Leapfrog Geothermal release notes

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• Well Correlation Improvement
• Visualising Block Model Labels in 2D
• Add Plan View & Master Layout to Sections
• MODFLOW: 2.5D USG Support
• TOUGH – Support for Dual Porosity Using MINC
• Enforced Project Backup and Improved Compression
• Project Data Storage Improvements
• Co-ordinates: Project Metadata
• Improve Scene Details Panel
• Change of Default Sign-out Dialogue to Release Seat vs Quit

Major new releases

Single Projects Tab – Phase 2

The second phase of this initiative makes connecting to Central smooth and effortless, particularly if you are working with multiple Central servers. The Central server list and associated features, “go to portal” and “publish”, are now located in a single location which, with a refreshed user interface, makes the Central integration from Leapfrog more intuitive, easier, and quicker to use. Other items that have been changed in this release are:

• Selecting a central project will connect to the server it comes from (auto-connect)
• Central Server selection menu relocated alongside user profile at top right corner
• Projects’ view – now includes the option of grid view
• Updated styling of the server list

Restricted Objects

You may notice some changes in the availability of objects created in a different Leapfrog product to the one you are working in now. These changes are part of longer-term work related to the delivery of Leapfrog functionality.

If you have any questions, please contact your regional representative.

Drilling improvements

Merged Drillhole Sets

In the previous release (2021.1) a major new change was introduced to Leapfrog with the addition of multiple drillhole sets. This opened significant new workflow opportunities for using data of different types in geological models. However, there were still a few modelling situations where data from the additional drilling data sets could not be included, for example, the vein segments required to build a vein must all come from a single table as must the inputs to domained estimation.

In this release, we are pleased to bring you powerful new functionality to overcome these limitations, by allowing you to combine drillhole sets. This simple process is accessed via the New Combined Drillholes option. Any drillhole sets can be combined, with the user specifying which tables to combine, which value or category fields to map together and the priority order to use when combining.

Evaluated Columns on Interval Tables

Evaluate GM categories directly onto interval tables as a new column then use this as a category in set level statistical analysis. A valuable alternative to the use of back-flagging, as it avoids the issue of small intervals that can be created in back-flagging.

This feature provides a valuable alternative to the use of back-flagged tables for analysis of statistics by category at the drillhole set level.

Currently, to break down an assay table by GM category requires the user to create a back-flag evaluation table and merge this with the assay table. Because GM surfaces are interpolated, there are normally small differences between the exact location of a GM boundary in the back-flagged table and the assay interval boundaries.

This can result in the creation of small intervals that break the original assay intervals and the splitting of originally discrete assay intervals between different categories. While the impact on length weighted statistics is usually minimal, it affects the ‘count’ and length and is the cause of frequent enquiries. By evaluating directly onto the mid-points of intervals, the issue of boundary splitting is eliminated.

acQuire link and Smart Refresh performance

The acQuire Link and Smart Refresh have been improved to allow for faster and more seamless reloading of data.

• It is now possible to add multiple assay tables during the set-up of an acQuire drillhole selection, in the same way that multiple geology tables could be loaded.
• acQuire Smart Refresh has been changed to enable you to bypass all the table importer dialogues if no changes are present in the mapping of column names and data types.
• A validation has been introduced that detects whether the individual interval values returned by acQuire Smart Refresh contain any new data. If no new data is present, the table is not loaded to Leapfrog which means that no reprocessing related to that table needs to occur.

Add Trig and Random Number Generator to Calculations

Standard Trig functions have been added to the calculation engine. These enable orientation data to be used in calculations – for example, planar structural data observations from drillholes or mapping, or the local evaluation of a variable orientation.

For Leapfrog users who want to incorporate trigonometric functions into calculations and incorporate pseudo-random numbers modelling and estimation workflows to simulate variability, validate results and produce synthetic data, without needing to export data to and from MS Excel, which breaks Leapfrog’s dynamic workflows.

