(59) Bug Fix (11/26/07/MIW):  Using units other than Units/Inch in the RockPlot2D Printing dialog now work correctly.

(58) Bug Fix (11/20/07/MIW):  The "Hide Thin Sections" option within the Borehole Manager stratigraphy modeling now works correctly.  The previous version would only work properly  when the difference between the base and the top was zero.

(57) Bug Fix (11/20/07/MIW):  The RockPlot/2D print scaling now initializes by using a best-fit method if the x and Y scales are not equal.

(54) Bug Fix (11/16/07/JPR):  The RockPlot/2D / File / Print now works correctly with metric-based, vertically exaggerated diagrams.  These fixes also address a problem with manually-specified pattern densities.

(53) Improvement (11/16/07/JPR):  The printer page orientation (portrait vs landscape) is now saved when using the RockPlot/2D / File / Print option.

(52) Bug Fix (11/14/07/JPR):  3D vector data within Borehole Manager / Striplogs no longer produce doofy-looking 3d-arrows if the Value setting (within the Vectors table) is zero.

(51) New Feature (11/13/07/JPR):  A new menu item titled "Model" has been added to the Borehole Manager / Vectors menu.

This program is designed to convert directional downhole data (stored within the Vectors table) into solid models that approximate the extents of the vectors.  An example application is the generation of void geometries (cave models) based on downhole laser surveys.  Actually, that's the only example that we can think of right now, but we're sure that others will come up for other applications.

How It Works:

This program will perform the following operations in order to generate a model that approximates cave geometries based on the vector data:

• For each solid model node ...

  • For each borehole ...

    • For each vector ...

      • Compute the endpoint coordinates.

      • Define a line connecting the endpoints.

      • Define a sphere whose center is defined by the line midpoint and whose diameter is equal to the line length.

      • If the node resides outside of the sphere it's g-value is set to "null" (-1.0E27).

      • If the node resides inside of the sphere, it's g-value is set to the distance to the closest line.

Note:  In order for the node values to increase with distance to the closest line, it is necessary to negate the distance values (i.e. the node values should be multiplied by -1) as allowed within the Vector Modeling Options menu.

Step-by-Step Example:

• This example will assume that we're working with downhole laser data in an attempt to delineate cave extents and produce a surface hazard map.

• Enter the downhole laser data into the Borehole Manager "Vector" table for all of the boreholes.  The distance data is saved within the "Value" column.

• Select the Borehole Manager / Striplogs / Multi-Log 3D option and create a diagram showing the "raw" vector data. 

• Save this RockPlot/3D diagram as "Boreholes.xml".

• Click on the Borehole Manager / Vectors menu and select the "Model" sub-option.

• Model Dimensions:  This is tricky.  If you make the cells too small, the model will look very tubular.  If you make them too large, you loose resolution.   Experimentation is therefore necessary.  In general, a good starting point is to make the cell width equal to half of the average minimum spacing between the boreholes.

• Negate Node Values:  If left unchecked, the node values will represent the distance to the closest vector.  When plotting the output as an isosurface, the cutoff level (and slider bar) will behave in a fashion that is opposite to what you'd expect (i.e. the voxels closer to the vectors will be rendered invisible).  The "Negate Node Values" will multiply all of the voxel g-values by -1 such that the g-values become higher with proximity to a vector.  This allows the cutoff level to behave as you might expect.

• Smooth Solid:  This will effectively round-off the edges of the "tubes" and create a more natural appearance.  Be careful, however, with too much smoothing.  Notice how the 4X smoothing (filter size = 1x1 for all models) within the following diagram has removed some salient features.

• Once the modeling process has been completed, an initial diagram will be displayed in which the cave appears as a series of coalescing spheres.  Experiment with the isolevel setting.  During this process, notice how a highly filtered model will generate tubes around the laser paths.  As a consequence, it is necessary that various cutoff levels be applied to achieve the desired diagram (e.g. cutoff = 25 meters).

  • Note: If the "Negate Node Values" option was activated prior to the generation of the model (which it should have been), you will need to enter the isosurface cutoff value as a negative number.

• Change the opacity/transparency level of the isosurface to 50% in order to see into the model and compare the model with the original vector data.

• Save this diagram as "Caves.xml".

• Convert the distance-to-point model to a boolean model by selecting the RockWorks / Utilities / Solid / Boolean Operations / Boolean Conversion  option. 

