Drape images onto Topography

It’s very common in the exploration world to work with multiple information sources, such as maps, geophysical grids, topography, satellite imagery, etc. To help interpretate your results, it’s very helpful to have geological information draped onto a topography layer. On the image below, we have an example of a topography layer of a prospect area followed by the regional geological map.

We can easily drape this image by opening the topography layer dialog in Vizex Display, and select the geological map image on the Draping tab.

We click on the Draping tab, and then select the image you would like to drape on it.

This is the result:

Find a video below showing the steps

However, Geologists may like to drape multiple images on the same topography like below. For example, we might want to drape not only the geological map, but a geophysical grid as well.

The easiest way is to generate a georeferenced screenshot of the scene, and use this image to drape onto the topography. You can apply transparency to one of the layers so it is easier to see the overlaid area.

First, generate a screenshot by clicking on Vizex>Capture>Generate Screenshot

The dialog will open and we can generate it.

Then, we repeat the draping process but choose the new georeferenced image. Find below the results.

Find a video example showing the process:

For large topographies, the resolution of the screenshot might not get the detail needed, especially when zoomed in. In these situations, the best approach is to clip the topography. Below we have a satellite image, a topography, and the combined image we previously created.

Firstly, we need to generate an outline using strings of the region we will drape the combined images.

Secondly, we use this string to cut the topography in 2 parts. The region inside and outside. We use the tool, Wireframe>Editing>Cut>Wireframe Cut

The tool works in two steps. We first select the topography, and then the outline.

Then, we select the cutting polyline and click in accept.

So, we select the part of the topography inside the outline and we save as a separate wireframe.

We repeat the process for the outer part and save it.

The inner topography we draped the detailed image, and the outer part the satellite imagery. By doing that, we are preserving the resolution of the satellite imagery, assuring that it will work as an active link.

This video shows the final results:

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