Import Well Deviation Files

Leapfrog can now import drilling trajectory data in Petrel deviation file format. The trajectory for each well or drillhole is defined in its own deviation file with x,y,z and measured depth columns (space separated) and a header specifying the well name and the top x,y,z location. There is no requirement to have a dip and azimuth measurement to import and render this drilling data. This increases the level of flexibility of the well importer and allows more pathways for data to be imported into Leapfrog from sources where downhole dip and azimuth are not collected.

Vein Modelling improvements

The Leapfrog vein modelling tool provided a ground-breaking but somewhat inflexible workflow for rapid and repeatable modelling of thin, laterally continuous, gently curved structural geometries such as veins and faults.

A whole suite of changes has now been made, that build on the original design to bring an unprecedented new level of flexibility to this already powerful tool. This work has been ongoing over a couple of development cycles.

• Vein Organisation in the Project Tree – Mid-points have been made more discoverable by moving them out from under the Reference Surface tab and placing them at the same level as Vein Segments and Mid-points.
• Mesh From Vein Segment Mid-points – This enables you to create a reference plane with as much complexity as desired, using the advanced editing options available in the meshes folder:
  • Interpolant model type, drift options, sill, nugget and range
  • Trend directions and anisotropy
  • Direct editing with polylines or structural disks
  • Addition of existing points, values, structural data, polylines or GIS vector data
• Sharing Boundary Polylines Across Veins – Until now, vein boundary polylines had to be created separately for each vein. They could be exported but could not be imported. Much more flexibility has now been added to vein boundaries, by making vein boundary polylines shareable through the polylines folder.
• Improved pinch-out behaviour – Previously, if a drillhole did not contain valid logging it was ignored for pinch-out creation, meaning vein models passed straight through drillhole traces. An additional control is provided to the user to choose whether the vein should pinch out on an empty trace (a hole where no lithology has been logged) or continue through it.
• Export/Import of Bulk Vein Edits – it is common that manual editing of vein components is required to produce the vein model you want. Until now, vein edits were only accessible from within thevein model, which made it difficult to recreate a vein from scratch, or even keep a record of edits that had been made. It is now possible to export all user-made vein edits to file, using the Export Vein Edits option on the vein object. This dumps all user made vein edits for segments, midpoints and pinch-outs to a text file.

Central Improvements

Publish Octree and Regular Sub-block Models

Now that we have completed optimisation of the storage underlying our new block model formats, we also publish these models to Central. Both regular and octree block models, along with their evaluations, can now be published for collaboration purposes and web visualisation.

Note: Regular and octree block models will only be visible in Central Portal web visualisation and will not appear in the Central Browser desktop product as this is being phased out.

Publish Imported GM’s

Prior to this release GM’s that were imported from Central into Leapfrog as static GM’s could not be published back to Central. This partly limits Leapfrog <-> Central workflows – in particular the use of imported GM’s to aggregate a final model from separate models that have been split and dispersed into separate ‘working areas.’

You can now publish imported GM’s to Central, removing this limitation and making it possible to view aggregated GM’s in Webviz and available for linked workflows that require the full aggregated GM.

Publish Section Line Work

A key input to Geostudio slope stability models is 2D sectional representations of geology. Cross-sections of three-dimensional Leapfrog geological models can now be published to Central, opening the way for workflow connections into Geostudio slope stability analysis (in development).

Publish Additional Meta Data

Volume attributed objects in Leapfrog (combined models, numeric models, indicator interpolants, distance functions, geological models and refined models and their static variants) now include those attributes when published in Central. This allows those volume attributes to be viewed in Central web visualisation and imported back into Leapfrog.

Proportion weighted resource reports

A new feature has been implemented in Edge resource reports that calculates the proportion of blocks falling inside a reporting volume and uses this proportion to weight the reported tonnage and grade. This ensures that the block model volume reported from within a constraining volume will exactly match the volume of the geometry.

Two temporary columns are written to the block model, storing a category filter and the proportion falling inside the chosen volume. The 3D scene can be filtered by the category filter, displaying only the blocks that meet the filter conditions – providing a quick visual validation.

Slicer Sets

Asymmetric Thick Slice

Many modelling environments require an asymmetric slice through the objects in the 3D scene. For example, in an open-pit mining environment, the modeller will often want to see a certain distance above a bench or flitch height but a different distance below it.