  • In order to use this program, you must enter the minimum distance as the lower threshold (cutoff) value.  Let's say that you specified -20.  Any voxels that are less than 20 meters from a vector will be set to a value of 1 (true) while any voxels greater than 20 meters from a vector will be set to zero (false) within the new, boolean model.   The net result can be interpreted to mean that nodes with a value of 1 represent voids whereas nodes with a value of 0 represent rock.

  • Remember that the distances within the model are expressed in negative values (assuming that you chose to "Negate" the values when the model was initially created).  The high-cutoff won't be used, so specify something ridiculously high like 9999.

  • Name the new, output model "Boolean.mod".

  • A diagram of the boolean model will look very similar to the original, continuous cave model.  It's just more block and doesn't have the low values.

• Convert the boolean model into a grid model by selecting the RockWorks / Utilities / Solid / Convert /  Solid -> Grid option.

  • Be sure to check the "Sum" option within the Solid->Grid menu.  This means that the grid nodes will be defined as the sum of all nodes within the corresponding solid model vertical column.  Given that a voxel value of one within the boolean model represents a void, a grid node value of five would mean that five nodes below that cell are void.

• The map of this grid shows, in a continuous fashion, the areas that are most dangerous for heavy equipment.  Admittedly, it does not take into account the depth of the caverns (e.g. a large, but very deep cavern may be of no concern). 

• Use the RockPlot/2D \ Export \ RockPlot3D option to create an overlay of the contour map to show in conjunction with the 3D model.

  • In order to "see through" this layer into the solid model, we recommend that you plot only the contours rather than a color-fill map.

  • Once the diagram has been displayed within RockPlot/3D, save it as "Contour Overlays.xml".

• Use the RockPlot/3D / File / Append option to append the caves diagram (caves.xml) and the boreholes (boreholes.xml).

(51) Cosmetic (11/13/07/JPR):  A new menu item titled "Vectors" has been added to the Borehole Manager menu bar.  This menu will contain future programs that process data within the Borehole Manager / Vectors data table.

(50) Improvement (11/09/07/JCJ):  Programs that export data to Microsoft Excel files (XLS) now generate meaningful error messages.

(49) Bug Fix (11/09/07/JPR):  The Borehole Manager / Striplogs / Miscellaneous option now includes an option for specifying the number of subdivisions to use when automatically computing the log resolution.  This option disappeared when the graphical menu was introduced.

(48) Bug Fix (11/09/07/JPR):  The RockWorks Utilities datasheet no longer generates sporadic error messages when loading and saving large datasets,

(47) Improvement (11/09/07/MIW):  The two Surfer import options (ASCII and binary) within the RockWorks Utilities / Grid / Import have been consolidated into a single option.  The program now automatically determines the input format and calls the appropriate subroutine.

(46) Bug Fix (11/09/07/MIW):  The various "tree-style" menus no longer open the wrong item if the user failed to highlight the new item.

(45) Bug Fix (11/09/07/MIW):  The capability for hiding thin zones when using the Borehole Manager / Stratigraphy / Model program has now adjusted such that a cutoff value of zero will hide zones that are equal to zero.

(44) Bug Fix (11/07/07/JPR):  The legend option within the RockWorks Utilities / Solid / Model and Fence programs now works correctly.

(43) Improvement (11/07/07/JPR):  The Borehole Manager / Lithology / Surface-Map program now generates a friendly error message/warning if the grids and solids have different dimensions.  The previous version would produce a cryptic error message.

(42) Improvement (11/05/07/JPR):  The RCL option within the Borehole Manager tree menus now saves the P-Data and I-Data variables as column names rather than relative column numbers (which can be screwed-up by moving columns around).  This eliminates a step (changing column numbers to column names) when saving menus for subsequent use as RCL scripts.

(41) Improvement (11/05/07/MIW):  Trailing spaces are now removed from variables within RCL scripts thereby speeding things up a bit.

(40) Improvement (11/05/07/MIW):  If RockPlot3D is launched from RockWorks the initial default folder in the Open Dialog will be the current project folder. If it's launched from a shortcut the initial directory will be the current directory on the main drive.

(39) Improvement (11/04/07/JPR):  The RockPlot/2D / Export / RockPlot/3D program no longer generates jagged lines when draping contours over a grid model.

When combined with three-dimensional surfaces, the net effect is somewhat striking ...

