Quarry - Geological Database menu

The GEOL DB submenu provides access to functions which enable you to interact with the Geological Database from the Graphics module in a number of ways. The features available from this menu include:

Connect
Disconnect

Draw Holes
Collars
Sections
Exit DH Sect.

EXTRACT
Plans
Sections
Edit Table
Id Segment
Int Grade
Seg Grade
Str Grade
View table
Grade Calc
Layer
Next Layer
Prev Layer

• Drill hole collar locations can be extracted and displayed.
• Drill hole section and plan data which have been previously extracted using the EXTRACT SECTIONS FOR PLOT or EXTRACT PLANS FOR PLOT functions can be recalled and displayed to aid in geological interpretations.
• Drill hole sections and plans can be extracted directly from the database for immediate display.
• Sample points on drill hole traces can be selected graphically and subsequently edited or viewed using data entry forms.
• Calculation of average grade either down a selected interval of a drill hole trace, within a selected segment or within all segments of a selected string.

At the time when the data is extracted from the Geological Database you have the opportunity to extract sample and geology data from more than one table. This data is stored in various strings in the string files which are created. The functions which draw the sample values, the sample histograms and the geology will draw the data from different strings depending upon the order in which you defined the tables at the time of extracting the sections or plans for plotting.

To enable the drawing functions, and the grade calculation functions which are provided with the Drill Hole Display module to operate upon the data of interest you must indicate the table to which the function is to be applied. The table of interest must be identified by its table number, that is, the order in which you defined the tables at the time when the sections were extracted from the Geological Database.

Similarly, when using the drawing functions, or the grade calculation functions, you must identify the sample fields of interest by the description field number. This is because the sample data is stored in various description fields of different strings in the string file. Thus, the order in which you provide the names of the sample and geology fields at the time when the sections are extracted from the Geological Database determines the number of the sample, or geology fields when you need to identify them by a number to the Drill Hole Display module.

Connect

Function:

• GEOLOGY DATABASE CONNECT

This function will permit you to connect to a geological database so that you can use the GRAPHICS EDIT TABLE ROW and GRAPHICS VIEW TABLE ROW functions. You will find that if you have entered the GRAPHICS module after having already connected to a database by selecting the GEOLOGICAL DATABASE menu item from the main menu then you will not need to use this button to connect to the database.

Choose Connect from the GEOL DB menu to display the SELECT DATABASE form.

Enter the name of the database to which you would like a connection established.

Note: If you are already connected to a database the SELECT DATABASE form will not be displayed. You must disconnect from the database first, by using the Disconnect button, prior to connecting to a different database.

The requested database is made active and the name of the database is displayed in the dialog region.

Disconnect

Function:

• GEOLOGY DATABASE DISCONNECT

This function will disconnect from the Geological Database to which you have currently established a connection. You will need to use this function prior to using the Connect button if you want to connect to a database other than the one to which you are currently connected.

Choose Disconnect from the GEOL DB menu to disconnect from the current Geological database.

You are disconnected from the current database.

Collars

Function:

• GRAPHICS DRILL HOLE LAYOUT

With this function you can extract selected drill holes from the collar table of a geological database and display the collar locations and hole traces in the GRAPHICS module. You can optionally choose to display the drill hole trace as well as define the colours and drawing styles for the drill hole collars.

This function is useful as a quick method to examine collar locations relative to other string data, and also as an aid to extracting sections from a database.

Choose Collars from the GEOL DB menu to display the GRAPHICS DRILL HOLE LAYOUT form.

Colour

Enter the colour with which you wish draw the drill hole collar markers and the string which represents the drill hole trace.

Text height and units

Enter the text height and units for text height to determine the size of the text which will be used to label the drill holes. The text height may be any value greater than zero. The units may be either:

• sru

Subscreen relative units, where the text height is interpreted as being a fraction of the screen height. For example 0.02 means the text height will be 2% of the height of the screen. If you use "sru" units to draw the text then the text will always remain the same size regardless of viewing transformation functions such as ZOOM IN, ZOOM OUT, WINDOW IN etc.

• oru

Object relative units where the text height is interpreted as being in the same units as the data which is being displayed. Thus, the text height will change with viewing transformation functions such as ZOOM IN, ZOOM OUT, WINDOW IN etc.

Marker and size

Enter the marker symbol which will be used to show the location of the drill hole collar. A variety of marker symbols are available with hollow or solid triangles, circles and squares being chosen by selecting a symbolic representation of the marker style made from printable characters such as "(.)" for a dot inside a circle.

The marker size is expressed in units where the standard size of 1 marker unit is equivalent to about 3% of the screen height.

Append or Replace

This function can be used numerous times to extract different classes of drill holes from the database and display them in different styles. You must choose "A" to append to drill holes which have previously been extracted to achieve this. If you choose "R" any previously extracted drill holes will be erased and replaced with the drill holes which you are about to extract.

