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Discover: Integrated GIS For The Geosciences
Discover: Integrated GIS For The Geosciences
Discover Tutorials
General Information
Discover 4.0 is developed and supported by Encom Technology Pty Ltd.
Sydney Office
Level 2, 118 Alfred St, Milsons Point, New South Wales 2061, Australia
PO Box 422, Milsons Point, New South Wales 1565, Australia
Tel +61 2 9957 4117 Fax +61 2 9922 6141
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Tel: +612 4325 7807 Fax: +612 4325 7807
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PO Box 1572, West Perth, Western Australia 6872, Australia
Tel +61 8 9321 1788 Fax +61 8 9321 1799
World Wide Web
www.encom.com.au
Email
discover_sales@encom.com.au
Discover Release History
Version 1.0
Version 1.1
Version 1.2
Version 2.0
Version 2.1
Version 3.0
Version 4.0
December 1994
February 1995
September 1995
August 1996
November 1997
February 1999
June 2001
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
7
Introducing Discover 4.0 ........................................................................7
Discover Tutorials ..................................................................................7
19
29
Index
59
Introduction
Introducing Discover 4.0
Discover version 4.0 is an extension to MapInfo Professional developed for
geoscientists by Encom Technology. Discover 4.0 runs with MapInfo
Professional version 4.2 or later on Windows 95/98 and Windows NT/2000
Discover has been developed by Encom Technology specifically for
geoscientists. Building on the many powerful Geographic Information System
(GIS) features of MapInfo, Discover converts MapInfo into a sophisticated and
easy to use tool for managing, manipulating and displaying exploration datasets.
Discover gives users the ability to process and view data in ways that previously
required a number of software packages. A geologist in the field, an exploration
manager in head office or a draftsperson in a regional office can use Discover to
track tenement activity, contour point data, view drill holes in plan and section,
analyze geochemical data, facilitate map creation, produce scaled hard copy
output with ease, and more.
Discover 4.0 provides new and improved functionality in a number of key areas
and incorporates a significant number of changes requested by existing
Discover users.
Discover Tutorials
The tutorials presented here are designed to illustrate the various presentation
and processing functions available in Discover. The features described is not
complete and many other options and useful operations are provided by
Discover. For information on these functions refer to the Users Guide, on-line
help or Discover Reference Manual. The tutorials use step-by-step instructions
to introduce the major concepts and displays. Also note that a number of
operations that are undertaken within MapInfo are used and so a basic
understanding of MapInfo functionality is also required.
The tutorials supplied for Discover are designed to be operated by either
beginners or experienced users. The tutorials are presented in a self-explanatory
manner with a series of step-by-step operations that should guide you through
the display, analysis and interpretive stages of various geological and GIS
problems. The problems chosen and included in the tutorials have in the most
part, been selected from real datasets addressing real exploration problems.
All tutorials provide data that is contained within separate directories. When
installed, the directories are loaded into their own sub-directories beneath the
directory called DISCOVER_TUTORIAL. The relevant directories and
required files are described in each tutorial description.
Note
The dataset used in this exercise is fictitious and should not be relied upon for
exploration planning.
10
menu (activated by a right mouse click). Alternately, use the Query>Select and
choose the table Tenements, then click OK.
From the Discover menu, choose Map Making>SeeThru Shading. A message
may be displayed asking if table STPatts should be created. You should answer
Create.
Choose the Specify Pattern option. Under pattern type, choose Lines. Click the
Line icon, and choose a Dotted LineStyle, black colour, pixel width of 1.
Under Pattern Density and Orientation, enter angle 135 (a southeast trend),
and spacing of 0.1 km. Press the Save As button and enter the table name
Tenement Fill. Click OK.
The vector polygon fill then appears in the new layer Tenement Fill.
11
The annotation is written to the Structures layer. Repeat the above process for
the green lines, annotating them with a Syncline symbol.
Note
12
Discover addresses this problem by allowing you to label a map layer at a set
point size at the scale at which the map is plotted. The four tenements can be
labelled using Discover>Map Making>Text Labels.
In the dialog box that appears, choose to label objects from table Tenements
from column Tenement. Choose label size 10 pts for a map scale of
1:15,000. Click OK. The tenements are labelled at their centroid in the
Cosmetic Layer.
The labels need to be saved to a new layer. Choose Map>Save Cosmetic
Objects>New and save to table name Tenement Text.
