GMS

Converting External 3D Materials to 3D Grid Materials

By aquaveo on June 30, 2021

For your 3D grid project in GMS, do you have material data from a 3D mesh or other geometry that was created in an application other than GMS? It is possible to import this data into GMS and attach it to your 3D grid using a method which involves creating solids that GMS can use to assign materials. This is done by importing the data as boreholes and creating solids from them. This post will review how you can take the material data from a 3D mesh and transfer it to a 3D grid in GMS.

To do so, do the following steps:

First, you will need to import the material data as Borehole data into GMS.
You will then need to create horizons for these boreholes. Go to Boreholes | Auto-Assign Horizons.
In the Auto-Assign Horizons dialog, choose Start from scratch, then click Run. The Horizon Optimizer dialog will appear. This step will take a while to complete.
When complete, click "Read solution on exit" and click OK to close out of the dialog.
Once the Horizons are defined, click Boreholes | Auto-Create Blank Cross Sections.
Once blank cross sections exist, click Boreholes | Auto-Fill Blank Cross Sections.
In the Auto-Fill Blank Cross Sections dialog, select what should be matched from the auto-fill options based on the needs of the project.

Cross sections created from borehole data

Create a new coverage, just using the defaults should be fine in most cases.
Using the Plan View and the Create Arc tool, create a closed arc surrounding all of the boreholes.
Select Feature Objects | Build Polygons, to turn this closed arc into a polygon. You might also want to use the Redistribute Vertices command on the arc if needed.
Turn this polygon into a TIN by using Feature Objects | Map → TIN to define the desired boundary of the solid.
Finally, create solids from the boreholes by selecting Boreholes | Horizons → Solids. This will bring up the Horizons to Solids dialog where you can choose your desired settings.
The solids can then be used to classify the materials zone in place of the mesh.
If the solids are needed in another project, you can highlight one or more of the solids in the Project Explorer, right-click, and Export them as a *.sol file.

Try out using this workflow to add data to your projects in GMS 10.5 today!

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GMS

How to Troubleshoot Graphics Card Issues and Display Issues

By aquaveo on June 23, 2021

Out of all the potential issues that can come up, display issues can be some of the most annoying. Display issues can come from individualized hardware configurations, display settings, operating system and software versions which makes solving these issues not as simple as a one-size-fits-all approach. This post will review general best practices for troubleshooting these kinds of issues with your graphics card or display.

Some of the most common display issues that can arise with XMS are problems with one or more of the following:

Transparency
Functional surface
Texture mapping
Film loops
Contours

The causes behind display issues can be divided into the following categories:

Issue related to remote desktop or virtual machine
Integrated graphics used instead of discrete graphics
Bug in graphics drivers
Limitation of integrated graphics
Bug in XMS affecting all hardware configurations
Bug in XMS affecting specific hardware configurations

Since hardware configurations vary and operating systems change over time, the information here is a general workflow used for troubleshooting.

Remote and Virtual Machine issues: Check if XMS is being run locally or if a virtual machine/remote desktop is being used to rule out Category A.
Versioning: Go to Help | About to note the XMS version, build date, and graphics library used.
Try to rule out Categories E and F: Run XMS in Software Graphics Mode. If the issue is resolved in Software Graphics Mode, then the issue is related to Categories B - D.
Try to rule out Category B: Go to the Device Manager for the Display Adapter. If the driver information/version for the discrete graphics matches what is shown in Help | About, then XMS is using discrete graphics. If not, go to Step 6 to ensure XMS is using discrete graphics.