Until now, the thick slice mode of the slicer has been symmetrical. Now, the user can slice asymmetrically, using a different distance back and front of the slice plane.

Slicer Sets

The original Leapfrog slicer revolutionised the navigation of 3D data sets, providing a quick and intuitive way of controlling the visualisation volume using a fluid slicing and sliding motion. Such freedom is invaluable, but in many modelling situations, such as landfills, site remediation or open-pit mining, activity is focussed on pre-defined sets of visualisation planes, which the user needs to be able to return to rapidly.

In this release, we are pleased to bring you a new feature – the ‘slicer set’ – that combine dynamic slicing with pre-defined sets of planes, enabling you quickly, precisely and repeatably locate yourself in space.

Polyline Improvements

General Tool Changes

A new feature has been added to the polyline editor that allows you to ‘snap’ polyline nodes to existing polyline nodes, points, mesh edges or mesh vertices, providing an accurate and predictable way of placing a node. This polyline creation behaviour allows you to be more ‘explicit’ about polyline creation, which is particularly useful when needing to create polylines that interact with engineered structures, such as foundation designs or underground mine openings, or that need to dovetail against existing polylines, such as for creating dig-block outlines.

Extrude Mesh From Closed Polyline

Users have consistently asked for the ability to make simple geometric volumes by triangulation from polylines, without the necessity to create and isosurface an interpolant. Examples include, creating simple foundation geometries, developing ‘cookie cutters’ for clipping solids and the ability to create a dig-block volume from a polyline digitised on a bench surface.

In this release, we are pleased to introduce an easy to use, intuitive new tool allowing users to create mesh volumes by extrusion of polylines.

Octree Model

Add Trig and Random Number Generator to Calculations

For Leapfrog users who want to incorporate trigonometric functions into calculations and incorporate pseudo-random numbers modelling and estimation workflows to simulate variability, validate results and produce synthetic data, without needing to export data to and from MS Excel (which breaks Leapfrog’s dynamic workflows).

Migrate Regular Block Models To N-Tree

In order to harness the performance, functionality and compression that the new octree format allows, regular block models have been converted in the Leapfrog backend to use the octree grid storage structure. The user will see no change to their workflows or data besides benefits from better performance and visualisation, as well as the ability to rotate regular models created in Leapfrog on all three axes which use of the octree structure makes possible.

Storage and Performance Improvements

We have further optimised the new octree block model format to make creating, visualising and processing
octree block models faster as well as reducing Leapfrog project size and improving publishing speeds due to better block model compression.

Enhancement of CSV Sub-Block Importer

A whole raft of improvements has been made to the .csv importer for octree block models making interoperability with Leapfrog easier than ever. The new .csv block model improvements allow regularly sub-divided block models from virtually any external package to be imported, with market-leading ease of use tools such as in-scene visualisation of block centroids, auto-calculated metadata to help guide users, as well as informative messages. Moreover, even if the block model being imported doesn’t perfectly fit a regularly divided octree style structure, it will still import correctly provided the dimensions of the blocks being imported fit within any combination of the minimum defined sub-block size.

• Up to 5x faster importer of large .csv files!
• New auto-parsing and filling in of fields for block models exported from Leapfrog.
• New auto-calculated metadata tab to help guide users on valid settings to enter if they are missing the block model header information.
• New options to define block model dimensions using number of blocks or extents.
• New powerful custom rotation settings allowing import of regularly divided block models from virtually any package as well as arbitrary block models if they closely approximate an octree style grid.
• Support for import of block models with offset rotation origins. Supports model vs. Project centroid space block models.
• New icons to help visually guide users on the meaning of new settings.
• Improved warning messages guiding users on which centroids will be imported /will not be imported/don’t match grid definition but can still be imported.

