Adding a point layer may be needed to show the requested survey outline from a client (Area of interest), or a prospect outline from the geologist
In QGis: Layer → Add delimited text layer
Select filename
Optionally, give it a layer name that is different from the file name
Check File Format
Check Record and Field Options (For header lines etc.)
Define columns that represent X, Y and optionally Z values
Finally, select Add
Using Full Zoom (Ctrl+Shift+F) in QGis, you can now zoom to these points on the map
Once a point layer has been created, you can find them as a series of “small dots” in QGis. But these “dots” are hard to spot once you zoom out. It is therefore useful to turn these points into lines.
In QGis: Processing → Toolbox will show (or hide) the Processing Toolbox
Processing Toolbox → Vector creation → Points to path
Select Input layer
Create closed path (optionally)
Then, select Run
to create a multi-line layer in the order the points have been listed
The lines are much better visible than points, but you cannot fill a line layer. To do so, you need to convert the lines to a polygon.
In QGis: Processing → Toolbox will show (or hide) the Processing Toolbox
Processing Toolbox → Vector geometry → Lines to polygons
Select Input layer
Then, select Run
to create a filled polygon
Double-click the polygon to show the Layer Properties
Under Symbology
adjust the Color to a meaningful color
Reduce Opacity to less than 100% to see features in underlying layers
You can also add an outline to the polygon. To do so:
a. Add a Symbol Layer by pressing the green Plus
Icon
b. For symbol layer type select: Outline: Simple Line
(Sits at the bottom of the list)
c. Select appropriate color and Stroke width
d. Select OK
Finally, in Layers Panel → context menu of the created layer → Make permanent
When an outline has been added to the polygon; you may delete the line layer. The line layer served its purpose (creating a polygon) and is no longer needed for the following steps, where we edit the exported src/rec and sps/rps data in QGis.
In Roll: File → Export to QGis → Export Geometry → Export xxx Records to QGis
Alternatively: SPS import tab → Export to QGIS buttons for SPS and RPS records
Alternatively: Geometry tab → Export to QGIS buttons for SRC and REC records
This will create in-memory (“scratch”) layers in QGIS with the exported data
To make the exported source and receiver data permanent, and available when you open the QGis project the next time, follow the steps below
in Layers Panel → context menu of the scratch layer → Rename layer
Use Ctrl+C to copy the layer name. Hit escape, and do not rename
in Layers Panel → context menu of the scratch layer → Make Permanent
Alternatively → push the ‘scratch’ button on the right side of the layer’s name
Select ESRI Shapefile as file format
Select ellipses ( … ) next to filename → navigate to desired file location in the dialog
Paste the “filename” from clipboard in the dialog’s File name
field
Select ok. The layer is now permanent, and will be restored if the project is opened again.
In Roll, survey geometry created is created using one or more rectangular blocks. In reality, a survey rarely consists of one or more rectangular shapes, but its outline is truncated according to the concession boundary, or impacted by features such as cities, lakes, etcetera. So, it will be necessary to cut (completely remove) or to switch off (mute) points in certain areas. In QGis this can be done by checking if points fall inside a polygon. There are two obvious solutions:
Clipping will remove all points outside a selected polygonal area. It is quick and easy, but won’t allow for points to be reinstated at a later stage; gone-is-gone. This can be cumbersome when the survey area is being finetuned over several iterations. Steps are straightforward:
Vector → Geoprocessing Tools → Clip …
Select Input layer: the layer containing SRC/REC or SPS/RPS points
Select Overlay layer: the layer with the boundary polygon
Select Run
The clipped point layer is now created as a scratch layer.