Place a checkmark in the Specify Order boxes for Minerals and Geology to set
the order of legend items for these layers.
If your map window does not display the full extents of a table, and you want a
legend created for all items in the table, do not place a checkmark in the box for
Legend from objects in map window only.
13
The font size for the legend text needs to be specified. Click on the Styles
button and press the font style button next to Title Line. Choose point size 24.
Repeat the process for Sub-Title line and choose point size 18.
Click the Text Line 1 and Text Line 2 font style buttons and choose point size
14, click OK. Click the OK button and enter a table name for the legend, say Geology
Legend. Press the Save button.
A legend order window for the minerals layer is then displayed. The minerals
should be displayed in Alphabetical order (ascending), so click on the
appropriate option, and then click OK.
Another legend order window is displayed, this time for geology. The
lithologies should be placed in chronological order. Notice that we are
displaying the lithologies, rather than the ages. Discover orders legend items
based on the first column chosen in the initial setup dialog box. As we want to
display lithologies followed by age in our geological legend, it is necessary to
determine the relevant order prior to starting the legend process.
Alternatively, you can use the Look-up code from Geology option to allow the
lithologies to be ordered according to a numeric attribute in another column.
14
15
Click the OK button and enter a name to save the setting as, say A4 L Out (or
A L Out) indicating A4 / A landscape paper, legend and titleblock outside map
frame.
Back in the main Scaled Output dialog, ensure that the Draw Grid option is
checked, TITLEBLK appears as the titleblock name, and ScaleBar 1 is listed
for the scalebar. Press the OK button.
The map window will zoom in and a transparent polygon, representing the area
to be plotted at 1:15,000 scale, will appear in the map window. Left mouse click
inside the frame and drag it to cover the tenement area and geology to the left
side of the tenements.
When you are satisfied with the frame position, select the Scaled
Output>Accept Map Position menu option. The map window resizes to the
area of the transparent map frame. The Discover Map Grid dialog box appears.
Click OK to accept the default parameters. A grid is drawn into the map
window.
The titleblock dialog box opens next. Enter the following details:
Title Line 1
Title Line 2
Title Line 3
Author
(your name)
The default titleblock position is bottom right inside. From the titleblock
position list, choose Bottom Right Outside.
The default Scalebar position is Show ScaleBar in Titleblock. Other options
give you the opportunity to list the layers of the map window in the layout. The
default display position is Bottom Right. For the purpose of this tutorial, set the
display to No List. Press OK to create the titleblock, and a layout window.
16
The legend is added to the layout window. Paper measurements appear along
the side of the layout window in centimetres. Take a moment to examine the
legend position with reference to the layout measurements and the information
that was entered in the above dialog box. This should provide a good idea of
how Add Scaled Frame to Layout works.
For A size paper, enter a value of 21.9 cm for Offset from left. You can
always adjust the position of the frame once it has been added to the layout.
X = 121.41 Y = -26.81
X = 122.98 Y = -25.52
17
Click OK and then Exit. Choose Map>Save Cosmetic Objects to a new table
Location Area. Then view the entire layer for Australia.
1:100,000,000
5 cm
4 cm
23.6 cm
0.9 cm
133.38, -27.18
The location map is added to the layout window. If you are using A size paper,
enter a value of 21.9 for Offset from left (x cm).
From the Drawing toolbar, click on the Text Style button, and choose font
size 8. Then click on the Text icon, position your cursor in the bottom left
corner of the location map (in the layout window), and type Location Map.
420000 m E
419500 m E
419000 m E
418500 m E
418000 m E
417500 m E
417000 m E
Location Map
E98/460
7106000 m N
7106000 m N
E98/459
7105500 m N
7105500 m N
Geological Legend
Tiger Claim Group
7105000 m N
7105000 m N
E98/457
7104500 m N
Au
Quartzite
Permian
Pb
Zn
Fault
Metagabbros Metadiorites
Ordovician
Anticline
Felsic Porphyry
Ordovician
Syncline
Lamprophyres
Cambrian
Alluvium
Quaternary
Gabbros, Microgabbros
Pre-cambrian
Colluvial
Quaternary
7104500 m N
E98/458
Encom Technology
Date:19/2/1999
Author:
7104000 m N
420000 m E
419500 m E
419000 m E
418500 m E
418000 m E
Office: Melbourne
417500 m E
18
Drawing:
Scale: 1:15000
125
250
metres
500
19
Digitizing
Cleaning linework
Smoothing linework
Building polygons
Line annotation
Labelling.
