Drag and Drop

Files can be dragged from your file manager or desktop straight onto the Spatial Integration window. You can drag one file or many at once.

Where you drop the files decides what they are used 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 what it is. While you drag over the window, the target under the pointer is outlined in blue and a label beside the cursor says exactly what will happen when you let go, so read it before releasing the button. If nothing is highlighted, nothing under the pointer accepts that kind of file.

Dropping on the 3D view

This is the quickest way to get data in. Each file is opened and inspected, not just judged by its extension, and handed to the loader that 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 existing elevation surface, or create a new elevation surface if there is none.
• Images that are georeferenced are added as an overlay to an existing surface. Images without georeferencing open the Place Image dialog so you can place them by hand.
• 3D models and meshes open the Model loader. To load a file as a 3D shape instead, drop it on the Load 3D Shape... button in the Asset flyout.
• Point clouds (LAS and LAZ) are loaded as point cloud layers. See Point Clouds.
• LineDB files are loaded as LineDB layers. See LineDB.
• CSV and other delimited text opens Import to LineDB, set up to import scattered points.
• GIS files are loaded as vector layers with default settings.

Guessing is not always possible: some extensions are shared 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 says Spatial Integration could not tell what to do with it, drop it on the icon or button for the kind of data you want instead.

Dropping on the panel icons

Dropping on an icon in the left panel tells Spatial Integration what kind of data the file is.

Dropping on the flyout buttons

Hover over an icon to slide its flyout out, then 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 LineDB ..., Import to LineDB ..., Open DrillDB ..., Import Drill Data ..., Load Point Cloud ..., Load Volume ..., Load 3D Shape... and Load Model....

You can also drop files onto an existing surface layer in the Surface flyout, which adds each one to that surface as a height source or an image overlay.

In the right-hand panel, grids can be dropped onto Imaging... and Grid Maths... in the Data Processing flyout to open them in the Imager or Grid Maths (Professional edition only).

Dropping into dialogs

Anywhere a dialog has a file path box, you can drop a file on it instead of browsing. This includes the GIS, Import to LineDB, 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.

The Surface dialog goes further: the whole Height Sources tab is a drop target for elevation grids, and the whole Image Sources tab is a drop target for imagery, so a file becomes the right kind of source simply by which tab is open.

Notes

• A few loaders take one file at a time: volumes, LineDB imports and images placed by hand. If you drop several, the first is used and the log says so.
• Files 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.