Overview

The Utilities submenu consists of options that allow you to load structural data into a structural database. Once the data is loaded into a structural database, it can be printed (through the Plot option), projected as hemispherical projections in the Stereonets window or used to perform interactive interpretation and analysis.

Options are available for updating existing structural data or adding new structural data to the structural database. For example, structural data may have already been entered into the structural database, but without coordinate information. The coordinate information can be digitised into Vulcan based on the surveyed locations and the relevant structural data records updated. New face mapping data can be easily appended to the structural database by digitising the locational information and entering the associated structural data.

The Digitise and Select options allow point objects, 2-point line objects or 3-point polygon objects to define coordinate and orientation information for entry into the structural database. A single point provides values for the coordinate fields. Two point lines set the coordinate and dip direction values. Three point polygon objects provide the dip, dip direction and co-ordinates for the structure. The Line option allows scan line data to be entered based on a selected 2-point line object and specified distances along the line.

Prerequisites:

Geotechnical Specification file
Structural Design (datasheet)
Structural Database
Colour Legends

Geotechnical Specification File

A Geotechnical Specification file (<proj>.gtc) can be created and edited through using the Edit Codes option. An example is provided in Appendix A. The first section in the example sets the display properties for the structural data. The second section reads in raw ASCII data and matches the data into an existing database.

Display Properties
A variety of 3D structural data is supported, each of which have a corresponding Stereonet object. Each type code used in the structural database can be made to refer to any of the available display types.

For example: Structures with the type codes J, JI, JOINT and JS could all be displayed as joints.
The first column entry (in the list of structure types) in the specification file is the value in the TYPE field of the structural database. The second column contains a description of the structure to which each type value refers. These descriptions are used by panels in the Geotech Display and Geotech Analysis programs (the Limited Selection Criteria and Manual Entry of Structural Data panels). Each description may be up to 40 alphanumeric characters in length. The third column refers to the type of objects used to display each structure. These may be any of the 3D structural data display types from the table below. If no specification file exists, the default codes are used to determine how the structure type codes in the structural database are to be interpreted.
These are:
ASCII Loading
These specifications are used by the ASCII Import option. The first column is the value in the TYPE field of the structural database; the second column is the start column in the ASCII file to be imported; third column is the end column in the ASCII file to be imported; fourth column is the field type as defined in the database; fifth column is the number of decimals as defined in the database.

Structural Design (datasheet)

A structural design is created in Isis. The default design name for structural information is 'tek'. This can be overwritten, i.e. multiple geotech designs may exist in the same directory with the same project code.

The design must consist of two table types:

HEADER
The HEADER table contains the single field AREA (mining area), which must be used as the key/index into the structural database. Some sites may only have one mining area and therefore only one key. Multiple keys (i.e. dividing the database into several mining areas) are useful if large datasets are being manipulated and you want to avoid traversing the whole database each time.
For example, if you have northpit areas and southpit areas you may want to create two areas named 'npit' and 'spit' respectively. If you are both importing data from an ASCII file and digitising data from the Vulcan screen into your database, you may want to set up one area named 'import98' and the other 'digit98'. Note that data can always be divided into several mining areas at a later stage.

GEOTEC
The GEOTEC table may contain as many fields as the design allows. Most fields, except for the ones mentioned below, can be named whatever you want. The ones below must be present for the structural data to be acceptable to Vulcan.

Name	Description	Example values
AMGEST	Easting	232115.6
AMGNTH	Northing	34561.2
ELEV	Elevation	345.4
DIP	Dip	35, 12, 9
DIPDIR	Dip Direction	327, 139, 90
TYPE	Structure type (a maximum of 10 characters).	F, JNT, BDNG, S

Note

Northing and Easting may be in co-ordinates other than AMG.

Structural data cannot be displayed without each of these fields being present (and containing reasonable values) in the structural database. The numeric fields are all treated as double precision in Vulcan, but it is perfectly valid to store the dip and dip direction as integers.

Fields that are not essential but may be useful are:

Name	Description	Example values
SITEID	Site Identifier/ Observation number (a maximum of 10 alphanumeric characters).	A001, 987
AMGSTK	Strike. This field may be considered unnecessary, but the Rose Diagram options (under the Geotech > Display submenu) have been written to make use of them.	100, 35, 298
ORIENT	Orientation (a maximum of 2 characters). This field may be considered unnecessary, but the Rose Diagram options (under the Geotech > Display submenu) have been written to make use of them.	SW, NE
SOURCE	Data source. This field is used by the Database Import option, which loads structural data from a drillhole database into a structural database.	H (Drill Hole), F (Face Mapping)
FAULT	Fault name. This field is needed to use the Group option (under the Geotech > Analysis submenu), which groups various structures under the same fault name.	FM-100, Fault 1, HJ001
COMENT	Comments. This field is useful for maintaining general information about each structure.	From scan sw1093
DEPTH	Depth down drillhole.	89.6, 130.1

Note

If the strike is present then a value for the orientation must also be specified.

Structural Database

The data to be loaded into a structural database can come from an ASCII file, a drilling database or through digitising.

ASCII File
The ASCII file must be in a format similar to the one shown below. The value '2' in front of each line indicates that the data belongs to the GEOTEC table or second table type in the database.

2 KIMORIEN  23732.23  26512.15  5312.50  268  44 2 F1        23755.08  26493.30  5312.50  165  74 2 F2        23778.73  26473.68  5312.50  179  74 2 KIMORIEN  23780.68  26483.42  5312.50   12  20 2 KIMORIEN  23784.00  26469.33  5312.50  193  52 2 F1        23792.64  26462.81  5312.50  220  65 2 KIMORIEN  23807.70  26448.45  5312.50   12  33 2 F2        23821.85  26415.79  5312.50  297  72 2 V2        23827.46  26410.98  5312.50  192  80 2 F2        23864.18  26349.72  5312.50  287  72 2 F1        23872.45  26320.59  5312.50  279  65

The ASCII file can be loaded into the geotech database through the ASCII Import option; the File > Import Export > Load CSV Tables option or the Import Data option in Isis.

Drillhole Database
The drillhole database must have the structural table type in its (drillhole) design and every field in that structural table must be present in the structural database. The drilling database can be loaded into the geotech database through the Database Import option).
Digitising
Digitising refers to data entered using a digitiser or mouse. Options available are Digitise, Select, and Line (under the Geotech > Utilities submenu). The Create option (under Geotech > Analysis submenu) can be used to enter manually structural data.

All loaded structural data objects are given attributes according to the following:

Name	Site Identifier
Description	Structural database name Mining Area
Value	Record location in structural database (value = 0 for manually entered data)
Group	User-defined
Symbol	Strike line/pole point/dip object etc.
Colour	Strike legend - Stereonet data - 3D strike line object - Orientation haloes - 3D vectors Dip legend - 3D dip object

Also, 3D structural data has the W value and name defined for every point in each object. For each strike line, the W value indicates the dip direction for the first line point and the dip for the second point. Points are named according to the type of structural feature being represented (for example FAULT).