Quick Start Guide to New Features in Dips 7.

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This document is a simple quick start guide to the new features in Dips 7.0. For detailed
information see the tutorials and help system.

3D Stereosphere
To view a 3D hemisphere view of poles, planes and contours:

• Select 3D Plot from the toolbar or the View menu.

Click and drag the mouse in the 3D view to rotate the plot for viewing at any angle. 3D display
options can be configured in the sidebar Plot Options and Display Settings.

3D stereosphere showing poles, contours, planes and 2D stereonet

Currently, you cannot directly enter or edit data on the 3D hemisphere view, it derives its data
from input displayed on the 2D stereonet.
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Curved Boreholes
Data can now be input and processed for curved boreholes, for both oriented core and
televiewer data.
For an example file demonstrating curved borehole input select File > Recent Folders >
Examples Folder and open the Curved Borehole.dips7 example file.
To input data from curved boreholes:
1. Open the Traverse Information dialog.
2. In the list of Traverse Types, select either Curved BH Oriented Core or Curved Borehole
Televiewer.
3. Select the Traverses tab in the Traverse dialog. Select the Add button to add the desired
number of curved borehole traverses. Enter the Traverse ID for each traverse. NOTE:
traverse ID values can now be alpha-numeric, you are no longer restricted to integer
values. If you are using the Oriented Core option, enter an Orient 1 value to define the
position of the reference line on the core. For the definition of Orient 1 click here.
NOTE: it is assumed that the value of Orient 1 is constant over the entire length of a
given curved borehole.

4. Select the Collar Data tab in the Traverse dialog. Select the Add button to add the
desired number of collar entries (this should correspond to the number of curved
traverses defined under the Traverses tab). Enter the Traverse ID, XYZ collar coordinates
and total depth for each traverse.
5. Select the Survey Data tab in the Traverse dialog. Enter the survey data for all curved
traverses, sequentially, using the ID numbers defined in the Traverse and Collar tabs.
The orientation format convention for survey file data is always Trend / Plunge. This is
equivalent to the standard Azimuth / Dip terminology commonly used to record
borehole survey orientations.

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6. Survey Data – Plunge Options. If you select the Settings button at the bottom of the
Traverse dialog, you will see the following dialog for setting various preferences for
curved boreholes.

If negative values of Plunge (Dip) represent the downward direction, then you can
directly paste this data into the dialog, with negative sign, as long as the Negative =
Down option is selected. If positive values of Plunge (Dip) represent the downward
direction, then enter positive values and use the Positive = Down option. NOTE: this
setting ONLY refers to survey data in the traverse dialog; it does NOT affect the data
conventions used in the main Dips spreadsheet.
7. De-survey Options – for analysis purposes, curved borehole surveys in Dips are
represented by a series of linear segments. There are two possible de-survey options.
The Linear, at segment ends option, will directly connect the survey points with linear
segments. The Linear, at mid-points option, will assume each survey point is the mid-
point of a linear segment, and generate the segments accordingly.

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8. After entering all data in the Traverse dialog, go to the main spreadsheet. A Distance
column should be automatically created in the main spreadsheet. (If not, then go to
Project Settings and select the Distance column checkbox).
9. Enter your structural joint data orientations, borehole traverse IDs, and Distance
measurements in the main spreadsheet.
10. Dips will automatically process the data and display the results on the stereonet. If the
Terzaghi Weighting option is selected, the weighting will use the trend / plunge of each
linear segment obtained from the de-survey of the borehole data.
11. In general, once the traverse data has been input, working with curved boreholes is no
different than working with other traverse types in Dips (e.g. Linear traverses). You can
define any number of Curved Boreholes, using Oriented Core or Televiewer input, and
combine this with any other traverse types (e.g. Linear or Planar) all in the same file.

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Kinematic Sensitivity Analysis

The Kinematic Analysis option in Dips now offers an additional feature: Kinematic Sensitivity
Analysis. With the Kinematic Sensitivity option, you can enter a range of values for:

• slope dip

• slope dip direction

• friction angle

• lateral limits
and plot the results for different failure modes (e.g. planar sliding, wedge sliding, toppling). The
plots allow you to quickly see the effect of individual variables, while keeping others constant
at their mean values.
To use this option:

1. Select Kinematic Analysis from the toolbar or the Analysis menu.

2. Enter the mean slope input parameters.
3. Select the Kinematic Sensitivity button in the sidebar.

4. You will see the following dialog. Select one or more variables, enter the range of
values, and a sensitivity plot will be generated.

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For example, in the following graph, the probability of planar sliding is analyzed for a 0 to 360
degree range of slope dip direction. The mean values of each variable are listed at the bottom
of the plot.

You can plot multiple graphs on a single plot, for example the following plot shows slope angle
and friction angle varied over ranges of 0 to 90 and 0 to 60. If you click on any point on a graph,
the stereonet will display the slope parameters used to generate that particular value.

