Planning drill holes

[kylek]

Hello,

After attempting to learn how to use Arcsense, I am having a hard time finding a way plot and measure future drill holes. I want to drill in sub surface area 'x' however how can i get information on the bearing and dip of the drill hole needed to penetrate into area x? I also have access to rockworks.

Thanks
Kyle

[JakubSisak]

I am having a hard time finding a way plot and measure future drill holes. I want to drill in sub surface area 'x' however how can i get information on the bearing and dip of the drill hole needed to penetrate into area x? I also have access to rockworks.

ArcScene is not the tool for drillhole planning. (Not without custom programming) I would go with Rockworks.  You could also try Gemcom, Geosoft, Datamine Studio

[kylek]

I would go with Rockworks

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! It is too bad Arc cannot complete this task as the 3-d modeling is very clean and easy to make conclusions! - So far the only models i can generate in rockworks are blocky and highly misleading! I (A summer student and the only geologist at the company atm) am exploring Iron skarn formations and the geology is complex!

[JakubSisak]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! It is too bad Arc cannot complete this task as the 3-d modeling is very clean and easy to make conclusions! - So far the only models i can generate in rockworks are blocky and highly misleading! I (A summer student and the only geologist at the company atm) am exploring Iron skarn formations and the geology is complex!

Good to know about Rockworks. I was considering it but have not heard very positite things. I suggested Geosoft but don't bother as it too  can't produce solids (formations) just data interpolated voxel which i am told is unasable as geologist create solids using interpretation and knowledge of geology.  I recomend Leapfrog Mining for 3D visualization. It's expensive but very powerful yet not very complicated. Our company has dished out $7G per license on 3 geosoft licences and the only thing i've see done with it were very simple sections. The other tool that we use, also expensive though, is Gemcom GEMS. I took the course and it has very powerful digitizing features. The idea is (most good geological packages do this similarely) do seperate your project are into sectional intervals then go through each section and digitize vertically oriented or inclined polygons using the drilholes and assays. You then define direction lines how these formations should be connected and the software generates the solid formation object.  The problem with GEMS as i see it (and all other geological software except for Leapfrog) is that it seems very difficult, almost impossible, to generate a usable output. (PDF, figure, plot)

That's where ArcScene steps in.  You can export your solid 3D subsurface objects and visualize then easily in ArcScene. (With limitations - no labelling, etc. But you can export high resolution image and complete your work in Illustator or similar)  Below is an example of solids generated in GEMS and visualized in ArcScene along with GIS data (This type of geology CANNOT be created in ArcGIS):[ATTACH=CONFIG]8427[/ATTACH]