Step 1. Digitizing
When the digitizer has been set up (see the MapInfo Users Guide for more
information on digitizing in MapInfo), create two tables for the linework.
Ensure that there is a character column in each table called Lifestyle and save
this table in the appropriate coordinate system.
The first table holds all the line segments that form the boundaries of the
geological units (for example, lithological boundary, Fault - normal, Fault thrust, Unconformity etc). The second table holds all the line segments that do
20
not form a boundary (for example, trend line and faults etc.).
Note
We are digitizing linework into two separate tables as this provides greater
flexibility during the rest of the dataset building process.
Decide what is to be digitized first, either a boundary or non-boundary, and
make that table editable. You will find that you swap between entering data in
both tables as the digitizing progresses.
Use the Map Making>Styles Library function when digitizing the linework to
apply the appropriate attribute to the linework. This function is applicable for
lines, points and polygons.
Select the style you want (see the on-line help to create new styles not listed in
the Styles Library). For example, if you decide to digitize a fault, select Fault
Normal. An example of the line style is shown in the adjacent style button. You
can click on the line style icon to change the line style. At the bottom of the
dialog box, place a checkmark in the box beside Apply style name as
attribute. Under tables, select the editable table, and under column choose
Linestyle. Click on Apply.
Digitize the first Fault - Normal. The line has the correct style, colour and
weight. Open a browser window of the table and the single record shown has
the attribute. You may wish to have the browser open to the side of the map
window so you can check progress. Return to the style library each time you
need to change styles.
Note
Note that when you change to another table, you need to reset the Table and
Column choices in the dialog box.
As you digitize, ensure that you use the Snap function to join the ends of lines
at every intersection (keyboard toggle key - S). Whenever two lines intersect
you should begin a new line, though this can be done automatically at a later
stage. You do not have to split lines when digitizing into the second table,
because these lines do not form a boundary.
If the boundary line being digitized has a sharp corner, you should break the
line at the apex, otherwise when the line is smoothed, the definition of the sharp
corner may be lost.
There are two tables named Bound and Line2 in the
Discover_Tutorial\Dataset Building directory. These tables represent
examples of newly digitized data. Open these two tables and with a browser
21
window open, check the attributes of the various line styles. See how the two
tables contain boundaries and non-boundaries respectively.
The boundary table, Bound, is shown with a thin black line, and the Line2 is
displayed with the thick black line. You can see how one line is split between
two tables according to whether it forms a polygon boundary or not.
22
Over shoot Line continues beyond the point at which it should terminate
2.
The stars in the map above are from the table MisClose, which was created by
the Polygonize function, Clean Linework.
23
Open Boundsm from the Tutorial folder. Display with the unsmoothed Bound
and compare. There are a series of magenta lines in the Boundsm that close off
the linework for polygonizing, and are added after smoothing. When you add
these lines make sure they are snapped at the ends.
polygon
LineStyle
polygon
24
Although the linestyle field will ultimately be filled with the MapCode for each
polygon, clearing this column first means that a simple query can be used to
ascertain if any polygons have been missed when colouring the map.
Choose Table>Maintenance>Table Structure and rename the first column in
the polygon table from Linestyle to MapCode.
25
You can go back and edit the colour table at any time. If you have a polygon
code that is not in the table, you can add a new line to the browser, add in the
code, and then edit the colour table as before to give the polygon code a region
style. If you change the colour of a unit, during or after the map colouring, you
need to re-colour the map, or select the edited unit and update the region colour
style of the selected objects.
26
The selected polygon(s) are coloured. If you open the polygon table browser the
code column will contain the updated geological code for the selected objects
and the message window indicates the current style.
Continue the process until all polygons have been coloured, using the Styles
Library button on the tool bar to speed up the process. To check for polygons
which have not yet been coded and coloured, use Discovers Select by Group
and choose records where the MapCode = . You should also use the Styles
Library to apply styles and attributes to linework such as faults and fold axes.
27
You should use the cosmetic layer as you can easily redo the annotation for a
different spacing or size. When the annotation is completed, save the cosmetic
objects to the annotation table. The table Finalann contains the annotations for
our example dataset.