Maintenance improvements

Change Archiver

Current Central (3.0.2, 3.1.1, 4.0) archiver uses Zpaq. The problem is that as files are compressed for storage in Central the process requires the system to have up to 2x the storage capacity of the original files. A more efficient alternative, namely ZSTD, will provide lossless compression. This HTTP compression can be built into web servers and web clients to improve transfer speed and bandwidth utilisation. Existing project data files in Central will not be unpacked during migration, therefore will continue to be Zpaq packed.

Leapfrog Storage Performance Improvements

Significant gains have been made in improving the storage performance of Leapfrog projects.

The biggest improvement comes from changes to the storage format of image files along with the compression of result arrays, while further optimisations have also been made in the storage of octree models.

Reduction in project size will vary a lot from project to project, depending on the types of data stored. Projects containing large or numerous images, or with large octree block models will benefit most – with testing showing 60-90% reductions in size on disk. Not only does this free up valuable disk space but backing up and publishing projects to Central is much faster.

Geophysical Data handling

Rationalise 3D Geophysical Grid Storage

The previous release of Leapfrog has supported geophysical grids in GoCAD, UBC and MT format. However, each was a separate implementation with different visualisation features and performance. Support for these geophysical formats has now been rationalised with consistent importation, evaluation, and visualisation.

All imported grids are now stored in an optimised internal storage with visualisation improvements in performance, transparency, filtering, subsetting and index slicing. The new grid storage paves the way for publishing of grids to Central for web visualisation. This was a step required to better support Oasis montaj Voxels, and for when we complete the publishing Geophysical Grids to Central.

Import 3D Geosoft Voxels From Dataroom

To allow seamless consumption of Oasis Montaj voxels in Leapfrog, which would allow for the support of geophysical data inputs into geological modelling workflows, Leapfrog now can support the importation of Geosoft voxel grids (.geosoft_voxel file format).

Flow Modelling Improvements

Reservior Simulation Model

Oil and gas reservoir simulators used in the geothermal industry include ECLIPSE (Schlumberger) and STARS (CMG/Computer Modelling Group). ECLIPSE dominates the oil & gas market with around 80% or more of the installed user base.

Leapfrog Geothermal now supports the creation of a Reservoir Simulation Model with a corner point grid geometry being constructed from a parent geological model. The grid geometry supports alignment to faults and surfaces. Numeric models of porosity, permeability, etc., created from well/drillhole data, can be evaluated on to the simulation model grid. The model grid definition and associated numeric model evaluations can be visualised in the scene and then exported in either ECLIPSE or CMG format.

TOUGH

In this release a suite of improvements has been made to Leapfrog’s TOUGH flow modelling workflow:

• A new import dialogue has been provided for TOUGH models combining the specification of input data files into a single step.
• Support for the TOUGH3 file format has been improved, allowing for import of TOUGH3 time-step data, as well as export of models in CSV format.
• Handling of fault geometries in models has been improved so that a new rock type is created for each fault/lithology combination. This allows separate rock type properties to be set for each lithological unit in contact with the fault surface.
• The origin, orientation, grid extent, grid block size and resolution of a Leapfrog structured flow model grid can now be modified, and the associated TOUGH model updated, bringing the behaviour of structured grids into parity with unstructured.
• Structured TOUGH grids (.dat files) created outside of Leapfrog can now be imported, and the matching grid geometry recreated inside Leapfrog. Some limitations on the grid geometries that can be handled apply.

FEFLOW

FEFLOW grid creation has been streamlined with a new wizard that combines the 2D and 3D steps into one. In addition, all grid editing, evaluation and material properties tools have been relocated to a single dialogue on the parent.

Initial contaminant conditions in a FEFLOW model can now be set from numeric models or estimations, using simple workflows for evaluating contaminant concentrations per lithology onto grid centroids or nodes. Prior to this release, estimators couldn’t be used as parameter inputs for initial conditions.

MODFLOW

When modelling several contaminants in a project, users want to apply the contaminants to MODFLOW and FEFLOW grids as initial conditions so that the contaminant concentration and location can be simulated through time. Prior to this release, estimators couldn’t be used as parameter inputs for initial conditions.