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Jointing Analysis
Dips 7.0 has three new options for analyzing the degree of jointing in a rock mass:

• Joint Spacing

• RQD Analysis

• Joint Frequency
For an example file which can be used to demonstrate these options select File > Recent
Folders > Examples Folder and open the Joint Spacing.dips7 example file.
Joint Spacing
The Joint Spacing option allows you to calculate the true 3D spacing of joints in a joint set. The
true spacing is calculated from the apparent spacing measurements along a linear traverse,
corrected for the angle between the joint and the traverse. In order to analyze joint spacing,
your file must include:

• Linear or borehole traverses (Traverse dialog)

• Distance column (Project Settings)

• Sets (Add Set options)

To calculate joint spacing, select the Joint Spacing option from the Analysis menu, and you will
see the following dialog, with your currently defined Sets and Traverses:

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Joint spacing is calculated for each joint set, and you may include all traverses or selected
traverses. The results are plotted on a histogram, as shown below, and the mean, standard
deviation, min and max values are displayed.

True Joint Spacing

Set 1
All Traverses

26

25

20
Quantity

15
13

10

5 4
2 2 2
1 1

0
0.24 0.48 0.72 0.95 1.19 1.43 1.67 1.91 2.15
Spacing (m)

mean=0.409 s.d.=0.510 min=0.002 max=2.383

You can plot true or apparent spacing. True spacing is always less than or equal to the apparent
measured spacing. If planes are exactly perpendicular to a traverse, then true spacing =
apparent spacing.
RQD Analysis
The RQD Analysis option allows you to calculate values of RQD (Rock Quality Designation) along
the length of a linear or borehole traverse. In order to analyze RQD, your file must include:

• Linear or borehole traverses (Traverse dialog)

• Distance column (Project Settings)

To calculate RQD, select the RQD Analysis option from the Analysis menu, and you will see the
following dialog:

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RQD can be plotted for each individual traverse, over a user-defined interval along the length
of the traverse. If you choose the Moving Interval option, then the interval will be moved in
increments which overlap, which may help to better identify narrow transitions in RQD.

RQD Analysis
Traverse 1

110

100
100.0
96.0 97.0
90 95.0
92.0
86.0
Rock Quality Designation (%)

80 85.0
82.7
76.0
70
71.0
60
57.0
50

40

30

20

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Distance (m)

mean=85.242 s.d.=12.453 min=57.000 max=100.000

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Joint Frequency
The Joint Frequency option allows you to calculate the Joint Frequency (number of joints per
unit distance) along the length of a linear or borehole traverse. In order to analyze Joint
Frequency, your file must include:

• Linear or borehole traverses (Traverse dialog)

• Distance column (Project Settings)

To calculate Joint Frequency, select the Joint Frequency option from the Analysis menu, and
you will see the following dialog:

Joint Frequency can be plotted for each individual traverse over a user-defined interval along
the length of the traverse. If you choose the Moving Interval option, then the interval will be
moved in increments which overlap, which may help to better identify narrow transitions in
Joint Frequency.
To apply the Terzaghi Weighting to the frequency measurements, select the Weighted
checkbox.

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Joint Frequency Analysis

Traverse 1

12

11
11.0
10
10.0
9

8
Joints per meter

7
6.0 7.0 7.0 7.0 7.0
6
5.0 5.0
5
4.0
4

2
1.0
1

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Distance (m)

mean=6.364 s.d.=2.603 min=1.000 max=11.000

The Joint Frequency option is a simple one-dimensional frequency along a linear or borehole
traverse. 2-dimensional (on a surface) or 3-dimensional (volume) joint frequency is not
currently analyzed.

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Contour General Data

In addition to contouring pole densities on the stereonet, Dips 7.0 now allows you to contour
values of any quantitative data column on the stereonet. For example, values of principal stress
magnitudes measured at known orientations.
To use this option, select Contour Options, choose the Data Column option, and select a data
column containing numeric data that you would like to contour on the stereonet.

The data will be contoured on the stereonet and the legend will indicate the contour values.
Note that contours may take some time to generate since interpolation is carried out on the
sphere by default, rather than the 2D stereonet.

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Display Traverse Orientations

A useful new display option has been added, the ability to display Traverse orientations. Select
the Traverses checkbox in the sidebar visibility options, and all traverse orientations will be
plotted on the stereonet.

Linear traverses are displayed as points and planar traverses as great circle and pole. Curved
borehole traverses can be displayed using first survey point only, first and last, or all points in
the survey file. The symbol used to display the traverse orientations can be customized in the
Symbol Editor dialog.

In the examples below: (i) the data comes from two boreholes, which are shown on the plot as
green circles T:1 and T:2. (ii) the traverses are horizontal tunnel scanlines which plot on the
perimeter of the stereonet.

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(i) (ii)

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