Geofield V.2.2: Data Management and Map Production For The Field Geologist

Energy, Mines and Resources ● Yukon Geological Survey ● Energy, Mines and Resources ● Yukon Geological Survey
GEO
GeoFIELD v.2.2
Data management
and map production
for the field geologist
YGS Open File 2003-8(D)

by
P.S. Lipovsky, M. Colpron, G. Stronghill and L. Pigage
Yukon Geological Survey

Whitehorse, Yukon
April, 2003
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABOUT GEOFIELD.................................................................................................................................... 3
PRODUCT SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................... 3
REQUIRED SOFTWARE AND OPERATING SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY .............................................................. 3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................ 3
RECOMMENDED CITATION .......................................................................................................................... 3
CONTACT INFORMATION ............................................................................................................................. 3
SUPPORT LIMITATIONS ................................................................................................................................ 4
WHERE TO OBTAIN THIS AND OTHER YUKON GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PUBLICATIONS ................................... 4
GETTING STARTED.................................................................................................................................. 5
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................ 5
BASIC DATABASE CONCEPTS ...................................................................................................................... 6
INSTALLING GEOFIELD.............................................................................................................................. 7
DIRECTORY STRUCTURE AND FILE CONTENT.............................................................................................. 8
MAKING GEOFIELD BACKUPS AND COPIES ............................................................................................... 8
USE OF ITALICS IN THIS MANUAL ................................................................................................................ 8
OPENING GEOFIELD .................................................................................................................................. 9
GEOFIELD PROJECT SETUP ........................................................................................................................ 9
DATA ENTRY WITH GEOFIELD ......................................................................................................... 11
REQUIRED AND HIDDEN FIELDS ................................................................................................................ 12
PULL-DOWN LISTS AND LOOKUP TABLES ................................................................................................... 13
NAVIGATING BETWEEN RECORDS ............................................................................................................. 14
FINDING A STATION .................................................................................................................................. 15
SORTING AND FILTERING .......................................................................................................................... 15
DELETING A STATION ................................................................................................................................ 16
DATA ENTRY SEQUENCE ........................................................................................................................... 16
STATION FORM....................................................................................................................................... 17
PLOTTING STATIONS IN AUTOCAD......................................................................................................... 20
About the Coordinate Fields ............................................................................................................... 20
Before plotting with any method… ..................................................................................................... 21
Digitizing a Station Location From a Map......................................................................................... 21
Troubleshooting during digitizing....................................................................................................... 22
Plotting a Station from Known Coordinates (GPS Reading) ............................................................ 22
Batch Plotting Multiple Stations from Known Coordinates............................................................... 23
Known Limitations when Performing a GeoFIELD Command in AutoCAD................................... 24
LITHOLOGY FORM ................................................................................................................................ 25
SAMPLE FORM ........................................................................................................................................ 27
STRUCTURE FORM ................................................................................................................................ 28

True North / Grid North Correction Angle......................................................................................... 29
PLOTTING STRUCTURAL FEATURES IN AUTOCAD USING GEOFIELD SYMBOLS ...................................... 30
Some potential problems with the Plot Symbol function.................................................................... 32
Why Attributed Blocks?....................................................................................................................... 33
Hidden Fields in the Structure Form.................................................................................................. 33
PHOTO FORM .......................................................................................................................................... 34
PALM OS HANDHELD DATA COLLECTION.................................................................................... 35

GENERAL HANDHELD USE NOTES................................................................................................... 36
GeoFIELD v. 2.2 1 Yukon Geological Survey

HANDHELD DATA ENTRY .................................................................................................................. 37
Open Pendragon Forms 3.2 ................................................................................................................ 37
Create a New Station ........................................................................................................................... 37
Data Validation and Consistency ........................................................................................................ 40
HANDHELD FIELD DESCRIPTIONS ................................................................................................... 41
Station Form........................................................................................................................................ 42
Structure Form .................................................................................................................................... 44
Lithology Form .................................................................................................................................... 45
Photo Form.......................................................................................................................................... 47
Sample Form ....................................................................................................................................... 48
HANDHELD SYNCHRONIZATION WITH GEOFIELD.................................................................................... 49
Field Mapping Schematics .................................................................................................................. 50
Synchronization Errors ....................................................................................................................... 53
ANALYSIS RESULTS FORM.................................................................................................................. 54
Below Detection Values....................................................................................................................... 55
UNDERLYING FORMS AND TABLES............................................................................................................ 56
Assay Results ....................................................................................................................................... 56
Fossil .................................................................................................................................................... 57
Geochemistry ....................................................................................................................................... 58
Geochronology..................................................................................................................................... 59
Thin Section......................................................................................................................................... 60
Rock Evaluation Pyrolysis................................................................................................................... 61
IMPORTING ANALYSIS RESULTS FROM EXCEL .......................................................................... 62
Importing Trace Element Geochemistry............................................................................................. 64
Importing Major Element Geochemistry ............................................................................................ 69
Importing Assay Results ...................................................................................................................... 71
LINKING ARCGIS 8.X TO GEOFIELD ................................................................................................ 73
ADD THE STATION TABLE ......................................................................................................................... 73
ADD THE STRUCTURE TABLE .................................................................................................................... 73
LINKING AUTOCAD MAP OBJECTS TO GEOFIELD ..................................................................... 75
ATTACH AND CONFIGURE A DATA SOURCE .............................................................................................. 76
GENERATE LINKS BETWEEN GEOFIELD AND STATION AND STRUCTURE OBJECTS .................................. 79
USING LINKED OBJECTS ............................................................................................................................ 80
CHANGES BETWEEN GEOFIELD VERSIONS 1 AND 2 .................................................................. 83
IMPORTING DATA FROM GEOFIELD V1 INTO V2 ...................................................................................... 84
Possible Errors when Importing ......................................................................................................... 85
IMPORTING DATA FROM FIELDLOG............................................................................................... 87
APPENDIX 1 - LIST OF GEOFIELD DATABASE OBJECTS............................................................ 91

TABLES ..................................................................................................................................................... 91
FORMS ....................................................................................................................................................... 92
QUERIES, REPORTS AND MACROS ............................................................................................................. 93
APPENDIX 2 – FIELD PROPERTIES FOR TABLES ACCESSIBLE IN DATA ENTRY FORM .. 96
APPENDIX 3 – TABLE RELATIONSHIPS (11 X 17)........................................................................... 99

ABOUT GEOFIELD
GeoFIELD v.2.2
Data management and map production for the field geologist
© Government of Yukon, 2003
Product Summary
GeoFIELD is a data management system that is designed to facilitate practical data entry and the
production of geologic maps while in the field. GeoFIELD writes data to a Microsoft Access 2000
database and allows digitizing and plotting of station locations and structural data in an AutoCAD
Map 2000 drawing using a Visual Basic for Applications interface. GeoFIELD provides a user-
friendly interface within a familiar Windows environment. Its extensive picklists are easily
customizable and ensure consistency and quality control during data entry. The widespread
availability and easy customization features of Microsoft Access make GeoFIELD a flexible
application that can be adapted to varying needs. In addition, Microsoft Access provides the
ability to easily build complex database queries and generate reports. GeoFIELD can also be
used successfully with a handheld device as well as with common GIS applications such as
ArcGIS 8.x.
Required Software and Operating System Compatibility

GeoFIELD was developed and tested using Microsoft Access 2000 and 2002, Visual Basic 6,
AutoCAD Map 2000i, Pendragon Forms 3.2 and ESRI ArcGIS 8.2 software applications. Direct
compatibility with older versions of Access, AutoCAD, Visual Basic or Pendragon Forms is
unlikely. Compatibility with more recent and/or future software versions is expected but cannot
be guaranteed.
GeoFIELD only requires Microsoft Access 2000 or above to operate in its most basic form, as a
data storage receptacle. AutoCAD Map 2000 or above and/or ArcGIS 8.2 or above can be used
for enhanced GIS and mapping functionality. Pendragon Forms 3.2 is required for use with a
handheld device.
GeoFIELD has been used successfully on Windows NT, 2000 and XP operating systems.
Compatibility with future operating systems is probable but not guaranteed.
Acknowledgements
Visual Basic programming was carried out by Gary Stronghill. Database conceptual design was
done by Maurice Colpron, Lee Pigage and Panya Lipovsky, with some modeling based on the
Geological Survey of Canada’s FIELDLOG database designed by Boyan Brodaric (1992). MS
Access database customization and the production of the GeoFIELD manual were done primarily
by Panya Lipovsky with the help of Maurice Colpron and Lee Pigage.
Recommended Citation
Lipovsky, P.S., Colpron, M., Stronghill, G. and Pigage, L., 2003. GeoFIELD v.2.2 – Data
management and map production for the field geologist. Yukon Geological Survey Open File
2003-8(D).
Contact Information
Questions, suggestions and comments regarding GeoFIELD can be addressed to Panya
Lipovsky (Tel: (867) 667-8520; E-mail: Panya.Lipovsky@gov.yk.ca) or Maurice Colpron (Tel:
(867) 667-8235; E-mail: Maurice.Colpron@gov.yk.ca).

Support Limitations
GeoFIELD was developed at the Yukon Geological Survey (YGS) to meet the requirements of the
Project Geologists in their geological mapping activities. The Yukon Geological Survey provides
GeoFIELD free of charge as a service to the geoscience community. Although we welcome
comments and suggestions for future improvements to GeoFIELD, the Yukon Geological Survey
provides no technical support for this application. We hope that the information contained in this
manual will address most issues that may be encountered by the user. We anticipate making
occasional updates of GeoFIELD available through our website (http://geology.gov.yk.ca).
Where to obtain this and other Yukon Geological Survey publications

Hard copies of all Yukon Geological Survey publications are available at the address below:
Geoscience Information and Sales

c/o Whitehorse Mining Recorder
102-300 Main Street
Whitehorse Yukon Y1A 2B5
Ph. (867) 667-5200
Fax. (867) 667-5150
Email: geosales@inac.gc.ca
Yukon Geological Survey also distributes publications in digital format. To download this and
many other YGS publications visit: http://geology.gov.yk.ca

GETTING STARTED
Introduction
GeoFIELD is a data management system that is designed to facilitate practical data entry and the
production of geologic maps while in the field. GeoFIELD writes data to a Microsoft Access 2000
database and allows digitizing and plotting of station locations and structural data in an AutoCAD
Map 2000 drawing using a Visual Basic for Applications interface.
GeoFIELD is a relational database that was designed in Microsoft Access 2000. It consists of 5
core data tables (Station, Structure, Photo, Lithology and Sample) and 13 secondary or
supporting data tables (Mapunits, Analysis Type, Geochron, Fossil, Rock Evaluation,
Geochemistry, Chemistry Elements, Chemistry Compounds, Assay, Assay Elements, Thin
Sections and Mineralogy) all of which are linked through either single or combination primary key
fields. The relationships between these 18 tables are shown in Fig. 1 (and Appendix 3 for a 11 x
17 inch version), with primary keys written in bold. A number of fields are also linked to
customizable lookup tables (22 tables in all; Appendix 1) which provide a list of appropriate field
values to ensure accurate and consistent data entry.
STRUCTURE
GEOCHRON GEOCHEM
ROCK EVAL
SAMPLE
ASSAY
STATION
LITHOLOGY
FOSSIL
MAPUNITS ANALYSIS
TYPE
THIN SECTION
PHOTO
Figure 1. Relationships in the GeoFIELD database.
One of the advantages of designing GeoFIELD in Microsoft Access 2000 is that it provides a
familiar Windows interface and allows for easy customization of the database for users familiar
with Microsoft Access 2000. In addition, Microsoft Access 2000 provides an intuitive interface for
building and performing complex database queries. Finally, GeoFIELD was designed to facilitate
transfer of field data into the GIS environment.
The need for designing GeoFIELD arose from the incompatibility between FieldLog (a dBase III
database system that was developed at the Geological Survey of Canada) and the latest release
of AutoCAD Map 2000. GeoFIELD provides an interface for data entry and plotting similar to that
offered by FieldLog. However, no attempt was made to replicate all the functions that were
available in FieldLog (such as coordinate system transformation and stereonet production) as

many of these functions can be performed more efficiently in other programs which are generally
available to most geologists.
Basic Database Concepts
In order to understand how the GeoFIELD database works and stores your geological
information, it is helpful to define some basic database concepts:
A) A database is a collection of numerous tables that are connected through the
relationships between primary keys and foreign keys. GeoFIELD is an MS Access
database (.mdb file).
B) A table contains data that describes a single entity (something you want to store multiple
characteristics of).
For example, in the GeoFIELD database, there are five main tables, each of which
describes one entity:
• STATION describes the station location entity;
• STRUCTURE describes the structural measurement entity;
• PHOTO describes the photograph entity;
• LITHOLOGY describes the lithological unit entity; and
• SAMPLE describes the geological sample entity.
C) A table is composed of rows and columns. Columns are referred to as fields (or
attributes), and they describe a specific characteristic of an entity in a table. Any one
field will only accept one of the following data formats: text (numbers and/or text),
numbers only, yes/no checkbox, or date/time. Rows are referred to as records, which
are single instances of an entity in a table.
For example, in the STRUCTURE table of the database:
• “azimuth” and “dip” are number fields and “feature” is a text field.
• A single structural measurement which records a value in each of the “azimuth”, “dip”
and “feature” fields is one record.
D) Like all things in life, relationships are what provide the power to a database, by linking
the different database tables. Only one-to-many relationships are used in the GeoFIELD
database. A one-to-many relationship exists between a parent table (e.g. STATION) and
a child table (e.g. STRUCTURE) so that one record in the parent table can be linked to
multiple records in the child table.
This means that for one station in the database, you can have any number of structural
measurements, photo records, or lithologies; or for one lithology, you can have multiple
sample records. For example, one-to-many relationships exists between the following
main tables in GeoFIELD: STATION and STRUCTURE, STATION and PHOTO,
STATION and LITHOLOGY, and LITHOLOGY and SAMPLE.
E) A primary key is a field that uniquely identifies a record in a table. For example,
“statnum” (station number) is the primary key in the STATION table, which means that
there cannot be more than one record (row) in a table with the same station number.
Primary keys can also consist of a combination or two or more fields. For example, the
primary key for the STRUCTURE table is the combination of the “statnum” and
“structnum” fields. If at one station (Station001), you had structure number 1 and
structure number 2, the primary key for each structure record would be Station001-1 and
Station001-2.

F) A foreign key is a field in a table that can be used to link records to other tables. A
foreign key must have the same values as the values of a primary key in a linked table.
For example, in order to link (or establish a relationship between) the STRUCTURE and
STATION tables, the “statnum” field is used as a foreign key field in the STRUCTURE
table, while it is a primary key field in the STATION table.
G) Forms are “windows” into database tables. They show one record from a table by
displaying the values of each field for that record. A form allows you to edit the values for
one record at a time in a more convenient arrangement than can be presented with just a
straight table showing all the records.
In GeoFIELD, the Data Entry Form displays all the information for a single station in one
viewing window, so that you don’t have to open five different tables to see all the data for
one station. The Data Entry form displays the fields from the five main tables (STATION,
STRUCTURE, PHOTO, LITHOLOGY and SAMPLE) in one interface.
Installing GeoFIELD
To install GeoFIELD, run the setup.exe file and follow the setup instructions.
The setup file will install all GeoFIELD supporting files in the C:\local\GeoFIELD folder on your
computer (this is referred to as the GeoFIELD root directory in this manual; see Fig. 2). The
total size of all these files is relatively small at 13.4 MB. At this time, there is no
option to choose an alternate installation directory, as this path is hard-coded in the Visual Basic
programming of GeoFIELD in order to locate structural symbol bitmap images for full plotting
capability with AutoCAD.
While your actual GeoFIELD project (the Access database GeoFIELD_v2_2.mdb) and any
associated AutoCAD drawings can be filed at any location on your computer, with any name, it is
not recommended to move or rename any other files. The GeoFIELD_symbols folder in
particular must remain in the C:\local\GeoFIELD directory.
Figure 2. Directory structure required by GeoFIELD.

Directory Structure and File Content
Once the installation is complete, four files and three subdirectories will be found in the
GeoFIELD root directory (C:\local\GeoFIELD) (Fig. 2). The four files are listed below:
1. AboutGeoFIELD.txt: A general description of the GeoFIELD product, required software

and operating system compatibility, acknowledgements, recommended citation and
product contact information.
2. geoFIELD_v2_2.mdb: The main GeoFIELD database, which is just a customized MS

Access database.
3. geoFIELD_Manual.pdf: A 95 page portable document file describing all aspects of

GeoFIELD use and design.
4. readme.txt: A document which describes the installation of GeoFIELD and provides

general descriptive comments on the product.
The three subdirectories in the GeoFIELD root directory (C:\local\GeoFIELD) are listed below:
1. \arcgis: contains an ArcGIS style file (GeoFIELD.style), customized structural symbols

(.emf), and preset layer definitions (.lyr) for plotting stations and structures in ESRI
ArcMap.
2. \geoFIELD_symbols: Bitmaps (.bmp) for GeoFIELD structural symbol palette in MS

Access, and attributed blocks (.dwg) for plotting structural symbols in AutoCAD Map.
3. \pendragon_forms: A Pendragon Forms configuration database (in MS Access .mdb

format) required for installing data collection forms on a handheld device and controlling
synchronization with GeoFIELD.
Making GeoFIELD Backups and Copies
It is a good idea to make a copy of the blank GeoFIELD_v2_2.mdb file and rename it for your
own project (e.g., Glenlyon2001.mdb). To make a copy of the database, you must exit Access,
and copy the file C:\local\GeoFIELD\ GeoFIELD_v2_2.mdb using Windows Explorer. Rename
the copy and move it into any directory on your computer. You cannot save the database as a
different file from within Access itself.
Once you have started working with your GeoFIELD project, it is also a good idea to make
regular backups by copying your .mdb file using Windows Explorer.
Use of Italics in this Manual
Throughout this manual, italicized text is primarily used to identify the names of software or
hardware components (i.e. to highlight the names of files, directories, paths, applications,
GeoFIELD form and field names, error messages and commands). This does not apply to
instances where italics are used for headings, figure captions and for emphasizing important
points.

