Drillhole Projects
Discover for ArcGIS Pro can import data from a wide variety of drillhole data types. The import wizard can be accessed from on the Discover ribbon tab: in the Drillhole Project group, expand Import Drillhole.
Note: Discover can only open one drillhole project per project. If the Import Drillhole icon has been replaced by a Manage Drillhole icon it is because a drillhole project already exists for the current project.
Drilling Data Formats
The Drillholes module in Discover for ArcGIS Pro can import drillhole data captured in any database format that Discover MapInfo can read:
- Access Databases
- Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) linked databases
- Tables (Mapinfo Tables, Excel and CSV)
- acQuire Databases
- Fusion Databases
- ESRI Database connections (via tables importer)
- Datamine Tables
- Existing Datamine for ArcGIS Pro drillhole projects
- Existing Datamine MapInfo drillhole projects
Discover for ArcGIS Pro does not make any alterations or additions to the source data. The software calculates 3D coordinates for downhole samples when it displays the drillhole, which means that it is not necessary to store these coordinates in the original data tables.
Drillhole Data Table Structure
Drillhole data is stored in related tables, as described below. The HoleID is the key field linking the tables. Fields with the data type float must be a numeric value.
Note: The field names and order of the mandatory columns are mapped during the drillhole project setup. It is recommended to have consistent naming conventions and field types across all project tables.
Collar Table
The collar table is a point table that contains the collar positions in the drilling project coordinate reference system (CRS).
| Name | Data Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| HoleID | Character or Float | Mandatory. |
| Easting | Float | Mandatory. |
| Northing | Float | Mandatory. |
| Elevation | Float | Mandatory. |
| Total Depth | Float | Mandatory. |
| Azimuth | Float | Optional. Include only if there is no separate survey table. |
| Dip | Float | Optional. Include only if there is no separate survey table. Can be a positive or negative value; for example, -90 or 90. |
Survey Table
The downhole survey table is a non-mappable table that contains a list of depths and surveys for each drillhole. All fields are mandatory.
This table is optional. Drillholes having no downhole surveys are displayed as straight lines using the dip, azimuth and total depth values from the collar table. Under this scenario, the azimuth is 0 and dip is 90.
| Name | Data Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| HoleID | Character or Float | Mandatory. |
| Depth | Float | Mandatory. |
| Azimuth | Float | Mandatory. |
| Dip | Float | Can be a positive or negative value; for example, -90 or 90. |
Downhole Data Tables
Downhole data tables are non-mappable tables that can contain geochemical, geological or geophysical data values (and other data types) for selected intervals down each drillhole. A drillhole project can contain multiple downhole data tables. All fields are mandatory.
| Name | Data Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| HoleID | Character or Float | Mandatory. |
| Depth From | Float | Mandatory. |
| Depth To | Float | Mandatory. |
Grid and Drape Surfaces
Discover for ArcGIS Pro can display a topographic or subsurface grid; for example, a water table on a section. The topographic layer can be draped with a surface geology polygon layer, which can colour the topographic line, using a legend.
The grids can be any ArcGIS Pro compatible raster.
The surface layer can be any polygon layer: either a shape file or feature class. The resulting topographic line can be coloured using a legend.
Drillhole Data Validation
Data in newly created or modified drillhole projects must be validated before use.
Some validation errors must be corrected (for example, duplicate HoleIDs in the collar). Other validation errors (for example, sample gaps in the downhole table) may be valid data and can be ignored.
If a compulsory validation is not corrected, the validation cannot proceed and the drillhole project cannot be opened. With non-compulsory checks, a warning displays that a conflict may arise if the data is not fixed; however, you can still open the drillhole project.
Drilling Geo-Database
The Drilling geo-database (Drilling.gdb) is located in the Catalog Pane under Databases and is saved in <ESRI Project Folder>\Discover_Drilling.
All data related to the drillholes in the project is stored in Drilling.gdb. All data created (sections, interpolations and so on) in the project uses the data in Drilling.gdb and not the data from the source files. However, the links to the source data still remain and if any changes are made to the source files, the data can be updated by clicking the Refresh Button.
Important: Refreshing overwrites old data completely. No edits are saved. All data is refreshed from the source data and validated again. If only new data needs to be added to the project without losing the current edits, use the Append Drillhole Data Tool. See Append New Data to a Drillhole Project.
If the drilling data is refreshed, you need to refresh your sections using the Refresh Section Button.
Drilling.gdb is created with the following data:
- A point collar table of the drillhole collars in the drilling project coordinate reference system (CRS)
- Table data for the downhole data tables (assays, lithology, and so on)
DHP_Drilling_Collar
Imported collar table data is mapped to the following columns:
- X_DB
- Y_DB
- Z_DB
- Length_DB
- Azimuth_DB
- Dip_DB
DHP_Drilling_Survey
Imported survey table data is mapped to the following columns:
- Collar_ID_DB
- MeasuredDepth_DB
- Azimuth_DB
- Dip_DB
