3D Geo Modelling - Arcscene
3D Geo Modelling - Arcscene
3D Geo Modelling - Arcscene
Introduction
In the life cycle of a geologic mapping project, a geologist is likely to use five or more different software packages,
such as borehole logging programs (WellCAD, LogPlot),
database programs (Microsoft Access, Oracle), GIS programs
(ArcGIS), specialized modeling software (RockWorks, Surfer,
gOcad, GSI3D), and Web-based tools (Google Maps/Earth,
Microsoft Virtual Earth). In addition to these programs,
graphics programs, such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and
InDesign, are used for cartographic and production work.
Although there is some overlap in functionality among
software packages, there is currently no one-stop solution for
geologic mapping. For a given task in the mapping process,
one program might be better suited than others. The choice
of software is often a matter of personal preference and
convenience as well as functionality.
This paper, based on a poster presented at the 2011 DMT
Workshop, focuses on the functionality of Esris ArcScene
for 3D mapping. I discuss techniques for creating and editing
3D boreholes and cross sections using custom tools as well
as out-of-the-box functionality in ArcScene 10. Examples
from mapping projects at the Illinois State Geological Survey
(ISGS) illustrate how these are used in the mapping workflow.
The customization of ArcScene with Visual Basic for
Applications (VBA) has played a key role in making ArcScene
efficient and practical for geologic mapping.
Advantages of ArcScene
The interactive 3D environment that ArcScene provides is useful for helping us visualize and understand
geologic relations in the subsurface.
Limitations of ArcScene
Texture mapping of vertical surfaces, for example draping an image of a cross section on a vertical wall, is
problematic. ArcScene still seems to have trouble with
vertical surfaces in general.
When dealing with the large volumes of data often
required by geologic mapping, memory can get used
up quickly, causing slow performance and hang-ups.
The workaround has been to divide data into smaller
geographic areas.
In ArcScene 10, new 3D geoprocessing tools might
work for simple multipatches representing buildings,
but they tend to crash when 3D geologic volumes are
input.
Figure 1. The Xacto Section toolbar in an example ArcMap document. The blue line represents a cross section drawn
with this tool.
Tools and Techniques for 3D Geologic Mapping in ArcScene: Boreholes, Cross Sections, and Block Diagrams 21
Program Inputs
Output 2D Shapefiles
Surface profile line, split at contact points
Geologic contact points on the land surface
Well and boring points
Wells extruded as lines into the subsurface, coded with
geological attributes
Additional subsurface profiles
Output 3D Shapefiles
3D features can be symbolized and attributed with
standard editing tools in ArcScene 10.
Figure 3. The output 2D cross-section profile can be edited in ArcMap and converted into a 3D shapefile for displaying
in ArcScene.
Tools and Techniques for 3D Geologic Mapping in ArcScene: Boreholes, Cross Sections, and Block Diagrams 23
Figure 4. 2D cross-section graphics from older maps can be georeferenced with MaPublisher in Adobe Illustrator, thus
enabling the graphics to be converted into 3D cross sections in ArcMap.
3D Borehole Tools
The ability to view, zoom, rotate, and fly through
borehole data in three dimensions is vital to understanding
geological relations in the subsurface. ArcScene provides
a relatively easy and familiar interface for these tasks. A
limitation, however, has been that prior to ArcGIS 10, editing
tools were not available in ArcScene. VBA was used to
develop a custom tool bar in ArcScene, called 3D Borehole
Tools (fig. 5). The tool bar contains 14 tools that allow the user
Figure 6. A 3D scene from ArcScene shows borehole lines symbolized as tubes, geophysical log
graphs as 3D lines, and raster surfaces interpolated from user-selected borehole segments.
Tools and Techniques for 3D Geologic Mapping in ArcScene: Boreholes, Cross Sections, and Block Diagrams 25
Create_3d_lines
Create surface
Plot_gamma
This tool reads geophysical logs (figs. 9 and 10) from a
designated folder. For each log file, the program plots a graph
alongside the borehole whose ID matches the log file name.
The output is a 3D line shapefile.
Tools and Techniques for 3D Geologic Mapping in ArcScene: Boreholes, Cross Sections, and Block Diagrams 27
Inputs:
Raster top surfaces for each geologic unit, interpolated
from point or contour data
Depth rasters for each geological unit
2D vector lines representing lines of section
Tool or Method
Input
For fences, create narrow buffer polygons Analysis Tools > Proximity
for the cross-section lines. For blocks,
> Buffer
create a bounding area polygon.
2D cross section
polyline
3D multipatch features
Multipatch features
Multipatch features
Output
Raster surface for bottom
elevation
Tools and Techniques for 3D Geologic Mapping in ArcScene: Boreholes, Cross Sections, and Block Diagrams 29
Several other methods of buffering and extruding crosssection lines were tested, but only the method described here
was found useful. Another method I tried was to extrude all
top surfaces to a base height of 0. This produced multipatches
with overlapping volumes when merged into a single layer. I
then tried various 3D Analyst tools for 3D Features available
in ArcGIS 10 (Intersect 3D, Difference 3D, Union 3D) in
an attempt to remove the overlapping volumes. All of these
methods proved to be too much for ArcScene to handle, either
resulting in ArcScene crashing or producing errors citing
lack of memory. It seems that the complicated multipatches
created from TIN surfaces are simply too much data for the
geoprocessor. Decreasing the resolution of the input surfaces
or working with smaller areas of a model may produce more
successful results with these 3D geoprocessing tools.
Acknowledgments
The geologic data shown in the screen shots represent
the works of Illinois State Geological Survey geologists Steve
Brown, Brandon Curry, Andrew Stumpf, and Drew Phillips.