With "Soil Class Grouping" you can define the texture of soil layers in 3D model. This page is accessible through Tools 4 Soil Group Manager.  The main idea behind soil grouping is to enable users to group the soil classes as per the requirements of each project. For example, CL and ML soil classes (according to USCS) may consider as one soil group in a given project; on the other hand, the exact soil classes can be two different groups in other projects. Following are the definitions of the terms used in this article:

 

Soil Class : Refers to conventional soil types in geology or geotechnical engineering. This may be USCS, AASHTO, etc. or even user defined soil/rock type. For example you can define new soil class as "New Red Granite" in your project (See here for more details)

Group : Represents a group of Soil Classes which will be shown on the VisLog viewer with the same texture.

Texture : Is the image pattern by which a Group of soil layers will be rendered on the VisLog viewer. You may also choose to use colors instead of textures (read more).

Library : Is a text file which will be saved on your hard-disk and hold the information regarding all defined Groups (list of Groups with their associated Soil Classes). Library files have lib extension and when you install the VisLog , a default library file is installed in VisLog installation folder. This file (defgrp.lib) should never be removed from your hard-disk. You may have several Library files on your computer and can activate them by selecting the Library file and pressing "Set As Default" button (see following illustration).

 

How to associate a soil type to a soil group?

1- Make sure the soil group exists in the left table. If necessary, add a new soil group to the bottom of the table.

2- Find the soil type on the right table and click on the corresponding row.

3- Click on the "Associated Group" column to open up the list of soil groups.

4- Select the desired soil group to which this soil type should be associated

 

To change the texture of a group, simply click on third column in the "Groups" table and locate the image file.