Opening GeoFIELD
Open Microsoft Access 2000 (or any more recent version of MS Access), and open
GeoFIELD_v2_2.mdb or your renamed GeoFIELD project (*.mdb).
Upon opening any GeoFIELD project in Access, a form or window will be displayed, named
GeoFIELD Data Entry (Fig. 5). This is the front end user interface from which you can perform all
of your data entry and AutoCAD plotting. For users who are new to MS Access, this is the only
interface you will need to use GeoFIELD effectively. Use of the form is easy to learn and is
explained in the following pages of this document.
For users with some familiarity with MS Access, individual supporting tables, queries and reports
can be accessed in the GeoFIELD_v2_2: Database window underlying the Data Entry interface
window. Most of these underlying database objects are for internal use only and can be
accessed indirectly from within the Data Entry form. Some prior knowledge of MS Access is
required to navigate and manage these database objects and it is beyond the scope of this
manual to provide assistance in this regard. Users are welcome to change the structure of any of
these underlying elements, but performance and operation of the product may be compromised
by doing so. To simplify and unclutter your Database window, go to the Tools menu, select
Options, and under the View tab, uncheck hidden objects and press OK. This will make them
invisible.
GeoFIELD Project Setup
To initialize your GeoFIELD project in Microsoft

Access, the GeoFIELD Project Setup Information
form (Fig. 3) must be completed before you begin
entering or plotting any data. In this form, you must
specify your desired mapping scale, the UTM
datum for locational data and the path to your
AutoCAD structural symbols.
To access the GeoFIELD Project Setup Information

form, click the SETUP button at the top of the Data
Entry form (Fig. 5).
Figure 3. In a new GeoFIELD project, the SETUP form will be filled in with the defaults
shown here. Before any data is entered or plotted, change the values to suit your project.
• Specifying the Map Scale will ensure that structural symbols and labels (dip/plunge) are
inserted at the appropriate size for plotting in AutoCAD at the chosen scale. GeoFIELD
will insert symbols so that they are 6-7 mm long in the AutoCAD map. Numbered labels
will appear ~2 mm high on the map (equivalent to 7 pt). You can enter any map scale
you desire (e.g. 20 000, 50 000, 79 652, or 100 000).
• By choosing the UTM Datum (Nad 27 or Nad 83), you specify which UTM coordinate
fields in the STATION table you would like to populate with coordinate information when
digitizing from AutoCAD, or which UTM coordinate fields you want to use to plot your
stations in AutoCAD. Only the UTM coordinate fields for the selected datum will be
activated in the Data Entry form.
• Enter the Angle from grid (or UTM) north to true north, if applicable. This will correct the
rotation of your structural symbols when plotting in AutoCAD to compensate for any
difference between true north and grid (or UTM) north.

In most cases, the magnitude of this angle usually ranges between 0 and 3 degrees (0 in
the centre of a UTM zone and up to 3 degrees on the edges of the zone), which is within
the error commonly accepted for field measurements. Many users opt to ignore such a
small error in plotting their structures.
If grid north is east (or to the right) of true north, enter a negative value. If grid north is
west (or to the left) of true north, enter a positive value.
• Finally, you have to specify the path or location where GeoFIELD will find its symbol
library. By default, the path is set at C:\local\GeoFIELD\GeoFIELD_symbols and should
not need to be changed if you have followed the installation instructions and not moved
any supporting files.
If for some reason you have moved the supporting files, press the Browse button on the
Setup form, and navigate to the folder containing the AutoCAD *.dwg and *.bmp files
Select any one of the *.dwg blocks and press Open (Fig. 4). The path will display at the
bottom of the Setup form.
While it is not recommended to move or rename the symbol folder, the symbol folder can
have any name you wish and reside anywhere on your computer as long as you specify
the new path to the symbols. You must, however, use the AutoCAD blocks (files)
provided with GeoFIELD and you cannot change the name of any of these blocks (see
the section on GeoFIELD symbols for more details).
• Press the Save button (the check mark) to commit your setup parameters.
Figure 4. Select any one of the AutoCAD blocks in order to set the path to
the GeoFIELD_symbols folder.

DATA ENTRY WITH GEOFIELD
Once you have performed your GeoFIELD setup, you are ready to enter data into your GeoFIELD
project.
The GeoFIELD Data Entry form (Fig. 5) provides direct access to the 5 main tables (Station,
Lithology, Structure, Photo, and Sample; Fig. 1) which are relevant to the collection and recording
of data during fieldwork.
The Station section (or subform) of the Data Entry form is available at all times during the data
entry work session. The Lithology, Structure and Photo subforms can be accessed by clicking
on the tabs in the middle-left area of the Data Entry form (Fig. 5). These three subforms display
data pertaining to a particular station. The relationship between a station and the Lithology,
Structure or Photo forms is one-to-many, so any number of Lithology, Structure or Photo entries
can be made for a particular Station.
The Lithology subform has one further subform, Sample, which is in a one-to-many relationship
with the Lithology subform. For a particular Lithology, a single sample, or multiple samples, can
be identified for any number of analysis types. From the Sample subform, a set of 10 tables (see
Fig. 1) can be accessed to display analytical results (by Clicking the Analysis Results button;
Fig. 5); these are discussed in the Analysis Results section of this manual.
Figure 5. The GeoFIELD Data Entry form.

Required and Hidden Fields
Required Fields…
At a first glance, you will notice that a number of the fields in the GeoFIELD Data Entry
form are outlined in orange (Fig. 5) – this is an indication that a valid entry is required in
these fields. Many of the errors you are likely to encounter in GeoFIELD will be related to
the fact that one of these fields contains an invalid, null or non-unique value (Fig. 6).
Figure 6. Error message commonly displayed when a

required field does not contain a valid entry.
In order to circumvent the error message displayed in Fig. 6:
(1) make sure you enter values in each of the orange-outlined boxes; and
(2) enter data in the proper sequence – follow the database structure as shown in Fig. 1
(the data entry sequence is described in more detail below).
Although some of the required fields will automatically display their default value, the field
is not actually populated until you have made an entry elsewhere in the form (e.g., Rock
No. in the Lithology form has a default value of 1 [Fig. 5]; this value is not entered in the
Lithology table until you fill in Rock Type, Map Unit, or any other field in the Lithology
form).
If you get the message displayed in Fig. 6, there are two ways to get yourself out of
trouble:
(1) Locate which field requires a valid entry and fill it in (Access typically only allows you
to access the field containing the invalid or null value); or
(2) Press Esc, or close the Data Entry form and re-open it in order to resume your data
entry session. The incorrect record will not be saved in the database.
… and Hidden Fields
The Data Entry form (Fig. 5) is the “window” into 6 of the 40 tables that make up
GeoFIELD (see Fig. 1 and Appendix 1). It allows the creation and display of database
records in a more manageable format (i.e. it fits on the screen) than the database tables
themselves. The main database fields are arranged in a logical sequence in order to
streamline data entry. However, not all fields from the corresponding database tables are
necessarily represented in the Data Entry form (see Appendix 2 for complete listing of
database fields for the seven forms in the Data Entry form). These hidden fields do not
contain data which are of immediate relevance to the recording of field data and the
production of a geological map with AutoCAD Map. Hidden fields contain either data
relevant to the relationship to other database tables or data that will become useful for
eventual transfer to the GIS platform and more advanced analysis.

Pull-down lists and lookup tables
In order to prevent typos and ensure data consistency, many fields throughout the Data Entry
form only accept values from pull-down lists. Each of these pull-down lists retrieves values from
a specific lookup table. They all operate similarly. Values from the pull-down lists are entered in a
field by either:
• scrolling down the list (this could be tedious for a long lookup table) and selecting the
value, or
• typing the first few letters of the word you wish to find.
In the latter case, you will be “brought” to the portion

of the lookup table that most closely matches the
letters typed (Fig. 7). The selection will be
highlighted in black. If you press enter, or click the
appropriate selection with your mouse, the
highlighted value will be entered in the field.
Figure 7. Typing the letters GR brings you to the
relevant portion of the lookup_rocktype table.
If you try to enter a value that is not found in the pull-down list list, the error in Figure 8 will be
displayed.
Figure 8. When you enter a value that is not

in the pull-down list, this message will be
displayed.
The values in the pull-down lists (actually by definition, in the lookup tables) can be modified in
two ways: either directly in the underlying lookup table, or indirectly from the data entry form. The
indirect method from the data entry form is the most convenient, as you can make changes in the
middle of entering data.
On the Data Entry form, fields with lookup tables are labeled with a raised button bearing the field
name (for example, in Fig. 7, the Rock Type and Abundance fields have lookup tables). If you
press this button, a form will open that allows you to edit the values available in the pull-down list.
• To change an item, type the new value in the appropriate box, click inside any other box
on another row to commit the changes.
• To add a new item, scroll to the bottom of the form and enter the new item in the blank
boxes. When you have finished entering the new item, click inside any other box on
another row to commit the changes.
• To delete an item, select the appropriate row with the record selector (the box with the
arrow in it to the left of the row) and press delete on your keyboard. A message will pop
up saying that you cannot undo a delete. Press “Yes” if you are sure you want to delete
the record.
To close the lookup edit form, click the x in the top right corner of the form, and the lookup table
will be updated. Sometimes when you close the lookup edit form, the changes you make to the
list may not be visible when you look in the pull-down list. To refresh the list you may need to
close the Data Entry form and then reopen it.

Note that any changes made to the pull-down lists or lookup lists will be propagated
throughout the database within the field the lookup table is linked to, so exercise caution
when changing or deleting values already in a lookup table. This can be extremely useful
however if, for example, you want to update a map unit from CLSv to CLSq: you only need to
change the lookup value once in the Map Unit lookup list, for CLSv to be updated to CLSq for all
your stations. (For advanced users this property can be eliminated by removing referential
integrity between the lookup table and the linked field in the Relationships window.)
Navigating between Records

Each form contains standard buttons that allow you to navigate between records within a specific
table (Fig. 9).
First Previous Next Last

Record Record Record Record
Figure 9. Navigation buttons

in the Station form.
The left and right arrows bring you to the previous and next records, respectively. For the Station
buttons, the left arrow with a bar will display the first station. For any of the other subform
buttons, it will display the first record for the station currently displayed (e.g. the first photo,
structural measurement or lithology at a particular station). Similarly, the right arrow with a bar
will bring you to the last record.
If you are on the first record and click the previous button, the following error message will be
displayed (Fig. 10) because you are attempting to go to a non-existent record.
Figure 10. Error displayed when attempting to

go to a non-existent record.
To create a new record, ALWAYS click on the New Record button (in Fig. 9, New Station).
This way GeoFIELD will automatically find the last record in the table and increment it by 1.
It is also possible to create a new record by clicking on the Next Record button (right arrow) from
the last record in the table. This is not recommended because it is likely to result in an erroneous
entry in the database. If you create a new record this way, most fields will be blanked out
(particularly those in the Station sub-form), while other fields (e.g., Lithology No.) will revert to the
default value of 1. This is likely to create a duplicate primary key entry in the database and will
result in the following error (Fig. 11).
Figure 11. Error displayed when inadvertently creating a

duplicate primary key value in the database.

If you get this error message, you can either correct the value in the offending field (this is not
always easy to locate) or simply close the Data Entry form and re-open it to continue your
session. The erroneous record will not be saved in the database table.
If you inadvertently create a new record by clicking the Next record button (and a number of fields
in the Station form go blank), press Esc or click the New Record button to get yourself back on
track.
Finding a Station
Sometimes, when a large number of stations have been entered in GeoFIELD, it can be time
consuming or difficult to navigate by scrolling through all your records with the record
navigation buttons to find a particular station that you want to update or review.
To find a particular station, click inside the Station

No. box, and press the Find button in the MS
Access toolbar (the binocular button), or choose
Find from Access’s Edit menu. A Find and
Replace dialog box will be displayed. In the box
labelled Find What:, type the station number you
are looking for and press Find Next. This will
bring you to the desired station at which point you
can close the Find and Replace window and
proceed with your data entry or review.
Sorting and Filtering
By default, whenever you open the Data Entry form, all of your records will be shown in
ascending station number (Station No.) order. You can select a different field to sort your stations
by, and you can change the direction your records are sorted in a data entry session. You can
also filter your form so that only certain records will be displayed in a data entry session. These
tools can make it easier to find a certain record, or to navigate among a subset of your data.
Sorting
To change the order in which the stations will be shown on the Data Entry form, use
the sort buttons on the toolbar. For example, click in the Station No. field so that the
cursor is flashing in the box, then click one of the two sort buttons (A-Z for ascending
order, or Z-A for descending order).
You could also sort by Geologist, Date, NTS Mapsheet or any other field in the Station form by
clicking inside the desired field, and then clicking on the appropriate sort button.
Filtering
To filter the form so that only data that meets a specific criterion is shown in the form, you can
apply a filter using one of the two filter buttons on the toolbar.
To filter by selection, navigate to a record that contains one instance of the value
you want to filter for. For example, if you wanted to filter for a particular geologist, you
would navigate to a station with that geologist, click in the geologist field so that the
cursor is flashing in it, and then click the filter by selection button. Then when you navigated
between stations, you would only see the ones for that geologist.

Instead of filtering by the selection of just one field, filtering by form allows you to enter
any number of values in any number of fields in a blank view of the data entry form.
The combination of those values is used to limit the records that will be shown in your
data entry form.
All filters you apply are only virtual (no data is ever deleted or physically moved.) You
can always remove a filter by clicking the Remove Filter button:
Microsoft Access Help has more detailed information on using filters and specifying selection
criteria.
Deleting a Station
To delete a station (and consequently any and all lithology, structure, photo, sample and analysis
type records associated with that station) navigate to the station you wish to delete and press the
Delete this Station button shown above. A message box will warn that you are about to delete
a record or that cascading deletes will occur. Press “Yes” if you are sure you want to delete the
station. A deleted record cannot be recovered by the undo command.
Alternately, close the data entry form, open the STATION table, highlight the station record
you wish to delete and press the delete button on the keyboard.
Data Entry Sequence

The ideal GeoFIELD data entry sequence should conform to the database relationships shown in
Fig. 1. In a typical data entry session, you should first enter the Station information. Begin by
entering a unique and valid Station No. and then fill in the rest of the required fields on the Station
form.
From the Station form you can enter data in the Lithology, Structure or Photo subforms. You
can access these three forms in any order you desire by clicking on the appropriate tab (Fig. 5).
You can also make multiple entries within each of these forms under the same Station number.
Multiple entries can be made in any order you wish – for example, you may decide to enter a
Structure, then a Photo, and then return to the Structure form to enter a new structure, and end
with an entry or two in the Lithology form. Once you have entered all the information for a
particular station, simply click the New Station button to start entering data for the next station.
Once you have entered data in the Lithology form, you can enter data in the Sample form. To
enter or review analysis results for a sample, click on the Analysis Results button in the Sample
form.
The following sections will take you through the normal data entry sequence. In doing so, details
of the types of data, methods for input and potential errors will be discussed.

STATION FORM
The Station form (Fig. 12) displays data describing location information for an observation point
where you may take any number of structural measurements, photos, lithological notes, or
samples. Station No., Date, Geologist, NTS Mapsheet (250K and 50K) and UTM Zone are
required fields in the Station form.
Figure 12. The Station form
Upon starting a new project, the Station No. field will default to myStation001. Station No. is a
text field that can contain up to 20 characters. To
allow for auto-incrementing of the Station No., the
only requirement is that the last three characters
must be numbers. If the last three characters are
not numbers, an error message will be displayed
(Fig. 13) when you press New Station.
Figure 13. This error message will be displayed

when you press New Station if you enter a
Station No. that does not end in three numbers.
When you create a new station by pressing the New Station button, GeoFIELD queries the last
three characters of the previous Station Number and increments it by 1. All fields in the Data
Entry form will be blanked out, except default values (as discussed below) and the values in the
NTS Mapsheet and UTM Zone fields, which will be preserved from the previous station.
When you start a new Data Entry session in an existing project, GeoFIELD will bring you to the
first station record (sorted alphabetically), by default. To proceed, simply click the New Station
button to begin your session.

Date must be entered in the format (dd/mm/yyyy) shown in brackets next to the Date field (Fig.
12). To enter a date in dd/mm/yyyy format, enter two digits for the day, followed by a space, dash
or slash, then two digits for the month, followed by another space, dash or slash, then four digits
for the year. When entering a new station, the Date field will default to the current date.
• If you enter a date, be sure to check that Access interprets your entry for your date
correctly. Sometimes, you can enter a date in different formats (i.e. dd/mm/yy or
mm/dd/yy or yy/mm/dd) and Access will know how to display the date correctly, but other
times it will mix up the year and the month or the month and the day. There seems to be
no consistent rule to apply to avoid this.
• Also note that once entered, the display of the date is controlled by your computer’s
Regional Settings (in the Windows Control Panel). So, once a date is entered in day-
month-year order, it could be displayed in year-month-day order as shown in Fig. 12.
The (dd/mm/yy) text is included on the Data Entry form simply as a reminder of the
format to follow when entering dates.
Failure to enter a valid date will result in the display of one of the error messages shown in Fig.
14. To correct this error, simply enter a valid date in the Date field in day-month-year order.
Figure 14. Error messages displayed when no date is entered in the Date field
of the Station form (top), or when the date is entered in the wrong format (bottom).
The Geologist field is a required text field that only accepts values from a pull-down list. The
values for this list are stored in the lookup_geologist table (up to 20 characters in length), and
can be edited by clicking on the GEOLOGIST button.
The Other Geologist field is an optional text field that accepts up to 50 characters for a
geologist’s and/or an assistant’s name. You can enter names from the pull-down list, but you are
not limited only to those names, so you can also type in additional names if you wish to enter
more than one person in this field. The source for the lookup list is the same as for the Geologist
field.
The Station Type field describes the observation site type (e.g., outcrop, float, subcrop, etc…).
The default for this field is outcrop. You can only enter text values (up to 10 characters in length)
from the pull-down list. To edit the pull-down list, which is stored in the lookup_station_type
table, click on the STATION TYPE button.
The Geographical Area field is an optional text field that accepts up to 50 characters to describe
the general sample location (e.g. a geographical feature, such as a mountain, ridge, lake, river or
road). This can be useful at a later point if you want to query the stations by their geographical
area to find all stations near a particular geographical feature.
There are two required NTS Mapsheet fields: 250K and 50K, both of which have pull-down lists
to control data entry. The 250K pull-down list reads values from the lookup_NTS250 table. This

table contains all 1:250 000 NTS map sheets for Yukon. If you are working in another province or
territory you simply have to replace the values in the lookup_NTS250 table by clicking the 250K
button to the left of the field. The 50K pull-down list contains numbers from 1 to 16. Once you
have selected an NTS Map Sheet (e.g., 105L/13 in Fig. 12), GeoFIELD will default the 250K and
50K fields to these values until new values are specified.
If you fail to fill in the 250K and/or the 50K fields, an error message will be displayed (Fig. 15).
Simply enter appropriate values in the 250K and 50K fields to proceed.
Figure 15. Error messages displayed when the 250K and/or 50K fields are empty.
The UTM Zone field accepts integer values from a pre-set pull-down list, which only contains
valid UTM Zones for Yukon (zones 7 to 10). Once a station has been entered, GeoFIELD will
always default to the value last entered in the UTM Zone field until a new value is specified. If
you are working outside of zones 7-10, right-click on the UTM Zone field, select Properties, and
type in your UTM Zone number(s) separated by commas in the Row Source field of the Data tab.
In a new project, UTM Zone will default to Zone 8 (the UTM Zone that covers the largest area of
Yukon). You can also change this default value for new projects by selecting Properties as
described above, and typing in a new number under the Default Value field. Once a station has
been entered, GeoFIELD will always default to the value last entered in the UTM Zone field until a
new value is specified.
UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) position can only be entered in one of Nad 27 or Nad 83
coordinates. Depending on which datum was specified in your setup form, only the respective
fields will be available for data entry in the Station form (the other boxes will be grey). Only six
digits to the left of the decimal place are accepted for the Easting field, and 7 digits to the left of
the decimal place for the Northing field. Decimal places can be stored although they won’t be
shown on the form. For more information on UTM coordinates see the sections entitled Entering
a Station Location from a GPS reading and About the Coordinate Fields.
There are two Elevation fields to report the elevation of a station. Enter either an imperial (ft) or
metric (m) value in the appropriate box. As soon as your cursor leaves the elevation field that
you filled in, GeoFIELD will calculate the elevation for the other elevation field.
The Airphotos field is used to enter the airphoto number for this Station. Up to 20 characters can
be entered in this field.
The Traverse No. field is optional. You may wish to enter a traverse number if you eventually
want to query stations by traverse, or if you are importing data from the traverse table of FieldLog
(see section on Importing data from FieldLog). If you will be combining data from multiple
years in one database, it is a good idea to use a Traverse No. that starts with the year and is
followed by a three digit number (eg. 2001001, 2001002, 2001003…). You can enter any integer
value up to 1 000 000 000.
The Station Comments field is for general comments, up to 64 000 characters, that describe a
station.

