This tool allows to calculate the perpendicular distances between the points in a layer and a geological plane,
expressed via its attitude (dip direction and dip angle) and a point located on it (the "source point").
The value is positive when the point is higher than the plane, negative when lower than the plane, zero
when located on the plane.
Its interface is subdivided in three sections (fig. 1):
the input parameter definition
result calculation
help
Fig. 1. Module interface.
Input parameters
From the main plugin window it is possible to define the input parameters
by clicking on "I/O params" (fig. 1) and filling in the required parameters (fig. 2).
The input point layer must contain four required fields:
id
x
y
z
The geological plane is defined by its attitude (dip direction and dip angle), as well as by
a "source point", laying on the considered plane, and defined through its Cartesian coordinates.
Fig. 2. Input parameters interface.
The resulting variables are stored in a new shapefile, with coordinates derived from the source layer
x, y and z fields (fig. 3).
For each point ("trace point") in the input point layer, a record is produced with the following parameters:
id: record identifier
geog_x: x coordinate of trace point
geog_y: y coordinate of trace point
geog_z: z coordinate of trace point
prj_x: x coordinate of the orthogonal projection on the geological plane of the trace point
prj_y: y coordinate of the orthogonal projection on the geological plane of the trace point
prj_z: z coordinate of the orthogonal projection on the geological plane of the trace point
geo_prj_ds: distance between trace point and its orthogonal projection on the geological plane (positive: trace point above geological plane, negative: below)
src_geo_ds: distance between trace point and the source point
src_geo_az: North azimuth of the vector defined by the source point as start point and trace point as end point
src_prj_ds: distance between source point and the orthogonal projection of the trace point on the geological plane
src_prj_az: North azimuth of the vector with the source point as start and the plane-projected trace point as end
prj_geo_an: angle between the source point-trace point vector and the source point-projected trace point vector
The output shapefile projection is the same of the current QGIS project.