Documentation for Visual Groundwater
Visual Groundwater is accompanied by a comprehensive user's manual containing easy-to-follow instructions and a step-by-step tutorial. Free technical support is
provided by phone, fax or email.
Visual Groundwater Hardware Requirements
- PC Pentium, 133 MHz
- 32 MB RAM
- 25 MB free disk space
- SVGA display and mouse
- Windows 95/98/2000/NT
Visual Groundwater can also use modeling results from any other modeling package that is provided in ASCII (X, Y, Z) format.
 With Visual Groundwater you are not required to perform any complicated data manipulations to get the modeling results you need. Simply load the Visual MODFLOW file
into the VGW Converter and your Visual Groundwater input files are automatically created for you. It really is that easy!
and the simulation results:
- water table elevation,
- heads,
- drawdowns,
- concentrations, and
- pathlines.
In addition, Visual Groundwater will animate transient (time-variant) simulations to show fluctuations due to seasonal precipitation, drawdown due to pumping,
and synchronized particle tracking and contaminant plume migration.
Visual Groundwater has the unique capability to import ALL the data files for Visual MODFLOW modeling projects.
This means that in Visual Groundwater, you can easily create 3-D graphic images of:
- both the model input parameters,
- boundary conditions,
- pumping and observation wells, and
- hydraulic conduct. property zones.
Display Configurations in Visual Groundwater
Visual Groundwater now allows you to save the display configuration. This new feature stores all the display settings (including animation and rotation) so that you
can simply reload the configuration file and your Visual Groundwater data files will be automatically reloaded and the display settings will be automatically re-created (including rotation and animation settings). This feature
is very important as it saves you time by eliminating the repetitive steps involved in re-creating the views that you previously constructed.
Printing in Visual Groundwater
Visual Groundwater prints the displayed image to any printer or plotter supported by Windows or exports the screen image to a .GIF graphics file.
3-D Visualization of Modeling Results in Visual Groundwater
 Object Colors/Transparency in Visual Groundwater
The selected colors and the color scale of each shape,
slice and isosurface can be easily customized and saved for repetitive applications. Visual Groundwater uses the full range of RGB colors and provides complete control over the
color fill gradient and parameter values associated with each color. Each object can also be assigned an adjustable level of transparency for displaying depth or for overlapping slices and isosurfaces.
 Animation and Rotation in Visual Groundwater
One of the most visually impressive features of VGW is the
ability to automatically rotate the 3-D display around any or all of the axes while it animates time-varying data from multiple data sets. Even when the display is animating, the
VGW interface remains completely interactive so you can continue to adjust the settings, add and remove objects, and change rotation direction.
 Isosurfaces in Visual Groundwater
3-D isosurfaces can be easily created to represent spatially distributed scalar data/ continuous zones within the site domain. Multiple isosurfaces can be used to depict
the extent and location of different concentration levels of the same plume or used to plot locations of different contaminant species. Overlapping isosurfaces are accommodated by adjusting the transparency levels or by
customizing the color scheme.
 Contour Display Option
Visual Groundwater offers a complete selection of options
for customizing the display features of the contours including:
- Contour line color and thickness
- Contour intervals (regular increments, customized values and log scale)
- Contour line colors scaled according to contour value
- Solid color fills between contour lines
- Clipping values for color shading to eliminate high/low values from being plotted
 Slices
Planar slices can be used to create cross-sectional views
through the site domain along any axis and at any angle or orientation. All slices can be used to show color-shaded and/or line contours for any scalar data. Commonly-displayed scalar data includes soil lithology,
water levels (heads and drawdown), soil and groundwater chemistry, hydraulic conductivity zones, etc. In addition, arrows and streamlines can be plotted on a slice to represent vector data such as groundwater flow velocities
and directions.
The latest version of Visual Groundwater also now allows you to plot and compare multiple scalar
values on the same slice (e.g., heads vs. concentrations or concentration of TCE vs. concentration of DCE).
 Discrete Data Points in Visual Groundwater
Discrete data is displayed using labels and colored shapes such as cubes, spheres, or tetrahedrons. These shapes can be adjusted in both size and color to reflect the
parameter value associated with each object. The figure shows groundwater sampling locations at a site where the shapes are colored according to the measured concentration at that location.
 Overlaying Site Maps in Visual Groundwater
To provide a familiar point of reference, detailed site maps
can be imported from AutoCAD DXF format files or USGS format and projected overtop the site domain as 2-D objects on a slice or 3-D planar objects draped on an irregular
surface. Additional labeling of site characteristics or figures is accomplished using the annotation function with standard text features.
