OpenLogPlot
Plot well logs directly from spreadsheets!
THURSDAY, 18-APR-24
OpenLogPlot User Interface
OpenLogPlot's user interface provides menu options for loading and saving spreadsheets, a
hierarchical tree showing the information read from the Template, Data and View sheets, a table for making run-time edits to those values, and a button to initiate the generation of the well log plot. In addition, a console display allows the user to be alerted to any errors or other information from the program as it runs.
File Menu
The File menu starts with a sub-menu of recently opened files. This is extremely useful when you are repeatedly
opening the same file. The last six files opened are remembered. The filename is prefixed with one of TEMPLATE, DATA, VIEW, OLP* or LAS to indicate its type. Selecting any of these entries immediately loads the file again, assuming it still exists. If it isn't found the Console gives an error message.
The final entry on the sub-menu is "Clear recent..." which removes all recently opened files from the sub-menu.
* An OLP file is a Calc file with three tabs named "Template", "View" and "Data". By loading an OLP file,
you provide OpenLogPlot with all the required information from one file.
The next menu entry is "Open Template..." and opens a file select dialog for you to select a spreadsheet file
which must contain a sheet named Template.
The next menu entry is "Open View..." and opens a file select dialog for you to select a spreadsheet file
which must contain a sheet named View.
The next menu entry is "Open Data..." and opens a file select dialog for you to select a spreadsheet file
which must contain a sheet named Data.
The next menu entry is "Save Data As..." and opens a file select dialog for you to enter a name in which
to save a spreadsheet file populated with the data already loaded into the system. This is particularly useful if you have
loaded data from a LAS file and wish to save it for editing or combining with a suitable Template and View.
The next menu entry is "Open OLP..." and opens a file select dialog for you to select a spreadsheet file
which must contain sheets named Template, View and Data.
The next menu entry is "Import LAS..." and opens a file select dialog for you to select a LAS 2.0 file
which will be read into OpenLogPlot as data. Note that this reader supports positive
and negative depth increments and wrapped or non-wrapped data lines.
Finally, there is the usual Exit entry. Select this to exit OpenLogPlot.
TOP OF PAGEHelp Menu
The Help menu only has two entries: Online Help and About OpenLogPlot. "Online Help" takes you to this website.
"About OpenLogPlot" simply shows the initial spashscreen again. This contains the version number and may include
any relevant licence information, as shown below.
TOP OF PAGETree Hierarchy and Edit Table
As the Template, View and Data sheets are loaded (from separate files or all from one file), OpenLogPlot saves
the contents in a tree heirarchy and displays it on the left of the user interface.
Folder icons indicate nodes in the tree that can be expanded to show sub-content. Thus, in the example above,
the Template contains a Horizontal Grids node that when opened shows five different horizontal grid schemes: FT:STANDARD, M:STANDARD, FT:FINE, M:FINE and AUTO:DEFAULT. Clicking on a leaf node (shown with a document icon) displays the node's values in the Edit
Table in the centre of the display.
The Edit Table allows the user to make temporary changes to the parameters controlling the plot at run time
through the user interface, altering the values loaded from the Template or View spreadsheets.
For instance, if you clicked on the M:FINE horizontal grid leaf node in the Tree Hierarchy, the table would
be as populated as shown above, according to the data read in from the Template sheet. The meaning of each of the
parameters is explained under the Help submenu for the Template Sheet.
TOP OF PAGEView Select Dropdown Menu
When the View Sheet is loaded, in addition to filling the Tree Hierachy, the names of the defined views are
added to the View Select Dropdown menu at the top right of the user interface. Before generating a plot, you select
the view of the data you wish. This controls the depth range, scale and horizontal grid used for the plot. Notice
that, in this example, the view called "LOWER SECTION" has been selected. It has been defined to display data
from 3,100m to 3,700m at a fixed scale of 3000:1. The view uses the "AUTO:DEFAULT" horizontal grid. The depth
display is anonomized, with only the units, tens and hundreds showing.
TOP OF PAGEGenerate Plot Button
Once the Template, View and Data sheets (or LAS file) have been loaded, the Generate Plot botton is enabled.
Clicking on this button will initiate the plot generation. Depending on the amount of data and the complexity of
the plot, this may take some time... 5-30 seconds is normal.
TOP OF PAGEProgress Bar
Reading spreadsheets, importing LAS files and generating the final plot can all take more than a few seconds to
complete. Version 2014-2 introduces a progress bar at the bottom of the OpenLogPlot window. This provides reassuring
feedback that the program is actually doing something. For some tasks the progress cannot be determined and so the
progress bar simply shows that the program is active. For other tasks the percentage complete can be determined and
so in this case the bar shows true progress, as in the case below where we are importing a long LAS file:
TOP OF PAGEExit Button
Guess what?
TOP OF PAGE