Files can be dragged from the operating system’s file manager or desktop straight onto the Spatial Integration window. One or many files can be dragged at once.
Where you drop the files determines what they are for. Dropping a raster on the Height Sources tab of a surface makes it a height source; dropping the same file on the 3D view lets Spatial Integration work out for itself what it is. While a drag is over the window, the target under the pointer is outlined in blue and a label at the cursor says exactly what will happen when the button is released — read it before letting go. If nothing highlights, no target under the pointer accepts that kind of file.
Dropping on the 3D view
This is the quickest way to get data in. Every file is inspected — not just by its extension, but by opening it — and handed to whichever loader fits:
- SEGY files and GeoTiffs written by Spatial Integration’s SEGY import become seismic curtains. See SEGY Seismic Sections.
- Volume files open the Volume loader.
- Height grids are added to the the existing elevation surface, or create a new elevation surface if there is none.
- Images that are georeferenced are added as an overlay to an exisitng surface; images that don’t have registration infomration open the georegister dialog so you can place them by hand.
- 3D models and meshes open the Model loader. To load as an Asset, drop them directly on the Load 3D Shape… menu.
- CSV and other delimited text goes to the Point Manager.
- GIS files are loaded as vector layers using their default settings.
Guessing is not always possible: some extensions are used by several formats, and some GIS formats look enough like a 3D model to be loaded as one. If a file ends up in the wrong place, or the log reports that Spatial Integration could not tell what to do with it, drop it on the icon or button for the data type you want instead.
Dropping on the panel icons
Dropping on an icon in the left flyout specifies what kind of data the file is.
Icon |
What a drop does |
|---|---|
| Surface | Works out whether each file is a height grid, an overlay, an image to place, or SEGY, and acts accordingly |
| GIS | Loads each file as its own layer with default settings |
| Points | Opens the Point Manager with the file ready to import |
| Volume | Opens the Volume loader with the file selected (Professional license only) |
| Asset | Opens the Model loader with the files selected. To load as an Asset, drop them directly on the Load 3D Shape… menu |
Dropping on the flyout buttons
Hover over an icon to slide the flyout out, and drop onto a specific button to open that loader with the files already filled in — New Elevation Surface, Place Image …, Load SEGY …, Load GIS …, Load Volume …, Load Point Data …, 3D Shape and Model.
Files can also be dropped onto an existing surface layer in the Surface flyout, which adds each one to that surface as a height source or an image overlay.
Dropping into dialogs
Anywhere a dialog has a file path box, a file can be dropped on it instead of browsing. This includes the GIS, Point, Volume, Asset, SEGY import and drillhole import dialogs. For the drilling loaders — collar, survey and downhole data — the dropped file also sets the CSV or GIS mode to match what was dropped.
The Surface dialog goes further: the whole of the Height Sources tab body is a drop target for elevation grids, and the whole of the Image Sources tab body is a drop target for imagery, so a file lands as the right kind of source simply by which tab is open.
Notes
- A few loaders work on one file at a time — volumes, point datasets and images placed by hand. Drop several and the first is used, and the log says so.
- Files that a target does not accept are ignored, and any file that could not be opened is reported in the log at the bottom of the window.