First steps

Once the plugin is installed, the user can go through the following steps, which can be followed in sequence to import data to generate boreholes, surfaces and 3D solids representing volumes.

The starting step to activate the ribbon-UI of the plugin, is to create a new drawing in Civil3D. Once that is done, the GeoDin® Ground tab will be unlocked, opening an array of commands for the user.

1. Selecting a data source

By pressing the Manage data sources button, a dialogue window opens, allowing the user to select a database file. The selected database will be added to the list of databases which can be accessed by the next command, Select data.

A sample database is provided in %UserProfile%\Documents\GeodinGround folder.

⚠️ If the selected file paths contains a space in any part of the path, this will throw an error. This is a known issue.

2. Selecting boreholes to be drawn

By pressing Select data, the Database can be selected by means of a dropdown, and the projects contained within the project can be opened by pressing Open Project.

This opens a multiple selection list of the locations available in the Project. By pressing Show all documents it is possible to access directly on Civil 3D to the documentation that was saved in the GeoDin database for the locations selected.

3. Drawing detailed boreholes

By clicking on Draw boreholes, the selected locations are imported in the Civil 3D drawing. The different layers and ground units are displayed with different colors, while the ground descriptions recorded in GeoDin are visible as annotations on the right side of the borehole. The location’s general data, such as coordinates, elevation, and EPSG code are visible on the left side. N.B.: after import, the objects displayed in Civil 3D are no longer connected with the GeoDin database. Changes made on the Civil 3D objects are not written back into the GeoDin database.

4. Drawing surfaces and volumes (in development)

By pressing the Draw Surfaces and Volumes command in the main ribbon, it is possible to select a group of boreholes and have surfaces and volumes are drawn in 3D, based on an algorithm that identifies corresponding soil groups based on the layer depths of the surrounding boreholes.

After selecting the boreholes, press enter in the command bar to generate surfaces and volumes.

5. Virtual logs (in development)

By selecting the Virtual logs command, the user can actively insert a new borehole, either entering its stratigraphy by hand (Create new – empty) or by copying it from the nearest borehole (Create new – nearest borehole).

By inserting a new virtual borehole, and selecting “regenerate ground model”, the layers and volumes created before are generated again and updated. This allows the user to employ virtual boreholes to correct local ground conditions, acting as an external boundary condition to correct lenses or to extend soil layers.