Step 8. Labelling
To label the geological units, choose the Map Making>Text Labels menu
option. Select the polygon table of geological units, and choose the MapCode
column. In Label Style set the scale for the text (use 1:5,000,000), the text size
and font, and any offset or label line requirements (not required for this
exercise). The text labels appears at the specified size only at the map scale that
you nominate. As the map is zoomed out, labels appear smaller, and vice versa.
The labels are placed on the Cosmetic Layer and should be saved to a new
table.
28
Step 9. Workspace
Open the workspace TUTORIAL.WOR. This opens the final tables created
from the original tables, Bound and Line2, together with the annotation tables.
From Layer Control, note the order in which the layers are displayed. The
polygon layer is at the base, with the linework above, and the text and
annotations on top.
Surfaces Tutorial
29
30
A map window opens containing the profile. You may wish to repeat the
exercise and check the differences if Auto-scaling of z-axis is enabled, or
Smoothed Profile is chosen. If you want to save your profile, you should click
on the Save As button and choose an appropriate table name. Otherwise, the
temporary table Profile is always overwritten.
It is not necessary to enter polygon drape parameters. If left blank, a solid black
line is drawn which represents the surface profile. However, the polygon drape
option is useful for examining geology, tenements or vegetation crossed by the
profile.
Complete the exercise by closing all tables.
Surfaces Tutorial
31
Grid query parameters for identifying areas by elevation, aspect and slope
This query returns polygons for all grid cells that are between 500 and 800
metres elevation, on a slope between 5 and 10 degrees, and whose aspect is to
the south. You may wish to verify the results by opening the Contours table
and adding it to the map window containing the Gridquery layer.
Experiment with other query parameters.
Note
The previous query is overwritten unless you choose a new name for the output
table under Save Polygons to Table.
Close all tables except for Topo Grid before proceeding to the next exercise.
32
A new map window opens containing a raster image showing the percent of
slope.
The grid can be queried using GridInfo tool. Click on the GridInfo button, and
then click on an area of the raster image that you wish to query.
Discover reports the value for the central grid cell selected, as well as the
surrounding eight grid cells. Repeat the exercise choosing Slope as the
operation, and choose Degrees of Slope. Now repeat the process using Aspect,
and create a grid illustrating the aspect of the DEM.
Surfaces Tutorial
33
34
Surfaces Tutorial
35
Click on the styles button and choose a colour for each of the five ranges. A
suggestion is (from low to high values): blue, dark green, light green, yellow
and red. Click OK twice. You may wish to overlay the Contours table to
observe the relationship between these two derived datasets.
Complete the tutorial by closing all tables and choosing Exit Surfaces from the
Surfaces menu.
36
3D Display Tutorial
37
38
Registering the ER Mapper grid and with its appropriate projection category.
Click the CoordSys button and select the Projection Category (Australian Map
Grid AGD66) and Category Member (AMG Zone 52 (AGD66)). Click OK to
assign the correct MapInfo projection to the grid image table and display the
surface in a Map Window. This processing also creates a .TAB file with the
necessary surface registration information for the image data imported in the ER
Mapper image file.
3D Display Tutorial
39
In this dialog you have other options of applying various forms of grid
colouring. Options include histogram equalisation, full linear stretch, colour
percentile breaks and colour to data breaks. The most appropriate for displaying
digital terrain data is using a linear stretch. Click OK after setting the Autoclip
option. The grid is now displayed with grey colouring (the newgrey look-up
table) ranging from dark grey (lowest) through to white (highest).
As a variation of the displayed surface you could also choose the
Surfaces>Modify Grid Display>Sun-shading. Enable the Sun-shading on
option and leave the sunangle position as default.
Note that the digital terrain surface indicates some areas of elevated topography
surrounded by a relatively flat plain with occasional east-west sand dune lines.
40
Once the 3D Map has been generated you can easily alter the properties of the
3D display. Click the right mouse button in the 3D Map window and select
Properties.
3D Display Tutorial
41
To learn about navigation of the 3D display, try pressing and holding the left
mouse button while moving the cursor in the display window. Also select the
Zoom in, out and Pan MapInfo buttons and similarly use the cursor to alter the
view position.
42
3D Display Tutorial
43
Enhanced Layer Control with order of layers repared for 3D display of DTM and Radiometrics layers.
From the MapInfo menu, select Map>Create 3DMap. Alter the appearance of
the 3Dmap. Select Units as meters and change the Scale to 0.5. Leave the
Camera and Light Position as default and click OK.
