GeoProbe 3.

3 New Features Tutorial

GeoProbe 3.3 contains a number of new features that improve workflow integration and
provide additional functionality. This document provides basic tutorials to the main
new features for their quick implementation into your GeoProbe workflows. Please
refer to the Release Notes for a listing of all the new functionality included in
GeoProbe 3.3.

1. Editing Horizon Picks Using Horizon PolyEdit

2. Filtering a Horizon

3. Displaying Attributes on a Horizon

4. Merging Horizons

5. Displaying Fault Intersections on the Active Probe

6. Changing a Faults Display Style

7. Converting Faults to TSurfs

8. Importing Assigned SeisWorks Fault Segments

9. Creating Pointsets and Geobodies from GeoAnomalies

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Exercise 1 Editing Horizon Picks Using Horizon PolyEdit

The Horizon PolyEdit tool allows you to manually delete an area of horizon points,
either by simply clicking on the segments you wish to delete, or by specifying a region
for deletion.

Note

The edit polygon line is actually displayed one voxel above the horizon. This can
sometimes result in odd artifacts of the polygon line when zoomed into the horizon and
viewed at an angle. For horizon editing, we recommend that you create these polygons
while either in Map View or close to a top-down view.

The following table describes the PolyEdit Tool dialog controls.

Control Description
Markers The following options are used when you specify a region for deletion with an
edit polygon. In a polygon, the active marker will always be yellow.
Reverse direction
Reverses the direction of the green marker in respect to the yellow, active
marker. Any new markers added to the polygon will always occur between the
yellow and green markers.
Delete Marker
Deletes the active polygon marker. The active marker is always shown in
yellow. In addition, using the <Delete> hotkey on the keyboard will also delete
the active marker. Note: Once horizon points are selected for deletion, the
markers will grey out... indicating that the <Delete> hotkey will no longer
delete the current marker.
Delete All
Deletes all polygon markers. In addition, the hotkey combination of <Ctrl +
Delete> will do the same.

Selection Select Inside

Selects the horizon points inside the polygon for deletion. You can also simply
click on the area on the horizon with MB1.
Select Outside
Selects the horizon points outside the polygon for deletion. You can also
simply click on the area on the horizon with MB1.
Delete Points
Deletes selected horizon points from the horizon. The <Delete> hotkey on the
keyboard will also delete the highlighted points.
Deselect
Deselects the highlighted horizon points. Clicking the same area again with
MB1 will also deselect the points.

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 Control Description
Undo (#) Removes the previous results in the order in which they were created. Will step
back to the original track if multiple tracks have been appended.
This function is globally applied, regardless of how the horizon points were
generated. For example, horizon points from ezTracked horizons can be
removed using Undo from the Fill Hole dialog... and filled horizon points can
be removed using Undo from the ezTracker dialog

Redo (#) Re-applies the horizon points back into the horizon in the order in which they
were removed using Undo.

Creating Edit Polygons

An edit polygon consists of a series of connected markers, or vertices, on the surface

of a horizon. To create an edit polygon:
1. Select MB3 > Ctrl Pick Mode > Horizon PolyEdit. The PolyEdit Tool will now
appear.

2. On the surface of the horizon, using Ctrl+MB1, digitize in a series of markers. A

polygon will appear after the 3rd point is picked.

3. To increase or decrease the size of the markers, use the Page Up and Page Down
keys.

4. To delete an active marker, simply use the Delete hotkey.

5. Any existing marker can be moved by clicking on it with Ctrl+MB1 and dragging
it to a new location.

6. New markers can be inserted between the yellow and green markers, using
Ctrl+MB1.

Note that if two markers are on the same edge of a horizon, they will automatically
connect with each other along the horizons boundary.

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Deleting Horizon Points

For any horizon loaded into GeoProbe, the Horizon PolyEdit tool can be used to delete
errant picks.

1. With a horizon selected in the Horizons List, select Edit Tools.

2. From the Edit Tools dropdown menu, select Horizon PolyEdit. The Ctrl Pick
Mode is automatically set to Horizon PolyEdit, as can be seen in the HUD.

3. In areas where horizon points exist that are not connected to the main portion of
the interpreted horizon, you can simply click on that portion with MB1. The
horizon points will appear highlighted in white.

MB1

4. Press the <Delete> hotkey to remove these points, or click the Delete Points button
on the Edit Tools dialog.

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5. To delete parts of the horizon that are connected to the main horizon, use
Ctrl+MB1 to create an edit polygon.

