Version 1.6.0.4 contains many additions and improvements with a few bug fixes. This blog entry will be further expanded in a week or so when I have more time.

New functionality

• A triangulation can now be coloured on dip direction with "Right toolbar palette => Colour or polygon dip-direction". Colouring on polygon dip has been available for some time, so this extends the option to dip directions.

• The Shepard Method regular grid (pseudo block model) used to create the iso-surface can now be viewed as coloured points. Applying both the the iso-surface and transparent points provides nice visuals (see Picture 1).

• A nearest neighbour method was added to the "Markers => Iso-surface and Colour mapping on DataColumn" section. This option assigns each polygon with the nearest data point value for colour mapping.

• An option was added that colour meshes on the distance from the nearest data point "Marker => Colour mesh on confidence". This provides an indication of the confidence of the colour mapping on the polygon based on the proximity to a data point (see Picture 2).

• A polygon subdivision option was added to "Right toolbar toolbox => Subdivide polygons 2". Option 1 divides each and every polygon into 4 polygons, and Option 2 subdivides to a requested maximum polygon side length. Option 2 is thus useful to subdivide polygons to a similar size for sample points, for example to calculate Map3D stresses using MS-calc files (see Picture 3).

• STL-files are typically used for 3D-printing can now be imported and exported from GEM4D.

• Loaded triangulations can now be viewed as either surfaces or wireframes. Go to "Left toolbar camera => Represent as surfaces" or "Represent as wireframes".

• Icon pictures were added to all context menu buttons.

• A bounding box wireframe can be saved for:

- Loaded meshes with "Save => Save scene bounds as DXF-file".

- Loaded Markers with "Markers => Save bounds as DXF-file".

- Loader mapping data with "Map => Save bounds as DXF-file".

• The centres, dips and dip-directions of triangulation polygons can be exported with "Export => Poly orientations as CSV-file". This data file can then directly be loaded with "Map => Add mapping from text file" and visualised as disks or dip arrows, and their stereonet inspected (see Picture 4).

• The polygon centres can be exported with an offset along the normal with "Export => Poly offset centres as CSV-file". This is used to map Map3D stress values to polygon surfaces and will be explained in a future newsletter.

• The polygon points can be exported as a CSV-file with "Export => Poly points as CSV-file".

Changes

• The headers are now exporting with markers and mapping text-files.

• The Marker and Mapping "Hide all" buttons were removed, but the transparency slider bars can now make the markers fully transparent - thus hide the Markers or Mapping by making them fully transparent with the sliders.

• When moving between the different "Tabs", the left areas always defaulted back to a fixed value. This behaviour is sometimes annoying, and the selected width is now retained.

• "Left toolbar camera => Flip polygon normals" now only flips the normals of visible triangulations.

Bug fixes

• The markers iso-surface slider did not work correctly for fractions - fixed.

• The scalar bar were sometimes removed from the scene at inappropriate times - fixed.

• Changing the bottom tabs did not always change all the tabs as it should - fixed.

Enjoy and best wishes, Frans.

#GEM4D