Oasis Montaj Gridding
Oasis Montaj Gridding
Oasis Montaj Gridding
Map elements (grids and images) are stored using relative paths. If you open a map with grids or images that have
been moved from the original locations you used to be prompted to locate each grid or image. Now, when manual input
of the file locations is required, the map will look for the other raster files in the same location, so you will only be asked
once when there may be many grids displayed on the map
The Grid and Image menu includes options for creating, processing, displaying, analyzing, and converting grids and
images.
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Oasis montaj How-To Guide
For more information on copying and /or converting grid files, click the Help button on the Copy/convert grids dialog.
Gridding Methods
Oasis montaj provides seven different gridding algorithms that interpolate data to produce a grid. These methods are
summarized below:
Minimum curvature
The Minimum curvature or random gridding method (RANGRID GX ) fits a minimum curvature surface to the data points
using a method similar to that described by Swain (1976) and Briggs (1974). A minimum curvature surface is the smoothest
possible surface that will fit the given data values.
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Minimum curvature first estimates grid values at the nodes of a coarse grid (usually 8 times the final grid cell size). This
estimate is based upon the inverse distance average of the actual data within a specified search radius. If there is no data
within that radius, the average of all data points in the grid is used. An iterative method is then employed to adjust the grid
to fit the actual data points nearest the coarse grid nodes.
After an acceptable fit is achieved, the coarse cell size is divided by 2. The same process is then repeated using the coarse
grid as the starting surface. This is interactively repeated until the minimum curvature surface is fit at the final grid cell size.
A very important parameter in the Minimum curvature process is the number of iterations used to fit the surface at each
step. The greater the number of iterations, the closer the final surface will be to a true minimum curvature surface.
However, the processing time is proportional to the number of iterations.
Minimum curvature stops iterating when:
It reaches a specified maximum number of iterations, or
Certain percentage of the observed points are within a limiting tolerance of the surface
By default these limits are 100 iterations and 99% of points within 1% of the data range.
Minimum curvature gridding also has the following capabilities:
Accessing unlimited number of input observation points
Adjustable internal tension
Applying de-aliasing filter
Applying linear and logarithmic gridding
Applying projections
Blanking un-sampled areas
Outputting grids up to any size
The actual maximum size of the grid that you can use depends upon the available free disk space of your computer.
Bi-Directional
Bi-Directional gridding or line gridding method (BIGRID GX) is a numerical technique for parallel survey lines or roughly
parallel lines. Use Bi-Directional gridding, if the data is collected along lines that are roughly parallel, as in the following
examples:
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Bi-Directional gridding is not able to use the tie lines because of the way the gridding algorithm works. If the data on
the tie lines is important, Minimum Curvature gridding or Kriging should be used.
The Bi-Directional gridding method is ideal for line oriented data because it inherently tends to strengthen trends
perpendicular to the direction of the survey lines. In this way, Bi-Directional gridding can take advantage of the fundamental
characteristics of line-based surveys.
The gridding process is carried out in two steps. First, each line is interpolated along the original survey line to yield data
values at the intersection of each required grid line with the observed line. The intersected points from each line are then
interpolated in the across-line grid direction to produce a value at each required grid point.
Geological trends in the data can be emphasized by the appropriate orientation of the grid so that the second interpolation is
in the direction of strike. In addition to trend enhancement, Bi-Directional gridding enables the method of interpolation to be
selected independently for the down-line and across-line directions. The interpolations available are linear, cubic spline
(minimum curvature) or Akima spline.
Filtering of the line data before interpolation is also possible. Bi-Directional gridding can design and apply non-linear and/or
linear numerical filters to the original line data. The use of the non-linear filter is a very effective way to remove data spikes
(undesired high-amplitude short-wavelength features) from the original data.
Bi-Directional gridding has the following features:
Unlimited number of data points per survey line
Unlimited number of survey lines
Unlimited output grid size
The actual maximum size of the dataset or grid that you can use depends upon the available free disk space of your
computer.
Kriging
Kriging is a statistical gridding technique for random data, non-parallel line data or orthogonal line data.
Use Minimum Curvature gridding or Kriging when the XYZ data is not sampled along lines that run in roughly the same
direction. Such data are often called random, because they give a random appearance when the data locations are plotted.
