GEM4D Version 1.8.0.0 is updated with the latest versions of all third party components. Reasonably significant changes were made to the code, much whilst jet-lagged on a plane, so please let me know if something is not working the way it should. On the bright side, many small bugs were corrected due to feedback from users, and some significant additions incorporated. Thanks this time to KdP, PE, JP, BB, JS, RT, EM, EJ, DK, FB, KB, OW, EM, DK, JD, DN, HG, TP, SE, GK, AB, PN, RC, FC, FN, CB and HA.

New functionality

• Hydraulic radius (HR) values are now automatically calculated when drawing closed poly-lines on a plane. Two HR-values are calculated, a plan view HR as well as the HR on the selected plane - see discussion below.

• "Ribbon => Drillhole => Other actions => Mapping discs" now contains two options:

• "Mapping from dip and dip-direction" is a new addition that create mapping files from structural logging where the Dip and DipDirection values were already calculated from Alpha and Beta angles.

• "Mapping from Alpha and Beta" that existed in previous versions and calculate the dip and dip-directions from the structurally logged Alpha and Beta angles.

• Loading CSV-files with thousand's separators previously caused reading errors, but is now automatic accommodated.

• Fly around in the scene by placing the mouse cursor on the object of interest and press the "f"-button on the keyboard.

• "Ribbon => Mesh => Scalar bar settings => Text" change the font size of colour bars in the scene for better report screenshots.

• "Ribbon => Mesh => Save DXF-file => Burn colours" could previously only burn a maximum of 10 colours to meshes, but can now burn up to 99 colours. Each colour becomes a new object, so use the freedom wisely.

Changes

• The annoying pop-up request to select the saving of either a Binary or ASCII-file when creating new toolbox objects were removed. Now ribbon checkbox selection "Ribbon => Mesh => Save DXF-files => Binary files" is now used to determine the save type. The default selection is ASCII, which is slower to read and write, but compatible with other mine design software packages.

• Changes were made to the legend colour bars in the scene for better text visibility.

Bug fixes

• Minor formatting errors when creating drill hole files were corrected - fixed.

• "Ribbon => Image => Load an import files => Wavefront OBJ" caused errors when the JPG-file had the same name as the OBJ-file - fixed.

• Mouse events do not always release, and a second click is sometimes required to release an event. This still occur occasionally and is a work in progress, as not that simple to accommodate for all circumstances - partially fixed.

• Various stability improvements - fixed.

• Additional error messages were added to explain some behaviours - fixed.

• "Ribbon => Drillhole => Collar => Text scale" showed "Elevation" instead of "DHid" as text in the scene (Version 1.7.4.4) - fixed.

Discussion: Calculating the hydraulic radius (HR) of any arbitrary shape

Various HR-parameters are now automatically calculated under the following circumstances.

Step 1:

Check the "Top toolbar => Yellow ruler icon => Digitise poly lines => Selection form => Closed measure line" checkbox. This option automatically close poly-lines when the right mouse button is clicked to conclude the poly-line.

Step 2:

Select one of the following two modes:

• "Left toolbar => Square icon" which indicates snapping to a plane based on the clipping selection. In this mode, all objects in the scene is ignored and the snapping occurs onto the displayed gray plane.

• "Right toolbar => Clipping => Type and widget => Lines - Number => 1". Any clipping orientation is possible, as long at the clipping is in "Lines: mode and a single line selected.

Step 3:

All poly-lines drawn with "Top toolbar => Yellow ruler icon => Digitise poly lines" will automatically be closed when pressing the right mouse button. In the example below, the digitised line is a thick blue cylinder for visibility. The plan and on-plane HR-parameters are displayed in the "Comments" textbox as shown below. The clipping section was taken at an angle using the "Camera" selection mode.