Numeric models and estimators can now be used to create initial contaminant conditions with the following:

• Addition of material field to the MODFLOW and FEFLOW material parameter dialogues for Contaminants
• Per lithology – select a contaminant or numeric model or a constant value input.
• Export evaluations as initial conditions. Evaluate numeric models and estimators onto centroids and nodes.

Default behaviour changes

Multiple Deviation Drill Planner

A minor modification has been made to the multiple deviation drill hole planner. Previously, the collar position was not displayed until the first segment was created. Now the collar location is shown as soon as it is created. This immediately gives the user the direction the hole is going after each planned section leaving no guesswork or tedious side calculations.

Seequent Connector

A simpler way to sign in and out of projects is here with Seequent Connector, you’ll only need to enter your credentials once (Single Sign On) and can authenticate and authorise even for access to multiple products in one easy step. The self-updating system tray application allows you to securely sign into Seequent Connector with your Seequent ID, where the ID based licensing service conveniently enables access to the application. Seequent Connector uses your systems default browser, with a tab that appears when you launch Leapfrog (replacing the previous sign-in window). Here you’ll be reminded when new versions are available, and you can check for updates manually.

For organisation network admins, an embedded sign-in browser is no longer shipped with Leapfrog, to ensure that the security of authentication and authorisation is easily controlled by the organisation’s security policies. Watch our introduction video on the Seequent Connector to see what’s new.

Seequent ID

This version of Leapfrog only supports access via Seequent ID which is your identity-based access for more security, flexibility and personalisation.

Single Installer

Distributing Leapfrog 2021.1 just got easier, instead of separate installers for Leapfrog Geo, Edge, Geothermal, Works and Viewer, there is now just one. We’ve made it especially beneficial for network deployment schedules, as the installer is the same across all products and more user-centric depending on your personal/organisation entitlements.

It’s a change that pre-empts more product structure refinements coming in future releases. As more multidisciplinary teams utilise Leapfrog; how the product is built, licenced, and released is evolving. We are making enhancements that create opportunity for dynamically deployed features, functions, and workflow improvements, independent of the regular software cadence.

Single Projects Tab

A Single Projects Tab has been deployed (rather than having to navigate between split tabs for Local and Central based projects). You can now see all projects on one convenient tab, reducing duplicate information, improving consistency in terminology, and better conveying what is required.

Leapfrog Viewer Integration

Within the new deployment structure, Leapfrog Viewer is included as part of the same installer. This means with Seequent ID – including those with no Leapfrog modelling commercial license – you can open and access Viewer scene files. (Rather than having to save scene files, then open Leapfrog Viewer to ensure accurate sharing).

Removal of Leapfrog Support for Upload to View

Over 2021, Seequent View is being actively retired, with its functionality replaced by the Central Visualisation. For this reason, the Show View upload option has been removed from the Settings > User Interface window. After the release of Leapfrog 2021.1, those with Show View upload enabled will no longer have that option when they open projects.

Removal of Help Settings/Offline Help Options

For this release, online help has been migrated from help.leapfrog3d.com to seequent.com. To facilitate this change, the offline help option will no longer be available. As this support is only available in English, the Settings > Help option has been removed.

NEW Geophysical Data Imports

D SEG-Y

Now with the new Import 3D SEG-Y tool you can import 3D SEG-Y data into Leapfrog to guide interpretation and help you visualise this data in the context of your geological model.

This new tool provides an intelligent parsing of SEG-Y files and auto-identifies required coordinate and data fields for most common SEG-Y formats and provides the flexibility for you to choose field locations, coordinate mapping and geo-referencing where required. Now you can:

• Control which in-lines, cross-lines and z-slices to import, in order to keep data storage and memory requirements within Leapfrog in check, with a simple reload workflow to change the choice of slices/lines.
• Digitise interpretation linework directly onto slices, then visualise modelled fault planes and reflector surfaces against other slice data.

2D / 2D CROOKED SEG-Y

Now with the new Import 2D SEG-Y tool you can import 2D planar or crooked SEG-Y data into Leapfrog to guide interpretation and help you visualise this data in the context of your geological model. Bring in historical 2D data sets as well as your newly acquired data. Using the same import interface as the 3D SEG-Y data, the tool provides an intelligent parsing of data files and auto-identifies required data fields where possible, with user over-ride where needed.