Ctrl-
MB1

6. Then, either click on the Select Inside button to highlight these points, or simply
click inside the polygon with MB1.

Note

Once a group of horizon points are selected, they will turn white and the polygon markers
will grey out to indicate that the <Delete> hotkey will no longer delete the current marker.

7. Once the points are highlighted, you can delete them using the <Delete> hotkey, or
the Delete Points dialog button.

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Exercise 2 Filtering a Horizon

The Horizon Filter, launched from the Horizons Object Manager, lets you filter existing
horizon points using either a smoothing function, a median filter, or a spike reduction
filter. These filters are always applied to the active horizon in the Horizons List, and
will create a new, filtered horizon each time.

Smooth

Applies a smoothing computation to the input horizon. The algorithm performs a series
of calculations, each time taking an average of a user-specified area of samples that are
centered on a single pick. Each smoothing calculation is applied to the center pick.
Calculations are performed for all the traces in the area selected for smoothing.

Median

Applies a median value computation to the input horizon. The algorithm performs a
series of calculations, each time finding the median of a user-specified area of samples
that are centered on a single pick. The resulting median value is applied to the center
pick. Calculations are performed for all the traces in the area selected for the
computation.

Spike

Removes spikes from the input horizon. The user specifies a deviation value (# of
Voxels from filters median Z) which is used to identify the spikes. The algorithm
performs a series of calculations, each time computing the median values of a user-
specified area together. It then compares the center pick to the median value. If the
center point is larger than the median value plus the deviation value, or less than the
median value minus the deviation value, the filter software sets the center value to null.
Calculations are performed for all the traces in the area selected for the computation.

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The following tables lists the applicable controls and options on the Horizon Filter
dialog:

Control Description
Filter Size Contains Line and Trace operators for the smoothing filter. Operators must be
odd numbers. These fields set the X and Y extents for the computation. For
example, if you specify an line operator of 7 and a trace operator of 9, the
filter computation will be performed over a 7x9 area. The results will be
applied to the pick at the center of the filter area (where 1/DistanceX is the
weighting factor).

Weight Equally
Weights all values in the filter area equally. By default, all filter operations are
weighted equally except Smooth operations. If you select the Smooth option,
this radio button becomes active so that you can choose between weighting
equally and weighting by distance.

By Distance
Weights values according to how close they are to the center of the filter area.
This option is available only for Smooth operations. Picks that are close to the
center are weighted more heavily than picks that are far away. If this option is
selected, the program computes the relative weight of different picks by their
actual distance from the center of the filter (rather than by line/trace).
The weighting option uses the following algorithm:
Output Value =

ValueA ValueB ValueC

--------------------------- + --------------------------- + --------------------------- +
Dis tan ceA Dis tan ceB Dis tan ceC
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
1
Sumof -----------------------
Dis tan ce

(Where 1/DistanceX is the weighting factor)

This option is available only for smoothing filters.

Deviation Specifies the deviation value, in voxels, to be used in the Spike filter. For
example, in a 3x3 filter with a deviation (threshold) value of 10, if a spike is
more than 10 voxels higher or lower than the median value of the other 8 points
in the filter... the horizon point will be assigned a null value.
To assign this point the median value of the filter, toggle on the Interpolate
option.

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 Control Description
Interpolate When toggled on, null values with at least 3 pre-existing corresponding control
points will be populated with an interpolated value.
For the Smooth function, the null value will be replaced with a weighted
average value of the points in the filter area.
For the Spike and Median functions, the null value will be replaced with a
median value of the points in the filter area.

Use Entire When toggled on, the horizon will be filtered over the entire volume. When
Volume toggled off, the horizon will only be filtered within the bounds of the active
probe.

Filter Horizon Click this button to filter the horizon based on the current dialog parameters.

Undo (#) Removes the previous results in the order in which they were created. Will
step back to the original track if multiple tracks have been applied.
This function is globally applied, regardless of how the horizon points were
generated. For example, horizon points from ezTracked horizons can be
removed using Undo from the Fill Hole dialog... and filled horizon points can
be removed using Undo from the ezTracker dialog

Redo (#) Re-applies the horizon points back into the horizon in the order in which they
were removed using Undo.

Close Closes the dialog.