Rescale view

Respond with "Y" then the screen extents will be set to include all of the drill holes which have been extracted from the database. Respond with "N" if you wish the screen extents and camera position to remain the same.

Show trace

Respond with "Y" if you wish the trace of the drill hole to be shown. Respond with "N" to only show the marker and label at the drill hole collar. Showing the trace is especially useful if you plan to use the GRAPHICS EXTRACT SECTIONS FOR PLOT function as you can easily see if the entire hole trace will be included on a section.

Define option collar fields

Data may be extracted from any of the optional fields in the collar table and saved to the description field of the string data which is created by extracting the drill hole collar data. You may find this useful later if you save the extracted drill hole collar data to a string file for later plotting.

Enter the names of any of the optional fields from which you wish to extract data.

Complete the GRAPHICS DRILL HOLE LAYOUT form and choose Apply to display the DEFINE QUERY CONSTRAINTS form. Complete the DEFINE QUERY CONSTRAINTS form and choose Apply to begin processing.

The data is extracted from the collar table of the Geological Database and saved to a layer in the Graphics module. The name of the layer is "drill hole collars". Two strings are created each time this function is used. The first string, string 1 or 3 or 5 etc., contains the location of the drill hole collars with data from the optional fields stored in various description fields while the second string, string 2 or 4 or 6 etc., contains one segment for each drill hole trace.

After saving the various strings to the Graphics layer the strings are drawn in the appropriate styles to represent the collar locations and the hole traces.

Note: The drill hole collar points are selectable but the segments which represent the drill hole traces are not selectable.

You may find it useful to save the results of this function to a string file for later plotting using the PLOTTING module. The steps to make this possible are:

1. Use the SELECT LAYER function to make the "drill hole collars" layer the active layer.
2. Use the SAVE FILE function to save the contents of the "drill hole collars" layer to a string file.

You may use this string file in the PLOTTING module or any other module which seems appropriate. An example of a string file created using this procedure is shown below.

String 1 contains the drill hole collar locations with the description field containing:

D1 - Hole ID

D2 - Maximum depth of drill hole

D3 - Azimuth at the drill hole collar

D4 - Dip at the drill hole collar

Any additional fields which have been extracted from the collar table will appear in the specified order starting in the D5 field.

String 2 will contain one segment for each drill hole with each segment representing the drill hole trace generated at one metre intervals.

Sections

Function:

• DRILL HOLES

This function will recall and display string files which have been previously created using the EXTRACT SECTIONS FOR PLOT or the EXTRACT PLANS FOR PLOT functions.

Choose Sections from the GEOL DB menu to display the DISPLAY DRILL HOLE SECTIONS/PLANS form.

Define the range of section/plan files
Location and ID range

Enter the Location and ID range of the string files which contain the drill hole data to be displayed. As each file is loaded the following data is displayed:

• drill hole traces
• histograms of sample grades
• geology as either traces with different colours depicting different geological units or as boxes with different colours and patterns depicting different geological units.

This first string file which is loaded becomes the "active" layer. The active layer contains data which are selectable and furthermore, the drawing functions which are used to display various features pertaining to the drill holes only operate on the data which are displayed from this layer.

The data from other layers may be made active, visible or selectable by using the DRILL HOLE LAYER function or the NEXT DRILL HOLE LAYER or PREVIOUS LAYER functions.

If you attempt to load string files into this function which have not been prepared by the EXTRACT SECTIONS FOR PLOT or the EXTRACT SECTIONS FOR PLOT functions an error message will be displayed and the attempt will be rejected.

Draw geology

The geology data, if it has been extracted from the database may be drawn as either lines of different colours to represent the different geological units, or a boxes containing different colours and patterns to represent the different geological units. The valid entries are:

• trace

Draw the geology as different coloured line segments based on the type of geology. This is only possible if the geology has been extracted as 'literal' geology.

• boxes

Draw the boxes as boxes with different colours and patterns based on the type of geology. This is only possible if the geology has been extracted as symbolic geology.

To get the required colours and patterns for the various geology types you must modify the "dholes.ssi" file in the SSI_STYLES: directory.

Each of the files in the range specified are loaded into individual layers and drawn in the appropriate style. The first file which is recalled becomes the active layer.

Exit DH Sect.

Function:

• EXIT DRILL HOLES

This function will delete all the data which has been loaded and displayed using the DRILL HOLES function described above, that is the GRAPHICS EXTRACT SECTIONS FOR PLOT or the GRAPHICS EXTRACT PLANS FOR PLOT functions.

Choose Exit DH Sect. from the GEOL DB menu to display the EXIT DRILL HOLE SECTIONS form.

Choose Apply to confirm that you wish to exit or Cancel to continue working with the Drill Hole data which is currently displayed.

Any existing drill data is deleted from memory and erased from the screen.