What’s new in Leapfrog Geothermal 2021.1

MULTIPLE DRILLING DATASETS

The most major improvement to Leapfrog data management is here. You can now have multiple drill hole data sets in your project. You are no longer limited by needing to import all your drilling data into a single drill hole object.

So many use cases can be envisaged:

• Visualise new drilling in relation to an existing model before appending and triggering changes.
• Connect, display and model with data from different sources.

This functionality enables many new enhancements to workflows including:

• Modelling tools that allow addition of ‘contact points’ from drilling tables (deposit, erosion and intrusion surfaces) can now draw contact points from other drill hole sets.
• Vein segments need to be derived from the same drill hole set / interval table, however contact points from other drill hole sets can be added into vein surfaces using derived (linked) contact points from the points folder.
• Numeric interpolants can make use of values from a second drill hole set, by incorporating these via the points object/derived interval mid-points.
• Drillhole correlations can be made between data from different drill hole data sets.
• Add data from different drill hole sets into section layouts.

In future we plan to extend the functionality of multiple drilling sets by allowing the creation of ‘merged drill holes sets’. This creates new ways to incorporate data from multiple drillhole data sets into models.

REMAPPING DATA TABLES

It is now possible to change the data source for existing drilling data, points tables and structural data tables, and remap these to a new source. Data can be remapped from any source to:

• local CSV file,
• to CSV files located in Central Datastore, or
• to an ODBC data source.

Remapping files to Central Datastore paves the way for dynamic linking of projects to database outputs. Projects using a Central Datastore source can leverage the file versioning and ‘out-of-date’ notification functionality of Central, to ensure timely updating.

DELETING HIDDEN COLUMNS

Delivering more flexibility in the project tree with the option to delete ‘hidden’ columns such as text.

CALCULATIONS AVAILABLE ON DOWNHOLE POINTS TABLES

Work effectively with calculations now added to downhole points tables. Calculations can be performed, or categories defined on data such as LAS measurements from geophysical tools, or CPT data from ground investigations.

FILTER EXPORTED INTERVAL TABLE DATA

When exporting data from interval tables and points tables, it is now possible to filter the export using any of the filters defined for that table or for the parent collar table. Meaning only final filtered values used in model construction can be exported for archiving or further analysis, without the necessity to reproduce complex filters in Excel.

SUB-SET OF CODES RESIDUAL HANDLING

A residual length and handling method can be specified for each separate code, allowing the effective use of variable composite lengths for different code sets.

IMPROVEMENTS TO DRILLING DATA IMPORT FROM CENTRAL

Work more effectively with the new improvements made to importing and reloading drilling data from Central.

• NEW – Import new tables from the Data Room to an existing Central sourced data set.
• NEW – Append data to all tables in a Central sourced drillhole data set in a single pass. The existing behaviour of appending one table at time is still available.
• Options for importing new data columns from Central have been simplified.
• The Reload Data from Central menu options have been reorganised.
• Select multiple polyline or structural data files to import from Central data room using standard Ctrl+click and Shift+click controls.

EXPORT PLANNED DRILLHOLES TO POLYLINE

Simply right-click on your planned drillhole(s) and select Export as Polylines to simplify tasks (such as breakthrough checks) and collaborate more effectively.

• Option to select just some or all planned holes when exporting a planned drillhole group.
• Save each drillhole as a separate layer in the file and name to identify when exporting in DXF / DGN formats.
• For DXF/DGN format, import each drillhole as a separate layer or flatten to load as a single polyline.

IMPORT OF TIME DEPENDENT POINT DATA

‘Import of geophysical points’ has been relocated from the geophysics folder to the points folder and renamed ‘Import time-dependent points’.

CENTRAL IMPROVEMENTS

When publishing to Central, Leapfrog 2021.1 now supports a multi-threaded upload, bringing significant improvement in speed (particularly over high latency connection). This new capability will be automatically enabled once the June release of Central is completed.

Leapfrog Geothermal Point Release 2021.1

The following issues have been resolved: