OpendTect User Documentation version 4.2
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Chapter 2. Getting started

Table of Contents

2.1. System overview
2.2. Toolbars
2.3. Mouse Controls: Scenes & graphical interaction
2.4. Color Tables
2.5. General selection window
2.6. 2D Viewer

2.1. System overview

OpendTect contains several commercial and non-commercial plugins that have their own menus/icons/toolbars. Commercial plugin tools appear on the main window if the licenses are available. The main user interface is shown below. The interface is comprised of main menu bar, several toolbars (OpendTect, Graphical, Tracking, Color Table etc), a tree scene control, and a 3D scene. Within the user interface, a scene contains the displayed data and data is loaded as an element of the tree. The important toolbox is an attribute set window, which is used to define seismic attributes as an attribute set. Such set can then be used to display attributes on-the-fly, or to create an attribute output. The attribute set can also be combined to generate a Meta-attribute. Meta-attributes can be predicted by using Neural Networks, mathematical manipulations and/or logical operations. ChimneyCube, SaltCube, FaultCube are our Patent Meta-attributes.

OpendTect main user interface including commercial plugins

OpendTect can be used amongst others:

To do seismic data interpretation.
To create advanced single-attribute cubes.
To filter the seismic data.
To track and filter horizons
To combine attribute and filter responses by math and logic (IF..THEN..ELSE, ..AND.., ..OR.. etc.)
As a platform to develop new applications or plug-ins.

Projects in OpendTect are associated with a seismic survey, which must be defined at the start (File - Survey). The survey specifications define the geographical boundaries of the study area and the relationship between inline/cross-line and X/Y co-ordinate system. Seismic data is loaded from external sources (e.g. SEGY) into OpendTect's CBVS (Common Binary Volume Storage) format.

An important thing to remember is that OpendTect works with an active attribute set (You can auto-load an attribute-set which will be active the next time you open the survey. Do the following: open an attribute set window, then select File > Autoload Attribute set). Only attributes in the current active set can be used to make displays. You must select an existing attribute set or create a new one before you can apply attributes. If you wish to test a different attribute or, in case you simply wish to change the parameters of an attribute, you can do so by modifying the current attribute set.

Interactive testing of attributes is a key benefit of OpendTect. Attributes and input data can be visualized in multiple graphic windows ("scenes") using multiple plane viewers (inline, crossline, randomline, Z-slice). Each scene has its own graphic tree that controls the elements that can be switched on/off. The plane viewer dimensions can be re-sized to reduce calculation times. The attribute specification window supports a direct application mode for fast testing of attribute parameters. Press the "Swift" icon

to apply the current attribute to the currently selected active element. Up to eight different attributes can be displayed in one element (inline, crossline, 2D line, Z-slice, randomline)

2.1.1. Multi-Threading Programming

A thread of execution is the smallest unit of processing that can be scheduled by an operating system. It generally results from a fork of a computer program into two or more concurrently running tasks. The implementation of threads and processes differs from one operating system to another, but in most cases, a thread is contained inside a process.
Multithreading allows multiple threads to exist within the context of a single or multiple process. These threads share the process' resources (such as memory) but are able to execute independently.

OpendTect uses the power of multithreading to run different applications in visualization, processing etc ..
Seismic attributes are examples among other. Not all attributes use the power of multithreading, only trace to trace attributes (E.g Similarity, Energy).
Attributes which cannot be used for multi-threading are: Instantaneous Seismic Attributes(Hilbert transform), Mathematics (recursive), Convolve (from wavelet), Delta Resample, Frequency Filter, Frequency, MatchDelta, Scaling (AGC+Detrend), Shift attributes, Spectral Decomposition, Gap Deconvolution.

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Acknowledgement		Toolbars