Program: SEISPLOT

Title: Seismic Plot

Version: 2.1

• Introduction
• Running SEISPLOT
• Program Menus and Controls
• Parameter set up
• Startup and Configuration
• Error Messages

Back to:

• Main Index
• Basic Vectorising Index

Introduction

SEISPLOT provides a convenient front-end for plotting seismic data in the LEA environment, using the 3-S TRCPLOT program. TRCPLOT runs in an MS-DOS/command-prompt window and takes an input trace file and an input parameter file and outputs a plot file, which is a raster image of the plotted seismic data. SEISPLOT provides the following functions:

• Create a list of the trace files to be plotted. This list is automatically saved and restored by SEISPLOT.
• Set up default plotting parameters for all the files in the list
• Set up individual plotting parameters for any trace file which requires them
• Preview plots to check parameter settings
• Generate plot files for selected files in the list
• Preview plot files with a raster viewer
• Send plots to a Windows printer

Running SEISPLOT

Defining a list of files to be plotted

When you start SEISPLOT, the default trace file list (PltFiles.txt by default) will be loaded from your current LEA working directory, if that file exists. Otherwise, the trace file list will be empty. Files can be added, removed and selected or de-selected from the list shown in the main window using drag and drop from an Explorer window, or the Add  and Remove options in the File menu. The list may be saved or re-loaded using the Open  and Save  menu options.

The working directory

On starting SEISPLOT, the working directory is the first directory in the LEA user directory list, as set up in Launcher.
The default parameter file is always read from the working directory and plot files are written to this directory, even though the traces files to be plotted may be in other directories. To change the working directory you must close SEISPLOT, and use the File - User Directories - Edit User Directory List menu option in Launcher.

Files used in plotting

When plotting is taking place, Seisplot invokes the trace plotting engine TRCPLOT, which uses a parameter file with extension..TPX, together with the input trace file, to generate a plot file to be sent to a printer, or viewed on screen. Parameter files are edited using the LEA standard parameter editor SETPARMW.

For an input trace file, of the form MYLINE.TR1

the plot parameter file will be MYLINE.TPX

with output going to a raster file MYLINE.TIF, or to a Versatec spooler compatible file MYLINE.PLT in the working directory

The plot parameter file will normally be in the working directory, even if the trace files are in another directory. This centralises parameter files in one place and enables trace files to be plotted from read-only media. To change this behaviour, see startup option param dir=working.

If a plot parameter file is not supplied, TRCPLOT will look for a default parameter file DEFAULT.TPX in the working directory.

The path of the current plot parameter file for each trace file in the list is displayed in the main SEISPLOT window along with the path of each trace file.

Setting up default plotting parameters

A default plot parameter file, DEFAULT.TPX contains plot parameters for trace files which do not have a plot parameter file explicitly defined. This enables a whole batch of plot files to share the same parameters.

Menus and Controls

SEISPLOT has the following menu commands:

• File
  • Add Files to Plot List 
    Select trace files to add to the current plot list from the file selection dialogue displayed. You can also drag files from an Explorer window onto the SEISPLOT window to add them to the list
  • Remove Files from Plot List 
    Remove the currently selected files from the plot list.
  • Open Plot List File 
    Select a plot list file to open from the file selection dialogue displayed.
  • Save Plot List File As 
    Save the current plot list. Select a name for the file using the standard save dialogue. The list of files and current selections will be saved into a text file.
• Setup
  • Set Default Plot Parameters 
    Edit or create the DEFAULT.TPX file in the working directory. This file will be used as a parameter file for any trace file which does not have its own parameter file.
  • Set Plot Parameters for Current File 
    This enables named parameter files to be created or edited for the currently highlighted trace file. The parameters for each trace file in the list are displayed alongside the trace file path. If the named parameter file does not already exist, it will be created by copying from DEFAULT.TPX. You can then edit this parameter file to customise the plot output for this trace file.
  • Refresh List
    Refresh the list to reload parameter files.
  • Set Windows Printer 
    Select the Windows printer to use for plotting from the standard printer selection dialogue. You can select a printer and a paper size to use without the PC's current default printer settings being affected. This printer state will be restored when you next run SEISPLOT. The settings you chose will be saved into your USER-CUSTOM folder. SEISPLOT records the current printer's name in the your USER.INI file [printers] section as
    SEISPLOT=printername
    and the information for this printer in a file printername.WPR in the same directory
• Run
  • Create Plot Files 
    Create a plot file in the working directory, for each selected file in the trace file list, using the appropriate parameter file, either DEFAULT.TPX from the working directory, or each trace file's individual parameter file. Use this option when you want to create plot files singly, or in batches, for later printing or plotting.