Plotting Stations In AUTOCAD
There are three ways to plot a station location in an

AutoCAD drawing:
(1) If the UTM coordinates are unknown, you

can digitize the position from a map calibrated in AutoCAD, and have the exact
coordinates sent back to GeoFIELD.
(2) If known UTM coordinates have been entered for a single station (i.e. from a GPS),
GeoFIELD can plot that single station in AutoCAD.
(3) If known UTM coordinates have been entered for multiple stations without plotting
each station individually, you can Batch Plot all of the unplotted stations at once.
Regardless of plotting method, GeoFIELD will place an ‘×’ on the STATYPE layer (GeoFIELD will
create this layer if it doesn’t already exist) and a Station Number text label on the STATNUM
layer (id.) in your AutoCAD drawing.
By default, the “Use Default Label Placement” checkbox is checked (below the Station
Comments field in Fig. 12). When the station is plotted, the station number label will then be
plotted at the same location as the Station symbol. If you uncheck this box, GeoFIELD will
activate the AutoCAD window and prompt you to place the station number label at the desired
location on the map. The station number label will always be inserted at a font size appropriate to
the map scale chosen in the GeoFIELD SETUP form (e.g., 75 drawing units for 1:50 000-scale or
150 drawing units for 1:100 000 scale). The font used will be the current text style that is active in
AutoCAD. The font and/or font size can be subsequently changed either globally or individually in
AutoCAD if desired.
The symbol (×) inserted at the station location is a block (stations.dwg) that has a hidden attribute
corresponding to the unique value STATNUM (Station No.). This will become useful if you want to
link your map to the database (see section on LINKING AutoCAD MAP OBJECTS TO
GeoFIELD.)
About the Coordinate Fields
Upon opening your GeoFIELD project you will notice that the Easting and Northing fields are only
active for one of the two datums (Nad 27 or Nad 83) in the Data Entry form (see Figs. 5 or 12 for
some examples). These are the coordinate fields that correspond to the datum that you selected
in the GeoFIELD setup. Coordinates digitized from your AutoCAD drawing will be entered in the
appropriate fields for the active datum. Similarly, if entering coordinates from a GPS reading, you
will only be allowed to type in the coordinates in the active fields.
To change the active datum, click the SETUP button on the Data Entry form, choose the correct
UTM DATUM and save your changes by clicking the Save button (the check mark button). You
will then be returned to the Data Entry form where the coordinate fields for the desired datum will
be activated.

Before plotting with any method…
• Enter valid values for all required fields in the STATION form.
• Open your AutoCAD drawing.
• Calibrate the map on your tablet (if digitizing coordinates).
• Choose an appropriate AutoCAD text style for the inserted labels by selecting “Text
Style…” from the AutoCAD Format menu. Choose the font you desire; the size will be
set by GeoFIELD according to the scale you choose in your setup.
Digitizing a Station Location From a Map
To digitize a station location directly from a point drawn on a field map, and send the exact
coordinates back to GeoFIELD, simply click the Plot Station button in the “Plot Station(s) in
AutoCAD” section of the Station form. Before proceeding, GeoFIELD will ensure that the station
number is unique. If not, an error message will prompt you to correct the situation (Fig. 16).
Figure 16. These errors will be

displayed if attempting to digitize a
non-unique station number or if
digitizing in non-UTM space.
If your station number is unique, GeoFIELD will activate the AutoCAD window and prompt you to
“Pick station location”.
Once you have clicked (digitized) the station location, GeoFIELD will return the UTM coordinates
to the Easting and Northing fields for the datum chosen in the GeoFIELD settings.
If you had previously unchecked the “Use Default Label Placement” box, you will then be
prompted to “Pick label location”.
After you have located the station and its label, you will be returned to the GeoFIELD Data Entry
form. Your Station form will look like the example shown below (Fig. 17) with the “Plotted” box
automatically checked and Easting and Northing coordinates filled in for the active datum.
Figure 17. The Station form after digitizing a station. Note that the Easting
and Northing fields are now populated and the Plotted box is checked.

Troubleshooting during digitizing
♦ You did not start AutoCAD Map and open your drawing before attempting to plot a
station – GeoFIELD first searches your computer for a running copy of AutoCAD Map. If it
doesn’t find one, GeoFIELD will start AutoCAD Map for you (your pointer will turn into an
hourglass for ~30 seconds while this happens) and return the following prompt (Fig. 18):
Figure 18. GeoFIELD will display this message if

you do not have AutoCAD Map running when
attempting to plot a station.
To continue, open your drawing (or create a new one), calibrate your tablet and then proceed
with the Plot Station button.
♦ AutoCAD Map is running but your map is not properly calibrated – GeoFIELD expects
UTM values in the Easting and Northing fields (i.e., Easting of 6 digits and Northing of 7
digits). If you are not working in UTM space, when you click in the AutoCAD Map window to
digitize the station location nothing will happen. The AutoCAD Map cursor will return to its
“idle” mode and the command line will be empty. When you activate the GeoFIELD window
the error shown in Fig. 16 will be displayed. Go back to the AutoCAD Map window, calibrate
your map and then proceed with the Plot Station button.
If you still get errors after rectifying the above problems, try one or all of the following last-resort
options:
a) Press Esc in AutoCAD and/or in GeoFIELD.

b) Close the data entry form and reopen it.
c) Close the entire Access/GeoFIELD database and reopen it.
d) Reset the GeoFIELD settings by clicking the SETUP button on the Data Entry form.
Plotting a Station from Known Coordinates (GPS Reading)
If you use a GPS (Global Positioning System) in the field and would prefer to plot your stations
directly from GPS coordinates, rather than digitizing the station location from a field map, simply
type in the UTM coordinates in the appropriate Easting and Northing fields.
Note that only the fields corresponding to the Datum (Nad 27 or Nad 83) selected in the
GeoFIELD settings will be active (e.g. in Fig. 17 the Nad 83 fields are inactive and appear grey
while the Nad 27 field is active because Nad 27 was selected in the setup).
If you inadvertently enter an invalid UTM coordinate (i.e., Easting of less than 6 digits or Northing
of less than 7 digits), one of the following error message will be displayed (Fig. 19):
Figure 19. Error messages displayed when attempting to plot a station with
an invalid entry in either the EASTING (left) or NORTHING (right) field.

Once you have entered valid UTM coordinates, click the Plot Station button. GeoFIELD will then
(1) plot the station symbol (×) at the specified location;
(2) activate the AutoCAD Map window; and
(3) place a station number label in the default location. If you have unchecked the “Use
Default Label Placement” checkbox, AutoCAD will prompt you to “Pick label
location” Once you have specified the location of the station label
(4) You will then be returned to the GeoFIELD Data Entry form and your Station form
should look like the example shown in Fig. 17 with the “Plotted” box checked.
Batch Plotting Multiple Stations from Known Coordinates
If you have entered data (including UTM coordinates) for multiple stations without plotting each
station individually, or if you have imported or downloaded multiple station locations (from another
database or from a handheld device), you can batch plot all of the unplotted stations at once.
Only stations that have never been plotted from your GeoFIELD project and stations which have
a UTM coordinate entered for the active datum will be plotted in AutoCAD. The Plotted
checkbox must be unchecked, otherwise, GeoFIELD will assume that the station has already
been plotted previously and it will be skipped over.
The Plotted checkbox is disabled on the Data Entry form. If it is necessary to uncheck the Plotted
checkbox because you want to include a station that has been previously plotted in your batch
plot, you can close the Data Entry form, open the STATION table, and uncheck the appropriate
boxes in the PLOT column, or run an update query.
The station number labels will always be plotted with the default label placement. If there are
overlapping labels, you will have to edit their locations in AutoCAD when the batch plot is
complete.
To start the batch plot, simply press the Batch Plot button. When the batch plot is complete (it
can take a few minutes if there are several hundred stations) the Batch Plot button will become
disabled, and a message box will be displayed showing the number of stations out of the total
number in the database that were plotted (see Fig. 20) The Batch Plot button will become
enabled once a new station is added which has not been plotted, or once the Data Entry form is
closed and reopened.
Figure 20. When a batch plot is complete, the Batch Plot button will be disabled, and GeoFIELD will
display a message stating the total number of stations (records) that were plotted.

Known Limitations when Performing a GeoFIELD Command in AutoCAD
ZOOMING OR PANNING DURING EXECUTION OF GEOFIELD COMMAND
Unlike with most AutoCAD commands, GeoFIELD does not allow the use of toolbar
buttons during the execution of a command. For example, if you are digitizing a station
location and wish to zoom-in or pan to the appropriate location on your map, you cannot
use the zoom or pan tools to do this. If you click on a tool during the execution of the
GeoFIELD plot command you will crash the operation and get the GeoFIELD error
message shown below (in Fig. 21). (AutoCAD will let you perform the zoom command
but the command line will be blank once this is completed).
Figure 21. Error message displayed when a

GeoFIELD command is interrupted in AutoCAD.
There are two ways to get around this:
♦ (a) type ‘z for zoom (or ‘p for pan) at the command line (which should be
displaying: Pick station location: );
(b) perform your zoom or pan operation;
(c) once you have completed your zoom or pan operation, AutoCAD will return the
Pick station location: prompt at the command line. You may now proceed
with your GeoFIELD operation.
♦ If you are equipped with a wheel mouse, simply roll your wheel to zoom in or out. If
you click and hold the wheel, you are now in pan mode; pan is released once you
release the wheel. Double-click on the wheel and you will zoom to extents.
DRAWING SPEED
The time it takes to draw a station or structural symbol in your AutoCAD map depends on
the size of your drawing and the speed of your computer. GeoFIELD requires AutoCAD
to regenerate once when it plots a symbol, and again when it places a text label (station
number or dip/plunge). This regeneration process can take a long time for larger
AutoCAD .dwg files with significant topographic data in them.
If it is too slow to work with, you may need to plot your stations in a blank (or stripped)
drawing, and then when you have completed plotting, insert or query the drawing back
into your original drawing.

LITHOLOGY FORM
The Lithology form appears (along with the Sample form) in the lower half of the Data Entry form
(Fig. 5). (If either the Structure or Photo forms are displayed, click on the Lithology tab to show
the Lithology form). The Lithology form contains a number of fields in which you can enter
information about the rock type(s) observed at a particular station.
Figure 22. The Lithology and Sample forms are accessed from the Lithology tab.
Rock No. is a required field in the Lithology form (Fig. 22). When you first access the Lithology
form, Rock No. will default to 1. This value will not actually be entered in the Lithology table until
you have entered information in at least one other field of the Lithology form. To enter another
lithology record (for a particular station), click the New Lithology button; Rock No. will be
incremented by 1, and all other fields in the form will be blank.
The Rock Type field is also required. It is a pull-down list that reads values from the
lookup_rocktype table. The lookup_rocktype table contains ~160 common rock types listed
alphabetically. This field accepts up to 30 characters. The values in the pull-down list can be
changed by pressing the ROCK TYPE button.
The Abundance field is a text field with a size of 25 characters. It is intended as a general
indicator of the proportion of a particular lithology with respect to other lithologies at a station.
The values in the pull-down list are read from the lookup_lith_ppn table, and can be changed by
pressing the ABUNDANCE button.
There are two fields in which to record Colour information: one for fresh colour and one for
weathered colour. They are both limited to 30 characters of text.
The Grainsize field is a pull-down list that reads values from the lookup_grainsz table. These
values can be changed by pressing the GRAIN SIZE button. The Grainsize field will accept up to
20 characters.
The Texture field is another pull-down list that reads values from the lookup_lith_texture table,
whose values can be changed by pressing the TEXTURE button. This table contains the name of
~80 textures listed alphabetically. The Texture field will accept up to 32 characters.
The Mineralization field is a text field that accepts up to 20 characters.
The Metamorphic Indicator field is a pull-down list that reads values from the
lookup_Metam_Indicator table, which can be changed by pressing on the META INDICATOR
button. This field accepts up to 20 characters.

The Map Unit field is a pull-down list that looks up the values contained in the MAPUNITS table.
By default, the MAPUNITS table is empty, so initially you will have no items in the MAPUNITS
lookup list. You can populate the MAPUNITS lookup table by pressing the MAP UNIT button on
the Lithology form (Fig. 23). The fields in the MAPUNITS table allow the storage of detailed map
unit descriptions, including age, rock class, assemblage, setting, group, formation, member and
AutoCAD colour and screening levels. The intent of this table is to store all information required
to create a map legend, and also to be able to provide a table that can be joined into a GIS to
eventually provide more powerful spatial querying of map units.
The MAPUNITS table will be sorted in the pull-down list according to ORDERNUM, a value that is
specified by the user. This order should reflect the order of the Map Units in your map legend.
10 10 50 64 000 50 50 50 50 50 50 10
Figure 23. The MAPUNITS lookup table. Red numbers above the field
names indicate the maximum number of characters allowed in each field.

SAMPLE FORM
The Sample form occupies the right half of the Lithology tab in the lower right corner of the Data
Entry form (Fig. 5). You can only enter data into the Sample form after you have entered
information in the Lithology form. The Sample form contains
fields in which you can enter information about a sample
taken from a Lithology. You can enter more than one Sample
for each Lithology by clicking on the New Sample button. A
single sample from a particular lithology can be identified for
more than one analysis type, or any number of samples from
one particular lithology can be identified for separate analysis
types.
Figure 24. The Sample form
Sample No. is a required field in this form (Fig. 24). As with the Rock No. in the Lithology form,
Sample No. will default to 1 when you first access the form. This value will not actually be entered
in the Sample table until you have entered information in at least one other field of the Sample
form. The Sample No. field is an auto-increment field; Sample No. will increment by 1 every time
you click on the New Sample button. You may enter several samples for the same Lithology, at
the same station.
The Sample Type field is also required. It is a lookup list that allows selection of the most
common type of samples. This field defaults to Rock. To modify the lookup list, right click in the
sample type box, choose Properties, and make changes in the list on the “Row Source” line.
Values can be up to 20 characters in length.
The Reason field is a text field, with a size of 255 characters, for recording the reason for taking
the sample.
Analysis Type is actually a subform in the Sample form, which allows the assignment of multiple
analysis types for a given sample. For each analysis type identified for a single sample, you can
enter a storage pail number and comments. When you initially enter a blank Sample form, there
will only be one analysis type row visible. Once you enter one analysis type, a new blank row will
pop up below it to allow the entry of an additional analysis type (Fig. 24 shows three analysis type
rows.) You can enter an infinite number of analysis type rows in this table.
The Analysis Type field is a lookup list that looks up the values contained in the
lookup_analysis_type table. To modify the lookup list, click the ANALYSIS TYPE button; values
can have up to 30 characters.
Pail No. is a 20 character text field for recording the pail number a sample is stored or shipped to
the lab in. This is useful if you want to create a sample list to be packed in each sample pail that
is shipped to a lab.
Comments is a 255 character text field in which to enter specific comments concerning the
analysis type chosen for a sample.
Once you have filled in the Sample form, you can click on the Analysis Results button to open
the Analysis Results form, where you can view or enter analytical results for the sample.
If you have not recorded a Sample for a particular

Lithology, you won’t be able to open the Analysis
Results form, and the error message to the right will
be displayed.

STRUCTURE FORM
The Structure form appears in the lower half of the Data Entry form (Fig. 5). (If either the
Lithology or Photo forms are displayed, Click on the Structure Tab to show the Structure form).
The Structure form contains all the necessary fields for the documentation of structural elements
measured in the field at a particular station. You can enter any number of structure
measurements for one station.
Figure 25. The Structure form.
Structure No., Azimuth and Dip or Plunge are the required fields for the Structure form (Fig.
25). When you first access the Structure form, Structure No. will default to 1 and Azimuth and Dip
or Plunge will default to 0. These values will not actually be entered in the Structure table until
you have entered information in at least one other field of the Structure form. To enter another
Structure record (for the same Station), Click the New Structure button; Structure No. will be
incremented by 1, Azimuth and Dip or Plunge will default to 0, and all other fields in the form will
be blank.
The Feature field is a pull-down list that reads values from the lookup_struc_yukon table. The
lookup_struc_yukon table contains 31 descriptive terms for common structural measurements.
When you select a feature, a number of default values (Planar/Linear, Symbol Name, and
AutoCAD layer) will automatically be assigned to that structural feature for future plotting in
AutoCAD (see next section regarding “GeoFIELD symbols”). To change the feature values in the
pull-down list or any of the default values for those features, click the Defaults button.
Enter the compass reading for either a strike or a trend in the Azimuth field. This field will only
accept a valid compass direction (i.e. between 0° and 359°). Similarly, the Dip or Plunge field
expects a valid entry for either dip or plunge (i.e. between 0° and 90°). If you omit to enter a valid
value in either of these fields, one of the following error messages will be displayed (Fig. 26).
Click OK to dismiss the error message, and type in a valid value or press escape to exit the
structure form without saving.
Figure 26. Possible error messages displayed when either the Azimuth or Dip or Plunge fields are empty.

True North / Grid North Correction Angle
Azimuths should be entered corrected for magnetic declination so that the azimuth direction is
oriented to grid north (for alignment to the UTM grid).
In the project setup, there is also an option to correct for any true north deviation from grid north
(see section on GeoFIELD Project Setup). This will correct the rotation of your structural symbols
when plotting in AutoCAD to compensate for any difference between true north and grid (or UTM)
north.
As stated in the project setup section, the magnitude of this correction angle usually ranges, in
most cases, between 0 and 3 degrees (0 in the center of a UTM zone and up to 3 degrees on the
edges of the zone). This is within the error commonly accepted for field measurements, so many
users opt to ignore such a small error in plotting their structures.
If a correction for true north is desired, be sure to account for it in one of the following ways:
1. Add or subtract the value from the declination in your compass adjustment at the field
recording stage. When this is done, the corrected azimuths will be stored in GeoFIELD’s
Structure table and the same angle will be plotted in AutoCAD.
2. Enter the correction angle in the project setup form. When a correction angle is specified
in the project setup, the non-corrected angle will be stored in GeoFIELD’s Structure table,
but the corrected angle will be used to plot structures in AutoCAD.
In the project setup form, enter a negative value for the correction angle if grid north is
east (or to the right) of true north, and enter a positive value if grid north is west (or to the
left) of true north.
The Meas. Convention field is a pull-down list with two options: RHR (right hand rule) or Dip-Dir
(dip direction). The default is RHR. If Dip-Dir is selected, GeoFIELD will internally calculate RHR
azimuths when plotting planar structural features in AutoCAD, thus ensuring consistent plotting
conventions. The azimuth stored in the database will not be changed in this process.
Both the Top and Vergence fields accept up to 12 characters. They document the direction of
stratigraphic tops and the vergence of structures, respectively.
The Deformation Phase field is an integer number field in which you can specify the relative age
of the structural element described in a particular record.
The Planar or Linear has a pull-down list that only allows two data entry options: planar or linear.
When you select a structural symbol from the Symbol Palette and plot it in AutoCAD, GeoFIELD
will automatically fill in the Planar or Linear field.
The Symbol Name field is filled in by GeoFIELD as a function of the Feature that is entered or
the symbol that is selected in the Symbol Palette.

Plotting Structural Features in AutoCAD using GeoFIELD Symbols
GeoFIELD uses a set of 45 attributed blocks (AutoCAD *.dwg files) as shown below (Fig. 27) to
plot structural symbols on your geological map. These blocks can be found in the
GeoFIELD_symbols folder. In order to be available for plotting on the map, all symbols must
reside in the folder specified during the GeoFIELD project setup form. However, once a symbol
has been plotted (inserted) on the map, it becomes an integral part of the AutoCAD *.dwg file and
does not require its source file anymore.
GeoFIELD Symbols
Bedding / Foliation intersection

INTER ZINTER SINTER MINTER (w/ vergence)
Fault planes
FAULT1 FAULT2
Mylonitic foliation
IMYL VMYL
Dyke; Vein
DYKE VEIN
Igneous layering
IGNS VGNS
Stretching (mineral) lineation

(w/ shear sense - Normal; Reverse) Compositional layering
SLIN SLINN SLINR
ILAYER VLAYER
Late Folds (w/ vergence)

Cleavage - 1st, 2nd
ZLFOLD SLFOLD MLFOLD
ICLV1 VCLV1 ICLV2 VCLV2
Crenulation lineation - 1st, 2nd

Foliation - 1st, 2nd, 3rd
CLIN1 CLIN2
IFOL1 VFOL1 IFOL2 VFOL2 IFOL3 VFOL3
2nd phase Folds

UFOLD2 ZFOLD2 SFOLD2 MFOLD2 (w/ vergence) Bedding
IBED VBED UPBED OTBED UPBED2
1st phase Folds

UFOLD ZFOLD SFOLD MFOLD
(w/ vergence)
Figure 27. AutoCAD blocks available for plotting structural features from GeoFIELD.
When you select a Feature on the structure form, a number of default values (Planar/Linear,
Symbol Name, and AutoCAD layer) will be automatically assigned to that structural feature for
future plotting in AutoCAD. Every time you select that feature, the same default symbol and layer
name will be used when plotting in AutoCAD. The default symbol will appear in the window at the
right of the Structure Form, with the symbol name beneath it (see Fig. 25).

To change the feature values in the
pull-down list or any of the default
values for those features, click the
Defaults button. The window to the
left will open (Fig. 28).
Figure 28. Pressing the Default button on

the Structure form will open this window to
change feature names and default symbols.
If you don’t want to change the default symbol, but you do want to change the symbol
independent of the default setting, press the Symbol Palette button on the Structure form and
choose the desired symbol. The Symbol Palette (Fig. 29) displays a graphical representation of
all symbols available.
(Note: the images displayed in the Symbol Palette are bitmap (*.bmp) files. GeoFIELD expects to
find these files at the following location: C:\local\GeoFIELD\GeoFIELD_symbols. If the bitmap
files are not there you will not be able to plot symbols on your map).
Figure 29. The GeoFIELD Symbol Palette.

When you click on the symbol you want to plot, (1) its outline will turn yellow, (2) the name of the
selected block will appear at the bottom of the palette, and (3) the name of the layer onto which
the block will be inserted will also appear at the bottom of the palette (Fig. 29). Click OK to exit
the Symbol Palette. The symbol you chose will be shown in the window on the Structure form,
with the name beneath it. The Planar/Linear field will also be updated.
By default, GeoFIELD will plot the structural symbol at the station location. If you do not wish to
plot the symbol exactly at the station location (so that your map is less cluttered by multiple
symbols at one station) uncheck the “Plot Symbol at Station Location” checkbox.
Click the Plot Symbol button. GeoFIELD will activate AutoCAD Map and plot the structural
symbol (or you will be prompted to “Pick symbol location” if you have chosen not to plot at
the station location). You will then be asked to “Pick label location”. The label will be
inserted at a size appropriate to the scale specified in the GeoFIELD Setup, using the font style
that is current in the AutoCad drawing at the time of plotting.
You will then be returned to GeoFIELD, where a check mark will appear in the Plotted box.
If you return to AutoCAD, you will notice that GeoFIELD has created a series of layers for the
various structural symbols it has inserted. Related symbols (i.e., all bedding symbols) and their
labels (dip/plunge) will appear on a unique layer (i.e., S_bedding). The prefix S_ ensures that all
structure layers will be grouped together in the AutoCAD Layer Properties Manager.
Some potential problems with the Plot Symbol function
♦ If you forget to either select a feature from the pull-down list (which has an associated default
symbol) or select a symbol from the Symbol Palette before clicking the Plot Symbol button,
GeoFIELD will return the following error message (Fig. 30)
Figure 30. This message will be displayed if

either no feature was selected from the pull-
down list, or if no symbol was selected from
the symbol palette before pressing the Plot
Symbol button.
♦ If the symbol you selected from the Symbol Palette is not present in the folder specified
during GeoFIELD setup, the following error message will be displayed (Fig. 31). Press End,
cancel the Symbol Palette window, and change the path to the symbols in the Project Setup
form.
Figure 31. This error message will

be displayed if the selected
symbol is not present in the
specified GeoFIELD_symbols
folder.

Why Attributed Blocks?
GeoFIELD symbols are AutoCAD blocks with the hidden attribute STRUCT_ID. This value is a
number that uniquely identifies every structural measurement in the Structure table. Whenever
you add a new structural measurement in the Structure form, GeoFIELD automatically assigns
this unique number and stores it in the Structure table. Having this attribute attached to the
symbol allows the user to establish a link between the structural symbol and a unique record in
the database (see section on Linking Map Objects to Database).
Hidden Fields in the Structure Form
A number of fields from the Structure form are not displayed in the Structure form (Appendix 2).
Five of these hidden fields (SymbolEasting, SymbolNorthing, LabelEasting, LabelNorthing, and
SymbolNum) are for the eventual transfer to the GIS platform (ArcINFO). The Easting and
Northing fields store the location of the symbol and symbol label, if different than the station
location. Note that these fields will only be populated with the position originally chosen for the
symbol and the symbol label. If the symbol or label is subsequently moved, these values will not
be updated. The SymbolNum field contains a number which corresponds to a symbol in the
ArcINFO palette.

PHOTO FORM
The Photo form appears in the lower half of the Data Entry form (Fig. 5). (If either the Lithology
or Structure forms are displayed, click on the Photo tab to show the Photo form). The Photo form
contains fields for the descriptions of photographs taken at a particular field station (Fig. 32). You
can enter any number of photographs for one station.
Figure 32. The Photo form.
Photo No. is the only required field in the Photo form. As with the Lithology, Sample and
Structure forms, this field defaults to 1 when you first access the Photo form. This value will not
actually be entered in the Photo table until you have entered information in at least one other field
of the Photo form. The Photo No. field is an auto-increment field – its value will augment by 1
every time you click on the New Photograph button.
The Roll field identifies the roll of film used, and is a text field that will accept up to 5 characters.
The Frame field identifies the number of the exposure, and is an integer number field. If using a
digital camera, enter the photo number here.
The Catalogue field can be used for recording the cataloguing information of a particular
photograph in an album or a box. It is a text field that accepts up to 20 characters.
The Hotlink field allows the creation of a hyperlink to a digital (or scanned) photograph.
The Caption field contains the descriptive text for a particular photograph. It is a text field that
accepts up to 255 characters.
The Photographer field is a 30 character text field that records who took the photograph (if
different than the traverse geologist.)

PALM OS HANDHELD DATA COLLECTION
GeoFIELD can be used very effectively with a Palm OS device for collecting data digitally in the
field. Included with this GeoFIELD package is a Pendragon Forms configuration database that
can be installed on a Palm OS device. The Pendragon configuration database provided mimics
the GeoFIELD database (in a simplified form), by providing access to the five main forms:
STATION, LITHOLOGY, SAMPLE, STRUCTURE and PHOTO.
With the Palm handheld, data is collected and temporarily stored in a Pendragon Forms 3.2
database. When the handheld unit is synchronized with the central PC, the data is instantly
transferred into a GeoFIELD (Access 2000) database, from which daily map plotting, querying,
and more user-friendly data browsing or analysis can be performed.
On the handheld, new data can only be entered by first creating a new station or reviewing an
existing station from the STATION form. Once the required data has been entered in the
STATION form the user has the option of entering any number of structure, lithology or photo
records for that station by clicking on an ADD LITHO, ADD STRUCT, or ADD PHOTO button.
Pendragon Forms Configuration Database
Included with the GeoFIELD installation package is a folder called pendragon_forms which
contains an Access configuration database (pendragon_GeoFIELD.mdb) that interacts with a
Palm OS handheld device. You will need Pendragon Forms 3.2 software to install the forms on
your handheld device and to modify or customize the structure described below.
The Pendragon configuration database provided was intentionally created in a simplified form in
order to ensure quick familiarization for new users, and to minimize the loss of valuable field time.
With the knowledge that not every geologist is necessarily keen to embrace yet another new
technological challenge, Yukon Geological Survey project geologists elected to use the
handhelds only for capturing fundamental information necessary for digital mapping. Detailed
notes and information were then added to the GeoFIELD database from paper field notes at a
later date. The handheld device was not viewed as a replacement for the traditional field
notebook, but rather as a complement to it.
Modifications by adventurous or advanced users can be made to the Pendragon configuration

database, but this is not recommended without a previous solid understanding of the Pendragon
Forms software, or for users with a limited understanding of database design concepts. Some
time must be committed to learning the Pendragon software before modifications should be
attempted.
Also note that it is critical to perform extensive testing of your handheld system before going in
the field, to ensure that both the handheld data entry and the database synchronization with
GeoFIELD work correctly.

GENERAL HANDHELD USE NOTES
These notes apply to the Handspring Visor

handhelds used by the Yukon Geological Survey.
Depending on which Palm device you are using
the notes may or may not apply.
The Handspring Visor Palm device (shown at the

right) was used with great success at the Yukon
Geological Survey. This model is one of the most
basic Palm devices available and was chosen for
use in the field (as opposed to more sophisticated
Windows CE and GIS compatible handhelds such
as iPaq/ArcPad) for a variety of reasons including:
• significant software and hardware cost

savings (in case of loss or damage),
• ability to support a GPS plugin,
• disposable battery power (AAA),
• availability of backup flash cards,
• ability to easily customize forms and
synchronize with GeoFIELD using
Pendragon Forms software
Turning on and off:
To turn the handheld on or off, press the green power button at the bottom left of the screen.
Pressing any of the buttons at the bottom of the screen will also turn it on.
Batteries:
To save batteries, the handheld will shut off automatically after 5 minutes if it is inactive. No data
will be lost when this happens. The next time the handheld is turned on, it will open up with the
screen last used.
To check battery power on your handheld, tap the house icon and look at the shaded battery at
the top of the screen. When the batteries get low, a warning message will pop up several times
before the batteries actually die. It is best to change the batteries as soon as you get a warning
message, because once the batteries die, the batteries must be changed within 5 minutes or you
will lose all your data (unless you have a memory card installed).
Always carry spare batteries. The handheld takes two AAA batteries.
Screen Navigation:
You can switch between applications or screens at any time by pushing any button or icon on the
screen. You will not lose any data by switching between screens.
Owner:
It is important that you use the handheld assigned to you, as the owner of the handheld is used to
populate the geologist field in the database. To display the owner of the handheld, tap the house
icon until System is displayed in the right corner of the screen, then tap the HotSync icon. The
owner will be displayed in the right corner of the screen.

HANDHELD DATA ENTRY
Like GeoFIELD, the handheld database has five tables, which are accessed through five forms
that are organized between three levels. The first level is composed of the STATION form, which
describes the location of a station. The second level is composed of three forms: STRUCTURE,
PHOTO and LITHOLOGY. The third level is composed of the SAMPLE form.
When entering data into the Palm handheld, you must enter Level 1 data (station location
information) before you can enter Level 2 data (structural measurements, photo records, and
lithological descriptions) for that station. Likewise, before you can enter Level 3 (sample)
information, you must enter Level 2 (lithology) data.
The following represents the database structure by showing the flow of data between the various
levels and forms. This structure must be fully understood for effective handheld data entry. Each
arrow represents a one-to-many relationship between the tables.
STATION LEVEL 1
STRUCTURE PHOTO LITHOLOGY LEVEL 2
SAMPLE LEVEL 3
Open Pendragon Forms 3.2
To open the Pendragon FORMS 3.2 application on the handheld, push the button at the bottom
right of the handheld (the one with a little notepad on it). Alternatively, tap the House icon on the
screen until All is shown in the top right corner of the screen, then click on the Forms 3.2 icon.
You should see a list of the five forms, below a Pendragon Forms tab. Note that the STATION
icon looks slightly different than the other four, as it is shaded in. This means that it is the only
one that you can use to enter new data.
Create a New Station
To create a new station on the handheld, highlight the STATION form and tap the new button at
the bottom of the screen. (If you wanted to edit an existing station record after it had been
created, you would use the review button.) A screen with two columns will pop up. The field
names for the STATION table will be listed on the left, and spaces for entering field values are
listed on the right. Some spaces will be filled in with default values, but these can be changed.
Field View and Record View:
There are two ways to view the records in a form: record view and field view.
• All forms will default to record view, which means that you can see all the fields
for a specific record in the table, with the field names in the left column and a line
for your response in the right column. When you are in record view and you tap
the right or left arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen, you will move to the

last or next record. If you tap in the right column of a text field with a lookup list,
the list will automatically pop up so that you can choose a preset value.
• Field view displays one field at a time and you navigate between fields by tapping
a right or left arrow button at the bottom of the screen. When you are in field
view and you navigate to a number field, a number pad will automatically be
displayed to allow quick number entry.
If you are in field view and want to switch to record view, simply tap on the record view
button. If you are in record view and want to switch to field view, tap on the name of a
field in the left-hand column of the record view screen. The selected field will be
displayed in field view.
Exiting and Saving Records
To exit and save any record, press the “End” button at the bottom left of the screen. This will
either return you to a parent form if you are editing a subform, or it will return you to the Forms 3.2
home screen.
Fields Types
Primary Keys
Primary key fields are identified by the key icon next to the field name in field view, or in the top
right corner of the screen in record view. For example, at the top of the STATION form is the
“statnum” field, with a small key icon next to it. Primary key values must always be unique, every
time you create a new station. All primary key fields must be filled in before a record can be
saved or before you can go to another form from a parent form.
FORM PRIMARY KEY FIELD(S) DEFAULT VALUE
STATION: STATNUM last STATNUM entered

STRUCTURE: STATNUM + STRUCTNUM 1
PHOTO: STATNUM + PHOTONUM 1
LITHOLOGY: STATNUM + ROCKNUM 1
SAMPLE: STATNUM + ROCKNUM + SAMPLNUM 1
A common error message you will see on the handheld when trying to exit a record will be:
Primary key conflict. You must enter unique values in the primary key fields.
If you get this message, press OK, and change the primary key value so that it is unique.
Alternatively, you can delete the entire record to start over.
Required Fields
Certain fields in each form are required, and you will not be able to save a record until they are all
filled in. These fields are identified with an asterisk (*), and are always the first fields to be listed
at the top of the screen. Some of the required fields will automatically display their default value,
or the value selected in the previous record, so always make sure to double check the default
values and change them if necessary, especially for the primary keys.

Optional Fields
Any remaining fields (after the primary fields and required fields are filled in) should be filled in if
appropriate and if time permits, although they are not required in order to save or exit a record.
Hidden Fields
Some fields (mostly foreign key fields) shown in Figure 33 are hidden because they are filled in
automatically when a new record is created. Other hidden fields are not directly related to the
collection of field data. Such fields contain either data relevant to the relationship to other
database tables or data that will become useful for eventual transfer to the GIS platform and more
advanced analysis.
Read-Only Fields
Some fields in the forms are read-only, as they are calculated from values selected in other fields.
For example, symbol name is populated according to the structural feature selected. Although
they are read-only they are left visible to allow double checking of their field values.

Data Validation and Consistency
Acceptable Ranges for Number Fields
Many of the number fields have maximum and minimum value validation checks on them to
reduce anomalous data entry errors. If you enter a value that falls outside an acceptable range
for that field, you will receive an error message stating “Value not allowed” (with the offending
field listed). You will be prompted to either correct the value or cancel and delete the record.
Fields with maximum and minimum values are:
FORM FIELD ACCEPTABLE RANGE
STATION: NTS_50k 1 – 16
EASTING 100 000 – 999 999
NORTHING 1 000 000 – 9 999 999
ELEVATION_M 0 – 7000
ELEVATION_FT 0 – 25 000
STRUCTURE: AZIMUTH 0 – 359

DIP_PLUNGE 0 – 90
If any of these fields are left empty, an error message will pop up stating “Missing response.” You
must either edit the record and fill in the missing value, or delete the entire record to start over.
Lookup Lists for Text Fields
Most text fields have lookup lists, which will pop up and display a list of values that can be
entered in a field. This is an effective way of reducing data entry time and eliminating spelling
errors. In record view, the lookup list will pop up automatically when you tap in the response area
for a field with a lookup list. In field view, you must tap the “lookup” button to view the lookup list.
If the value you want to enter is not in the lookup list, choose any one of the items on the list, go
into field view by tapping the field name, and edit the value shown on the line below the
“Lookup… button. “
You will probably want to customize the values in many of the lookup tables (geologists,
mapunits, etc). To change the values in a lookup list, go into your pendragon_GeoFIELD.mdb
configuration database, click the Lookups button, scroll through the Lookup Names with the right
arrow at the bottom left of the window, and change the desired lookup list. The next time you
synchronize your handheld, the new lookup lists will be installed.
Note that caution must be exercised when changing the lookup lists in Pendragon Forms, as
many of the lookup lists correspond to the GeoFIELD lookup lists for the same fields. When
synchronization occurs, GeoFIELD will not accept values that are not present in GeoFIELD’s
lookup lists. Consequently, any change you make to the handheld lookup lists must also be
made to the corresponding GeoFIELD lookup lists, or else synchronization will not be successful.

HANDHELD FIELD DESCRIPTIONS
This section provides detailed descriptions of each field shown in Figure 33. The fields are listed
by form, and they are listed in the order they are displayed on the handheld form.
The following hidden internal fields are automatically generated for each of the five forms, and are
populated whenever a new record is created. To keep track of records when synchronizing with
the central database, the handheld considers the combination of UnitID, UserName and
TimeStamp to be the primary key for any record.
RecordId This is a random number assigned by the handheld.

UnitID This is a random number assigned by the handheld.
UserName This is the user name assigned to the handheld.
TimeStamp This is the creation date and time for a record. The time stamp for the STATION
form will be retained when the data is transferred from the handheld.
STATION LITHOLOGY SAMPLE
STRUCTURE
PHOTO
Figure 33. The relationships between the five forms on the handheld, and the fields that are found in each.
Primary key fields are shown in bold.

Station Form
STATNUM Station number is a required primary key text field which will autodefault to the
station number entered for the previous station. You will therefore always have
to change the last number in your station number sequence to ensure that it is
unique. The maximum number of characters is 20.
NTS_250k 250 000 scale NTS mapsheet is a required text lookup field which will autodefault
to the mapsheet entered for the previous station. For the Glenlyon TGI project, it
will almost always equal “105L” but it could also be 115I, 115P or 105M. You
can choose from any Yukon mapsheet in the lookup list.
NTS_50k 50 000 scale NTS map number is a required number field which will autodefault
to the map number entered for the previous station. Entries are limited to integer
values between 1 and 16.
EASTING This is a required number field for storing UTM Eastings. Allowable values can
range between 100 000 and 999 999. Synchronization will populate the Nad 83
UTM field, so if you are using Nad 27, the field mappings must be changed in the
configuration database.
NORTHING This is a required number field for storing UTM Northings. Allowable values can
range between 1 000 000 and 9 999 999. Synchronization will populate the Nad
83 UTM field, so if you are using Nad 27, the field mappings must be changed in
the configuration database.
ELEVATION_M This is an optional number field for storing elevation values in metres. When you
exit this field, the handheld will automatically calculate the value for
ELEVATION_FT. The maximum allowable value for this field is 7000.
ELEVATION_FT This is an optional number field for storing elevation values in feet. When you
exit this field, the handheld will automatically calculate the value for
ELEVATION_M. The maximum allowable value for this field is 25 000.
ELEV_METH This is an optional text lookup field for indicating the source of the elevation
measurement. The choices in the lookup list are GPS, altimeter, map and reset.
If you select “reset”, the values in ELEVATION_M and ELEVATION_FT will be
deleted, and you can perform a new elevation calculation.
LITHOLOGY This field consists of an “ADD LITHO” button for entering a lithological description
for the current station. When you hit this button, you will enter the LITHOLOGY
form. Tapping “End” in the LITHOLOGY form will return you to where you left off
in the STATION form.
STRUCTURE This field consists of an “ADD STRUCT” button for entering a structural
measurement for the current station. When you hit this button, you will enter the
STRUCTURE form. Tapping “End” in the STRUCTURE form will return you to
where you left off in the STATION form.
PHOTO This field consists of an “ADD PHOTO” button for entering a photo description for
the current station. When you hit this button, you will enter the PHOTO form.
Tapping “End” in the PHOTO form will return you to where you left off in the
STATION form.

DATE This is a hidden field that stores the date automatically when you create a new
station. The date is read from the handheld’s internal settings, so make sure this
date is correct, otherwise the wrong date will be stored. To set the date and
time, tap the house icon until “System” is shown in the top right corner. Tap
“Welcome” and follow the steps.
ELEV_ORIG This is a hidden field that stores which units the elevation value was originally
entered in, from which the other elevation value was automatically calculated.
LITHO_ID This is a hidden field for linking to the LITHOLOGY form.
STRUCT_ID This is a hidden field for linking to the STRUCTURE form.
PHOTO_ID This is a hidden field for linking to the PHOTO form.
UTMZONE This is a hidden number field which defaults to a value of 8 whenever a new
station is created.
GEOLOGIST This is a hidden text field which defaults to the full name for the owner of an
individual handheld. The user name is read from the handheld’s internal
settings, so if you are using the wrong handheld, this field will not be filled in with
your name. To check the owner of the handheld, tap the house icon until
“System” is displayed in the top right corner of the screen, then tap the “HotSync”
icon. The owner will be displayed in the right corner of the screen.
STATYPE Station type is a hidden text field which is set to default to “outcrop” when a new
station is created. The field is hidden because it was decided for our purposes
that stations should not be created where there is no outcrop. If this is not the
case for your own work (e.g. if you want to store waypoints for photos that are
not tied to outcrop locations) you can remove the hidden property in the
Pendragon configuration database.
GEOL_OTHER This is a hidden text field that can store the names of secondary geologists or
assistants names. It can also be unhidden and can be set to lookup names from
a geologist lookup list if desired.
AIRPHOTO This is a hidden text field for recording the airphoto number(s) that a station is
located on. It can also be unhidden if desired by modifying the properties of the
Pendragon configuration database.

Structure Form
STRUCT_ID This is a hidden number field that uniquely identifies a structure record. It is
automatically generated when a new structure is created.
STATNUM This is a hidden foreign key to link with the STATNUM field in the STATION
table. It is automatically entered when you push the “ADD STRUCT” button on
the STATION form. STATNUM comprises one part of the primary key for the
STRUCTURE form (in combination with STRUCTNUM).
STRUCNUM This is a required number (integers only) field to identify the structure number at
a station (eg. “1” of 3 or “2” of 3). The value will default to 1, so if you only have
one structure for a station, you don’t need to change the value. If you enter a
second or third structure for a station, you will have to change the value to 2 or 3,
respectively. STRUCNUM comprises one part of the primary key for the
STRUCTURE form (in combination with STATNUM).
STRUCTNAME This is a required text lookup field, with a maximum length of 32 characters for
recording the name of the structural feature being measured (e.g. bedding,
foliation, etc.). When you select a value in the lookup list, the PLAN_LIN and
SYMBOL fields are automatically populated to record whether the structure is
planar or linear, and which symbol to use for plotting on the map.
AZIMUTH This is a required number field for recording the azimuth of a structural feature in
degrees, as measured using right hand rule or dip direction. The field will only
accept integer values between 0 and 360 degrees. Measuring convention must
be indicated in the MEAS_CONV field.
DIP_PLUNGE This is a required number field for recording the dip or plunge of a structural
feature in degrees. Entries are limited to integer values between 0 and 90.
TOP This is an optional text lookup field to store the compass direction of the top of a
structure. The values in the lookup list are N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W and NW.
PLOT_ON_MAP This is a yes/no check box to indicate whether the structural feature should be
plotted on the final map. It will default to be checked in the “yes” response, but if
a structure is deemed less reliable than others, you can uncheck it to indicate
“no.”
MEAS_CONV This is a required lookup list text field to indicate whether the azimuth recorded
above was measured using right hand rule (RHR) or dip direction (Dip-Dir). The
value (RHR or Dip-Dir) will default to the value specified for the last
measurement, so you should not need to change this field if you are using a
consistent measuring convention.
PLAN_LIN This is a read-only text field that stores whether the structural feature measured
is planar or linear. It is populated automatically when a value from the
STRUCTNAME lookup list is selected.
SYMBOL This is a read-only text field that stores which symbol should be used to plot the
measured structural feature on the map. The symbol names have been preset to
go with each structural feature listed in the STRUCTNAME lookup list, so this
field is populated automatically when a value from the STRUCTNAME lookup list
is selected.

AZIMUTH_TEMP This is a hidden number field used in an intermediate step for calculating the
AZIMUTH_RHR value, below.
AZIMUTH_RHR This is a read-only number field which stores the right hand rule azimuth for the
structural feature measured. The value will be the same as AZIMUTH if “RHR”
was selected for MEAS_CONV. If “Dip-Dir” was selected for MEAS_CONV, and
the feature is planar, it will equal AZIMUTH – 90 (for AZIMUTH >= 90) or
AZIMUTH + 270 (for AZIMUTH < 90). This is the value that will be sent to the
central GeoFIELD database for plotting.
Lithology Form
STRUCT_ID This is a hidden number field that uniquely identifies a lithology record. It is
automatically generated when a new structure is created.
table. It is automatically entered when you push the “ADD LITHO” button on the
STATION form. STATNUM comprises one part of the primary key for the
LITHOLOGY form (in combination with ROCKNUM).
ROCKNUM This is a required number (integers only) field to identify the lithology number at a
station (eg. “1” of 3 or “2” of 3). The value will default to 1, so if you only have
one structure for a station, you don’t need to change the value. If you enter a
respectively. ROCKNUM comprises one part of the primary key for the
LITHOLOGY form (in combination with STATNUM).
ROCKTYPE This is a required text lookup field to identify the lithology at a station. There are
198 rock names listed alphabetically to choose from. The field is limited to 30
characters.
SAMPLE This field holds an “ADD SAMPLE” button for entering a sample description for
the current lithology. When you hit this button, you will enter the SAMPLE form.
Tapping “End” in the SAMPLE form will return you to where you left off in the
LITHOLOGY form.
AMOUNT This is an optional text lookup field, intended as a general indicator of the
proportion of a particular lithology with respect to other lithologies at a station.
The values in the pull-down list include the following percentages: 100%, 90%,
80%, 70%, 60%, 50%, 40%, 30%, 20% and 10%.
COLOUR_FRESH This is an optional text field for recording the colour of the fresh surface
of a lithology. A lookup table is provided with this field with simple colour names,
but you can add to these descriptions by going into field view and typing in extra
text. The field is limited to 30 characters.
COLOUR_WEATH This is an optional text field for recording the colour of the weathered
surface of a lithology. A lookup table is provided with this field with simple colour
names, but you can add to these descriptions by going into record view and
typing in extra text. The field is limited to 30 characters.

GRAINSIZE This is an optional text lookup field to record the grain size of a particular
lithology. Choices in the lookup list include: very fine, fine, fine-medium, medium,
medium-coarse, coarse, very coarse, grit, granule, pebble, cobble and boulder.
You can add any other text by going to field view and typing in the desired grain
size term. The field will accept up to 20 characters.
TEXTURE This field is an optional text lookup field for recording the predominant texture of
a particular lithology. There are approximately 100 textures listed alphabetically
to choose from. You can write any other text by going to field view and typing in
the desired textural term. This field will accept up to 32 characters.
META_INDIC This field is an optional text lookup field for recording the predominant
metamorphic indicator, if present. Choices in the lookup list include: andalusite,
biotite, chlorite, garnet, kyanite, sillimanite and staurolite. You can write any
other text by going to field view and typing in the desired indicator. This field
accepts up to 20 characters.
MINRLZN This field is an optional text lookup field for recording the predominant
mineralization, if present. Choices in the lookup list include: pyrite, chalcopyrite,
galena, sphalerite, gold, tetrahedrite, magnetite, ilmenite and pyrrhotite. You can
write any other text by going to field view and typing in the desired mineralization
description. This field accepts up to 20 characters.
MAPUNIT This is an optional text lookup field with default values of “Your Rock Unit 1” and
“Your Rock Unit 2.” To change the values in this list, go into your
pendragon_GeoFIELD.mdb configuration database, click the Lookups button,
scroll through the Lookup Names with the right arrow at the bottom left of the
window, and change the MAPUNIT lookup list.
Note that any values entered in this list must match exactly the map units that are
stored in your GeoFIELD database, otherwise synchronization will not be
possible. The values in the LookupDisplay column are the values that will be
displayed in the lookup list on the handheld and these must correspond to the
values present in the UNIT_CAPTION field in the GeoFIELD MAPUNITS table.
The values in the LookupValue column are the values that will actually be stored
internally and these must correspond to the values present in the
MAP_DESIGNATOR field in the GeoFIELD MAPUNITS table.
SAMPLE_ID This is a hidden field for linking to the SAMPLE form.

Photo Form
PHOTO_ID This is a hidden number field that uniquely identifies a photo record. It is
automatically generated when a new photo is added.
table. It is automatically entered when you push the “ADD PHOTO” button on
the STATION form. STATNUM comprises one part of the primary key for the
PHOTO form (in combination with PHOTONUM).
PHOTONUM This is a required number (integers only) field to identify the photo number at a
station (eg. “1” of 3 or “2” of 3). The value will default to 1, so if you only have
one photo for a station, you don’t need to change the value. If you enter a
respectively. PHOTONUM comprises one part of the primary key for the PHOTO
form (in combination with STATNUM).
ROLL This is an optional text field, which identifies the roll of film used. You can enter
up to 5 characters. The value will autodefault to the roll entered for the previous
photo record.
FRAME This is an optional number field (integers only) to identify the number of the
exposure. If using a digital camera, enter the photo number here. The value will
autodefault to the frame number entered for the previous photo record, so you
will likely just need to increment the last digit of the number.
CAPTION This is an optional text field to store the descriptive text for a particular
photograph. You can enter up to 255 characters.

Sample Form
SAMPLE_ID This is a hidden number field that uniquely identifies a sample record. It is
automatically generated when a new sample is added.
table. It is automatically entered when you push the “ADD SAMPLE” button on
the LITHOLOGY form. STATNUM comprises one part of the primary key for the
SAMPLE form (in combination with ROCKNUM and SAMPLENUM).
ROCKNUM This is a read-only foreign key to link with the ROCKNUM field in the
LITHOLOGY table. It is automatically entered when you push the “ADD
SAMPLE” button on the LITHOLOGY form. ROCKNUM comprises one part of
the primary key for the SAMPLE form (in combination with STATNUM and
SAMPLENUM).
SAMPLENUM This is a required number (integers only) field to identify the sample number for a
particular lithology at a station (eg. “1” of 3 or “2” of 3). The value will default to
1, so if you only have one sample for a lithology, you don’t need to change the
value. If you take a second or third sample for a lithology at a station, you will
have to change the value to 2 or 3, respectively. SAMPLENUM comprises one
part of the primary key for the SAMPLE form (in combination with STATNUM and
ROCKNUM).
ANALYSIS1 This is a required text lookup field to identify the primary type of analysis desired
for a sample. The choices in the lookup list include: Ar-Date, Assay, Chemistry,
Conodont, Macrofossil, Not Specified, Other, Palynology, Radiolarian,
Representative, Stain K-spar, Thin Section, Rock Evaluation, and U-Pb Date.
You can write any other text by going to field view and typing in the desired
analysis type. The most common selection for ANAYSIS1 will probably be
“Representative” if you are just collecting a sample for archiving or closer
examination. This field accepts up to 64 characters.
ANALYSIS2 If you have a second analysis type you think you will perform on a single sample,
you can enter it in this optional text lookup field. The lookup list choices are the
same as for ANALYSIS1. This field accepts up to 64 characters.
ANALYSIS3 If you have a third analysis type you think you will perform on a single sample,
you can enter it in this optional text lookup field. The lookup list choices are the
same as for ANALYSIS1. This field accepts up to 64 characters.

Handheld Synchronization with GeoFIELD
Two Access databases are involved when using a handheld to synchronize with GeoFIELD. The
first is the Pendragon Forms 3.2 (pendragon_GeoFIELD.mdb) configuration database, which acts
as an intermediate database to control the setup of the forms on your handheld. The second
database is the final output GeoFIELD database (GeoFIELD_v2_2.mdb), where your data can be
browsed and edited using the familiar user-friendly GeoFIELD interface described in this manual.
Before synchronizing within Pendragon Forms, you must ensure that the paths to both the
configuration database and the final output database are correct, as outlined in the following two
steps:
Specify the path to the configuration database (pendragon_GeoFIELD.mdb):
• Under your Windows Start menu, select Pendragon Forms 3.2, then choose
Configuration Tool and under the Configuration tab, browse to or type the correct
path to the pendragon_GeoFIELD.mdb database.
If you have not moved any GeoFIELD files since installing GeoFIELD, this path
should be “C:\local\GeoFIELD\pendragon_forms\pendragon_GeoFIELD.mdb” by
default.
Specify the path to the final output database (GeoFIELD_v2_2.mdb):
To populate your final output GeoFIELD database directly from a handheld hotsync using
Pendragon Forms 3.2, you need to set up your field mappings within the
“pendragon_GeoFIELD.mdb” configuration database. Field mapping specifies which
fields from the handheld get imported into which fields in GeoFIELD.
The field mappings have been set up by default already, so that if you have not moved or
renamed any GeoFIELD files since installing GeoFIELD, you do not need to respecify the
field mappings and you can ignore the following steps.
If you have moved or renamed your GeoFIELD database, then either rename the
database back to GeoFIELD_v2_2.mdb and move it back to the C:/local/GeoFIELD folder
(this is the quickest and easiest method) or else proceed with the following steps:
• Open the configuration database in Access, select one of the five form designs
under the Pendragon Forms Manager, click the Properties button, then click the
Field Mappings… button to view the field mappings for that form.
• To point to your GeoFIELD database, type in the correct path to the GeoFIELD
database under Database: in the Field Mapping Tool window.
• Do not click the Select Access Data Source button to point to your GeoFIELD
database, or all the field mappings will be reset and you will have to remap each
field individually.
• Click Close to save and exit and press OK or Yes to any following alert
messages.
• Repeat these steps for each of the five form designs.

Field Mapping Schematics
The left box in each of the following figures shows the fields in the Pendragon configuration
database, and the right one shows the fields in the corresponding GeoFIELD database. Arrows
show the field mappings between the two databases.
Note that some fields within the configuration database are not transferred into the GeoFIELD
database, as they are just working or internal Pendragon fields. Likewise, not all the GeoFIELD
fields will be populated from the handheld, due to the simplified design of the Pendragon
handheld forms for the Yukon Geological Survey’s purposes.
STATION:
LITHOLOGY:

STRUCTURE:
PHOTO:

SAMPLE:
Note that for the SAMPLE table only, Pendragon synchronizes only with the SAMPLE table in
GeoFIELD (the middle box in this figure). Then once in GeoFIELD, the ANALYSIS TYPE table
can be quickly updated by running (double clicking) the queries PALM_SAMPLE1,
PALM_SAMPLE2, and PALM_SAMPLE3 as follows:
• Before running the update queries (PALM_ANALYSIS1, PALM_ANALYSIS2, and

PALM_ANALYSIS3), check the query “samples_not_plotted” to make a mental note (for
cross-referencing purposes only) of how many records will be appended when you run
the queries.
• The number of records appended in the PALM_ANALYSIS1 query will equal the number
of records with a non-null value in the ANALYSIS1 field of the samples_not_plotted
query; the number of records appended in the PALM_ANALYSIS2 query will equal the
number of records with a non-null value in the ANALYSIS2 field; and the number of
records appended in the PALM_ANALYSIS3 query will equal the number of records with
a non-null value in the ANALYSIS3 field. When you run the PALM_ANALYSISX queries,
ensure that the numbers you have checked match the number of records that are actually
appended (Access will tell you how many records it is about to append before it inserts
the data.)
• If there are no values in the ANALYSIS2 or ANALYSIS3 fields of the

“samples_not_plotted” query, you will only have to run one update query,
PALM_ANALYSIS1.