Smoothing a Horizon

1. With a horizon selected in the Horizons List, select Edit Tools.

2. From the Edit Tools dropdown menu, select Horizon Filter.

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3. Select the Smooth Filter Type, with a Filter Size of 3 lines by 3 traces.

4. Weight the function Equally, and toggle on Use Entire Volume.

5. Click Filter Horizon. A new horizon is created in the Horizons List named
<original horizon>-Mean_3x3.

Filtered Horizon

Original Horizon

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 (You will need to launch the Horizons > Style dialog to change the drawing style
of the filtered horizon from Points to Surface and color the horizon By Z to get the
same display as shown here.)

6. Now experiment with weighting the smoothing function By Distance. Notice that
the horizon retains more of its character using this toggle.

Filtered Horizon

Original Horizon

7. Now experiment with a larger filter size, say 15 x 15. Notice how you begin losing
detail on the horizon. Always be aware of the trade-off between respecting data
points and removing "noise" from your interpretation.

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Exercise 3 Displaying Attributes on a Horizon

The Horizon Attributes dialog allows you to color the active horizon by its Dip,
Azimuth and Dip/Azimuth attribute. These attributes can help reveal fault trends,
lineations, and mispicks that may not normally be apparent.

For best results, use an input horizon that has not been smoothed. These algorithms are
applied to the interpreted horizon, not on the actual seismic data, so make sure that the
horizon has been interpreted in a consistent manner.

Dip

A dip map shows the magnitude of the time gradient. It is constructed by comparing
each sample of the horizon with two adjacent samples in orthogonal directions. A plane
is fit through the three points. The plane has a magnitude of dip in milliseconds per unit
distance x 1000.

The calculation for computing dip is:

2
dt- dt2
Dip = ----- + ------ 1000
dx dy

where:

dt/dx is the dip in the x direction, and dt/dy is the dip in the y direction, with x and
y as real-world coordinates.

Individual dip values are not particularly meaningful. but the relative difference
between various dip values is significant. Consequently, the most effective color map
for displaying dip values is a simple dichromatic ramp that shades gradually from one
color (corresponding to the minimum value) to some other color (corresponding to the
maximum value).

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 Azimuth

The azimuth map is closely associated with the dip map. It shows the direction of
maximum dip. Like the dip map, it is constructed by comparing each sample of the
horizon with two adjacent samples in orthogonal directions. A plane is fit through the
three points. The plane has a direction of dip in degrees.

The calculation for computing azimuth is:

dt dt
Azimuth = atan ------ ------
dy dx

where:

dt/dx is the dip in the x direction, and dt/dy is the dip in the y direction.

An azimuth value of 0o is aligned with true north as shown below.

0o
360o N

270o 90o

180o

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 DipAzimuth

This display combines dip and azimuth values to show aspects of both dip and azimuth
at the same time.1 For best results, use it with the dipazim color map, found under the
SeisWorks tab on the colormap.

The dip-azimuth attribute provides a technique for maximizing the effectiveness of a

single structural attribute map. Its usefulness is based on the fact that, when mapped on
standard azimuth displays and standard dip displays, faults may or may not appear,
depending on the relationship of their dip and azimuth to the dip and azimuth of the
horizon.

In general, azimuth displays exhibit the following tendencies:

Faults show up best where dip direction of the fault is opposite the dip direction
of the beds.

Faults show up poorly where dip direction of fault is similar to dip direction of
the horizons.

Dip maps exhibit the following tendencies:

Faults show up best where dip angle of fault plane is opposite direction of beds.

Faults show up poorly where dip angle is close to that of horizon.

Geophysicists at Shell have observed that some faults show up clearly on a dip map but
not on an azimuth map, or vice versa. To compensate for this unpredictability, they
have devised the dip-azimuth mapping technique. It combines both dip and azimuth
values at every pick in the horizon.

The dip-azimuth map generalizes azimuth values to four quadrants of an azimuth map.
Variations of value within each of the quadrants represent variation in dip. For example,
a value of 1 indicates a shallow dip in the northern quadrant. A value of 15 indicates an
extremely steep dip in the same quadrant.

The key to making sense of the dip-azimuth map is to use a color map that allows you
to identify the dip-azimuth trends in the data. Landmark provides a color map for this
particular purposedipazim. This map includes four bands of color, each
corresponding to one of the quadrants of the azimuth map.

1. The following account of dip-azimuth is derived from the research of two Shell geophysicists,
E. J. H. Rijks and J. C. E.M. Jauffred. They published their findings in The Leading Edge, vol.
10, no. 9, p. 11-19.