Graphical Display Features in Visual Groundwater
Once the Visual Groundwater input data files have been loaded, you will immediately begin to
realize the advantages of true 3-D visualization and animation. The many powerful graphical features and easy-to-use display controls of Visual Groundwater allow you to easily create, customize and display colorful,
three-dimensional images and animations of subsurface characteristics and dynamic processes.
 Creating Visual Groundwater Input Data Files
Once all the borehole data has been entered into the
Groundwater Data Management System, you can run the conversion program to translate the data into Visual Groundwater input files. The Groundwater Data Management System will run a powerful groundwater data interpolation
program called GW Process and create a 3-D Visual Groundwater data set containing information such as: monitoring station locations, borehole lithology, soil chemistry, layer thickness, layer elevations, groundwater
elevations, and groundwater chemistry. The Natural Neighbor interpolation method contains a powerful algorithm specifically designed for graceful treatment of missing or anomalous data points
from three-dimensional, sparsely located data. This interpolation method is proven to be extremely effective for handling the type commonly encountered in subsurface investigations.
 Groundwater Data
The groundwater data contains measured groundwater levels
and/or groundwater concentrations at selected sampling locations at specified times. Each sampling location can have measured groundwater data for multiple depths, and each sample depth can have been measured groundwater
concentration for multiple contaminants.
The groundwater level data can be used to depict and animate the head contours along a vertical or horizontal slice.
The groundwater chemistry data can be used to plot multiple 3-D isoconcentration plumes depicting
the extent and volume of the groundwater contamination or plot vertical and horizontal slices through the site depicting the contamination ``hot spots."
 Soil Lithology in Visual Groundwater
The soil lithology data contains information on the
subsurface locations of discreet geologic or hydrogeologic units (e.g., Sand and Gravel Unit, Clay Unit, Silt Unit, etc.) which have been identified at your site. The soil lithology
data can be used to produce three-dimensional images of selected units or plot vertical cross sections of soil lithology units using a customizable color scheme for each unit.
The data input forms are easy to use and flexible so you can enter information for each borehole individually or enter the data using a table containing all
boreholes. A built-in data import utility makes it easy to get data in from existing database files or spreadsheets.
Soil Chemistry in Visual Groundwater
The soil chemistry data contains measured soil concentrations at selected sampling locations.
Each sampling location can have measured soil concentrations for multiple depths, and each sample depth can have measured soil concentrations for multiple contaminants.
The soil chemistry data can be used to plot multiple 3-D isoconcentration plumes depicting the
extent and volume of the soil contamination or plot vertical and horizontal slices through the site depicting the contamination ``hot spots."
Monitoring Station Locations in Visual Groundwater
The monitoring station location data includes the name of the station, a
description, the status of the station (active/inactive), and the associated X-Y location coordinates.
 The Groundwater Data Management System in Visual Groundwater
Visual Groundwater now comes with a comprehensive groundwater data management system for storing and processing borehole investigation data. The VGW
Groundwater Data Management System is a customized database system specifically configured for storing and managing common borehole data including: monitoring station locations, borehole lithology, soil chemistry,
groundwater elevations, and groundwater chemistry.
 Converting Visual MODFLOW Modeling Projects
The VGW Converter will read and interpret Visual MODFLOW groundwater modeling projects and convert into Visual Groundwater input files. Simply load the Visual
MODFLOW project file (filename.vmf), and the Visual Groundwater Data Converter will automatically search and load all related input data files and modeling results files.
You can then select which of the available input parameters (active zones, K zones, boundaries, pumping wells and observation wells) and output parameters
(heads, drawdowns, water table, concentrations, and pathlines) to convert into Visual Groundwater input format. The converter files will retain the same grid dimensions and grid discretization as the modeling project.
Data Input and Processing - The Visual Groundwater Data Converter
In order to maximize the advanced 3-D graphical rendering capabilities, Visual Groundwater utilizes a proprietary data storage format that allows easy access
and fast retrieval of complex, spatial and temporal data. The Visual Groundwater Data Converter (VGW Converter) which is included with Visual Groundwater automatically creates the required Visual Groundwater input files from
either:
- Visual MODFLOW modeling project files,
- Random X, Y, Z data, or
- Borehole investigation data (e.g., soil stratigraphy, groundwater elevation data, and soil and groundwater chemistry).
Visual Groundwater Tour
Powerful 3-D Visualization and
Animation
 Converting Random X, Y, Z Data in Visual Groundwater
The VGW Converter will read and interpret random or gridded ASCII (X,Y, Z) data files in tab, comma, space or semicolon delimited formats. They can contain
transient/steady-state data (sec, min, days or years) and any number of data columns or fields containing scalar or vector data.
Visual Groundwater - 3-D visualization and animation of site data and modeling results
Visual Groundwater Categories: visualization software, civil engineering
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