Also, line data with survey lines that are orthogonal (or have random directions) should be gridded with Minimum Curvature
gridding or Kriging.
The following figure illustrates these types of data:
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If the data is relatively smooth between sample points or survey lines, then Minimum Curvature gridding should be used.
However, use Kriging, if the data is:
Highly variable between sample locations
Known to be statistical in nature (such as geochemical data)
Poorly sampled
Clustered
The Kriging statistical gridding method determines a value at each grid node based on the XYZ data. Kriging first calculates
a variogram of the data, which shows the correlation of the data as a function of distance.
Simply speaking, the further data points become, the less correlation we expect between points. A variogram shows this
phenomena for a given dataset, and based on the variogram, you are able to select a model that best defines the variance of
the data. The technique of Kriging uses this model to estimate the data values at the nodes of the grid. A significant by-
product of Kriging is the ability to estimate the error of the data at each grid node.
Geosoft supports ordinary Kriging as well as universal Kriging. Universal Kriging differs from ordinary Kriging in that it
honours any regional trends that may be present in a dataset. For a more in-depth understanding of geostatistical analysis
and Kriging, refer to Mining Geostatistics written by A.G. Journel and C.J. Huijbregts, 1978.
Kriging has the following capabilities:
Applies de-aliasing filter
Applies linear and logarithmic gridding options
Blanks un-sampled areas
Calculates a variogram from the input data channel
Output grids up to any size
Processes unlimited number of input observation points
Supports linear, power, spherical, Gaussian, exponential and user-defined models
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The actual maximum size of the grid that you can use depends upon the available free disk space of your computer.
Anisotropic Kriging
You can create a grid enhanced in a preferred direction using the strike direction and a weighting factor. This method
enables you to incorporate the dominant geologic strike and define a preferential weighting in the strike direction,
enhancing geological trends in your dataset.
Tinning
The ability to create a TIN (Triangular Irregular Network), and to use this TIN file to grid data using the Nearest Neighbour ,
Linear or Natural Neighbour methods is included in the Oasis montaj environment.
The TIN is created from a set of spatial data using the public domain Sweepline algorithm implemented by Steven Fortune
of Bell Laboratories (Fortune, S 1987). The TINDB GX applies the Sweepline algorithm to the X, Y (Z-optional) data values
in a Geosoft database (*.gdb) to create a binary TIN (*.tin) file.
When Z values are included in the (*.tin) file, a TIN grid can be created using the TINGRID GX. The TINGRID GX applies
the Nearest Neighbour, Linear or Natural Neighbour (Sambridge, Brown & McQueen 1995) algorithm to the Z values in the
(*.tin) file to create a grid.
The TIN gridding method requires one data point for each (X, Y) data location in the database. Tinning provides the ability to
sum or average duplicate samples - data that have multiple Z values at single point locations.
When Z values are included in the (*.tin) file, only data point locations with non-dummy Z values are included.
Geosoft Tinning provides a number of ways of visualizing the TIN, including the ability to plot the TIN Nodes, the TIN Mesh
(or Delaunay triangulation), the Convex Hull, and the Voronoi cells of your data.
Anti-aliasing
Prior to gridding (and after any log or log-linear transformation), data is pre-processed using an anti-aliasing technique. All
values falling inside any single grid cell are averaged, and the data is then represented by the single averaged value at the
grid cell centre. Any error in the spatial representation of features introduced by this step will never exceed one-quarter of
the Nyquist wavelength, which is equal to 2 cell sizes.
The Inverse Distance Weighting Function: Defining the Weighting Slope and Power
The inverse distance weighting function assigns averaging weights based on distance, out to the defined search radius:
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1 / (distance^power + 1/slope)
Where distance is in multiples of the horizontal cell size.
Using the default of 2 for the power, and 1 for the slope produces a bell-shaped weighting function. Requiring a slope > 0
ensures that the weight remains finite at zero distance. Decreasing the slope tends to flatten the bell, resulting in greater
weighting of points away from the grid cell, and hence greater smoothing. Choosing a power less than 2, or a slope less
than one, may result in over-smoothing the data.
The following table shows the effect of various slopes on the weighting given at various distances away from the centre
cell. The weights have been normalized so the weight at the cell centre is equal to 1.