The resulting image has the radiometrics tiff geo-referenced and draped over the
underlying DTM surface. As previously, you can manipulate the view of the 3D
display as desired.
Also included in the Discover_Tutorial/3D directory are a Total Magnetic
Intensity ER Mapper grid (TMI.ERS) and a GeoTiff file (TMIRAS.TIF). You may
wish to experiment further with these files in a similar way to the DTM and
radiometrics surfaces.
Complete the tutorial by closing all tables and choosing Exit Surfaces from the
Surfaces menu.
44
46
Create cross-sections
Data Sources
Drill data (collar, survey, lithology and sample data) have been entered in the
field into an Access database. Assay data have been returned from the
laboratory in Excel format. Surface geology has been previously digitized and is
Surfaces Tutorial
47
in MapInfo format.
Note
This tutorial uses an Access database, that can only be used with MapInfo
Professional version 4.1 or later.
These files are located in the Discover_Tutorial\Drillholes directory. The files
are named DRILL.MDB, ASSAYS.XLS, and SURFACE_GEOLOGY.TAB.
The Excel format assay data need to be merged with the assay intervals in
the Access database
48
Surfaces Tutorial
49
Creating Sections
Step 1. Setup Discover to Create Sections
Select Discover>DrillHole Display. A menu item named Drillholes is added to
the MapInfo menu bar, to the right of the Discover menu item.
Choose Drillholes>Setup. Click the New button and enter a name for the drill
project. For the tutorial, enter Drill Demo and click OK. Select the directory
that contains the data (Discover_Tutorial\Drillholes,) and then enter the
appropriate information in the Project Definition dialog as shown below. You
can open the tables directly from this dialog if necessary.
50
When the OK button is clicked, the Assign Spatial Columns dialog appears.
Ensure that the columns match the entries required. If not, use the drop down
lists to match the appropriate columns. The sample dataset does not have a
negative sign in front of collar dips. Therefore, leave the Down Dip is negative
option unchecked. Depth units are metres.
Click OK followed by OK again on the Choose Project window to complete
the setup procedure.
Surfaces Tutorial
51
Open RESULTS.TXT in Wordpad. The results show that there are no problems
with the data. If there were, problems would be listed, and it would be necessary
to return to the original Access database to make corrections.
52
Surfaces Tutorial
53
Part of the downhole data display definition dialog showing the current display scheme
Save this current data display setting, by clicking the Save button at the top of
the dialog. Save to a setting called Drill Demo. This setting can then be used in
future to ensure that sections are viewed with a consistent data display.
Check the Display Annotation - Data Legend option so that the ranged and
individual colour patterns are displayed as a key.
Press Apply and select the three sections that have been created in the Apply to
Sections box. Click OK. The selected downhole data is drawn on the three
sections.
54
sections and open them from a list. If you did not previously set the sections to
be stored with the section manager, you can do this now.
Select the Setup menu option, choose the Demo Drill project and click the
Section Manager button. Click the Add button, select a section to add and
press OK. Repeat the process to Add the remaining two sections.
Press the Done button to finish.
Surfaces Tutorial
55
56
Surfaces Tutorial
Scale
Frame Width (cm)
Frame Height (cm)
Frame Top (RL)
Frame Left
57
1:1000
25
15
110
805585
Choose the section N8475240 and click OK. The section grid dialog box
appears again and you should enter suitable parameters as described in step 11,
then click OK.
Section 8475240N with data display legend printed from the layout window
A layout window containing the section will appear. Discover will have added
information about the section to the layout window. If you do not want this
information on the layout, select the text and press the Delete key.
58
Index
59
Index
Add Scaled Frame to Layout, 16, 17,
42
Colour Maps, 25
creating a new colour table, 25
Draw by Coordinates, 16
Drillhole Display
add section to layout, 41
compositing downhole data, 40
creating and using colour patterns, 36
data validation, 34
digitizing boundaries, 39
displaying downhole data, 36
exporting boundaries to 3D DXF, 39
interpolating resources, 39
log display, 38
section manager, 38
viewing drillholes in section or plan,
35
Geological Line Annotation, 10, 27
Legend, 12
re-ordering, 13
Line Annotation, 10, 27
Map Labelling Tools, 11, 28
Map Making
Add Scaled Frame to Layout, 16
Colour Maps, 25
Labelling, 11, 28
Legend, 12
Line Annotation, 10, 27
Styles Library, 21, 26
vector polygon fills, 9
Object Editing