Issue 57

Easily Change the Properties of All Objects with a Specific ID Value

Being able to apply certain properties to all objects with a particular ID value (or range of values) is a very powerful tool in Didger 3. For example, you can import a long list of well locations to display as points over your map, and then assign symbol properties to those points (such as symbol shape or color) based on a numeric or text value contained in the data file (such as the type of well). Alternatively, you can digitize an entire geologic map as a series of polygons, and then select all polygons in a certain formation and assign the same properties to all those polygons at once.

This saves you enormous time by allowing you to assign all properties for a group of objects at once instead of having to select each one individually to change the properties or set the properties manually before digitizing each item.

This article will walk though an example of importing a data file defining thousands of well locations and assigning the properties of the point symbols based on the type of well. To do this, follow the steps outlined below:

1. Create or obtain a data file containing the coordinates of the wells in addition to a column of data defining the type of well it is. Excel can be used to create the data file, as shown in this example.

Create or obtain a data file containing
well coordinates and the type of well.
2. Go to File | Import, select the data file, and click Open.
3. In the Import Data File dialog box, select the appropriate X coordinate and Y coordinate fields and choose the ID field to import. Be sure not to check Create Post Map at the bottom. Click Import.

Choose the X and Y coordinate fields, assign the field
containing the well type as the Primary ID, and click Import.
4. In the Define Import Options dialog box, select the appropriate Coordinate Space Type (and Map Projection Parameters if applicable), choose the correct Input Data Units, and click OK.

Set the appropriate coordinate system parameters and click OK.
5. All the data points are imported with the same symbol.

The entire data set is imported and each point in the data set uses the same symbol properties.
6. Go to Edit | Criteria Select.
7. In the Criteria Select dialog, choose Selection Type = Data Attributes, Data Field = Primary ID, and Condition = “=”. For the Value, type in the ID value of the first group you’d like to change, whether it is a numeric value or a text string. For this example, I will choose to enter “DH”. Click Select. At the bottom of the dialog, it will tell you how many items have been selected.

Choose to select all objects with a
specific Primary ID value and click Select.
8. Click Close.
9. All the objects that have a Primary ID of “DH” have been selected. Right click anywhere over the selection box in the Plot Window and go to Properties.

Right click over the selection and go to Properties.
10. Change the Symbol Properties to be whatever you want, and click OK.

Choose the desired symbol properties for
the selected group and click OK.
11. Repeat Steps 6-10 for all the different types of wells existing in your data file.


Repeat using Edit | Criteria Select until you have set the properties you want for all your well types.