Import Drillholes from acQuire GIM Suite

Summary

Imports subsurface drillhole or borehole data from an acQuire database to a feature dataset in a geodatabase.

Usage

The imported drillhole data will be stored in a feature dataset (called "Drillholes"), with feature classes created for each data type that is associated with the imported drillholes:

Collars (point features, surface location of each drillhole)
Traces (polylines, created from survey data, if imported)
Interval data sets ("from-to" data line segments of varying lengths along the drillhole traces, with attributes)
Point data sets (point features that are located along the hole trace, with attributes)

Before importing drillholes from an acQuire database, you are asked to choose the output geodatabase in which to store the drillhole data. You can also choose how to treat negative (less than zero) assay values: they can be imported as negative values or automatically converted to positive values one-half their size. See the Technical Notes section below for more information on "negative" assay values and how they can be converted.

Parameters

Parameter	Explanation	Data Type
Output Drillhole Dataset	The name of the geodatabase feature dataset in which to store the imported drillhole data. The output dataset name must not already exist in the selected geodatabase.
Run import using an existing selection file?	This determines if the import will use an existing selection file: Unchecked - the "Select data from acQuire" import wizard appears. You must specify the connection to the acQuire database via an ODBC connection (existing or new). Once the acQuire database connection is achieved, you will be able to preview and filter existing drillholes, specify the Coordinates information and select the fields of interest from various tables from the Select Holes, Assay, Survey, Geology and Intervals sections. Checked - the field Existing selection file (*.sel) will be enabled and a selection (SEL) file needs to be specified. The database connection and import parameters specified in the file will be used to import the acQuire drillhole data.
Save selection file (*.sel)	The name of the selection file (with the extension .sel) that will be created and which will contain the database connection and import parameters for the imported drillhole data. Enabled if Run import using an existing selection file? is not checked. You have the option to save your database connection and fields selection information to a selection (.sel) file. The selection file will be created and saved for future use; see the Technical Notes section below for more details on SEL files.	SEL (*.sel) file
Existing selection file (*.sel)	The selection file (with a file extension ".sel") that will be used to connect to the acQuire database and import the drillhole data based on the specified import parameters in the file. Enabled if Run import using an existing selection file? is checked.	SEL (*.sel) file

Technical Notes

SEL Files

Drillhole data can be imported in two ways: either with, or without a selection (SEL) file. A SEL file (with the extension "sel") contains the database connection and import parameters including the ODBC name (which stores information about how to connect to the indicated data provider), the data source coordinate system, and any field selections and defined filters for the drillhole data to be imported. The selection file is very useful to import data using the same settings (database connection and import parameters) to a new feature dataset in a new geodatabase. You can save your import settings to a SEL file so these values do not need to be specified again. If you have previously imported drillhole data in another Geosoft software, there may be SEL files available for you to use.

Negative Assay Values

Assay values are measured geochemical concentrations of elemental abundance in a rock, or other geological samples (soil, water, drillcore, rock sample). When assay values are measured in the lab, sometimes the amount of an element present is very small, making it too little, or too low to be accurately detected by the method which is used to measure the concentration. This results in assay measurements that are reported using a "lower detection limit" value, which is often reported as a negative value (or using a less than '<' sign), such as "-0.01".

On import, you can choose to automatically convert these negatives (or < signs) to a value 1/2 that of the numeric value used. See Drillhole Settings to learn how to automatically convert the negative (less than zero) assay values on import.

Desurveying Drillholes using Collar and Survey data

The drillholes are always "desurveyed" on import, which means a 3D spatial object (a drillhole "trace") is calculated for each drillhole. The output trace for any given hole can vary depending on what type of data is available during import (collars only, vs. collar and survey data) and which method is selected to do the desurvey calculations, as well as the resolution value selected. The various ways to calculate the traces, depending on which types of data are available, are described below:

With collar locations only, no survey data present:

If collar data includes dip and azimuth, these values are used to create straight segment traces for the entire hole, to the final depth.
If collar data does not include dip and azimuth, the holes are assumed to be vertical.

With collar locations and dip-azimuth survey data:

The survey data is "discretized" at the desurvey resolution interval value and a smooth curve is generated using the selected desurveying method (the default is the "Radius of curvature" method). See Drillhole Settings for more details.
Holes are 'desurveyed' and the new trace geometries are stored in the Traces, Depth Ticks, From/To and Point datasets.
The top-of-hole dip and azimuth values (at depth = 0) will use the values from the Survey feature class, if present.
If top-of-hole survey values are not present, the collar dip and azimuth values will be used instead (with the collar values taking precedence).

Learn more about Resurvey Holes.