Note: For optimal effects, be sure to project the draped contours slightly above the solid surface.  It is also useful to decrease the draped contour line opacity to 95%.

(38) Improvement (11/02/07/JPR):  The warning message that appears when the user attempts to exceed the 2,500 node limit within the Project Dimensions window now appears after the user has finished specifying the node spacing.  The previous version would display the error message dialog box as the user was typing in the node spacing.  This was very irritating.

(37) Bug Fix (11/02/07/JPR):  The solid modeling programs are now more "stable" with large data sets (e.g. more than one million control points).  The previous version would sometimes generate erroneous out-of-memory errors depending upon the machine configuration.

(36) Bug Fix (11/02/07/MIW):  The ReportWorks program can now read world files with extra spaces at the beginning or end of each number.

(35) Bug Fix (11/02/07/JCJ):  The automatic updating mechanism now works correctly.

(34) Bug Fix (11/02/07/MIW):  The programs within the RockWorks Utilities / Planes sub-menu now correctly convert the planes to poles when the input is in dip-direction.

(33) Cosmetic (11/02/07/JPR):  The RockWorks Utilities / Grafix / 3-D Utilities / Images / Panels sub-menu has been removed.  Instead, the two Panels options have been renamed to "Panels / Vertical" and "Panels / Horizontal" and moved into the Images sub-menu.  This eliminates a 4th-level nested menu (just too dang deep).

(32) Bug Fix (10/24/07/MIW):  The RockPlot/2D / Export / DXF program no longer swaps the red and blue components.

(31) Bug Fix (10/24/07/JPR):  The Borehole Manager / Stratigraphy / Pick Contacts program no longer generates a range-check error.  This was a new bug that was introduced within the last update.

(30) Cosmetic (10/19/07/JPR):  The main project folder now occupies the entire width of the main RockWorks menu thereby providing a bit more space for listing the current project folder.  The previous version sacrificed some "real estate" to the vertical button bars that are used to switch between the Borehole Manager, The RockWork Utilities, etc.

(29) New Feature (10/18/07/MIW):  The RockPlot2D / Export / DXF program now uses a look-up table to provide better color matching when using the standard Window's colors provided within the RockWorks dialogs.  Non-matched colors will use a best fit method for calculating the DXF Index color.

(28) Bug Fix (10/18/07/MIW):  When editing tables (e.g. the polygon table), the program now saves the current file name when the table editor is closed.

(27) Bug Fix (10/18/07/MIW):  The Borehole Manager / Stratigraphy / Model program now computes the total volume.

(26) Bug Fix (10/18/07/MIW):  The RockWorks Utilities / Linears  / Import / DXF Lineations program now increments the datasheet rows when the source file contains polylines.

(25) New Feature (10/18/07/MIW):  The RockWorks Utilities / Planes / Beta Pairs program now generates an output column that lists the angle between the planes.

(24) Cosmetic (10/17/07/JPR):  The solid modeling distance filter now includes option for expressing the distance in terms of map units or as a percentage of the project size.

(23) Cosmetic (10/17/07/JPR):  The "Decluster" option within the Borehole Manager / P-Data / Model menu has relocated as a sub-option under the P-Data Track grouping.

(22) Cosmetic (10/17/07/JPR):  The "Decluster" option within the Borehole Manager / I-Data / Model menu has relocated as a sub-option under the I-Data Track grouping.

(21) Cosmetic (10/17/07/JPR):  The RockWorks Utilities / Solid / Model menu has been re-organized such that the Spatial FIltering, G-Filtering, Decimation, and Declustering options are now located under a new sub-topic titled "Control Point Filtering".

(20) Cosmetic (10/17/07/JPR):  Selected items within the RockWorks menus now display additional information within the "button-bar" at the top of the menu dialog box as the mouse cursor is moved over the item.  This new capability is designed to provide more information about menu items without cluttering up the menu.

(19) Cosmetic (10/15/07/JPR):  The Upper Surface, Lower Surface, Distance, and Polygon Filtering options within the solid modeling menus have now been grouped under a heading titled "Model Constraints".

(18) New Feature (10/15/07/JPR):  The "Upper Surface" and "Lower Surface" grid filters within the solid modeling menus now provide for separate margins.  The previous version (when these options were lumped under the "Stratabound" heading) had only one setting that applied to both filters.

