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I'm trying to figure out what the best format to serve 3D images inside our company. Specifically georeferenced Tiff's that have been placed in 3d space with Geosoft Montaj. We use ArcMAP extensively but don't want to go the way of the 3D Analyst extension.

We are beginning to store scanned Level Plans and Cross Sections and would like to store them in 3D, but what format? The brass upstairs like using Leapfrog, but from what I can learn, it seems that Leapfrog doesn't like vertically geo-referenecd images. It requires a manual entry of co-ordinates, elevations, and direction. Which isn't exportable afterwards.

I've never used GoCAD before, but our geologists are evaluating it for geological modelling. I've been able to look at it briefly and it's a bit intimidating. Does someone have experience with it and importing 3d images?

So specfically, I'd like to know some people's thoughts who have used these programs for this purpose. Also if there is a good 3d file format to get our data into so that it is as interchangeable as possible. Thanks

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GoCAD is indeed intimidating but so are all new 3D modeling environments as long as you did not use them for a long time.

AFAIK there is no standard for exchanging 3D stuff at all. There is RESQML which is trying to become a quasi standard by the E&P industry. But this is merely for modeled data and not for raster images.

In GoCAD you can import these pictures into voxets but afaik you will have to the same manual steps as in Leapfrog.

Another possibility might be to use the raster database rasdaman which supports several standard formats (e.g. OGC coverages). But I am not sure if you will have to create you own client software for it.

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  • Thanks for the tips. I've looked into it some more and it seems if I want to use information from a georeferenced raster, I'll need to digitize it in some kind of vector form. Or, be relegated to manually adjusting a map into each new 3D program in which it will be used. I wonder how many more years it will take for 3D images to have some common formats. Or if they will be completely left in the dust of the 1900s. Thanks for your help.
    – TSJ
    Commented Jul 30, 2013 at 19:15
  • You can store the 3D geometries within a standard format or probably in a database in order to be able to access it from different modeling environments. One example is GST (giga-infosystems.com) (I work for the company)
    – mistapink
    Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 12:53

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