The goals of developing this program were to (1) enable geologists to create and view 3D boreholes in ArcScene and (2) enable geologists to edit borehole data directly in ArcScene, based on their interpretations.
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) was used to develop a custom tool bar in ArcScene 9.2. The toolbar contains 8 button controls, each built to perform a specific task:
1. “Create_3d_lines” takes a table (.dbf or geodatabase) of well log data and creates a 3D polyline shapefile. The shapefile is automatically rendered with a 3D tube symbol.
2. “Edit_attributes” allows the user to enter new values for selected borehole segments.
3. “Edit_zyx” allows the user to edit the location of the borehole by entering new x, y, or z values.
4. “Split_line_at_z” allows the user to split a selected borehole segment at a specified elevation.
5. “Merge” allows the user to merge two or more contiguous segments into one segment.
6. “Update_xyz” updates the coordinate values in the table. This button is intended to be used after borehole locations have been edited outside of ArcScene. Using any of the buttons described above will automatically update the values in the table.
7. “Symbolize_tubes” allows the user to easily change the width of the tube symbol and the field used to symbolize the lines. Using this button will allow tube widths greater than 100, which is the maximum width allowed under the standard symbolization interface.
8. “Plot_gamma” takes a geophysical log (.las format) for a borehole and plots it as a graph along side the 3D borehole line.
The code is imbedded in an ArcScene document (.sxd). The downloadable zip file contains the .sxd, overview poster, tutorial, and tutorial data. The file is 3.8 MB. |