Update graphics drivers: Whether or not the system has discrete graphics, updating the graphics driver will solve some display problems. If the machine already has nVidia or AMD software installed, drivers can be updated through those programs. Otherwise, click the “Update Driver” button (shown in the dialog in Step 4) or Google “GraphicsCard Driver Download” using the graphics card model you have in place of GraphicsCard. Exercise caution with the links you click on. Be sure to click on official AMD, nVidia, or computer manufacturer websites. Avoid 3rd party utilities that offer to optimize your system or install adware/spyware.
Set system to use discrete graphics: Change settings to ensure XMS always utilizes discrete graphics. Many systems, especially laptops, default to power saving modes where programs utilize integrated graphics even if the machine has discrete graphics. The way to change these settings varies by machine.
Reporting Bugs: If Categories A - D have been ruled out, determine if the issue is machine-specific. If reproducible, report to tech support.

If you continue to experience display issues, contact Aquaveo's technical support team.

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Tips for Stochastic Modeling in GMS

By aquaveo on June 9, 2021

Groundwater models often need to deal with a fair amount of uncertainty, especially when models have limited calibration data available to them. A stochastic modeling approach can be a useful option for dealing with this uncertainty by running a set of models to estimate the probability of certain outcomes, and GMS provides a few tools and methods to utilize this approach. This post will review some tips and tricks when it comes to stochastic modeling in GMS.

GMS provides three methods for stochastic modeling, using either MODFLOW 2000 or 2005. These are parameter zonation (which can be done either by a random sampling approach or a latin hypercube one), indicator simulations, and the Null Space Monte Carlo (NSMC) method.

When parameterizing a model and identifying which model inputs need to be randomized, aim for parameters with the highest uncertainty. But make sure to not select too many parameters, as having too many selected will require substantially large numbers of model runs to complete to be able to sufficiently explore parameter combinations, and this may become unreasonable. Also make sure that when defining key values to parameter zones, you don’t use values expected to normally occur in MODFLOW input. Negative values typically can accomplish this.

When it comes to indicator simulations, T-PROGS software is generally used to generate either multiple material sets or multiple MODFLOW HUF input sets to be used for stochastic simulation. Keep in mind that only a maximum of five materials can be used with the T-PROGS algorithm. This is an intentionally imposed limitation to keep data processing and user-interface from becoming too complex. While it is a hard limit, it is generally easy to condense borehole data down to five materials or less.

Once the stochastic modeling results have been generated, you can refine the results, either with the Risk Analysis Wizard or by using the Statistical Analysis command on a stochastic folder. The latter will create datasets for the mean, min, max, and standard deviation, which can be visualized by using 3D grid display options.

More information on stochastic modeling in GMS can be found at the Aquaveo XMS Wiki or reviewing the GMS tutorials for stochastic modeling.

Try out using stochastic modeling in GMS today!

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GMS

Refining 3D Grids in GMS

By aquaveo on May 19, 2021

It's common to need to refine part of a grid in your GMS project. For this reason, GMS provides a few tools and methods for refining parts of a grid. This post will review some of the options for refining 3D grids in GMS.

In general, when building a grid in GMS, you don’t want a grid that is too refined, as this will cause issues in the model run. You also do not want a grid that has cells that are too large to pick up vital information from key locations. To solve this, you can refine the grid in key locations.

When generating a 3D grid or unstructured grid (UGrid) from a map coverage, you can use refinement points to refine specific locations. Refinement points require setting the map coverage up to have the Refinement option turned on. Then create points on the map coverage and define those points as refinement points. When converting the map coverage to a grid, the grid will be refined in the area of the points.

With an existing 3D grid, IJK boundaries can be added into the grid to refine an area. You can do this by using the Select i, Select j, or Select k tools to select a row, column, or layer, then right-click and select the Redistribute command. In addition, you can use the Grid | Redistribute layers command to redistribute layers.

If you have an existing UGrid, you can quickly refine the grid on a cell-by-cell basis. You do this by selecting a cell, then right-clicking and selecting the Refine cell command.

The above techniques work well for refining a small area of the grid or when refining grids that are not complex. Again, it is not recommended to overly refine a grid as this often causes issues to appear during the model run. If you do need to refine a large area of the grid, it is recommended to use a child grid.

Try out using the grid refinement tools in GMS today!

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