The Draw Contours command got a big makeover in version 7.1. There are two major changes to contours: saved contours, and contours in Define.
Saved Contours
I’ve mentioned before that version 7 introduced the ability to save graphs, so you don’t have to keep changing the parameters and re-selecting nodes as you explore different aspects of an analysis’ results.
Now Draw Contours gets the same functionality: saved contours.
The basic functionality is the same–pick your parameters, ranges and shading options–but now all those properties are saved and given a name, and a simple click on another saved contour in the list will update your drawing.
Contour Toolbar
To simplifiy it more, we’ve also added a Contour Toolbar. After using Draw Contours to save the contours you want, you can switch between them right from the toolbar.
Contours in Define
Until now the Draw Contours command has always been a way of looking at the results, at the computed data.
With version 7.1, Draw Contours also shows up in the menu in Define, and lets you plot contours of the definition data.
Here’s a SLOPE/W analysis in Define view, showing the pore water pressures it got from its parent analysis.
This is a very powerful tool to help you determine if you have properly defined an analysis before solving it. Besides contouring things like pore water pressure, you can also contour material properties such as C and Phi.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
mike jorgensen 05.11.08 at 6:21 pm
Nice addition to contouring. However, I do not see a way to add custom contours or do contouring of concentrations using the log[concentration]. I often want to add a contour corresponding to a contamiant guideline value or see 0.1 mg/L, 1 mg/L, 10 mg/L, etc. I do not see a way to do this.
I tried creating seperate contour intervals (say 0.01 to 0.1 at 0.01 intervals and another set from 0.1 to 1 at 0.1 interval), but I could not plot both at the same time. Any ideas/workarounds?
Nate 05.16.08 at 9:56 am
Thanks for the comment, Mike. I’ve never heard of anyone asking for contours of log values, though that surprises me because it’s a very reasonable request! I’ve logged it as a feature request so hopefully it will show up one of these days.
All I can think of for a workaround is to use an Add-In. Add-Ins can compute their own data which is then available for contouring and graphing. You could likely write an Add-In that simply gets the concentration value, then writes out its log value. Seems like a rather heavyweight solution to what should be a simple problem, but it’s the best I can come up with.
More information about writing Add-Ins is at http://www.geo-slope.com/support/geostudio2007/sdk.aspx.
I’m not sure what you mean by adding “custom contours”. Can you elaborate?
Rafael 12.11.08 at 10:37 pm
Hi Nate, this is not my original post, but I guess Mike is asking about a possibility of defining our own values for the contours. For example, have contours of only a list of given numbers, let’s say contours of Y-Eff=1, 2, 3, and 5 and 6kPa (Skipping 4kPa).
Nate 12.12.08 at 9:22 am
Good point. I’ll log that as a feature request as well. Seems like a reasonable wish.