To synchronize the handheld, insert it in its cradle and press the button on the cradle to initiate
synchronization. You should see a hotsync icon on the desktop which will display the
synchronization progress and the username of the palm. It should take around a minute for the
synchronization to complete.
Synchronization is two way: it will insert new stations from the palm into GeoFIELD and will also
take any changes made to old stations from GeoFIELD and update it on the palm.
Synchronization Errors
If there are no errors in downloading the data, the palm screen will display “Hotsync complete’. If
there are errors, a message will appear with an option to “View Log.” Open the log and examine
the errors. There are two types of errors that most commonly occur:
1) If a lookup table or invalid lookup value is mentioned in the error log, then the user has
probably entered a value that is not in the lookup list. You will either have to go into
GeoFIELD, open the relationships, show the lookup table, double click the relationship,
and uncheck the “enforce referential integrity” or you will have to change the offending
value on the palm to something in the list (or make it null) and make a note of the
offending value in the comments field in GeoFIELD. If the geologist wants the offending
value as a permanent entry in the lookup list, you will have to open the Pendragon
database, and add the value to the appropriate lookup list as well as adding it to the
lookup list in the GeoFIELD database.
2) If it is unable to append the record because a related record is not found, you will have to
create the missing related record in GeoFIELD. Usually this type of error occurs when a
record in the SAMPLE table (e.g., for STATNUM = 02CR008, ROCKNUM = 2 and
SAMPLNUM = 1) can’t be appended to the database, because the related parent record
in the LITHOLOGY table can’t be found (i.e., there is no ROCKNUM 2 for that station,
because it has been deleted somehow, but the sample from ROCKNUM 2 still remains
on the palm. To remedy this situation, determine if there should be a rock number 2, and
if so, create it in GeoFIELD (by pressing New Litho). If there shouldn’t be a rock number
2, then check if the sample should exist but should be related to a different rock number.
If this is the case, add the sample to the appropriate rock number in GeoFIELD.
Validation Rules and Referential Integrity
All data entered in the handheld must meet any validation rules for corresponding GeoFIELD
fields as specified in the field mappings of Pendragon configuration database. Not all fields have
validation rules, but for those that do, failure to meet a GeoFIELD validation rule is the most
common reason for unsuccessful synchronization.
Validation rules can be as simple as only allowing numerical values within a certain range for a
numerical field; or they can be based on the intrinsic properties of table relationships in order to
control the values in lookup lists. If referential integrity is enforced between a lookup table and
the data table, only values in the lookup table will be accepted, i.e. the field values are limited to
that list. You can change the table relationships to not enforce referential integrity in the
relationships window of your GeoFIELD database, but then your data quality and consistency will
be compromised.
The more you attempt to change lookup lists and customize the database, the more problems
you will have with synchronization. Therefore, unless you have a good understanding of the
structure of both the Pendragon configuration database and the GeoFIELD database, it is not
recommended to make significant changes to the database structure or the values of any lookup
tables in either database.

ANALYSIS RESULTS FORM
The Analysis Results form can only be accessed through the Analysis Results button found in
the Sample form of the Data Entry form (Fig. 34). Pressing the Analysis Results button will
open the Analysis Results form and display data pertaining only to the one particular sample
shown in the Sample form. That one sample can have any number of analysis results (i.e., it
could have had two assays, five thin-sections and three geochronology analyses performed on it.)
At the top of the Analysis Results form, there are three disabled boxes that display the station
number, rock number and sample number for the particular sample that the analysis results data
pertains to. There are six tabs within the form to display assay, fossil, geochemistry,
geochronology, thin section and rock evaluation pyrolysis (total organic carbon) analysis results.
Click on any of the tabs to enter or view data for that particular form. To close the Analysis
Results form, click the Back to Sample Form button and you will be returned to the Data Entry
form.
In the following discussion for this section, please note that the design of this form is likely to
change in the future. This component of the database has not been widely tested or used within
the Yukon Geological Survey, but as we progress with importing data from a variety of sources,
we expect to modify the structure and functionality of this form significantly. Check our website
regularly or contact one of the authors to find out if any updates have been made to the
GeoFIELD design.
The Analysis Results button opens the Analysis Results form

and displays results for one particular sample.
Figure 34. Pressing the Analysis Results button on the Sample form opens
the Analysis Results form for that sample.

If no sample has been identified for a lithology you will not be able to open the Analysis Results
form; instead, the following error message will appear (Fig. 35).
Figure 35. Error message generated from pressing the Analysis Results
button for a non-existent sample.
At the bottom of the Analysis Results form (Fig. 34) are a group of boxes that display Analysis
Job information. An analysis job is considered to be a common analysis type that was performed
on a group of samples, at the same lab, at the same time, by the same person. The only box that
can be edited in this form is the Analysis Job field, where a job number (an arbitrary ID number
for the analysis job) can be selected from a pull-down list. To edit this list, press the Analysis Job
button (Fig. 36). When a particular job is selected, GeoFIELD automatically fills in the laboratory,
certificate number, date, file path, and job comments in the greyed-out boxes to the right of
Analysis Job. File Path is a hypertext field. If the correct path to an original digital analysis
results file is entered, you can click on the file name and open the original file.
Figure 36. Pressing the Analysis Job button allows you to edit the job list
Information that is displayed in the greyed-out boxes.
Below Detection Values
All numerical fields for geochemistry and assay results will accept negative numbers. Quite often
data received from a lab will identify values below detection using a negative number or using a
less than sign. While subject to personal preference, it is recommended that these values are
replaced with positive numbers at half the detection limit value. The values can then be tagged
as below detection using the Below Detection check box (see Fig. 37 for an example). A
detection limit value can also be entered for each element. This way values that are below
detection can easily be filtered out in future statistical analyses, or they can be left for inclusion
with the rest of the data.

Underlying Forms and Tables
Following is a summary of each of the six individual forms on the Sample Analysis form. Also
included in each section are the contents of the underlying tables that support each form. In the
table content figures, text in brackets next to the field name indicates either a maximum character
length for the field, a number format, or that the field is hidden in the Data Entry form.
Assay Results
Fig. 37 shows the Assay form. The right half of the Assay form is actually a subform named
Assay Elements. This means there is a one-to-many relationship between the assay information
on the left and the assay element information on the right. You can import assay element results
using queries, or you can enter them individually.
When you initially enter a blank Assay form, there will only be one assay element row visible.
Once you enter one element and the associated information (result, units, detection limit, and
analysis type.) a new blank row will pop up below it to allow the entry of an additional element
(Fig. 37 only shows one blank element row.) This allows a very flexible framework for importing
analysis results because you can show any number of elements that were analysed along with
the individual results, units, detection limit and analysis method for each element.
Assay Element subform
Analysis Type
pull-down list
Units pull-down list
Element pull-down list
Figure 37: The Assay form (above) and field descriptions in the underlying tables (below).

Fossil
Below is the Fossil form with the descriptions for the different fields delineated in the table below
the form. The different fields in the Fossil table are based on a typical Geological Survey of
Canada fossil report. The fields are self-explanatory. The structure of this subform will likely
change in later versions of GeoFIELD to better handle multiple fossil ages. As present, a new
fossil record is required for each different species reported for a single submitted fossil sample.

Geochemistry
Fig. 38 shows the Geochemistry form with various pull-down lists to illustrate the values that are
acceptable in various fields. The bottom of the Geochemistry form consists of two subforms
named Trace Element Analysis (based on the Chemistry Elements table) and Major Element
Analysis (based on the Chemistry Compounds table). This means there is a one-to-many
relationship between the general geochemistry information at the top of the form and the Trace
Element Analysis and Major Element Analysis information at the bottom. You can import
geochemical results using queries, or you can enter them individually.
When you initially enter a blank Geochemistry form, there will only be one trace element row and
one major element row visible. Once you enter one element and the associated information
(result, units, detection limit, and analysis type) or one compound and the associated information,
a new blank row will pop up below to allow the entry of an additional element or compound (Fig.
38 only shows one blank element row and one blank compound row.) This allows a very flexible
framework for importing analysis results because you can show any number of elements or
compounds that were analysed along with the individual results, units, detection limit and analysis
type for each element or compound.
Trace Element subform
Major Element subform
Analysis Type
pull-down list
Units pull-down list
Compound pull-down list
Element pull-down list
Figure 38: The Geochemistry form (above) and field descriptions in the underlying tables (below).

Geochronology
The Geochronology form is displayed below with the different fields in the form described in the
table immediately below the form. The different fields are self-explanatory. The geochron type
and mineral dated fields use lookup tables to infill values. As with several of the Analysis Results
subforms, this form will likely change in future versions of GeoFIELD.

Thin Section
Fig. 39 shows the Thin Section form. The right half of the Thin Section form is actually a subform
named Mineralogy. This means there is a one-to-many relationship between the general thin
section information on the left and the specific assay element information on the right.
When you initially enter a blank Thin Section form, there will only be one blank Mineralogy row
visible. Once you enter one mineral and the associated information (Number, Percent, and
Comments) a new blank row will pop up below it to allow the entry of an additional mineral (Fig.
39 only shows one blank Mineralogy row.) This provides a very flexible framework for storing thin
section analysis results because you can show any number of minerals that were identified along
with a percentage and comment for each mineral.
Figure 39: The Thin Section form (above) and field descriptions in the underlying tables (below).

Rock Evaluation Pyrolysis
Fig. 40 shows the Rock Evaluation Pyrolysis form and the underlying table describing the various
fields in the form. The fields are based on the rock-evaluation analyses completed by the
Organic Geochemistry Lab at the Geological Survey of Canada (Calgary).
Figure 40: The Rock Evaluation Pyrolysis form (above) and field descriptions in the underlying tables (below).

IMPORTING ANALYSIS RESULTS FROM EXCEL
In order to import geochemical data into GeoFIELD, a number of modifications must be made to
the original Excel file to facilitate the process. As an example, we will work through reformatting
the following original Excel file, trace_geochem.xls, as it was received from the analytical
laboratory:
1) After saving a backup copy of your original file, insert a new worksheet (Sheet1) in the
original file where you will build a new table that will be imported into GeoFIELD (from the
Insert menu worksheet)
2) From the original page, copy the cells in column “Sample ID” and paste them into the new
worksheet (Sheet1) in the top left corner.
2) Copy cells into new worksheet
1) Insert new worksheet “Sheet 1”
3) In the new worksheet, Sheet 1, rename the Sample ID column to CHEM_SAMPL, and add
six new columns: CHEM_ID, STATNUM, ROCKNUM, SAMPLNUM, and CHEMNUM. You
must use the values for STATNUM, ROCKNUM and SAMPLNUM that are already contained
in the GeoFIELD database. These can either be entered manually, or they can be retrieved
by running the query “statnum_rocknum_samplnum” in GeoFIELD, saving the query as a
table, and exporting the table to excel.
a. CHEM_ID will remain blank, to be automatically populated when the table is imported
into GeoFIELD.

b. STATNUM is the station number for the sample as recorded in the database. There
will be more than one cell with the same STATNUM if more than one sample from a
single station was analysed.
3) Create and populate these columns

c. CHEM_SAMPL is
the sample number
3) Create and populate these columns
as submitted to or
reported by the lab
(eg. JS-1010 rep).
In this example, it is
usually the same as
the value of
STATNUM.
d. ROCKNUM is the
arbitrary rock
number assigned in
GeoFIELD from
which the sample
was taken. (There
could be more than
one rock type
sampled from the same station.)
e. SAMPLNUM is the arbitrary sample number assigned in GeoFIELD. (There could be

more than one sample taken from the same rock.)
f. CHEMNUM is an arbitrary chemical analysis number that indicates when there is

more than one set of analysis results for the same sample (e.g., if the sample was
split for duplication comparison and the two sample were labeled JS-1010 and JS
1010 rep). In most cases this number will equal 1 unless there is a duplicate, in
which case it will be 2 or 3.
4) Now that this sheet is filled in, it needs to be imported into GeoFIELD in order to generate
unique CHEM_ID numbers that will be used later to import the actual geochemistry results.
a. Open your GeoFIELD project, and click on “new” under tables in the main database
window, then choose “import table.”
b. Choose files of type Microsoft Excel (*.xls), navigate to “trace_geochem.xls”, and
press the Import button.
c. Make sure “Show Worksheets” is selected, highlight Sheet1, and press Next.
d. Check “First Row Contains Column Headings” and press Next.
e. Choose to store your data “In a New Table” and press Next.
f. Ignore the next window regarding field names and indexes and press Next.
g. Choose “No primary key” and press next.
h. Name the imported table "GEOCHEMISTRY_import_trace” and press Finish.
i. Open the table in design view, highlight the four rows “STATNUM, ROCKNUM,
SAMPLNUM and CHEMNUM” and press the primary key button to create a multiple
field primary key. Save changes and exit the table. If GeoFIELD won’t let you save
the table, then you have entered some of the primary key values wrong in your table,
and this must be corrected before you create the multiple field primary key.
5) Run the query “geochemistry_trace_append” This will add the records to the
GEOCHEMISTRY table, and produce a CHEM_ID for each sample.

6) Run the query “GEOCHEMISTRY_importupdate_chem_id” to fill in the blank CHEM_ID
values in your imported table, now called “GEOCHEMISTRY_import_trace”.
7) Export the “GEOCHEMISTRY_import_trace” table back to Excel in order to copy over the
CHEM_ID’s to the original Sheet1. Do this by right-clicking on the table in the GeoFIELD
database table window, choose “Export”, save as type “dBase 5” and create a temporary file
name (for some reason, excel exports don’t work as well).
8) Open the dbase file in Excel, and copy the CHEM_ID over to the blank CHEM_ID column in
Sheet1 of your original Excel file, making sure it corresponds correctly with the
CHEM_SAMPL number, in the same order as listed in the original file.
Importing Trace Element Geochemistry
The geochemistry results must be reformatted into new columns that can easily be imported into
GeoFIELD so that the results will be displayed correctly in the form. The general layout of the
spreadsheet should be as follows:
1) Create and populate these columns in Sheet2
1) Insert a new worksheet into the geochem file, and add the column headings ELMT_ID,
CHEM_ID, Elmt_formula, Analysis_units, ELMT_QUANTITY, DETECT_LIM,
LABANALYSIS_TYPE and BELOW_DETECT as shown above.
a. ELMT_ID will remain blank, to be automatically populated when the

table is imported into GeoFIELD.
b. CHEM_ID is the numerical value previously obtained from GeoFIELD

to uniquely identify each sample.

c. Elmt_formula is the one to two character chemical formula of the trace
element being analysed. These values must coincide with those
entered in the GeoFIELD table “lookup_analysis_element.”
d. Analysis_units are the units the results are reported in, which are
mostly ppm or ppb. The only values that can be entered in this field
are those listed in the GeoFIELD table “lookup_analysis_units.”
e. ELMT_QUANTITY is the numerical value of the measurement. This

value must be rounded (not just displayed) to the appropriate number
of decimals for each trace element.
f. DETECT_LIM is the numerical value of the detection limit for each

trace element, in the same units as the quantitative measurement.
This is usually displayed in the results from the lab as a negative
number. Leave it blank if unknown.
g. LABANALYSIS_TYPE is the type of analysis performed to determine

the trace quantities (eg. ICP or Fire Assay). The only values that can
be entered in this field are those listed in the GeoFIELD table
“lookup_lab_analysis_type.” Leave it blank if unknown.
h. BELOW_DETECT is a boolean (yes/no) field for whether or not the

sample result was below the detection limit, usually identified by a
negative value or some other code in the original lab results. This can
be left empty and updated through a query in GeoFIELD or it can be
populated in the Excel file. Enter “True” if it is below detection,
otherwise leave it blank.
2) The easiest way to populate this sheet is to copy the CHEM_ID column from Sheet1, and
paste that series of CHEM_IDs in the column as many times as the number of elements
analysed.
3) This series of CHEM_IDs effectively lists the analytical results of a single trace element
for each sample. Fill in one series of CHEM_IDs at a time, so that within each series, the
Elmt_formula, Analysis_units, DETECT_LIM and LABANALYSIS TYPE will be constant.
Then copy and paste the analytical results for one column of results (for a single element)
from the original file into Sheet2, making sure they are pasted in the appropriate order to
match your CHEM_ID.
4) Proceed to copy and paste column by column (element by element) from your original
sheet into successive series in Sheet2, filling in the other information as you go.

3) Copy this series of cells to these cells in Sheet2
5) ELMT_QUANTITY must be rounded off to a significant number of decimals in order to

display meaningfully in GeoFIELD. If this has not been done, you will see a different
value displayed for each cell in the formula bar (with a long trail of decimals) than is
shown in the actual cell (which could be formatted to show only a set number of decimal
places). The value shown in the formula bar is the one which will be imported into
GeoFIELD.

5) The actual value in the formula bar
needs to be rounded as displayed in
the cell
a) To round the values, make a temporary column, called ROUNDED. For the first
value, click in the first cell, choose the function wizard, and under the Math & Trig
function category, choose the ROUND function name.
5a) Select the ROUND function

with the Function wizard button
b) Click the red arrow in the number box and highlight the cell in ELMT_QUANTITY
that you want to round. Type a number in the Num_digits box to represent the
number of decimal places you want to round to (0 equals none).

5b) Cell rounding formula
c) Select the first cell you have completed the rounding for, and move the mouse to
the lower right corner of the cell, until a black cross is visible. Click where the
cross is located and drag the cell corner to the end of all rows you want rounded
to the same number of decimals.
d) To change the number of decimal places to round to, copy any of the previously
rounded cells within the ROUNDED column, and paste it into a new cell in the
ROUNDED column. In the formula bar, change the second number in the
parentheses to the number of decimal places to round to.
e) When rounding has been completed for all the cells, select all the populated cells
in the ROUNDED column, press copy and select the first cell under
ELMT_QUANTITY, where it will paste the copied cells to. From under the Edit
menu, choose “Paste Special,” then select “Values” and OK.
6) Once all the data has been properly formatted in Sheet2, it is ready to import into
GeoFIELD.
a. Open your GeoFIELD project, and click on “new” under tables in the main database
b. Choose files of type Microsoft Excel (*.xls), navigate to “trace_geochem.xls”, and
c. Make sure “Show Worksheets” is selected, highlight Sheet2, and press Next.
d. Check “First Row Contains Column Headings” and press Next.
e. Choose to store your data “In a New Table” and press Next.
f. Ignore the next window regarding field names and indexes and press Next.
g. Choose “No primary key” and press next.
h. Name the imported table "GEOCHEMISTRY_import_trace_elements” and press
Finish.
7) Run the query “geochemistry_append_elements” This will add the records to the
CHEMISTRY_ELEMENTS table, and produce an ELMT_ID for each record.

