draw lines

The draw lines module enables you to create both 2D and 3D lines interactively with the mouse.

The mouse gesture for line creation is: depress the Ctrl key and then click the left mouse button on any pickable object in the viewer. The first click establishes the beginning point of the line segment and the second click establishes each successive point.

draw lines allows adding of points that are outside the model extents, undoing of the last picked point, and the clearing of all picked points. Unlike most modules which create mesh data to be used by other modules, the draw lines module receives input from the viewer, and also passes on field data to be used by other modules.

There are two drawing modes:

1. Top View Mode creates 2D lines which are always at Z=0.0. You must be in a Top View to draw with this mode, but you may pick points anywhere in the viewer screen.

2. Object Mode creates 3D lines which are drawn by probing objects in your model. You cannot draw at a point without having an object there or specifying a coordinate using the x-y-z type-ins.

NOTE: Because draw lines saves your lines with your application, when an application is saved, the purple port is automatically disconnected from the viewer. This ensures that when you load an application the resulting objects (lines, fence-diagrams, etc.) will look exactly the same as when you saved the application. However, if you wish to draw new lines you will need to reconnect the purple port from the viewer.

Ports

Properties

Glyph Settings

polyline processing

The polyline processing module accepts a 3D polyline and can either increase or decrease the number of line segments of the polyline. A splining algorithm smooths the line trajectory once the number of points are specified. This module is useful for applications such as a fly over application (along a polyline path drawn by the user). If the user drawn line is jagged with erratically spaced line segments, polyline processing smooths the path and creates evenly spaced line segments along the path.

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Properties

triangulate polygons

The triangulate polygons module converts a closed polyline into a triangulated surface. This surface can be extruded or used by the distance to 2d area module to perform areal subsetting of 3D models.

Polylines with WIDTH in AutoCAD DWG files are converted by import cad into triangle strips of the specified width. As you zoom in on polylines with width, the apparent width will change, whereas the apparent width of lines does not change. However, once they are triangles, they do not define a closed area and therefore would not work with triangulate polygons.

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Properties

triangle refinement

The triangle refinement module is primarily for use with distance to surface. It can subdivide triangular and quadrilateral cells until none of the sides of the output triangles exceed a user specified length (a default value is calculated as 5% of the x-y extent of your input surface). This increases the accuracy of distance to surface especially when the input surface comes from create tin and the nodes used to create the TIN are poorly spaced. It can also correct the normals of a surface. It does this by organizing all of the triangles and quadrilaterals in a surface into disjoint patches, and then allowing the user to select which patches have normals that need to be flipped. The maximum number of triangles in a patch is 130,000; any triangles above this number will be considered to be in the next patch.

Removing small cells is used to remove extremely small cells (based on area in your coordinate units squared) that sometimes are generated with CAD triangulation routines that might have their normal vectors reversed and would contribute to poor cutting surface definition. Try this option if you find that distance to surface is giving anomalous results.

The ability to fix normals is used to check that all of the triangles in selected patches of the surface have the same normal vector direction. If the normal is backwards, you can flip the normal of the patch in two ways. The first way is Alt + Right click on a cell in the patch that you wish to flip and then click the Add patch to flip list button. You only need to do this for one cell in each patch. Another way to do this is to set the Cell ID and Cell Data value of a cell in the patch you wish to flip. The Cell Id and Cell Data values must be obtained from the surface being output from triangle refinement, and not the surface being input.

Ports

Properties

Triangle Normal Settings

tubes

The tubes module is used to produce open or closed tubes of constant or data dependent radius using 3D lines or polylines as input. Tube size, number of sides and data dependent coloring is possible.

Rotation of the tubes is done with the Phase slider (or type-in), which is specified in degrees. There are two methods used to maintain continuity of the tube orientation as the path meanders along a 3D path. These are specified as the Phase Determination method:

• Force Z Up: is the default and is most appropriate for paths that stay relatively horizontal. This option keeps the tube faces aligned with the Z axis and therefore with a slope of 30 degrees, the effective cross sectional area of the tube would be reduced by cos(30) which would be a 14% reduction. However for the typical slopes found with tunneling this effect is quite minimal and this option keeps the tube perfectly aligned.
• Perpendicular Extrusions: keeps the tube cross-section aligned with the tube (extrusion) path and therefore preserves the cross-section no matter what the path. However, tube rotation creep is possible.

