OpendTect User Documentation version 3.2
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Chapter 2. Getting started

Table of Contents
2.1 System overview
2.2 User interaction

2.1. System overview

OpendTect is a powerful, seismic attribute processing and visualization system. Even though OpendTect is a very sophisticated tool, the modern UI and defaults ensure that experts and non-experts alike can use it.

The main toolbox is the attribute engine, which works with attribute sets. Attributes in the same set may use different input volumes, they may be calculated on-the-fly, or are retrieved from stored intermediate cubes.

The attributes in an attribute set are usually combined into a set to create Meta-attributes. In OpendTect, meta-attributes are created through mathematical manipulations and/or logical operations.

OpendTect main window including commercial plugins

OpendTect can be used, amongst others, to:

Create advanced single-attribute cubes
To filter the seismic data
To combine attribute and filter responses by math and logic (IF..THEN..ELSE, ..AND.., ..OR.. etc.)
And of course as a platform to develop new applications or plugins

To interpret the results, OpendTect supports a range of data manipulation and visualization tools.
Projects in OpendTect are associated with a seismic survey, which must be defined at the start (File - Survey). The survey specifications define the geographical boundaries of the study area and the relationship between inline/cross-line and X/Y co-ordinate system. Seismic data is loaded from external sources (e.g. SEGY) into OpendTect's CBVS (Common Binary Volume Storage) format.

An important thing to remember is that OpendTect works with an active attribute set (But you can use Attibute set > File > Autoload Attribute set to enable and select an attribute set which will be active the next time you open the survey). Only attributes in the current active set can be used to make displays. You must select an existing attribute set or create a new one before you can apply attributes. If you wish to test a different attribute or, in case you simply wish to change the parameters of an attribute, you can do so by modifying the current attribute set.

Interactive testing of attributes is a key benefit of OpendTect. Attributes and input data can be visualized in multiple graphic windows ("scenes") using multiple plane viewers (Inline, Crossline, Time). Each scene has its own graphic tree that controls the elements that can be switched on and off. The plane viewer dimensions can be resized to reduce calculation times. The attribute specification window supports a direct application mode for fast testing of attribute parameters. Press the "Swift" icon

to apply the current attribute to the currently selected active element. Up to eight different attributes can now be displayed in one element (inline, crossline, timeslice)

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Acknowledgement		User interaction