Add a Relief Surface / Create a 3D View from a Grid

In the 3D Viewer, you can use a grid file to represent the surface of a plane in a 3D View. From the Add to 3D menu, click on the Relief Surface option (V3DIMG GX) to open the 3D Surface from a Grid dialog and create a 3D relief surface.

The surface will display in the 3D Viewer window of the current View. The extents and coordinate system of the 3D View will be automatically set by the relief surface dataset added. When you close the 3D Viewer, the saved 3D View will remain added to the Project Explorer list.

The 3D View can be plotted to a new or existing map through one of these options:

  • Drag-and-drop the 3D View from the Project Explorer list
  • Drag-and-drop the *.geosoft_3dv file from Windows Explorer

3D Surface from a Grid dialog options

Surface relief grid

If you would like the drawing plane to have relief, specify the name of a grid file that defines the surface relief. Note that if you do specify a relief grid for the plane, all objects drawn on the plane will only appear where the relief grid has data (non-dummy).

Script Parameter: V3DIMG.GRID

Colour image/grid

Specify the name of a grid or image file that will be used to colour the surface of the relief grid. If a name is not specified, the surface relief grid will be used and the colour surface will coincide with the relief surface.

Script Parameter: V3DIMG.IMAGE

Colour method

Select the colour method as one of the following options: As last displayed, Default, Histogram equalization, Normal distribution, Linear, Log-linear.The method "As last displayed" will display each grid as it was displayed the last time the grid was viewed, and the colour tables will be ignored.
If the selected colour scheme is an .itr file or a .zon file, the colours are already attributed to data ranges, and this entry remains disabled.

Script Parameter: V3DIMG.ZONE

Colour table

Select the colour scheme for rendering the 3D view. If you mouse over the colour scheme entry, a tooltip will display the name of the colour table in its folder. To modify the selection, click on the colour entry and then navigate through the scheme categories.

Script Parameter: V3DIMG.COLOR

Contour interval

The contour interval.

Script Parameter: V3DIMG.CONTOUR

Brightness

Select the brightness of the image drawn on the surface.

Script Parameter: V3DIMG.BRIGHT

New or current map

You may choose to place the 3D View on a new map or draw it centered on the current map.

Script Parameter: V3DIMG.MAP (0:Current map, 1: New map)

Relief Surface Grid dialog options

Relief grid

The name of the relief grid specified in the first dialog.

Plane offset

Use this parameter to shift the relief surface up and down by a fixed amount, independent of the "Relief base" and "Vertical scale" parameters below.

The "Z" axis value at a given location on the relief grid is given by:

Z = Vertical_offset +

(grid_value(X, Y) – Relief_base)*Vertical_Scale  

For true topography, set this value to 0.

Script Parameter: V3DIMG.PLANEBASE (Default 0.0)

Relief base

This is the base value subtracted from the grid value when converting the grid values to "Z" values in the 3D View coordinate systems. The default is zero. If using a non-topographic grid for relief, use the Rescale button to return the minimum data value in the grid.

The "Z" axis value at a given location on the relief grid is given by: Z = Vertical_offset + (grid_value(X, Y) – Relief_base)*Vertical_Scale

For true topography, set this value to 0.

Script Parameter: V3DIMG.GRIDBASE

Vertical scale

Set the vertical scaling for the relief grid. The default is one. If using a non-topographic grid for relief, use the Rescale button to produce a 3D relief plane with a height 20% of the width.

The "Z" axis value at a given location on the relief grid is given by:

Z = Vertical_offset +

(grid_value(X, Y) – Relief_base)*Vertical_Scale  

For true topography, set this value to 1.

Script Parameter: V3DIMG.GRIDSCALE

Clip minimum
Clip maximum

The relief grid data can be clipped to the specified minimum and maximum values. The defaults are the limits of the data.

Script Parameter:
V3DIMG.GRIDMIN
V3DIMG.GRIDMAX

Relief grid resolution

The 3D rendering performance is directly related to how finely the relief surface is resolved. The number you enter here represents the maximum relief grid resolution (in steps of 16) that will be used in either the X or Y direction. The default is 64, but for very detailed grids you may want to increase this to a higher number.

A resolution of 500 is considered quite high, and a resolution of 1000 is very high. Your choice of resolution will depend of the performance of your computer and the detail present in your relief grid.

Note that images drawn on the relief plane are always resolved to a resolution that is optimal given the pixel resolution of the current view.

Script Parameter: V3DIMG.GRIDSAMPLE

Default

The Defaults button resets the grid base and vertical scaling parameters to the "topographic" default values of 0.0 and 1.0. The clip limits are reset to the default values calculated from the relief grid.

Rescale

The Rescale button resets the grid scaling parameters and clip limits to the default values calculated from the relief grid.

3D Controls (script mode only)

Viewing direction

The viewing direction in degrees azimuth relative to the coordinate Y axis.

Script Parameter: V3D.DEC

Viewing inclination

The viewing inclination in degrees relative to the coordinate X-Y plane.

Script Parameter: V3D.INC

Viewing distance

The distance of the point of view from the center of the view relative to the size of the view.

Script Parameter: V3D.DISTANCE

Draw bounding box

Yes to draw a bounding box frame around the limits of the 3D View.

Script Parameter: V3D.BOX

Draw axis

Yes to draw an axis with labels on the X, Y and Z axis.

Script Parameter: V3D.AXIS

X title
Y title
Z title

Titles for the X, Y and Z axis.

Script Parameter:
V3DIMG.TITLEX
V3DIMG.TITLEY
V3DIMG.TITLEZ