8) You should now be able to see your results for any sample in the Geochemistry tab on
the analysis results form.
Importing Major Element Geochemistry
The procedure for importing the major element data is more or less the same as outlined above.
1) Generate a new sheet (Sheet3) in the same format as Sheet2, following the same steps
as for the trace elements, except with the column headings COMP_ID to replace
ELMT_ID, Comp_formula to replace Elmt_formula, and Comp_QUANTITY to replace
Elmt_Quantity.
3) Copy this series of cells to these cells in Sheet2
a. COMP_ID will remain blank, to be automatically populated when the

table is imported into GeoFIELD.
b. CHEM_ID is the numerical value previously obtained from GeoFIELD

to uniquely identify each sample. Use the same CHEM_IDs as
generated for the trace elements to tie the data into GeoFIELD.
c. Comp_formula is the chemical formula of the compound being

analysed. The only values that can be entered in this field are those
listed in the GeoFIELD table “lookup_analysis_compound.”

d. Analysis_units are the units the results are reported in, which is usually
%. The only values that can be entered in this field are those listed in
the GeoFIELD table “lookup_analysis_units.”
e. ELMT_QUANTITY is the numerical value of the measurement. This

value must be rounded (not just displayed) to the appropriate number
of decimals for each trace element. Use the same rounding technique
as describe above for trace elements.
f. DETECT_LIM is the numerical value of the detection limit for each

trace element, in the same units as the quantitative measurement.
This is usually displayed in the results from the lab as a negative
number. Leave it blank if unknown.
g. LABANALYSIS_TYPE is the type of analysis performed to determine

the trace quantities (e.g., ICP or Fire Assay). The only values that can
be entered in this field are those listed in the GeoFIELD table
h. BELOW_DETECT is a boolean (yes/no) field for whether or not the

populated in the Excel file. Enter “True” if it is below detection,
otherwise leave it blank.
2) Proceed to copy and paste column by column (major element by major element) from
your original sheet into successive series in Sheet3, filling in the other information as you
go.
3) Round the numerical values as described for trace elements.
4) Once all the data has been properly formatted in Sheet3, it is ready to import into
GeoFIELD.
i. Open your GeoFIELD project, and click on “new” under tables in the main database
j. Choose files of type Microsoft Excel (*.xls), navigate to “trace_geochem.xls”, and
k. Make sure “Show Worksheets” is selected, highlight Sheet3, and press Next.
l. Check “First Row Contains Column Headings” and press Next.
m. Choose to store your data “In a New Table” and press Next.
n. Ignore the next window regarding field names and indexes and press Next.
o. Choose “No primary key” and press next.
p. Name the imported table "GEOCHEMISTRY_import_compounds” and press Finish.
9) Run the query “geochemistry_append_compounds” This will add the records to the
CHEMISTRY_COMPOUNDS table, and produce an COMP_ID for each record.
10) You should now be able to see your results for any sample in the Geochemistry tab on
the analysis results form.

Importing Assay Results
The procedure for importing formatting assay data is more or less the same as outlined in the
previous section.
1) Within your original Excel assay file, generate a new sheet (ASSAY1) in the following
format.
Import the table into GeoFIELD, as described in the first section. Append the records to the
ASSAY table to produce an ASSAY_ID for each sample. Fill in the corresponding ASSAY_ID
in the Excel Worksheet (ASSAY1)
2) Within your original Excel assay file, generate a new sheet (ASSAY2) in the following
format.
i. ELMT_ID will remain blank, to be automatically populated when the table

is imported into GeoFIELD.
ii. ASSAY_ID is the numerical value previously obtained from GeoFIELD to

uniquely identify each sample. Use the same ASSAY_IDs as generated
previously in worksheet ASSAY1.
iii. Elmt_formula is the chemical formula of the compound being analysed.

The only values that can be entered in this field are those listed in the
GeoFIELD table “lookup_analysis_element.”

iv. Analysis_units are the units the results are reported in, which is usually
%. The only values that can be entered in this field are those listed in
the GeoFIELD table “lookup_analysis_units.”
v. ELMT_QUANTITY is the numerical value of the measurement. This

value must be rounded (not just displayed) to the appropriate number of
decimals for each trace element. Use the same rounding technique as
describe above for geochemistry.
vi. DETECT_LIM is the numerical value of the detection limit for each trace
element, in the same units as the quantitative measurement. This is
usually displayed in the results from the lab as a negative number.
Leave it blank if unknown.
vii. LABANALYSIS_TYPE is the type of analysis performed to determine the

trace quantities (e.g., ICP or Fire Assay). The only values that can be
entered in this field are those listed in the GeoFIELD table
viii. BELOW_DETECT is a boolean (yes/no) field for whether or not the

populated in the Excel file. Enter “True” if it is below detection, otherwise
leave it blank.
3) Proceed to copy and paste column by column (element by element) from your original
sheet into successive series in Sheet2, filling in the other information as you go.
4) Round the numerical values as described for geochemistry.
5) Once all the data has been properly formatted in Sheet2, import the table into GeoFIELD
as described above for geochemistry. Name the imported table
"Assay_import_elements.”
6) Run the query “assay_append_elements” This will add the records to the
ASSAY_ELEMENTS table, and produce an ELMT_ID for each record.
7) You should now be able to see your results for any sample in the Assay tab on the
analysis results form.

LINKING ARCGIS 8.X TO GEOFIELD
An arcgis folder is included in the GeoFIELD root directory (C:\local\GeoFIELD\arcgis). The

folder contains a style file (GeoFIELD.style) which contains structural symbols and text
symbology, and some preset layer definitions that are useful when following the steps below.
Add the Station Table

In ArcMap, press the Add Data button and navigate to your GeoFIELD database. A list of all the
tables in the database should be displayed. Select the STATION table and press Add. You
should now see your station table as a layer in the ArcMap table of contents (under the Source
tab).
Right click on the STATION table, and select Display XY Data…. For the X Field, choose
UTME_nadxx and for the Y Field, choose UTMN_nadxx where xx is the datum you are using (27
or 83). Click the Edit… button to specify the coordinate system. Press the Select… button,
choose Projected Coordinate Systems/Utm/Nad 19xx, select the appropriate UTM zone, and
press Add. (Note: you could add this layer of station locations to a base map that exists in
ArcMap in any projection.) Press OK to exit the next two windows.
Your stations should now be displayed on the map in the STATION Events layer. These events
are station locations which are read live from the GeoFIELD database. If you change a
position or delete a station in the database, the points will be moved or deleted
automatically on the map the next time the map is refreshed or opened.
Symbolize the STATIONS layer by double clicking the layer in the table of contents, clicking the
Symbology tab, and choosing the desired settings.
A layer file named STATION Events.lyr is located in the GeoFIELD root folder
(C:\local\GeoFIELD\arcgis\). The layer will automatically generate your Station Events layer
(allowing you to skip the steps outlined above), if your database is still named
GeoFIELD_v2_2.mdb and is still located in the root directory (C:\local\GeoFIELD), and your
coordinates are in Nad 83 UTM, Zone 8. Otherwise you can manually connect to the database
yourself.
Label the stations by double clicking the STATION Events layer, clicking the Labels tab, and
choosing the desired labeling settings.
Add the Structure Table

Press the Add Data button again, navigate to your GeoFIELD database and add the
STRUCTURE table. You may have to select the Source tab at the bottom of the table of contents
(as opposed to the Display tab) to see the STRUCTURE table listed beneath the STATION table.
Right click on the STRUCTURE table in the table of contents, and select Join… from the Joins
and Relates menu item. Select STATNUM as the field to base the join on in box 1, select
STATION as the table to join to the layer in box 2, and press OK.
Right click on the STRUCTURE table, and select Display XY Data…. For the X Field, choose
STATION.UTME_nadxx and for the Y Field, choose STATION.UTMN_nadxx. Click the Edit…
button to specify the appropriate coordinate system. Press the Select… button, choose Projected
Coordinate Systems/Utm/Nad 19xx, select the appropriate UTM zone, and press Add. Press OK
to exit the next two windows.

Your structures should now be displayed on the map in the STRUCTURE_STATION Events
layer. These events are structure locations which are read live from the GeoFIELD
database. If you change a station position or delete or add a station or structure in the
database, the points will be moved or deleted automatically on the map the next time the
map is refreshed or opened.
Symbolize the STRUCTURE_STATION Events layer by double clicking it, clicking the Symbology
tab, and pressing the Import… button. Click the Import symbology definition from another layer in
the map or from a layer file radio button, click the folder icon, and browse to the file named
STRUCTURE_STATION Events.lyr, located in the GeoFIELD root folder
(C:\local\GeoFIELD\arcgis\). The structural symbols as shown in Figure 27 will be used to
symbolize your structures.
It should be noted that ArcMap does not necessarily rotate the structural symbols (by the
azimuth) exactly from the centre of the symbol, so that if you overlay your STATION Events layer
on top of the STRUCTURE_STATION Events layer, you will see that they will not always be
exactly coincident. This is an ArcMap problem that cannot be avoided. For most cases, the
difference in location is insignificant.
The symbology specified in the STRUCTURE_STATION Events.lyr file may not contain all the
structural features in your database. In this case, generate your own symbology legend by
clicking the Symbology tab of the Layer Properties dialog box, and clicking the Categories/Match
to symbols in a style option in the window on the left. Choose STRUCTURE.Symbol_Name as
the Value Field. In the Match to symbols in Style box, browse to the GeoFIELD.style file in the
GeoFIELD root folder (C:\local\GeoFIELD\arcgis\). Press the Advanced button, choose
Rotation…, and select the STRUCTURE.AZIMUTH field to rotate the symbols (this will only work
for right hand rule azimuths.) Click the Match Symbols button and hit OK.
Labelling the structures is a little more complicated. You can experiment with ArcMap’s labeling
settings and attempt to place labels (using the STRUCTURE.DIP_PLUNGE label field) in a
certain quadrant, depending on the azimuth of the structural feature, and whether or not it is
planar or linear. The following is an example of how this could be done as a first attempt at
automatically labeling the structures. The labels can then be converted to annotation to be
manually adjusted to exactly the desired location.
Double click the STRUCTURE_STATION Events layer and click the Labels tab.
For Method, choose Define classes of features and labels each class differently.
For Class, press Add… and type Linear_0-90 for the first class name; press Add… again
and type Planar_0-90 for the second class name.
With the Linear_0-90 class selected, press the SQL Query button and type the
expression: [PLAN_LIN] = 'Linear' AND ([AZIMUTH] >= 0) AND ([AZIMUTH] <90).
Choose Dip_Plunge as the label field for Text String.
For Label Styles, choose the linear_0-90 icon. Repeat this process for each quadrant,
for all the linear classes, and then again for all the planar classes, using the desired
azimuth angles in the class name and the SQL query.
To manually adjust the label locations, convert the labels to annotation by right clicking the
STRUCTURE_STATION Events layer, and choosing the Convert labels to annotation… option.
However, once this is done, the labels will not automatically update if you change your dips or
plunges in the GeoFIELD database.

LINKING AUTOCAD MAP OBJECTS TO GEOFIELD
You can use AutoCAD’s database connectivity feature (DBConnect) to link the data contained in
GeoFIELD with AutoCAD graphical objects. You can also use AutoCAD to attach labels that
display data from selected table fields as text objects in your drawing. The primary function of the
database connectivity feature is to associate external data with AutoCAD graphical objects. You
can, for example, associate information about a station with a symbol object representing that
station in an AutoCAD drawing. You establish the association between the graphical object and
the database table by creating a link, which references one or more records stored in the table.
You cannot create links to nongraphical objects such as layers and linetypes. Links are tightly
connected with the graphical objects they are associated with. If you move or copy a linked
object, the link is moved or copied with it. If you delete a linked object, the link is also deleted.
When you create a link, a dynamic relationship is established between the database record and
the object, so that AutoCAD will always “see” the most up-to-date data associated with the object,
even if you change the data in GeoFIELD.
To establish links between table records and graphical objects, you must first create a link
template. Link templates identify what fields from a table are associated with the links that share
that template. You can then use this link template to create links that point to different records in
the database table.
Link templates also function as shortcuts that point to the database tables on which they're
based. You can use the link templates that are associated with a drawing to open the tables that
they reference for viewing or editing. You can attach multiple links using different link templates
to a single graphical object. This is useful when you want to associate data from multiple
database tables (e.g., station, structure and lithology tables) with an individual object.

Attach and Configure a Data Source
a) Open your AutoCAD map.
b) If your Project Workspace isn’t visible, go to the “Map” menu, select “Utilities”,
then select “Project Workspace” (see Figure 40).
Figure 40: Activate the Project Workspace
c) Right click on “Data Sources” in the Project Workspace window, select “Attach,”
choose Files of Type “Microsoft Access Files (*.mdb),” and navigate to your
GeoFIELD database (Figure 41). You should see the data source pop up in the
Project Workspace window, with a listing below of all the tables in the GeoFIELD
database.
Right click on
“Data Sources”
Choose files of
Microsoft Access type
Figure 41: Select your data source
d) Right click on the individual data source (shown next to the blue barrel symbol),
and uncheck the “Autocommit” selection by highlighting “Autocommit”. This
ensures that any changes you make to your data in AutoCAD will not be instantly
changed in your GeoFIELD database. You will still have the option of committing
your changes at a later time by selecting “Commit”.
e) Right click on the individual data source again, and select

”Properties” (Figure 42).

• On the “Provider” tab, ensure that “Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DM
Provider” is selected.
• On the “Advanced” tab, select database access permissions.
• On the “All” tab, ensure that the value for “Persist Security Info” is
blank by pushing the “Edit Value” button, then the “Reset Value”
button, and then “OK”.
Right click on
specific data
source
Figure 42: Setting the properties of your data source

Create Link Templates
In order for AutoCAD to link your graphical objects (structure symbols and station symbols) to the
supporting GeoFIELD database, link templates must be defined for each table that you want to
link with a symbol, to specify the primary key that will be used to match the attribute data built into
each symbol.
a) Right click on “Link Templates” in the Project Workspace, and select “Define Link
Template.” Make the following selections in the “Define Link Template” window
(Figure 43).
• Choose the GeoFIELD table or

query you want your symbols to link
to (eg. to link the station symbols
on your map to the STATION table
in GeoFIELD, choose “STATION”
for Table Name).
• Type a name for your link template

(anything descriptive is fine).
• Check off the key field from the

table that corresponds to the
attribute attached to the symbol
block.
• Define two link templates: one to

link the station symbols with the
STATION table (using STATNUM
as the key); and one to link the
structural symbols with the
STRUCTURE table (using
STRUCT_ID as the key).
Figure 43: Define a link template
If you don’t know what field to select as a key, type “ddatte” on the AutoCAD command line and
then select one of the symbols you want to link on your map. A window called “Edit Attributes”
will pop up, and the name of the attribute/primary key is shown as the label to the left of the text
box (see Figure 44.)
Key field name
Figure 44: Find key field name for block

Generate Links between GeoFIELD and Station and Structure Objects
a) First ensure that all your layers are turned off, except for the layer containing the
blocks you want to link to (e.g., to link to the station symbols, turn off all layers
except STATNUM and STATTYPE; to link to the structural symbols, turn off all
layers except for S_xxx, where xxx is the structural symbol of interest.)
b) Right click an individual link template in the Project Workspace and select
“Generate Links” (see Figure 45).
Right click the “station” link template
• For “Linkage Type” choose “Blocks”
• For “Data Links” choose “Create

Database Links”
• Select link template name (i.e.,

“structure” or “station”)
• Select block name to link to (all of the

blocks that have been plotted in your
map will be listed.)
• Select the “Tag1” key field (key

attribute name within the block). Only
one choice should be available
(STATNUM for stations block, or
STRUCT_ID for structural blocks).
• Choose “Link Must Exist” under

“Database Validation” box.
• Click OK.
Figure 45: Generate data links between GeoFIELD and symbols on your map
b) At the command line, which will prompt “Block objects to generate from:”, type “a”
for “All” and press enter. AutoCAD will generate the links, and tell you how many
were created. This number should equal the number of block symbols that were
visible on your screen with the same block name as previously specified in the
Generate Links dialog box.
c) To link to the structural symbols, you will have to repeat steps (a) and (b) using
the “structure” link template, generating the links to all symbols of one block

name at a time (you may want to turn different structural layers on or off as you
go).
• Note that some structural layers will contain more than one block name. For
example the blocks named ibed, vbed, upbed, otbed and upbed2 will all be
located on the “S_bedding” layer if you have plotted these symbols on your map.
When you select “All” in part (c), AutoCAD will skip over the ones that do not
match the block name you have specified to link to. You will have to find out
which block names are present on each layer to ensure a linkage with each
symbol.
• To find out the name of a block symbol, or to see if

more than one block name is present on a layer, turn
off all other layers, select either one symbol or
everything on the layer, right click somewhere empty
on the screen and choose “Properties.”
• In the “Properties” window, select “Block Reference”

from the drop down arrow at the top. The number in
parentheses is the number of block symbols selected
(see Figure 46.)
• The name of the block will be indicated in the “Name”

row. This value will be blank if more than one block
type is selected.
Figure 45: Block properties window
Using Linked Objects
a) In the project workspace, double click an individual link template that you have
generated links with (alternatively, you can double click the actual table that you
have linked objects to.)
b) A “Data View” table will pop up (see Figure 46), which is connected live to your
GeoFIELD database. Any changes made to the data in GeoFIELD will be
automatically updated in the AutoCAD Data View table (by choosing the
“Refresh” option under the “Records” menu).
Conversely, any changes made to the data in the Data View table can be
updated to GeoFIELD if you choose to commit the changes (by right-clicking on
the data source in the project workspace and selecting “Commit”). Caution must
be exercised when doing this however, because the validation rules built into the
data entry form in GeoFIELD will not be observed.

c) Under the “Highlight” menu (see Figure 46), check select “AutoHighlight,”
AutoZoom” and “AutoSelect” so that these items are checked. These selections
ensure that when a record(s) is selected in the Data View table, AutoCAD will
zoom into the linked symbol and select it.
Also, select “Show Highlighted Records Only” so that this option is checked.
This ensures that when you select objects on your map, only those
corresponding records in your Data View table will be shown.
Under the same “Highlight” menu, choose “Zoom Scale.” This number
represents the percentage of the aerial extents of the selected objects. Type in
the desired value (a value of 5% works well.)
Figure 46: Setting highlight properties in the Data View table
d) FILTER THE DATA IN YOUR TABLE: In your drawing, zoom to the extents.
Then, in the Data View table, push the spatial filter button (see Figure 47), draw
a box that encloses the extents of the entire drawing, and press enter. The
spatial filter limits the records visible in your Data View table to the ones in your
drawing, as opposed to all the records stored in GeoFIELD.
Alternatively, you could use an SQL filter to only display records in the table that
meet certain data criteria.
You can always remove a filter by pressing the “Clear Filter” button.
Spatial Query button
SQL Query button Clear Filter button
Figure 47: Data View buttons

e) When your records are appropriately filtered, you can select one or many of the
records in the table by clicking on the grey rectangle to the left of the first column
in the row and dragging down or holding the shift or control key to select multiple
rows. As you select a row, AutoCAD will select the linked object on your map
and zoom into it. If you select multiple rows, AutoCAD will select and zoom to
the extent of all of the linked objects (see Figure 48).
This interactivity will always work if your links have been generated properly as
described previously, regardless of what layers you have showing.
Linked objects on
Select record(s) here map are selected and
zoomed into
Figure 48: Selecting records in a Data View table selects and zooms to the linked objects on your map
Note: by double-clicking on a column heading in the Data View table, the records will be sorted in
the order of that field.

