Interpretations Ribbon Tab
Commands available on the Interpretations ribbon tab, grouped by panel.
Navigation
Move (ribbon key tip: I)
Tooltip: Mouse interaction modes
Choose how mouse clicks interact with the 3D view.
Dropdown items:
- Move Mode — Switch to Move mode
- Interrogate — Interrogate the scene
View From
Tooltip: View and rotation presets
Preset camera positions and rotation resets for the 3D view.
Dropdown items:
- North — View from north
- South — View from south
- East — View from east
- West — View from west
- Above — View from above
- Below — View from below
- Centre In Model — Centre the view on the model
- Reset to North — Reset heading to north
- Reset Rotations — Reset all view rotations
- Forward View — Look forward
- Nadir View — Look straight down (nadir)
Active Descriptor
The values given to new interpretation objects, and applied to selected ones. The lists behind them live in the Collections tree: Facies, Contacts and Units. See the Active Descriptor in the interpretation guide.
Facies
Dropdown items:
- Button — New facies
- IDC_INTERP_FACIES_APPLY_SELECTED — Update all selected objects with this facies value
- Facies — Active facies
Contact
A contact is a picked boundary between two units.
- New Contact — Create a new contact (a picked boundary) in the Contacts list.
- Apply (
IDC_INTERP_HZ_APPLY_SELECTED) — Apply the active contact or unit to the selected objects: the selected traces (polylines and faults) take the active contact, and everything else (orientations, geobodies, scan lines, stratigraphic units) takes the active unit. - Active contact (
IDC_INTERP_ACTIVE_PICK) — The contact given to new polylines and, by Apply, to selected traces.
Unit
A unit is the interval between two contacts.
- New Unit — Create a new stratigraphic unit in the Units list.
- Active unit (
IDC_INTERP_ACTIVE_UNIT) — The unit given to new scan lines and, by Apply, to selected orientations, geobodies, scan lines and stratigraphic units.
Structure
Dip Azimuth
Tooltip: Dip and azimuth tools
Compute structural dip and azimuth using one, three or many points, an area, or from existing attributes.
Dropdown items:
- 3 Points — Dip / azimuth from 3 points
- N Points — Dip / azimuth from many points
- 1 Point — Dip / azimuth from one point
- Area — Dip / azimuth over an area
- Attributes — Dip / azimuth from attributes
Digitse Fault
Tooltip: Fault digitising tools
Create, split, join, extend or add sticks to fault interpretations.
Dropdown items:
- New Fault — Start a new fault
- Split — Split a fault
- Join — Join two faults
- Add stick — Add a fault stick
- Extend Fault — Extend a fault
Digitise Polyline
Tooltip: Polyline editing tools
Split, join, edit nodes, draw contours and snap polylines to the mesh.
Dropdown items:
- Digitise Points — Digitise by individual clicks
- Draw — Draw polyline with continual digitising on mouse move
- Split Line — Split a polyline
- Join Lines — Join two polylines
- Add Node — Add a node
- Draw Contour — Draw a contour
- Create Geobody — Create a geobody
- Close Polyline — Close the polyline
- Snap To Mesh — Move the selected polyline onto the active mesh: each vertex goes to the closest point on the surface, and vertices are added along each segment at the polyline's sub-sampling distance (1 unit by default). Undo restores the line as digitised. See Snapping a line to a mesh (
ID_POLYLINE_SNAPTOMESH) - Geodesic Distance — Click sparse points; the polyline follows the shortest on-surface path between them and shows the cumulative along-surface distance (
ID_INTERPRETATION_POLYLINE_GEODESIC) - Texture Track — Click sparse points on a textured outcrop; between clicks the polyline follows the contact in the texture. Untextured surfaces fall back to the geodesic (
ID_INTERPRETATION_POLYLINE_TEXTURETRACK)
Auto Tracker
Tooltip: Auto-tracker options
Configure settings for the surface auto-tracker.
Dropdown items:
- Settings — Auto-tracker settings
Scan Line
Tooltip: Create a scan line for fracture intensity analysis.
Creates a linear fracture-sampling scanline in 3D space. A scanline is a straight line segment used to measure fracture frequency, spacing, and orientation-dependent intensity.
Dropdown items:
- From intersections — Create a scan line oriented from displayed fracture orientations.
- From Points — Digitise fracture positions manually along a scan line.
Plunge
Tooltip: Measure plunge
Measure the plunge of a linear feature picked on the mesh.
Sticky Interp
Tooltip: Sticky interpretation mode
When enabled, the active interpretation tool stays selected after each pick.
Sedimentology
Geo Polygon
Tooltip: Digitise with individual points
Digitise with individual points. Space bar to toggle continuous drawing..
Dropdown items:
- Digitise Points — Digitise geopolygon with individual points.
- Draw — Draw geopolygon
- Key Pillar — Add pillar to geobody
- Create from polylines — Create geobody from polylines
Measured Section
Tooltip: Create a measured section/log
Start a new measured section or geological log along a digitised path on the outcrop.
Palaeocurrent
Tooltip: Measure a palaeocurrent
Measure a palaeocurrent direction from a single picked point.
Borehole
Tooltip: Create a borehole
Create a new synthetic borehole at the picked location.
Edit
Move Vertices
Tooltip: Move vertices
Click and drag to move polyline or fault vertices in the 3D view. Hold Alt while dragging to move the whole line with the vertex.
Pause Digitising
Tooltip: Pause Digitising
Pause digitising to move the model around. Un-pause to continue
Undo
Tooltip: Undo last action
Undo the most recent edit. The button is greyed when there is nothing to undo, and its tooltip names the step it would take. Its dropdown lists the recent steps, most recent first: pick one and every step down to it is undone. Undo is also on the Quick Access Toolbar by default, so it can be reached from any tab.
Most property-bar rows record a step, and a spinner's or slider's ticks on one row make one step. Dropdown, colour, font and file rows do not. Tree renames and drag-and-drop moves are steps too.
Up to 20 steps are kept, holding no more than 512 MB of saved mesh and point data; the oldest go first.
Redo
Tooltip: Redo last undone action
Re-apply the most recently undone edit. It is greyed when there is nothing to redo, and it is on the Quick Access Toolbar by default too.
3D Translate
Tooltip: Translate vertices in 3D
Move selected vertices freely in 3D using on-screen handles. Hold Alt while dragging a polyline or fault vertex to move the whole line. In the Vulkan view a press that misses keeps the gadget, Shift and Pause Digitising hand the left button back to navigation, and Esc disarms the tool. See The Edit panel.
Snap Vertices
Tooltip: Snap Vertices
Snap digitised vertex to exisiting vertex if hit
Erase Vertices
Tooltip: Erase Vertices
Erase Vertices from object
Reposition Object
Tooltip: Click an object to select it. Click a new location on the model to determine its new location.
Move an existing interpretation object to somewhere else on the model: click the object, then click where it should go.