Visualising Data

Visualising data is an important part of interpreting and refining data and making modelling decisions. This topic describes the tools available for changing how data objects are displayed in the scene. It is divided into:

Tools for visualising data are accessed via the shape list and the shape properties panel:

The tools available depend on the type of object being displayed.

Changing how you view objects in the scene window does not change those objects in the project tree.

The view list is available for objects that can be displayed in different ways. For example, a lithology data table may contain several columns and the column displayed can be selected from the view list:

Geological and numeric model evaluations are also selected from the view list. See Evaluations.

The shape properties panel adjacent to the shape list provides more detailed control of the appearance of the selected object:

You can select multiple objects in the shape list and change their display properties using the shape properties panel. To do this, hold down the Shift or Ctrl key while clicking each object you wish to change:

Only controls common to the selected objects are available.

Colour Options

The colour options for an object are changed in the shape list, and the options available depend on the type of object. Three different colour display options are shown below:

  • The Contaminant table uses a continuous colourmap to display the numeric data. See Colourmaps and Colour Gradients for more information.
  • The collar table is displayed using a single colour. Click the colour chip to change the colour. See Single Colour Display.
  • The Geology table is displayed according to a colourmap of the categories in the table. These colours can be changed by clicking on the Edit Colours button, then clicking on each colour chip in the Legend window.

If your organisation uses standard colour coding for category and numeric data, you can import colourmaps for these data types. See Colour Gradients below.

Single Colour Display

Many objects viewed in the scene are displayed using a single colour. To change the colour, add the object to the scene window, then click on the colour chip in the shape list. A window will appear in which you can change the colour:

You can:

  • Click and drag the ring to pick a colour, then select the darkness or lightness of the colour from the triangle.
  • Click on the eyedropper tool (), then click on something elsewhere on the screen to select the colour of that part of the screen.
  • Select a colour chip from the palette.
  • Set a random colour.
  • Enter specific values for the colour to use.

Changes made are automatically applied to the scene. The Revert button changes back to the colour assigned when the window was first opened.

Colourmaps

Some objects viewed in the scene are displayed using a colourmap based on continuous colour mapping or discrete categories. Leapfrog Geo automatically generates a colourmap based on the data, but manually altering a colourmap often helps in understanding the data. In addition, if your organisation uses standard colourmaps, you can import colourmaps and colour gradients to standardise the display of data across projects.

  • Category data colourmaps can be edited by adding the data column to the scene, then clicking on the Edit Colours button in the shape list, as described in Colour Options. Then click on each colour chip in the Legend window. Category colourmaps can also be imported and exported.
  • Numeric data colourmaps can be continuous and discrete and can also be used to display date information. Numeric colourmaps can be imported and exported and can also use imported colour gradients.

Colourmaps for category and numeric data can easily be shared between projects on a column-by-column basis. To import or export a colourmap, expand the data object in the project tree and right-click on a column. The Import and Export options are available from the Colours menu:

These options are discussed further in Importing and Exporting Colourmaps below.

Continuous Colourmaps

When using a continuous colourmap, the Gradient list includes built-in gradients as well as any that have been imported into the Colour Gradients folder. The scene will be updated to reflect the changes you make in this screen.

Once you have selected a gradient, you can change how it is used to display the data by adjusting the limits and the curve points.

The values that lie outside the Limits are coloured with the last colour at the relevant end of the colourmap. If the Dynamic box is ticked, the gradient will be updated when the data is updated, such as when drillhole data is appended. If the box is unticked, the values manually set for the Minimum and Maximum limits will control the lower and upper bounds of the colourmap. Reducing the range of the upper and lower bounds is useful if the bulk of the data points have values in a range much smaller than the overall range of the data. This is common in skewed data.

The From Input Data button automatically adjusts the Minimum and Maximum Limit values so that the colourmap would follow the actual data distribution of the input data. Click this button and see if these values are adjusted.

The transformation of the colourmap can be adjusted by dragging the dots:

It can be helpful to view the histogram of the data when adjusting the curve points. Both the Properties window and the Edit Colourmaps window can be open at the same time.

