Did you know that GEOVIA GEMS has the ability to display Linked Files with your drill holes easily and quickly?
As a Geologist, you may have planned and completed a drilling program at your exploration or mine site, and spent many hours in the core shed logging and sampling. After that, you would have started collating all your information in GEMS so you can start looking at creating solids models from your data.
Typically, data entry would consist of survey data, assay data, lithology data and so on.
But what if you could also attach photographs or other documents to your drillholes? These might be useful as an additional reference and could save you a trip back to the core shed when you need to check on something.
Today’s post will show you how to display Linked Files in GEMS.
Firstly, you will need a table in your drill hole workspace to store the information related to the file you wish to link.
1. Open the drill hole workspace in the Structure Editor by clicking on Workspace > Create or Modify Workspace
2. Create a new table. To conform to best practice, use a name that best explains the contents of that table. Since we will be using linked files, I created a table called LINKEDFILES and it is of INTERVAL type.
3. Since we created an interval table, GEMS will automatically create the “From and To” fields for you. You will need to add an extra field within the “From and To” fields, where we will store the path to the file you are linking. Use an appropriate naming convention e.g. FILEPATH and STRING type.
4. The default length for any String field is 255. You may leave it as is or you can change it. If you do decide to change it, define an appropriate length that will fit the path to the file. If it is too short, GEMS will not be able to store the data and will truncate it to the length you specify.
5. Populate the FILEPATH field. If you have many files that you wish to link to many drillholes, consider composing the information in a spreadsheet and then importing the data.
However, if you only have a few files, enter them directly in the Data Editor. The data you will need is:
- From distance
- To distance
- File path and file name
6. The files you wish to link together can be stored on your local machine (for example in your GEMS project folder) or on a network fileshare. If you use the latter, remember that you will need to be connected to that fileshare for GEMS to display the file. In the example below, the LinkedFile table has been populated for drillhole DH006:
7. Next, load the drillholes into graphics. In this example I have loaded just DH006 with a triangulation of the topo surface (for context only).
8. You will need to tell GEMS which table and field has the linked file data. To do this select Drillhole >Select > Select and Snap Settings.
At the lower part of the dialog box you will see the part for drillhole linked file mapping and so here you need to specify the name of the table (LINKEDFILE) and the name of the field that has the path to the file (FILEPATH).
9. All that is left to do is to switch on the capability and you can do this by selecting Drillhole > Display > Display Drillhole Linked-File.
10. In the graphical window by clicking on the interval you defined in the LINKEDFILE table on the drillhole that contains the data, GEMS will open the file for you. In my example I have 3 intervals defined in my table so I must make sure I click on the interval I am interested in:
The Image Viewer will display the following:
Note: GEMS has some built in viewers, but this can be changed under the main menu Options and then selecting the Programs tab and clicking on the Modify button.
In this example we used images, but most file types are supported so if there is a Word document from a Geotechnical report this can be easily linked. It is really up to you to decide what you want to link and display!
We hope you found this tip useful. For other GEMS tips, read Image Draping in GEMS or Displaying Search Ellipses as Solids in GEMS.
Felix Walraven
Latest posts by Felix Walraven (see all)
- Displaying Linked Files in GEMS - February 13, 2017
- [Spanish] Sobreposición de una imagen en GEMS - January 26, 2017
- Image Draping in GEMS - January 25, 2017