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Properties

Data Output

volumetric tunnel

The volumetric tunnel module allows you to create a volumetric tunnel model that is defined by a polygonal surface cross-section along a complex 3D path. Once this volumetric grid is defined, it can be used as input to various modules to map analyte and/or geologic data onto the tunnel. These include:

• 3d estimation: external grid port: to map analytical data
• lithologic modeling: external grid port: to map lithologic data
• interp data: to map analytical data
• interp cell data: to map stratigraphic or lithologic material data

The requirements for the tunnel path and cross-section are:

• The path must be defined by a line input to the Right input port.
• The tunnel cross-section is defined by a surface input to the Left input port.
  • The cross-section should be defined in the X-Y plane at Z = 0 (2D)
  • The coordinates (size) of the cross-section should be actual scale in the same units as the tunnel path (generally feet or meters).
    • Do not use cm for cross-section and meters for path.
    • Generally, the X-Y Origin (0, 0) should lie within the cross-section and should represent where the tunnel path should be.

Ports

Properties

Data Output

cross section tubes

The cross section tubes module is used to produce open or closed tubes of user defined cross-section and constant or data dependent radius using 3D lines or polylines as input for the centerline and a single 2D polyline as the cross-section of the tubes.

Rotation of the cross-section is done with the Phase slider (or type-in), which is specified in degrees. There are two methods used to maintain continuity of the tube orientation as the path meanders along a 3D path. These are specified as the Phase Determination method:

• Force Z Up: is the default and is most appropriate for paths that stay relatively horizontal. This option keeps the tube cross-section aligned with the Z axis and therefore with a slope of 30 degrees, the effective cross sectional area of the tube would be reduced by cos(30) which would be a 14% reduction. However for the typical slopes found with tunneling this effect is quite minimal and this option keeps the tube perfectly aligned.
• Perpendicular Extrusions: keeps the tube cross-section aligned with the tube (extrusion) path and therefore preserves the cross-section no matter what the path. However, cross-section rotation creep is possible.

The cross section field input must be a closed polyline that is drawn in the X-Y plane in the correct size. It should be balanced about the origin in X, usually with the Y axis (X=0) at the floor of the tunnel. This results in the tunnel being created such that the tunnel path will be at the centerline FLOOR of the tunnel as shown in the picture below.

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Data Output

extrude

The extrude module accepts any mesh and adds one to the dimensionality of the input by extruding the mesh in the Z direction. The interface enables changing the height scale for extruded cells and extruding by a constant, any nodal or cell data component. This module is often used with the import vector gis module to convert polygonal shapefiles into extruded volumetric cells.

When Node Data Component is chosen, the output cells will be extruded by the Scale Factor times the value of whichever nodal data component is selected. With nodal data extrusion you must select “Positive Extrusions Only” or “Negative Extrusions Only”. Since each node of a triangle or quadrilateral can have different values, it is possible for a single cell to have both positive and negative data values at its nodes. If this type of cell is extruded both directions, the cell topology can become tangled.

For this reason, nodal data extrusions must be limited to one direction. To extrude in both directions, merely use two extrude modules in parallel, one set to positive and the other to negative.

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Properties

drive glyphs

The drive glyphs module provides a way to move any object (glyph or object from read dxf, etc.) along multiple paths to create a “driving” animation. Glyphs can be positioned along input lines by percentage, by time data on the path, or by data values on the path.

Ports

Properties

Glyph Settings

Percentage Options

Date Options

Data Options

place glyph

The place glyph module is used to place a single scalable geometric object (glyph) at an interactively determined location. The glyph can be generated internally (sphere, cube, cone, etc.), imported via the Input Glyph port, or represented as a directed line. The position, scale, and orientation of the glyph are fully controllable through the module properties.

Ports

Properties

Glyph Settings

glyphs at nodes

The glyphs at nodes module is used to place geometric objects (glyphs) at nodal locations. The glyphs can be scaled, rotated and colored based on the input data. If the input data is a vector, the glyph can be scaled and rotated to represent the direction and absolute magnitude of the vector field. In a scalar data field, the objects can be scaled based on the magnitude of the scalar. The glyphs can represent the data field of one data component while being colored by another data component. Arrow glyphs are commonly used in vector fields to produce visualizations of the vector field.

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Properties

Glyph Settings

glyphs at cells

The glyphs at cells module is used to place geometric objects (glyphs) at cell center locations. The glyphs can be scaled, rotated and colored based on the input cell data. If the input data is a vector, the glyph can be scaled and rotated to represent the direction and absolute magnitude of the vector field. In a scalar data field, the objects can be scaled based on the magnitude of the scalar. Arrow glyphs are commonly used in vector fields to produce visualizations of the vector field.

Ports

Properties

Glyph Settings

create fault surface

The create fault surface module creates a 3D grid that is aligned to a specified strike and dip. The surface can be positioned at a center point, sized, and oriented to represent a fault plane for use with other modules such as distance to surface.

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Properties

create grid

The create grid module produces a 2D or 3D uniform grid that can be used for any purpose. A typical use is starting points for 3d streamlines or advector. In 2D (default) mode it creates a rectangle of user adjustable grid resolution and orientation. In 3D mode it creates a box (3D grid). The number of nodes will depend on the X, Y and optional Z resolutions as well as the cell type specified.

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Properties