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 Red Red
(315 45o)
o

Yellow

Blue Yellow
o
(225 314o) (46o 134o)
Green

Green
Blue
(135o 224o)

dipazim color map

Color Indicates Direction of Dip

When viewing a dip-azimuth map, you identify the primary dip directions by the
cardinal positions on the compass rose. Red is north. Yellow is east. Green is south.
Blue is west.

Colors that are juxtaposed on the map indicate trends in direction:

Red > yellow indicates dip to the northeast.

Red > blue indicates dip to the northwest.
Green > yellow indicates dip to the southeast.
Green > blue indicates dip to the southwest.

While the colors in the color map represent the azimuth values, the color intensity
indicates the dip angle. Each of the four bands of color in the dipazim color map spans
16 of the 64 increments on the mapping scale. The color within this 16-increment band
ranges from intense at the top to black at the bottom. When the color map is applied to
a dip-azimuth map, the intense colors represent shallow dip. The darker colors
represent steep dip.

For example, the map increments that represent the western orientation of the dip-
azimuth map are 4864. This band of color is most intense at 48, where it is almost
cyan. It darkens as the increment numbers increase, passing from cyan to royal blue to
dark blue and finally to black. If the colors were projected on the actual dipping surface

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that they represent in a map, they would have correspondences similar to those shown
below.

black

royal blue
medium blue

cyan

shallow

blue

steep
dipazim color map

Intensity of Color Indicates Shallowness or

Steepness of Dip

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Coloring a Horizon by its Azimuth Attribute

In this example, we have interpreted a horizon above a salt dome. Well use the
Azimuth display to see the directions of maximum dip along the horizon.

1. From the Horizons Object manager, select the desired horizon and click
Attributes.

2. On the Horizon Attributes dialog, toggle on Azimuth and click Apply.

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3. The horizon is now displayed as a solid, colored by the azimuth values. The
azimuth.clm colormap is automatically applied.

4. Now launch the Horizon Colormap. By toggling on Histogram, we can see the
exact values as they range from 0o to 360o.

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Exercise 4 Merging Horizons

We can now Merge two or more horizons into a new, combined horizon. When merging
these horizons, you can set which will be the overriding horizon, or select to use a
computed average horizon.

Control Description
Top Horizon The top-most horizon in the 3D view will be the overriding horizon in the
merge. In instances of more than two horizons being merged, the top
horizon will have preference over the ones below, then the next horizon
down in the scene will have preference over the ones below it... and so on.

Bottom Horizon The bottom horizon in the 3D view will be the overriding horizon in the
merge. In instances of more than two horizons being merged, the bottom
horizon will have preference over the ones above it, then the next horizon
up in the scene will have preference over the ones above it... and so on.

Compute Average The merged horizon will be located at the average Z-position between the
Horizon selected horizons. You will need to be careful with this option, for in areas
where one horizon has data points where the others dont, it may result in
data spikes on the merged horizon.

Select Horizon from When toggled on, the desired overriding horizon can be selected from the
List Below list of available horizons.

Merge Merges the selected horizons, and creates a new horizon in the horizon list.
This horizon will have the following naming convention:
Merge_<option>_<horizon1>+<horizon2>+....+<horizonN>

Close Closes the dialog.

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Merging Three Horizons

In this example, well be merging three horizons into one; however, this is not a limit
to the number of horizons that can be combined.

1. Select all the horizons you wish to combine in the Horizons Object Manager, and
click Merge.

2. In this example, we feel most confident in our picks for the green horizon, so we
have chosen to toggle on Select Horizon from List Below with the green horizon
highlighted.

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3. Click Merge. The resulting horizon is now displayed as horizon points in the
viewer window, and a new horizon is in the Horizons List called
Merge_Selected_Option_green+red+blue.

4. Changing the Style of the new horizon to display as a surface, and coloring it by Z,
we now have the following combined horizon:

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Exercise 5 Displaying Fault Intersections on the Active Probe

Horizons, Surfaces, Faults and TSurfs can now be easily displayed on the face of the
active probe using the new Probe Intersection option. From the Style dialog of these
objects, simply toggle on the intersection option. When toggled on, the object will be
displayed only on the faces of the active probe. In this same dialog, you will also have
the option to change the color and width of the intersection line.

1. In this example, we have a semblance volume displayed with numerous faults

about a salt dome.

