Section View - Reference Plane

The Reference Plane tab opens in the 3D Viewer when you press the Section View button () on the 3D Manager toolbar. Position the reference plane in the 3D View by using any of the positioning tools listed below then click on the Drillhole tab to plan a drillhole in 3D.

Reference Plane Toolbar

Draw Plane	Use this button to interactively draw the reference plane directly on the 3D View. Click and drag to position the plane. The reference plane (X, Y, and Z) anchor points will become enabled.
East-West Plane	Use this button to automatically position the reference plane in an East-West orientation in the center of the current 3D View. The X anchor point of the reference plane will remain disabled, while the Y and Z anchor points will become enabled.
North-South Plane	Use this button to automatically position the reference plane in a North-South orientation in the center of the current 3D View. The Y anchor point of the reference plane will remain disabled, while the X and Z anchor points will become enabled.
Horizontal Plane	Use this button to automatically position the reference plane in a horizontal orientation in the center of the current 3D View. The Y anchor point of the reference plane will remain disabled, while the X and Z anchor points will become enabled.
Create a Section or Plan Map	Use this button to open the Section Parameters or Plan Map Parameters dialog. The current position of the reference plane will be automatically transferred to the Section / Plan Map creation tool and depending on the orientation of the plane: A horizontal, or near horizontal plane will result in a plan map. All other orientations will yield a section map.
Help	Launches this help topic.

Reference Plane Location

Anchor Point

Use the X, Y, or Z location boxes to enter a specific 3D location for the reference plane to intersect, or use the up /down arrows to move the plane in the X, Y, or Z axis direction. The plane moves by the amount shown in the Move plane by field.

Move plane by

The reference plane will move by the distance increment shown here when using the Anchor Point arrows. Enter a new value or use the up /down arrows to change the distance increment.

Orientation

Enter the Azimuth and Dip values or use the up /down arrows to adjust the orientation of the reference plane:

Azimuth values can be defined from 0° to 360°, where both 0 and 360 indicate north.
Dip values can be defined from 0° to 180°, where both 0 and 180 indicate a horizontal plane.

"Invalid" values (outside the above ranges) will be automatically "translated" into valid entries. (For example, if a negative Dip value between 0 and -180 is specified then the absolute value is subtracted from 180 and entered as the final Dip value.)

Clip Options

Clip	Check the Clip check box in order to enable clipping using the reference plane. All objects in the 3D viewer will be clipped. When the clipping options are turned on for the reference plane, the spatial clipping sliders under the 3D Manager panel are disabled.
From front	When using the From front clipping option, the portion of the objects closest to the viewer will remain unclipped.
From back	When using the From back clipping option, the portion of the objects farthest from the viewer will remain unclipped.
Section	When using the Section clipping option, only a slice of the 3D view will be visible, centered on the reference plane. The Thickness value is the total thickness of the section slice, from one side to the other.

Application Notes

This tool is available in Oasis montaj (with the Drillhole Plotting extension), Target, and Target for ArcGIS.

To rotate and move the reference plane using your keyboard keys and mouse wheel:

Hold down Shift +Z and use the mouse wheel or the keyboard arrow keys to rotate the plane around the Z axis — this changes the Azimuth of the reference plane. The plane rotates in 1 degree increments.

Hold down Shift +X and use the mouse wheel or the keyboard arrow keys to rotate the plane around the dashed line shown on the plane — this changes the Dip of the reference plane. The plane rotates in 1 degree increments.

Hold down the X (or Y, or Z) key and use the mouse wheel or the keyboard arrow keys to move the reference plane in the X (or Y, or Z) direction. The plane moves in increments as set in the Move plane by field.

To create a section or a plan map:

Use the button (located on the Reference Plane toolbar) to quickly create a 2D map of drillhole project data at the exact location and orientation of the reference plane. Use any of the plane positioning options to locate the plane as desired, then press the button to launch the map creation dialog. Geosurfaces and voxels will be sliced and added to the map layers automatically as long as the 3D map is unpacked.