How to Create 3D Model of Drillholes in ArcGIS

[Suffii]

Hi

I have some drilling information for drillholes and I do not know if it is possible to create 3D drill trace using ArcGIS 3D Extension(I know that this is possible by using some third party tools like Traget but I really need to do this in ArcMap).
What I have are is:
DrillHole_ID,Easting,Northing,Azimuth,Dip,Srart,End,Lenght

I know how to generate 3D model of points which has no angles but az you can see I have to consider the angles here, so Can you please let me know how I can do it?
I tried to find a tutorial on the web but I couldt find any thing!

Thanks for your help

[jbswain]

There is some information here about subsurface modeling here. There is also further discussion about it here on the forums and a video here.

To obtain the angled nature, you may consider trying to generate the model as a series of points or convert to a line, rather than try to force the extruded point to angle a certain way.

[thales007]

Hi Marco, there is a python script that will allow you to do this that you can find here:

Generate 3D line from tabular data

It will output a 3d polyline from a table using TopX, TopY, TopZ & BotX, BotY, BotZ as the end points.

[jakubsisak]

Hi
I know that this is possible by using some third party tools like Traget but I really need to do this in ArcMap.
What I have are is:
DrillHole_ID,Easting,Northing,Azimuth,Dip,Srart,End,Lenght

The question is whether your downhole tracers follow a straight line. If so you can construct your straight lines programmatically with ArcObjects or you might be able to find a script. You cannot do this with default tools alone. If you have downhole surveys that do not follow a straight line (many dip, azimuth, distance readings per one collar (HOLE_ID)) then again you could do this programatically with ArcObjects but it would be far more complex then straight lines and as far as I know nobody has taken the time to write such sript yet. (other then Geosoft - but you mentioned Target is not an option). Strangely, all the pieces are there (ArcObjects) for someone to create drilhole management utility for ArcGIS and even to take it further to do what Target does but using all native components.

Right now, ArcGIS 3D Analyst is not a drillhole management, a very poor 3D modelling software, unsuitable for subsurface 3D modelling and analysis, it does not allow you to create 3D solids or models and dees not offer any 3D interpolation (biharmonic, voxel griding) to make 3D solids from assay data in 3D space, and ArcGIS is also unsuitable for producing geologic cross sections. It is great for 2.5D surface analysis and it can visualize pretty much any 3D data you can import but as for mining and subsurface geological modelling I would advise to look elsewhere.

So in summary:

• it is not possible to do what you want with default tools in ArcGIS.
• it may be possible to try someone's custom script / addin but you are at a mercy of the programmer and the results may or may not be accurate
• I am not aware of any script add in that will convert a downhole survey of more that 2 points to a downhole 3D polylines (tracers) such as the shown on the image below
• You can visualize (but not create) 3D data from various sources as shown on the image below

[GSCUser85]

I posted the py file pointed to by Tim above.
The BotX,Y,Z values are calculated from CollarXYZ, drill azimuth & EOHDepth using a bit of Vb in Access. Just simple trig. Then use the py script to generate the 3d polyline.
This is mainly to visualise the plan extent of each hole, but also to use in ArcScene.

But don't think I can post a mdb here.

Mail me if you want the example : nayres at worldonline dot co dot za

Cheers,
Neil