Basemap Shapefiles, Synchronization & Performance - Tips & Tricks

The basemap is a rapidly evolving utility in OpendTect Pro. It serves three main purposes:

1. To provide an overview of the project.
2. To select data.
3. To create presentable maps.

Although OpendTect started life as a single-survey seismic interpretation system it is increasingly used in regional studies involving multiple 2D and 3D datasets and many wells. The importance of working through a basemap increases with project size. Especially in large 2D projects and in projects with many wells a smooth working basemap is indispensable. Here are two tips to increase the user experience in the current version of OpendTect (v.6.0.7) and in the upcoming version (v6.2beta, which is due for release on 1 Nov. 2017).

Tip 1 add multiple lines / wells to a 3D scene:

1.    Select multiple lines, or wells in the basemap tree (SHIFT-Left and/or CRTL-left).

2.    Press “Show in 3D” icon  to add all selected elements to the 3D scene. 

Tip 2 increase performance (in v6.2):

1.    When the basemap gets slow switch off labels by clicking on the T icon.

2.    Hover over an element and the label is displayed at the bottom of the basemap window. When cursor movement stops over a selected element the label pops-up at the cursor position.

Please note that the quadrants in the basemap image (i.e. the red grid) is a shapefile (see tree item). Esri shapefiles are supported in version 6.2. This popular GIS format for geospatial vector data will be the subject of a future blog.

Authors; Paul de Groot and Ayrat Sirazhiev from dGB Earth Sciences