At first glance, it can be difficult to navigate about the volume and "see" through
the faults of varying strike and dip.

2. From the Faults Object Manager, click Select All to highlight all the faults in the
session.

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3. Click Style to launch the Fault Style menu, then toggle on the Probe Intersection
option.

4. Now our view is much more manageable, and we can see the exact point of
intersection each fault has with the probe.

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5. To change the color of any selected fault, simply make sure that it is highlighted in
the Faults List and launch the colorwheel to select a new color. In addition, you
can change the width of the intersection line by selecting a value of 1, 2, 3 or 6
from the pulldown menu.

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Exercise 6 Changing a Faults Display Style

In 3.3, three new features were added to the ezFault/ezSurfaces Style dialog: Show
Ribs, EDS Fast Mode, and Show Annotation.

Show Ribs - When toggled off, *.eds surfaces and faults will be displayed without
the white ribs, or segments, where their picks were made.

EDS Fast Mode - When toggled on, *.eds surfaces and faults will be displayed with
only a linear interpolation between rib locations, as opposed to the normal spline
interpolation. This will greatly speed up the display of these objects when the scene
is moved.

Show Annotation - When toggled on, *.eds surface and fault names will be
displayed in the objects color at the top-center of the object.

1. With a fault or set of faults highlighted in the Faults List, click Style to launch the
Fault Style dialog.

2. Toggle on the EDS Fast Mode option. Notice how the fault character changes in
between ribs. This option will greatly speed up performance of the viewer when
you have a number of faults loaded into the scene. However, youll need to make
sure that this option is toggled off if you need to edit a particular fault.

3. Toggle on the Show Annotation option. The fault name now appears at the top of
the selected faults, in that faults color. This is a handy way to identify faults, but

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 you will probably not want to have this option turned on during your entire session
if you have a number of faults in the scene.

4. Finally, toggle off the Show Ribs option. This is a much-requested feature that
especially comes into play when coloring the fault by Volume.

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Exercise 7 Converting Faults to TSurfs

ezFaults and ezSurfaces can now be converted to TSurfs using the To TSurf option in
each Object Manager.

1. Select a fault you wish to convert in your project.

2. In the Faults Object Manager, with the desired fault highlighted, click To TSurf.

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3. The new TSurf is automatically displayed in the viewer window, and is named
ts_<fault name>.

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Exercise 8 Importing Assigned SeisWorks Fault Segments

SWFaults is a new object in GeoProbe 3.3. Now, we can load assigned fault segments
directly from SeisWorks and display them in the GeoProbe viewer; using them to guide
our ezFault interpretations. While we currently can only use these as a display tool,
future releases of GeoProbe will expand on this functionality.

1. From the Object Manager, choose Objects > SWFaults to bring up the SWFaults
manager. (You could also click on the icon along the left edge of the main
GeoProbe window.)

2. Click on Load.

3. Highlight the SeisWorks fault, or faults, you wish to load and click OK.

4. The segments for the SeisWorks fault now appear in the viewer window.

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Exercise 9 Creating Pointsets and Geobodies from GeoAnomalies

GeoAnomalies can now be converted into pointsets and geobodies, for additional
editing capabilities and volumetric calculations. Using the Selected Anomalies to
Multiple Pointsets icon, each selected anomaly will be converted into its own
pointset. These pointsets will appear in the Points List using the same naming
convention as the anomaly. Using the Selected Anomalies to a Single Geobody and
Pointset icon, all selected anomalies will be converted into a single pointset, and will
launch the Geobody builder to create a single geobody.

1. Using the GeoAnomaly Object Manager, create a set of geoanomalies to your

specifications.

2. After reviewing the anomalies, select the ones of interest, and highlight them in the
anomaly table.

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3. To convert each anomaly to its own pointset, click the Selected Anomalies to
Multiple Pointsets icon.

Now each anomaly has been converted to a pointset and is listed in the Points
Object manager with names identical to the anomaly names.

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4. To convert all selected anomalies to one single pointset and geobody, click the
icon instead.

Now, all anomalies are converted to a pointset with the name of the anomaly group.
In addition, the Geobody builder dialog is launched.

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5. Create a new Geobody using the Geobody builder dialog, and change your probes
Draw style to Geobody. You can now view both anomalies as one body, colored
by your choice of volume.

6. In addition, for both pointsets and geobodies, you can calculate potential
hydrocarbon reserves using the Volumetrics calculator, launched from either
manager.

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