This approach first selects all points that lay inside a polygon, and is followed by turning the selection flag into a permanent attribute value (normally applied to inuse
)
Vector → Research Tools → Select by Location …
Select features from: chose appropriate SPS/RPS or SRC/REC point layer
For features use: are within
(and optionally touch
) relative to the boundary polygon
Select the appropriate polygon layer
Create a new selection
Then, select Run
to create a selection of points inside a polygon
These points will be highlighted in yellow and marked with a red cross
Now from the Attributes toolbar → Open Field Calculator
Alternatively: First open the Attribute Table (F6), and then open the Field Calculator
(Ctrl+I)
Uncheck Only update xxx selected feature(s)
. We need to update all features, also those that have not been selected. If you forget to do so, only the already selected records will be altered, and in the unselected fields a NULL value will entered.
Now, either:
a. Create a new Field, with a 32-bit integer and use the default field length, or
b. Update an existing integer field, such as the inuse
field, already created by Roll
In the Expression widget type the following: is_selected()
This function returns true (=1), when a point record has been selected, and false (=0) otherwise.
Press OK
and let the operation run on all point records of the active layer.
Upon completion, check that everything went according to plan in the Attribute Table (F6)
Now the point layer is ready to be read back into Roll (See par above).
To make changes to any of the layers you need to enable editing. To do so:
in Layers Panel → context menu of the layer with point data from Roll → Toggle editing
A pencil icon will appear left of the layer name.
The pencil on the digitizing toolbar will also be highlighted.
In the digitizing toolbar select the Vertex tool for the current layer. This allows you to manipulate vertices on the active layer using one of the following methods:
· Right click to lock on a feature
· Click and drag to select vertices by rectangle
· Alt+click to select vertices by polygon
· Shift+click/drag to add vertices to selection
· Ctrl+click/drag to remove vertices from selection
· Shift+R to enable range selection
Once changes have been made to overall source/receiver areas and individual point locations in QGis (or when points have been deleted) it can be useful to read these points back into Roll, to run the analysis Binning from Geometry
, or alternatively `binning from imported SPS' in the processing menu. To load modified point data back into Roll:
In Roll: Geometry tab → Read from QGIS
buttons (for SRC and REC data separately)
In Roll: SPS import tab → Read from QGIS
buttons (for SPS and RPS data separately)
In the layer dialog that pops up:
a. Select the correct point layer from QGis, containing SPS/RPS and SRC/REC data
b. Check that the CRS of the selected point layer matches that of the Roll project
c. Decide whether (or not) to use a selection field code. Normally this is the inuse
field.
d. To see what fields are available in a point layer in QGis, you can:
i. In Layers panel → Select the appropriate layer
ii. In context menu → Open Attribute Table (Shift+F6)
iii. Check column headers. Roll expects the following fields:
line
, stake
,index
, code
, depth
, elev
and inuse
iv. inuse
= 0 is used to deselect a point for analysis in Roll
v. Integer fields other than inuse
may also be used to select active/passive points in Roll. See next paragraph
Now that the edited Geometry/SPS data has been copied back to Roll:
In Roll’s processing menu → Binning from Geometry or Binning from Imported SPS
It is essential to make a well-considered decision whether to use the Full or Basic binning options
Full binning creates the Rms Offset map
, as well as |offset|
and Offset/Azimuth
diagrams and it shows the traces that belong to each bin in the trace table
, thereby facilitating the spider plot
in the Layout pane. In order to do full binning, a large array is required that is maintained in a memory mapped file (*.roll.ana.npy
). If this file becomes too large to keep in random memory, it will result in a lot of swapping to disk, seriously degrading binning performance. So use it wisely, preferably over small areas of interest
Basic binning creates the fold map
, and min- & max-offsets
'on the fly' whilst processing source and receiver points. It is relatively fast, but it lacks the above mentioned features.
Once binning is completed, you can export the fold map
, and min- & max-offsets
to QGIS, using the buttons in the Display pane
, or using the export options in the file menu
.
First you need to select the appropriate folder, and then give the file a name (a name is already suggested) .
Then, automatically, the georeferenced tiff-file will be imported into the QGIS project
Areas where there is no data in the fold map
or the min- & max-offset
plots will be fully transparent in QGIS
Now you can check from within QGIS, whether the edits, or deleted points, still result in acceptable coverage plots