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This function provides a way to edit the rendering styles that are stored in the styles table of the database. The structure of the styles tables in the database is the same regardless of whether it is a survey, geological, or drill and blast database. The styles table in the database is used to define the rendering characteristics, colours, line styles, and marker styles, for drawing drillholes and survey stations by Surpac functions.

To run this function: Choose Survey > Stations > Survey display styles, or Database > Display > Drillhole display styles, or Design > Blast design > Display > Blast hole display styles or...

• In the Function Chooser, type EDIT DRILLHOLE STYLES, and press ENTER.

Drillholes

Drillholes are usually drawn as a string outlining the shape of the hole and can be drawn with a set of closed string boxes that define the extent of a certain geology code or numeric range to the left or right of the trace. These closed boxes can be coloured and patterned filled so you can easily identify specific areas of geology within a set of drillholes. To define how you want your drillholes to be displayed in graphics or plotting, you would use the Edit database display styles form that is displayed below.

Survey stations

Survey stations are usually drawn as a marker at the XYZ location of the stations with some labels such as station ID and Z value close to the station marker.

Fields on the Edit database display styles form

The Edit database display styles form has two main panels:

Tables and fields

The panel on the left of the form displays a tree view of the database that is connected. The top open folder represents the database and each subfolder under this represents a table in that database. In the above diagram, the connected database is called woody and it has three tables for which styles can be defined, geology, sample, and weathering. If you open one of the folders representing a table for which style scan be defined, you will get a list of all the character, numeric and datetime fields in that table. Each is represented by an empty open folder. In this instance, the sample table has fourteen fields where the first field is depth_from and the last field is z_to.

Display attributes

The panel located on the right hand side of the form is where you define the style attributes for a specific character code, numeric range or datetime range. When you select a field folder in the tree view, the table name and field name will be displayed at the top of this panel.

Code

For character fields, you can specify a code that you want to define a drawing style for. This code will usually be a value that is stored in the connected database for the field that you are defining the style for.

From Value

For numeric or datetime fields, you would enter in a numeric or datetime value as appropriate indicating the start of a range of values that you want displayed with a certain colour and pattern.

To Value

For numeric or datetime fields, you would enter in a numeric or datetime value as appropriate indicating the end of a range of values that you want displayed with a certain colour and pattern.

Graphics Colour

Select the colour to be displayed in graphics to represent an interval of a particular geology code or numeric value along the trace of the drillhole or a survey station.

Graphics Pattern

Select the graphics pattern to be drawn for each section of the drillhole that has a particular code or numeric value within a specified range when the drillholes are drawn in the graphics viewport. This value is not used for drawing survey stations.

Plotting Colour

Select the colour to be displayed in plotting to represent an interval of a particular geology code or numeric value along the trace of the drillhole or survey station.

Plotting Pattern

Select the plotting pattern to be drawn for each section of the drillhole that has a particular code or numeric value within a specified range when the drillholes are drawn in the plotting window. The list of plotting patterns that are selectable are taken from the patterns.ssi file. This is not used for plotting of survey stations.

Line

Specify the line style to determine the colour, thickness and line style used to draw a particular interval of the drillhole trace or the traverse connection between survey stations.

Marker

Specify the marker style, the symbol and size, that is to be used for drawing survey stations. This is not used for drawing drillholes.

Defining a drawing style for a field

To define the drawing style for a character, numeric or datetime field, in the Tables and fields section, select the folder representing the field and click the right mouse button to display the pop up menu. For example, if you want to define a drawing style for the field gold in the sample table you would right-click on the gold folder that is under the sample folder, and select Add new style from the popup menu.

Add new style

Selecting Add new style from the popup menu will insert a new item into the field folder and its label will be highlighted. For a character field, the label will show new_code and for a numeric or datetime field, the label displayed will be new_from - new_to. These label values appear highlighted in the Display attributes panel.

To set the numeric range to an appropriate value for the gold field, you would modify the From Value and To Value fields in the Display attributes panel. Changing these values will automatically update the item highlighted in the tree view to display this new range. Now to define how you want a drillhole to be displayed when its gold value lies within this range, you would choose appropriate values for the Graphics Colour, Graphics Pattern, Graphics Colour, Plotting Pattern and Line fields. These have been described above.

If the field for which the styles are being defined is a datetime field then the From Value and To Value fields must have values entered that are in Surpac standard datetime format, YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.

For a character field, you would enter in a value for the Code field in the Define attributes panel and this would update the item highlighted in the tree view. You would then fill in the remaining fields in the panel to set the drawing style for any interval of a drillhole that contains that specific code.

Get field codes

If you want to define the drawing styles for geology codes that have been assigned to a character field in your database and you do not remember what values are stored in the database, you can highlight the character field and select Get field codes from menu that pops up when you right-click on that field. This option will find all the codes in your database and will list them under the folder representing the field. To view these codes, open the field folder.

For example, selecting Get field codes from the popup menu for the field rock in the geology table might add the following codes to the tree: BIF, CY, LAT, MA, QPY, SAND, and UM. To define a drawing style for one of these codes, highlight the code in the tree view and set its style attributes in the Define attributes panel.

For numeric or datetime fields, you can get the minimum and maximum values of a field in your database by highlighting the field in the tree view and selecting Get min - max range from the right-mouse button popup menu.

Get min - max range

Selecting Get min - max range from the popup menu will add a new item into the field folder with a range that contains the lowest value stored in the database for the field selected as well as the highest value stored in that field. This will give you an indication of what range of values are appropriate to define drawing styles for.

To change this range to an appropriate value, modify the From Value and To Value in the Define attributes panel and then set the remaining drawing style properties for the new numeric range.

In earlier versions of Surpac, the drawing styles for particular geology codes were stored in a file called dholes.ssi. If you are happy with these styles that have been set, you can map the styles for codes stored in a character field to have the same styles as those defined in dholes.ssi. To do this, you would select the character field in the tree view and select Get field codes from the right click mouse button popup menu to get a list of all the codes stored in the database field. Then you would select Load dholes.ssi from the popup menu to match the styles.

Load dholes.ssi

Selecting Load dholes.ssi from the right click mouse button popup menu will map all the styles defined in dholes.ssi to codes specified under the field folder selected in the tree view. Any matching codes will have their styles set to that defined in dholes.ssi and all others will be given the default drawing style. To modify any of these values, select the character code in the tree view and update its information in the Define attributes panel. Note that you will have to specify a plotting pattern for these codes as these are not automatically mapped from dholes.ssi.

Remove style

If you want to delete a drawing style for a particular code, numeric range or datetime range, select the item in the tree view and click the right mouse button to popup a menu with the option to Remove style. This will delete this item from the tree view and when the form is applied, the style removed will be deleted from the database. Hence, if you accidentally delete the wrong style, cancel the form so that the database will not be modified.

Modifying a drawing style for a field

To modify any of the styles defined after the form is applied, simply reload the Edit database display styles form and select the field that you want to modify the style. This will result in the open folder for that field changing into a closed folder. If you open this folder, you can then select the field or range that you wish to change the drawing properties for and modify its values in the Display attributes panel.