Data Format Specification

Visual Geobase uses a database format loosely based on a Surpac Vision database format. There are some specific differences in terms of required fields and required tables, but Surpac can read a Visual Geobase database without modification, but not vice versa without adding a few required fields.

In most cases if a required table or field is not present, Visual Geobase will attempt to create the table or field. For this reason it is preferable for the primary user of Visual Geobase to have administrator rights on the target database.

The Visual Geobase data base format specification is flexible and tables and fields can be added as required. Visual Geobase scans the database when connecting or refreshing the database and determines the type of tables that are present by looking at the required fields present in the table, i.e. an interval table will have a Project,Hole_ID, From and To fields, and then any number of user defined fields.

Consistency in naming fields is required, so it is strongly recommended that creation of tables and fields is done using the database functions within Visual Geobase, to ensure the naming convention is followed.


Tip: Probably the quickest and easiest way to create a database is to first create a Generic Geological Database using the template within Visual Geobase and then modify that database to suit your needs. (File-Create New Database-Create Generic Geological Database). This will create a Microsoft Access Database in .mdb (2000) format. If you are using a difference database type such as SQL Server, MySQL or other, import the MSAccess database into the target database format using one of the many import programs available. MySQL , SQL Server etc


Specification

General

Required table and field names are managed using : Tools-Options on the main menu.

Any names may be used for most of the required tables and fields, but the must be consistent throughout the database.

Some tables however have fixed names and are required to exist. Visual Geobase will try to create these tables if they are not found.

Table names and field names with spaces or other non alphanumeric characters are not advisable.

NB. Take note of the key fields required.

Borehole names and sample number are UNIQUE to a project.

Required Fields

All data tables are required to have the following fields:

  • Project
  • DateModified
  • ModifiedBy

The sample number field name must be consistent across all tables.

Required Tables

Collar

This table is the primary borehole table (can be called Header,Boreholes etc)

Required Fields:

dbspec1.jpg
survey

The table contains collar (at depth 0) and downhole surveys.

Required Fields:

dbspec9.jpg
LoggingCodes (fixed name)

The table contains the code translation dictionaries

Required Fields:

dbspec3.jpg
Standards (fixed name)

The table contains the accepted values for CRMs

Required Fields:

dbspec4.jpg
ValidationErrors (fixed name)

The table contains validation errors encountered

Required Fields:

dbspec5.jpg
AssayResults (fixed name)

The table contains imported assay results

Required Fields:

dbspec6.jpg
SubmittedControls (fixed name)

The table contains the submitted CRMs and sample numbers

Required Fields:

dbspec7.jpg
SubmittedDuplicates (fixed name)

The table contains the submitted duplicates and replicates and associated sample numbers

Required Fields:

dbspec8.jpg
Sections (fixed name)

The table contains section positions and plotting characteristics. (this is not fully implemented as yet)

Required Fields:

dbspec10.jpg

Interval Tables

An interval table can contain any sort of downhole data such as sampling, geology, geophysics etc. They can have any name provided the following fields are present.

Required Fields:

dbspec11.jpg

Point Tables

These contain downhole data that doesn't have a thickness, such as most geophysical data. They can have any name provided the following fields are present.

Required Fields:

dbspec12.jpg

Example Database Specifications

The table and field names below will create a Surpac compatible database.

dbspec2.jpg

The table and field names below will create an AusIMM CoalLog compatible database.

dbspec13.jpg
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