Discrete Colourmaps

When you create new colourmaps, there are two types to choose from: continuous and discrete.

When you create a discrete colourmap, categories are defined and applied to the data displayed in the scene:

Click the Add button to add new categories. The scene will be updated to reflect the new categories:

Displaying Dates

A colourmap can be used to display date information:

If a date is displayed using a continuous colourmap, the curve points represent the start and end dates.

If you use a discrete colourmap, you can use the colours to show the different stages of, for example, a drilling campaign:

Importing and Exporting Colourmaps

When you import a colourmap:

  • For category colourmaps, the existing colourmap will be overwritten.
  • For numeric colourmaps, the imported colourmap will be added to those already defined.

To import a colourmap, right-click on the data object and select Colours > Import. Navigate to the folder containing the colourmap file and click Open.

If the object has more than one colourmap associated with it, you will be prompted to choose which one to overwrite.

If the column you expected is not listed, check to see if you have selected the correct file. The columns displayed are those that correspond to the type of data in the selected file (category or numeric).

Click Import.

Leapfrog Geo will map the information in the file to the information in the selected data column.

To export a colourmap, right-click on the data object and select Colours > Export. If more than one colourmap is associated with the selected object, you will be prompted to choose from those available. Click Export.

In the window that appears, navigate to the folder where you wish to save the colourmap. Enter a filename and click Save. The colourmap will be saved in *.lfc format.

Editing a Colourmap

To edit the colourmap for an object, add the object to the scene. Click on the colourmap in the shape list and select Edit Colourmaps:

The Edit Colourmaps window will display the colourmap that is currently being used to display the data. Changes you make in this window will be updated in the scene.

To save the currently displayed colourmap and return to the main window, click Close.

Clicking Revert All deletes all custom colourmaps and cannot be undone.

Colour Gradients

Leapfrog Geo contains a number of preset colour gradients, but additional colour gradients can be imported into a project. To apply a gradient to a colourmap, inbuilt or imported, add an object to the scene and click on the colourmap in the shape list. Select Edit Colourmaps. All colour gradients in the Colour Gradients folder are available from the Gradient list:

Importing Colour Gradients

Colour gradients can be imported in the following formats:

  • Geosoft Colour Files (*.tbl)
  • ERMapper Lookup Tables (*.lut)
  • MapInfo Colour Files (*.clr)
  • Leapfrog Colour Files (*.lfc)

Perceptually uniform colourmaps are available at http://peterkovesi.com/projects/colourmaps/, where they can be downloaded in ERMapper (*.lut), Geosoft (*.tbl) and Golden Software Surfer (*.clr) format.

To import a colour gradient right-click on the Colour Gradients folder in the project tree and select Import Gradient. In the window that appears, navigate to the folder containing the gradient file and click Open. The gradient will be added to the Colour Gradients folder.

Deleting Colour Gradients

If you delete a colour gradient from the Colour Gradients folder and it is in use in the project, you will need to select a replacement gradient for all colourmaps that use that gradient. Select the replacement colour gradient from those available in the project:

Opacity

The opacity slider in the shape list controls the transparency of objects in the scene:

Property Buttons

The property buttons available in the shape list vary according to the type of object selected. For example, property buttons can show or hide the triangles on a mesh, render points as spheres or display a surface clipped to a model boundary. You can always find out what a button does by holding the cursor over the button:

Legends

You can display a legend for many objects, including lithologies. To do this, click the legend button in the shape list:

To remove the legend from the scene, either click the legend button again or click the red X in the scene window:

Slice Mode

When an object is selected in the shape list, a Slice mode property is available in the properties panel. See Object Slice Mode for more information.

Filtering Data Using Queries

When a data table is selected in the shape list, you can use the controls in the shape properties panel to apply filters to the data in the scene. If query filters are available for the selected object, they will be listed in the Query filter list:

Filtering Data Using Values and Categories

In the shape properties panel, you can also filter the range of values displayed. Tick the Value filter box, then set the upper and lower limits of the range of data displayed:

If the data includes date information, you can use the Value filter option to restrict the display to a range of dates.

 

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