CHANGES BETWEEN GEOFIELD VERSIONS 1 AND 2
For those who have used older versions of GeoFIELD, there have been some notable
database structural changes that have been incorporated into GeoFIELD version 2. A
number of queries and macros have been designed to facilitate importing data into the newer
version of GeoFIELD, but these are not guaranteed to run, depending on how different your
data is from the Yukon Geological Surveys. Nonetheless, with enough basic Access
knowledge, the queries and macros can easily be modified to suit your purposes (see
Appendix 1).
Traverse
In version 1, the TRAVERSE table was the root table from which every other table stemmed, and
was the top form in the data entry table. This table and the associated form in the data entry form
have been deleted in version 2 to allow easier navigation between station numbers and a more
intuitive database structure.
The information that was stored in the TRAVERSE table fields (traverse number, geologist and
date) can now be entered directly in the STATION table. There is no longer a field for traverse
summary. When importing data from a version 1 database into a version 2 database using the
macros supplied in version 2 (see next section named Importing Data from GeoFIELD v1 into
v2), the traverse number, geologist and date fields will be entered into the STATION table.
Elevation
In the version 1 STATION table, there is only one field for elevation (Elevation), and an
accompanying field for elevation units (Elev_units). In the version 2 STATION table, there
are two fields for elevation, one for metres (Elevation_m) and one for feet (Elevation_ft).
There is no longer a field to store elevation units. This was changed to allow the display of
elevation in both metres and feet, simultaneously.
When importing data from a version 1 database into a version 2 database using the macros
supplied in version 2, GeoFIELD will check to see the units entered in the version 1 units field
(Elev_units), and will put the elevation values in the appropriate version 2 field (Elevation_m
or Elevation_ft). It will also calculate the value that was not recorded in version 1 so that both
the feet and metres fields are populated in version 2.
Sample Analysis Types
In version 1, sample types were selected using yes/no check boxes found directly in the
SAMPLE form. In version 2, sample type is selected in a subform of the SAMPLE form, by
choosing a value from a list and storing this value in a separate Analysis Type table. This
allows more efficiency and flexibility in storing information about analysis types selected for a
single rock sample. Again, when importing data from version 1 to 2 using the provided
macros, GeoFIELD will change the format of your data to fit this new structure.
Mapunit Lookup Table
In version 1, limited map unit information was stored in the lookup_mapunits table. In version 2,
the name of this table was changed to MAPUNITS. More fields were added to this table to allow
the storage of more detailed map unit descriptions, including rock class, assemblage, setting,
group, formation, member and AutoCAD colour screening levels (see Fig. 22 and Lithology form
description). The intent of this table is to store all information required to create a map legend,
and also to be able to provide a table that can be joined into a GIS to provide more powerful
spatial querying of map units.

Lookup Table Exclusivity
Lookup tables are the exclusive source for all fields with pull-down lists, so that only values in the
pull-down lists can be entered in the field. While this may appear to restrict the data entry
process, the lists can easily be changed by clicking the button labeled with the field name (see
section on Pull-down Lists and Lookup Tables).
This change may cause importing problems if any of the values in a version 1 field are not
found in the version 2 lookup table. The version 1 data should be examined prior to importing
to see if the lookup tables in version 2 will accommodate your data. If there are differences
between the values in the version 1 database, and the values in the version 2 lookup tables,
the lookup table values in version 2 should be changed prior to importing your data, or you
must change the exclusivity requirement (see next page on Possible Errors when
Importing).
Other Changes
Many structural changes (too many to name) were made to the Analysis Results form. If no
analysis results were stored in the older database, this will not be a problem when importing data
into version 2. If analysis results were stored in the older database, the simplest solution would
be to reimport the raw data as described in the section on Importing Analysis Results from
Excel.
Some additional fields were added to various tables, including Other Geologist in the Station
table, Photographer in the Photo table, and Weathered Colour and Abundance in the
Lithology form. These fields will be left blank when importing the version 1 data. They can
then be populated manually if so desired.
Importing Data from GeoFIELD v1 into v2
A macro named Append to Tables from Linked DB v 1 is provided with the version 2
database. This macro will read a GeoFIELD version 1 database, and import it into a version
2 database to meet the changes described in the previous section. The macro can be used
to import data from an older GeoFIELD database into a blank new database, and can also be
used to combine two databases (one in version 1 and the other in version 2). In order for the
macro to run properly, these steps must be followed:
1) Open a blank GeoFIELD version 2 database.

2) Link to the version 1 database by choosing Get External Files from the File menu.
3) Choose Link Tables and navigate to the version 1 database.
4) Select the following seven tables to link to by holding down the shift key and clicking on
the tables: Traverse (only if using version 1), Station, Mapunits for version 2 or
lookup_mapunits for version 1, Structure, Photo, Lithology, and Sample
5) Press OK. In the database table window you will see the linked tables identified by an
arrow pointing to each individual table icon. The tables should be automatically named
by their original name followed by a “1” at the end (except for Traverse, which won’t have
a number). If they are not labeled this way, the import macro will not work.
6) Run the Append to Tables from Linked DB v 1 macro.
7) Examine both the data entry form and the contents of the tables. Check that you have
the same number of records in each of the seven linked tables as the corresponding
version 2 tables by opening each table and reading the number of records at the bottom
of the screen. Delete the linked tables when you are satisfied that all the data has been
imported correctly.
If you are combining two databases and want to import a version 1 database into an existing
version 2 database that has some data already stored in it, follow the same steps as above.

When importing records from another database into an existing one, you must ensure that the
station numbers are different in each of the two databases.
Possible Errors when Importing
If you get an error saying that some records could not be added because of key violations or
validation rule violations you will need to examine your data in the original database to ensure
there are no primary key values (i.e., Station Number) that would conflict with primary key values
already in your database.
You may also get this error if attempting to import values that are not found in the version 2
lookup tables. Two methods can be used to circumvent this. You can either examine your data
to determine the missing values and add them to the version 2 lookup table before performing the
import; or you can change the version 2 relationships between the lookup tables and the main
tables so that referential integrity is not enforced.
(In the relationships window, right click in the grey area and select Show Table…” Select a lookup
table (e.g., lookup_grainsz, lookup_lith_texture,or lookup_Metam_Indicator), press Add and then
Close. For the relationship in question, double click on the relationship (the line that connects the
two tables and shows up with a “1” on one end and an infinity symbol on the other end.) Uncheck
the Enforce Referential Integrity box and press OK. The “1” and infinity sign should then
disappear from the relationship.)
If you can’t determine the source of errors, you can alternatively cycle through a series of append
queries one at a time, so that you can at least determine which table is causing errors. Run the
following six queries in this order:
1) Append to Map Units

2) Append to Station (ensure that your linked STATION and TRAVERSE tables have no null
values for any of the required fields (STATNUM, FIELDATE, GEOLOGIST, FIELDATE,
NTS250k, and NTS50k.)
3) Append to Lithology
4) Append to Structure
5) Append to Photo
6) Append to Sample
Then run the following macro to append analysis types:
7) Append to analysis type v2 from sample v1
To determine if you are getting errors from attempting to import values that are not in version 2
lookup tables, use the query List_v1_lookup values. This query will list the individual values that
have been used in any field in the version 1 database. Simply drag the desired field into the
design grid and run the query to view the list. You can then compare this list with the version 2
lookup table to see if there are any values in the version 1 list that are not in the version 2 lookup
table. The most common fields (and tables) that cause importing problems are:

V1 FIELD V1 TABLE V2 LOOKUP TABLE TO MATCH
GEOLOGIST TRAVERSE lookup_geologist

STATYPE STATION lookup_station_type
MAPUNIT LITHOLOGY MAPUNITS
GRNSIZE LITHOLOGY lookup_grainsz
TEXTURE LITHOLOGY lookup_lith_texture
META_INDIC LITHOLOGY lookup_Metam_Indicator
STRUCTNAME STRUCTURE lookup_struc_yukon

IMPORTING DATA FROM FIELDLOG
Importing data from FieldLog into GeoFIELD can be done with some prior data manipulation.
The append queries outlined below will apply to the sample Snowlake database that comes
with FieldLog version 3. If you have modified your database structure significantly from the
Snowlake structure, you may need to modify some of the queries to populate the GeoFIELD
fields specified below with your own FieldLog fields. The basic append process consists of
importing the FieldLog tables into GeoFIELD, and designing and running append queries
which specify which GeoFIELD fields in what tables get populated with what data from
FieldLog.
To begin, import your raw FieldLog tables. (You can also link to them, but if you accidentally
change any of the data from within Access, the data will also be changed in FieldLog, so this is
not recommended.) Go to the File menu, choose Get External Data, and then select Import…..
Choose Files of type dBASE III (*.dbf) and browse to your FieldLog data folder to bring up a list of
about 40 tables.
One by one, select each of the following tables and press Import: LITHO, PHOTO, SAMPL,
STATI, STRUC, TRAV, LEGND and UNITS. You should end up with these seven tables listed in
your database window as LITHO, PHOTO1, SAMPL, STATI, STRUC, TRAV, LEGND and
UNITS, respectively, along with the rest of the GeoFIELD tables. They must have the same
names as listed above for these append queries to work. The MINER and SULPH tables are not
imported as there are no comparable GeoFIELD tables into which the data can be imported (in
GeoFIELD, mineralogy data is reported in subsequent thin section analysis.)
Run the append queries in the following order. Possible appending errors, their causes and
possible solutions are outlined for each query. When you have finished appending your FieldLog
data, delete the imported FieldLog tables.
1) Fieldlog Append Station Query
Before performing this query, make sure that all the geologist names and NTS sheets in your
TRAV table are found in the GEOLOGIST lookup list and NTS 250k lookup list, respectively.
(Open the Data Entry form and click on the GEOLOGIST and/or NTS 250k button to edit the
lists.)
The FIELDATE value from the TRAV table must be imported in

the format of month, followed by a space, followed by the
day, followed by a space, followed by the year (mm dd yyyy).
NTS_250K is taken as the first 3 characters of the NTSMAP

field. You will need to change this value to 4 if your data
incorporates NTS sheets greater than 99.
NTS_50K is taken as the last 2 characters of the

NTSMAP field.
UTMZONE is assigned a default value of 8, but

this value can be changed.

Key violations may occur when a traverse number is found in the STATI table that is not in the
TRAV table. To ignore the error and run the query anyway, click Yes for the error message, and
any record(s) in the STATI table with that traverse number will not be imported. If you don’t want
to skip the import for the erroneous record(s), click No for the error message. Examine the TRAV
and STATI tables to determine which traverses are missing in the TRAV table, enter the missing
traverse in the TRAV table, and then rerun the query.
Generic GeoFIELD error message displayed when not all records can be appended due to key violations or
validation rule violation.
When running the FieldLog_Append_Sample, FieldLog_Append_Lithology,

FieldLog_Append_Photo, or FieldLog_Append_Structure queries, key violations may occur for
the same reason as explained above, if a station number (STATNUM) is found in the SAMPL,
LITHO, PHOTO, or STRUCT table that is not in the STATI table; or if the station number is in the
STATI table, but has a traverse number which isn’t found in the TRAV table. It is simplest to just
ignore this problem and skip the erroneous records because it means that there are referential
integrity problems with your data. These can take a long time to fix since they back-propagate up
through the tables in the relational database.
2) “Fieldlog Append Lithology” Query
3) “Fieldlog Append Structure” Query

4) “Fieldlog Append Photo” Query
5) “Fieldlog Append Sample” Query
Key violations may occur when the combination of STATNUM and

ROCKNUM for a record is not found in the LITHO table. To ignore
the error and run the query anyways, click “yes” for the error
message, and any record(s) in the STATI table with the erroneous
data will not be imported. If you don’t want to skip the import for the
erroneous record(s), click “no” for the error message. Examine the
SAMPL and LITHO tables to determine which records are missing in
the LITHO table, manually enter the missing lithology records in the
LITHO table, and then rerun the FieldLog_Append_Station query.
6) “Fieldlog Append Analysis xxxx” Queries
It is a good idea to check the FieldLog SAMPL table to ensure that the values for the CHEM,
STAIN, OTHER and THIN fields are either “y” or “n” (in either upper or lower case). If any other
characters are used (besides the words “yes” and “no”), the append queries will not work
properly.
Key violations may occur when the combination of STATNUM and ROCKNUM for a record is not
found in the LITHO table or if the combination of ROCKNUM and SAMPLNUM is not found in the
SAMPL table. To ignore the error and run the query anyway, click Yes for the error message,
and any record(s) in the SAMPL table with the erroneous data will not be imported.

7) “Fieldlog Append Mapunits” Query
The design of this query may need to be

modified according to how your LEGND table is
filled in. Once the query has run, you will
probably want to open the MAPUNITS table,
and make changes as needed to clean up the
data.

APPENDIX 1 - LIST OF GEOFIELD DATABASE OBJECTS
This appendix outlines the components of GeoFIELD available from the geoFIELD_v2_2:
Database window, which underlies the main Data Entry form. From this database window, you
can access the individual data storage tables and subforms which are called upon by the Data
Entry form. Modification of these tables and subforms, and use of the accompanying reports,
macros and queries is only recommended for users who have a solid grasp of database design
principles and the functionality of MS Access.
The macros, queries and reports are provided as examples only. They were designed for use
with Yukon Geological Survey data, and as such may not function with other users’ data. With
some knowledge of MS Access however, they can be easily modified to suit your needs.
Tables
There are 18 data tables and 22 lookup tables used by GeoFIELD. The data tables are where
your data is actually stored, while the lookup tables simply provide lists for lookup values within
the Data Entry form.
You can change your data either from within the Data Entry form (highly recommended) or
directly within the appropriate table. Any changes made directly in the tables will be updated in
the Data Entry form the next time it is opened.
Changing the name, structure, design, or relationships of the tables is possible but not
recommended as this will likely compromise the functionality of the Data Entry form.
Main Data Storage Tables:

Lookup Tables:
Forms
There are two main forms within GeoFIELD, from which the user can enter data or specify project
settings. If at any time, you can not see the Data Entry form, simply go to the database window,
and double click the Data Entry form in the Forms window to reopen the form.
There are 41 other hidden forms which are internal subforms that are accessed indirectly from
within the data entry form. The hidden forms can not be used individually for data entry. If the
hidden forms are displayed on your computer, go to the MS Access Tools menu, select Options,
and under the View tab, uncheck hidden objects and press OK. This will make them invisible and
will unclutter your database window.

Queries, Reports and Macros
51 queries, 10 reports and 9 macros are included in the GeoFIELD database. They are provided
as examples only in an effort to demonstrate importing new records from external databases
(other GeoFIELD projects or FIELDLOG databases), generating sample list reports for sample
shipments to laboratories, and performing global data manipulations and updates.
The queries, reports and macros were designed for use with Yukon Geological Survey data, and
as such may not function with other users’ data. With some knowledge of MS Access however,
they can be easily modified to suit your needs.
Detailed descriptions of the queries, reports and macros are not presented here, but the names
are quite descriptive and give a good indication of their function. Examination of their design will
provide further depictions of their utility.
None of the queries, reports or macros are integral to the operation or design of GeoFIELD, and
can therefore be deleted if desired.
Queries:
The following nineteen queries are for importing records from other GeoFIELD databases to an
existing GeoFIELD database (as described in the section on Importing Data from GeoFIELD v1
into v2.)

The remaining 32 queries, as indicated in the names listed below, are support queries in various
macros and reports for:
• converting elevations between feet and metres

• importing FIELDLOG data;
• importing geochemistry results;
• importing sample data from a Palm handheld; and
• generating sample lists
Reports:
The following ten reports are included as examples only. The reports rely on underlying queries
that may not be compatible with your data. Their design, however, can easily be modified to suit
your purposes.
• SAMPLE_LIST_... reports
(8) generate sample lists
which can then be shipped
with samples to
laboratories.
• PHOTO_LIST report
generates a list of photos
taken at various stations,
arranged by geologist.
• MAPUNITS_LEGEND
report generates a
geological legend from your
MAPUNITS data.

Macros:
The following nine macros are included as examples only. The macros rely on underlying queries
that may not be compatible with your data. Their design, however, can easily be modified to suit
your purposes.

APPENDIX 2 – FIELD PROPERTIES FOR TABLES ACCESSIBLE
IN DATA ENTRY FORM
Text in brackets next to the field name indicates either a maximum character length for the field, a
number format, or that the field is hidden in the Data Entry form.
STATION:
LITHOLOGY:

MAPUNITS:
PHOTO:
STRUCTURE:

SAMPLE:
ANALYSIS TYPE:

APPENDIX 3 – TABLE RELATIONSHIPS
GEOCHEMISTRY
STRUCTURE
GEOCHRON
ROCK EVAL PYROLYSIS
SAMPLE ASSAY
LITHOLOGY
STATION
FOSSIL
MAPUNITS
THIN SECTION
ANALYSIS TYPE
PHOTO

Geofield V.2.2: Data Management and Map Production For The Field Geologist

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Energy, Mines and Resources ● Yukon Geological Survey ● Energy, Mines and Resources ● Yukon Geological Survey

YGS Open File 2003-8(D)

P.S. Lipovsky, M. Colpron, G. Stronghill and L. Pigage

Yukon Geological Survey

SAMPLE FORM ........................................................................................................................................ 27

STRUCTURE FORM ................................................................................................................................ 28

PALM OS HANDHELD DATA COLLECTION.................................................................................... 35

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 1 Yukon Geological Survey

APPENDIX 1 - LIST OF GEOFIELD DATABASE OBJECTS............................................................ 91

APPENDIX 3 – TABLE RELATIONSHIPS (11 X 17)........................................................................... 99

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 2 Yukon Geological Survey

Required Software and Operating System Compatibility

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 3 Yukon Geological Survey

Where to obtain this and other Yukon Geological Survey publications

Geoscience Information and Sales

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 4 Yukon Geological Survey

Figure 1. Relationships in the GeoFIELD database.

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 5 Yukon Geological Survey

Basic Database Concepts

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 6 Yukon Geological Survey

Figure 2. Directory structure required by GeoFIELD.

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 7 Yukon Geological Survey

1. AboutGeoFIELD.txt: A general description of the GeoFIELD product, required software

2. geoFIELD_v2_2.mdb: The main GeoFIELD database, which is just a customized MS

3. geoFIELD_Manual.pdf: A 95 page portable document file describing all aspects of

4. readme.txt: A document which describes the installation of GeoFIELD and provides

1. \arcgis: contains an ArcGIS style file (GeoFIELD.style), customized structural symbols

2. \geoFIELD_symbols: Bitmaps (.bmp) for GeoFIELD structural symbol palette in MS

3. \pendragon_forms: A Pendragon Forms configuration database (in MS Access .mdb

Making GeoFIELD Backups and Copies

Use of Italics in this Manual

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 8 Yukon Geological Survey

GeoFIELD Project Setup

To initialize your GeoFIELD project in Microsoft

To access the GeoFIELD Project Setup Information

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 9 Yukon Geological Survey

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 10 Yukon Geological Survey

Figure 5. The GeoFIELD Data Entry form.

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 11 Yukon Geological Survey

Figure 6. Error message commonly displayed when a

In order to circumvent the error message displayed in Fig. 6:

… and Hidden Fields

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 12 Yukon Geological Survey

In the latter case, you will be “brought” to the portion

Figure 8. When you enter a value that is not

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 13 Yukon Geological Survey

Navigating between Records

First Previous Next Last

Figure 9. Navigation buttons

Figure 10. Error displayed when attempting to

Figure 11. Error displayed when inadvertently creating a

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 14 Yukon Geological Survey

To find a particular station, click inside the Station

Sorting and Filtering

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 15 Yukon Geological Survey

Data Entry Sequence

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 16 Yukon Geological Survey

Figure 12. The Station form

Figure 13. This error message will be displayed

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 17 Yukon Geological Survey

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 18 Yukon Geological Survey

GeoFIELD v. 2.2 19 Yukon Geological Survey

There are three ways to plot a station location in an