    If you intend to plot to a Windows printer, select FILE in the SELECT PLOT OUTPUT page of the plot parameters, then select file type TIFF on the RASTER FILE OUTPUT page. The resolution should be set to 200dpi, for plots at 10cm/sec and 1mm trace sapcing, or 400dpi for 5cm/sec, 0.5mm trace spacing.

    For plotting to a Versatec type plotter, via the Lynx plot spooler program VSPOOL, select SPOOLER in the SELECT PLOT OUTPUT page of the plot parameters, and select the appropriate resolution and file name on the SEND TO LYNX PLOT SPOOLER page. In this case, the ouput plot file extension will be of type PLT.

  • Preview Plots 
    Preview the plot output of the selected files in the trace file list. For each file, a temporary plot file is generated and the raster viewer is started. While the raster viewer is active and the plot file is being viewed, SEISPLOT is suspended. When the raster viewer is closed, SEISPLOT deletes the temporary raster file and proceeds to the next selected file in the list.
  • Create Plots and Print 
    Generate plot files from the selected trace files and sends them to the raster viewer for automatic printing to the printer selected in the Windows Printer menu. The scale of the plots is determined by the actual scales in the parameter file and the zoom factor set for the viewer. See startup options
  • View Plot Files 
    Start up the raster viewer, enabling plot files to be selected in the normal way from the viewer's file open dialogue

Startup and Configuration

All Lynx Exploration Archivist application programs have a corresponding .INI file in the Lynx system directory. The [startup] section contains program constants which can be edited manually, or through the LEACfg utility.

• MSDOS98 is the Windows 95/98/ME command line processor file path. Seisplot will autodetect which Windows version is being used and read the MSDOS98 or MSDOS2000 keyword accordingly.

  MSDOS98=command.com

• MSDOS2000 is the Windows NT/200/XP command line processor file path

  MSDOS2000=cmd.exe

• MSDOS command is the command string used with the above command processor. /E specifies the amount of memory in the MSDOS window to be reserved as environment space. /C specifies that the MSDOS window should close automatically. If /K is substituted, the MSDOS window will remain open, which is useful when troubleshooting.

  MSDOS command=/E:2000 /C

• plotBATis the name of the MSDOS batch file used for invoking the TRCPLOT seismic plotting program

  plotBAT=SEISPLT.BAT

• viewer is the raster file viewer executable file name

  viewer=RASVIEW.EXE

• viewer command is the command options for the viewer. For the Lynx raster viewer the command line specifies the orientation code and starting zoom percentage

  viewer command=-o2 -z100

• file list specifies the name of the trace file list, used to store the list of traces to be plotted and their state, selected or deselected

  file list=PltFiles.txt

• file filt specifies the open and save dialogue filters used for loading and saving trace file lists

  file filt=Trace file lists(*.txt)|*.txt|

• param dir This controls the directory where parameter files will be sought. When this option is to a value other than working, plot parameter files will be searched for in the same directory as their corresponding trace file. If a parameter file is not found, the DEFAULT.TPX file in the working directory will be used instead.

  param dir=working

Error Messages

This version of Windows is not supported
The version of Microsoft Windows on which the program is running could not be recognised.

The raster viewer could not be started
The raster file viewer executable file could not be found. See the viewer startup parameter.

The parameter editor could not be started
The LEA parameter editor SETPARMW or one of its components, could not be found in the system directory.

The trace plotting program could not be started
The TRCPLOT program executable could not be found in the system directory. Check that the file TRCPLOT.EXE exists and in Windows 95/98/ME environments that the MS-DOS window has enough environment space. See the MSDOS startup parameter. This error may occur when using trace files with directory path names longer than about 30 characters on Windows 98. MS-DOS and the Windows command-prompt have a limited line buffer used to store commands. If this error occurs, try using the default parameters to plot a file, or move your trace files to a directory with a shorter path.

No plot parameters are set
The requested trace file did not have a corresponding parameter file and no DEFAULT.TPX file was found in the working directory. Go to Default plot parameters to set the plotting parameters.

No default parameters are set - set them now?
The program could not find a DEFAULT.TPX file in the working directory. Press OK to edit a new parameter file, remembering to save it before exiting the parameter editor.

No trace file selected
The trace file list is empty, no trace file is selected.

Trace file was not found
A trace file in the trace file list could not be found. This may indicate a problem with very long directory paths - see above.