(17) Cosmetic (10/15/07/JPR):  The "Stratabound" sub-heading has been removed from the solid modeling menus.  Instead, the sub-options are now shown with new headings (i.e. "Upper Surface (Grid) Filter" and "Lower Surface (Grid) Filter").

(16) New Feature (10/15/07/JPR):  The solid modeling menus now include an option for restricting the modeling to a region that is either inside or outside of a user-defined polygon.  This is a "pre-filter" (see item #13 below) which means that it can greatly speed-up the processing time.

(15) Improvement (10/12/07/JPR):  The solid modeling has been redesigned in such a way that the Maximum Distance and/or Stratabound Filtering operations are performed as the model is being created as opposed to a post-modeling process.  This means that the program doesn't waste time interpolating node values for points that will be eventually removed by the Maximum Distance Filtering.  For example, consider the following dataset:

1.  Control points distributed within a narrow, diagonal region.

2.  Solid model for entire region that encompasses control points.

3.  Solid model constrained to region within a user-specified distance (5% of project size) of a control point.

4.  Solid model constrained to region below a user-specified surface.

5.  Solid mode constrained by user-specified distance as well as user-specified surface.

The following execution speeds describe the advantage of pre-filtering the nodes as opposed to filtering the completed model:

    Conclusions:

• By reversing the order of distance and stratabound filtering, the interpolation process is considerably faster.

• Given that the previous version would add additional time at the end, the speed difference is even more dramatic.  Given the preceding example, an operation that may have taken 1 hour and 15.9 minutes now requires 16.4 minutes!

(14) Cosmetic Consolidation (10/14/07/JPR):  The Stratabound Filtering and Minimum Distance Filtering options within the solid modeling menus no longer include separate sub-options that allow the user to define the g-values for nodes that reside outside the filter boundaries.  Instead, the menu now includes a new option titled "Undefined Nodes" in which the user can define  a single g-value that is to be used for nodes outside the filter boundaries.  This removes an incongruity in which a node can be outside a stratabound filter as well as a distance filter (i.e. Which default value should be assigned to the node?).

(13) Cosmetic (10/13/07/JPR):  The RockWorks Utilities / Coords / Rotate XY Data program no longer displays a debugging message ("hi") before the coordinates are rotated.

(12) Improvement (10/12/07/JPR):  The Project Dimensions sub-menu now includes special traps that automatically adjust the node spacing in the event that the maximum number of nodes are exceeded in any direction.

(11) Bug Fix (10/11/07/MIW):  The RockPlot/2D program now correctly exports rectangles to the RockPlot/3D program.

(10) Improvement (10/11/07/JCJ):  3D striplogs now include a date filter when plotting aquifer data.

(9) Improvement (10/11/07/JCJ):  RockWorks will now prompt the user to install a new copy of RockWorks after the automatic download is completed.  If the user chooses not to install immediately they will be prompted on closing or opening RockWorks.

(8) Bug Fix (10/11/07/JCJ):  Some users were experiencing a problem with the program setting the initial project folder just after installation.  The program will now preset the project folder to the default Samples directory if no project folder has been set.

(7) Bug Fix (10/11/07/JCJ):  The Tables window now updates the path for the stratigraphy , lithology and well construction tables to reflect changes within the project folder.

(6) Bug Fix (10/11/07/JCJ):  The Borehole Manager / Stratigraphy / Consolidate program no longer deletes the last unit in the hole.   The program also now executes faster and updates the borehole only if something was changed as a result of the consolidation.

(5) Bug Fix (10/11/07/MIW):  The RockWorks Utilities / Stats / Ternary program overlays now work with international number formatting.

(4) New Feature (10/05/07/JPR):  The main Tables option (located along the left side of the main RockWorks menu now includes an option for editing the tables that are used by the new 3D-Points program (see item #2 below).

(3) Cosmetic (10/05/07/JPR):  The word "scalar" is now spelled correctly within the program menus.   The previous version used a misspelling of "scaler".  Unfortunately, the RCL (RockWare Command Language) commands must remain misspelled in order to insure backwards compatibility with existing RCL scripts.

(2) New Feature (10/05/07/JPR):  A new program titled "3D-Points" has been added to the RockWorks Utilities / Map menu.

(1) Removal (10/03/07/JPR):  The RockWorks Utilities / Grafix / 3D-Utilities / Spheres program has been removed.  The same functionality is now available from within the new RockWorks Utilities / Map / 3D-Points program (see Item #2 - above).