Clearly, as the slope increases, the weighting is more tightly concentrated about the centre cell. The search radius should
also be chosen based on the fall-off of the weighting function. Increasing the search radius beyond where the weighting
function is significant will have little effect on the results, and may result in large increases in processing time, since the
processing time varies in proportion to the cube of the search radius. (Remember that the search radius is specified in
ground units, not as a multiple of cell sizes.)
Direct Gridding
You can create a grid from highly sampled data without using any interpolation. This method is intended for use with over-
sampled datasets such as LiDAR; it provides a quick gridded view of the datasets.
For additional information, you can click the Help button on any of the gridding dialogs.
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The Advanced button enables you to specify advanced bi-directional gridding options.
The cell size is the distance between grid points in the X and Y directions. In most situations the cell size
can be selected as 1/4 to 1/8 of the line separation, or the minimum station interval, whichever is greater.
By "default" (i.e. if you leave the cell size field blank) BIGRID will choose a cell size based upon these
criteria, although we do recommend that you choose the cell size directly.
6. Click OK. The data is gridded and displayed in your current project.
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1. On the Grid and Image menu, select Gridding, then select From Control File and then select Bi-Directional Control
File.
The Bi-directional gridding dialog appears.
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The Advanced button enables you to define settings for the Gridding method (Bi-Directional or Minimum
Curvature) selected.
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Displaying a Grid
There are a number of options for displaying grids; these include displaying single grids, colour shaded grids, ternary image
grids, two-grid composites (for shaded-relief maps), three-grid composites (for ternary maps) and four-grid composites. In
this example, we will display a single grid.
Grids appear in the Project Explorer under "Grids". Opening a grid opens a view of the grid in its own internal "map". A grid
map view is just like a real map and can accept any graphics that a map can. It can also be saved as a map, in which case
the map will appear in the "Map" section of the project explorer.
When displaying grids, you must specify a colour table to use (supplied with the product). You may want to experiment with
different colour tables to see how they affect your image.
The 'As last displayed' method will display each grid as it was displayed the last time the grid was viewed
and the colour tables will be ignored.
If you choose 'fit to an area', you will be asked to define an area using the mouse.
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9. Click Current Map to insert the grid on the open map. The grid is displayed on the map.
If you click New Map, a new map is created with the same name as the selected grid.
Recolour Grids
Click the Auto Recolour Grids button on the Map Tools bar to toggle the Auto Recolour Grids option on/off. This option
recolours the displayed grid area as the grid extents change within a map window (e.g. when zooming or panning).
When turned ON the grid values stay the same. However, as the viewed extents of the grid change; the grid colour
is recalculated and redrawn using the entire colour palette over the current displayed grid area. When Auto Recolour
Grids is OFF the grids return to their original colours.
The Auto Recolour Grids option is a temporary viewing tool. To save/share a recoloured view of a grid you can Create a
Snapshot or print the current map extents.
If the Auto Recolour Grid mode is turned ON when you print, it will apply to the printed page. Either turn OFF the
mode when printing or print out a selected area and it will apply the recolouring.
Contouring
Geosoft's basic contouring methodology is to thread contour lines through constant levels defined in a gridded data file.
Gridded data files are usually created by one of the Geosoft gridding programs, or may be imported from other software
systems that support the Geosoft Exchange Format (*.gxf). The grid file can contain any number of points. Contours are
added directly to the map you are working with.
It is important that the grid cell size (the distance between nodes of the grid) is appropriate for contouring. We recommend
that you use a cell size that is 5 mm at map scale when plotted. Grids, with cell sizes less than 1 mm, will require more
processing time than is necessary to make a good contour map, while grid cells larger than 3 mm can produce contours that
appear jagged. If the grid contains important information that is only honoured at cell sizes less that 1 mm, you should
probably not be contouring the data, or you should be plotting the data at a smaller scale (make the same area on the ground
larger on paper).
Plotting Contours
Contours refer to the lines drawn at specified intervals or multiples of intervals on your map. An example is shown below:
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After you create a grid, you may want to contour your data and display these contours on your map. In Oasis montaj,
contouring is specially designed to handle the very large dynamic data ranges that characterize Earth Science data sets.
