Visualizing seismic data in the 3D View

If you have a very large seismic data set and the display performance is slow, you can improve it by converting your seismic data to 8- or 16-bit compressed format. In the JewelExplorer, right-click on the seismic property under Properties in your seismic volume, and select Tools and Operations > Data Format > Seismic Float 8 BitCompressed or Tools and Operations > Data Format > Seismic Float 16 Bit Compressed from the context menu.

Viewing inline and crossline in a 3D View. Use the buttons in the Inspector to move through slices    click to enlarge

To view your seismic data, first display a 3D View and ensure that you check the seismic volume you want to view in the JewelExplorer. Inside this volume, open Properties and select the seismic attribute you want to view. Check the Inline, Crossline and/or Depthslice/Timeslice item in the JewelExplorer, or check the Volume to display the seismic data as a volume. To view the spatial extent of the 3D volume, check the Area check box.

You can also display seismic data on cross sections in the 3D View, see Visualizing your seismic on a random line.

In case you have poorly processed (old) seismic data which you want to move vertically, you can do that as follows: First, enable vertical modification of seismic data. To do this, go to home > Settings > Display Settings. Under 'Seismic volumes', check the box for 'Allow TVDSS modification'. Next, in the JewelExplorer, click on the seismic volume in the Seismic Volumes folder to select it and open the Property Inspector. In the Property Inspector, scroll to Geometry > 3D position. You can update the TVDSS value.

The displayed slices have colored borders (red for inline, blue for crossline and green for depthslice/timeslice). At the corners are small spheres of the same color, which you can use to resize the seismic slices while holding down the Ctrl key.

You can also change the seismic data format in the Inspector. Select the seismic property in the JewelExplorer and set the Data format in the Inspector to Seismic Float 16 Bit Compressed or Seismic Float 8 Bit Compressed if the format of your imported seismic data is "Float".

Moving through slices

There are various ways you can move through the slices in any particular direction to inspect the volume in detail:

  • Directly in your 3D View, you can hold down the Shift key and drag any of the slices.
  • Select a slice in the JewelExplorer. Next, in the Inspector, click the Object Inspector icon with your slices displayed in your 3D View. In the Section control section, click on the buttons to move your slices. You can review the index step size for your slider by clicking the Property Inspector , under the Slider trackbar section.
  • Select the overall seismic volume in the JewelExplorer (i.e. the volume at the highest level in the 'Seismic Volume' folder). In the Inspector, click the Object Inspector icon with your slices displayed in your 3D View and you will see a number of sliders. To limit the extent of the slices in the volume, in the Volume section in the Object Inspector, drag the Inline / Crossline / Depth start / end sliders, or type values for the first and last slices in the range you want to view. Click the Reset button to set the ranges to all slices again. Check Lock ranges to fix the ranges of the displayed slices and/or to move a set of inline, crossline and depthslices through the seismic cube without changing the volume size.
  • Alternatively, move through the slices by clicking on a slice in the 3D View to select it, then use the forward and back arrows on your keyboard to step through the slices in either direction.
In the Inspector, you can change the property from the Property type drop-down list, and change the color set used to display the seismic data from the Colorset drop-down list.
You cannot change the step size using the Object Inspector. The step size is set on the Optimize form (DATA > Seismic > Import) when you import of your seismic data. In the Object Inspector, 'Increment' defines how many slices are skipped when moving through slices.

Reviewing seismic data by displaying three Seismic Views and a 3D View simultaneously    click to enlarge

For a comprehensive view of your seismic data, you can set up your viewing area to show all three slice views along with a 3D View. Then, when you make changes in slices in any of the views, such as moving a seismic slice, the other views update to reflect this.

View linking options, and especially the cursor linking, can help you better visualize, understand, analyze and compare your data. The cursor linking can be used for 2D views, 3D views, 2D time views, 3D time views, seismic views and a mix of these view types.

Apart from the visibility linking, the seismic views are automatically linked to the 3D view regarding slice movement and ranges.

To set up these four views, display a 3D View, and check, in the JewelExplorer, all three slices (Inline, Crossline and Depthslice). Then open three Seismic Views, and select for each of them a different slice (Inline, Crossline, Depthslice). Then make all the views floating views, either by double clicking on the title bar of the view, or by selecting Float from the context menu of the view Tab, and position the views next to each other as you wish to see them.