For more information on plotting contours, refer to the Adding Contours to Maps topic in the Application Help files.
Contouring options include quick, custom, log and from a control file (for batch contouring).
Quick - uses default parameters.
Custom - uses parameters you specify the system to use. This method generates simple or log contours.
Log contour - draws contours on a map using a specified grid in logarithmic mode
Have Control File - ASCII control file enables full cartographic cosmetic control of plotting options
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3. Browse to the Grid file you want to contour. You may be asked to confirm the scale.
4. Click OK. The contours are drawn on the map.
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3D Menu
The data to be gridded must have defined X, Y and Z coordinates. To define the coordinates use the menu, Coordinates|Set
Current X,Y,Z Coordinates. The 3 dimensional coordinate system will locate the data in 3D space. The Z axis is interpreted
as positive up. The 3D workflow includes tools for creating, displaying and processing voxels. The 3D Viewer enables
visual inspection of voxels and comes with an extensive set of 3D viewing tools.
When applying 3D gridding, halving the cell size increases both the file size and processing time by a factor of 8 (2
3).
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3. From the dropdown list, select the Channel to grid. The first time through the process, the default Output voxel file
name will default to the provided channel name. The subsequent invocations of this tool will remember the user
specified file name. You can rename the output voxel file or accept the default name.
4. Specify the Cell size. If you do not have a preset cell size, click the Calculator button to obtain a reasonable cell
size based on the extents of your data. The cell size is calculated for a single cube, assuming the volume is divided
into 10000 individual cubes. The value is then rounded down to give a more satisfactory value.
We recommend that your first attempt at gridding be using the defaults. After inspecting the outcome however
you may decide to modify defaults such as the Blanking Distance to fill in the gaps, modify the Z cell
increment, or generate the output on a logarithmic scale.
Additionally you can customize the variogram to best suit your data.
For more information, click the Help button on the 3D Kriging dialog.
5. When you are satisfied with your selections click OK. The Voxel is created and displayed in the Voxel Viewer. An
example is shown below:
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3. From the dropdown list, select the Channel to grid. Only array channels are eligible to be gridded. The first time
through the process, the default Output voxel file name will the set to a combination of the current database and
provided channel name. The subsequent invocations of this tool will remember the user specified file name. You can
rename the output voxel file or accept the default name.
4. Specify the Cell value. You can choose the minimum value ; maximum value mean value or number of items in a cell
5. Specify the Cell size. If you do not have a preset cell size, click the Calculator button, to obtain a reasonable cell
size based on the extents of your data. The cell size is calculated for a single cube, assuming the volume is divided
into 10000 individual cubes. The value is then rounded down to give a more satisfactory value.
For more information, click the Help button on the 3D Direct Gridding Help topic.
6. The default vertical Z cell size is set to the same value as the horizontal cell. If this value is not reflecting the desired
resolution, modify it accordingly.
7. When you are satisfied with your selections click OK. The Voxel is created and displayed in the Voxel Viewer. An
example is shown below.
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Creating a Voxel Model using the Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) Gridding method
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3. From the dropdown list, select the Channel to grid. The first time through the process, the default Output voxel file
name will default to a combination of the current database and provided channel name. The subsequent invocations
of this tool will remember the user specified file name. You can rename the output voxel file or accept the default
name.
4. Specify the Cell size. If you do not have a preset cell size, click the Calculator button, to obtain a reasonable cell
size based on the extents of your data.
5. When you are satisfied with your selections click OK. The Voxel is created and displayed in the Voxel Viewer. An
example is shown below.
We recommend that your first attempt at gridding be using the defaults. After inspecting the outcome however
you may decide to modify defaults such as the Weighting power & slope to alter the degree of influence of
contributing data points relative to their distance , or the Blanking Distance to fill in the gaps, or generate the
output on logarithmic scale.
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6. Specify the Cell size. If you do not have a preset cell size, click the Calculator button, to obtain a reasonable cell
size based on the extents of your data. The cell size is calculated for a single cube, assuming the volume is divided
into 10000 individual cubes. The value is then rounded down to give a more satisfactory value.
For more information, click the Help button on the 3D Inverse Distance Weighted Gridding Help topic.
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