GGSD Newsletter - December 1999
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Welcome to the third GGSD Newsletter, bringing you news of newly released geo-software and of updates to the Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Software Directory (GGSD) at http://www.ggsd.com .
In this Newsletter:
- GGSD updates
- New and updated program entries
- My pick of the new programs
- Electronic transfer of geotechnical and geoenvironmental data
This update of the Directory adds a new category for Geothermal software, and significantly expands the existing categories for Reinforced Slopes and Walls, Insitu Testing and Geophysics. In particular I have found a number of programs for processing and analysing Cone Penetration Testing and Ground Penetrating Radar data. Also, several well known and well established programs have recently been updated from DOS to Windows versions.
Since the last Newsletter I have changed the way that the Directory is created. All the pages are now generated on-demand from a relational database. If you have previously bookmarked a particular page in the Directory, you will now get an error message if you try to jump directly to it, because it no longer exists. Therefore, you must now always enter the Directory via the main page at http://www.ggsd.com . You should have noticed that the response time is significantly faster. There is also a new, custom written, search engine, that allows you to search through the program descriptions.
The Directory has just received its millionth page hit, since it was first published in February 1996.
Regards
Tim Spink
11 December 1999
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GGSD updates
There was a major update of the GGSD on 14 November 1999, with minor updates on 11 June and 6 July 1999. The GGSD now lists 1,215 programs, 741 suppliers and publishers and 30 useful WWW links. The most recent new and updated entries are listed in the What's New page at http://www.ggsd.com and the 190 new and updated program entries are given below.
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New and updated program entries
GEOTECHNICAL PROGRAMS
Bearing capacity
- CE.CA.P. - Updated
Dynamics (behaviour and earthquake)
- Correct Blow Counts - Updated
- FEQDrain - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- LIQUITER - New
Dynamics (soil-structure interaction)
- VERSAT-D2D - New - See my pick of the new programs below
Geosynthetics
- EnkaRoad - New
- Geofilter - New
- MACRA 1 - New - See my pick of the new programs below
Geotechnical processes
- EXPVD - New - See my pick of the new programs below
Geotechnical software suites
- FADcom 1.2 - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- PT Workshop - New
Geothermal
- AUITOUGH2 - New
- AUTOUGH2 - New
- ITOUGH2 - New
- TEMP-W - Updated
- TOUGH2 - New
Insitu testing
- CONRAD for Windows - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- CPT-LOG - New
- CPT-pro - Updated
- CPTGL - New
- Dynamic sounding - New
- EDISON - New
- Georit - New
- INSITU - New
- Percussion soundings - New
- SCPT-DAA - New
- Vane Tests - New
- Weight Sounding - New
Laboratory testing (rock)
- Rockdata - Updated
Laboratory testing (soil)
- GDSLab Research - New
- GDSLab Standards - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- LABsys - New
- MohrView - New
- SieveGraph - New
Numerical analysis (general)
- PFC - Updated
Numerical analysis (rock)
- Examine 2D - Updated
- Examine 3D - Updated
- Examine Tab - Updated
- Geocrack - Updated
- Phase2 - Updated
- UDEC - Updated
- UDEC 3D (3DEC) - Updated
Numerical analysis (soil)
- FLAC - Updated
- FLAC 3D - Updated
- SAFE - Updated
- VERSAT-S2D - New
Piles (lateral loading and groups)
- ALP - Updated
Piles (single)
- DIADIM - Updated
- DRIVE - Updated
- PILE - Updated
- PILSET - Updated
Reinforced slopes and walls
- ABwalls - New
- Enkaslope - New
- GoldNail - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- MACSTARS - New
- Miraslope - New
- SRWall Miragrid Datafiles - New
- TALREN 97 - Updated
Retaining wall design
- FREW - Updated
- GAWAC - New
- GRETA - Updated
- Lateral Support System - Updated
- STAWALL - Updated
- VERCAM - Updated
Rock mechanics
- CLASROCK - New
- CPillar - Updated
- Tunnel Keyblock - New
- Unwedge - Updated
Settlement analysis
- CLOG - Updated
- MINLIN - Updated
- TUNSET - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- VDISP - Updated
Slope stability (rock)
- ACCECALC - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- CLU_STAR - Updated
- RocFall - Updated
- ROCK3D - Updated
- ROTOMAP - Updated
- Slope Keyblock - New
- Swedge - Updated
Slope stability (soil)
- CHASM - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- I.L.A. - Updated
- Slide - Updated
- Slope (Oasys) - Updated
GEOENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS
Aquifer test analysis
- Infinite Extent - Updated
- StepMaster - Updated
- Super Slug - Updated
- WELL (Geo&soft) - Updated
Contaminant modelling
- HydroTrack - New
- T2VOC - New
Contaminant transport (1D)
- WHI UnSat Suite - New - See my pick of the new programs below
Geochemistry
- ChemStat - Updated
- HydroChem - New
Geoenvironmental database systems
- ChemPoint - Updated
Groundwater flow (2D)
- Flowpath II - Updated
- SEEP - Updated
- Split - New
Groundwater flow (MODFLOW)
- MODFLOWwin32 - New
Groundwater modelling
- Groundwater Vistas - New
- INQUIMAP - Updated
- SoilCover - New
Hydraulic properties
- SizePerm - New - See my pick of the new programs below
GENERAL PROGRAMS
Bibliographic index
- Geotechnical Abstracts - New
Borehole log production
- AppleCORE - New
- BH Translator - A - New
- BH Translator - S - New
- BH-Logger v1 - Updated
- BH-Logger v2 - New
- DBSOND - Updated
- EasyLog - New
- logWRITER+ for Windows - Updated
- WellCAD - Updated
Contract Planning and Management
- Envista - New
- ISOsoft 14001 - New
Data input
- AutoDidge - New
- LogDig - New
- TerraDigitizer - New
Data validation
- KeyAGS - New
Database systems (general)
- Borehole Management System - New
- CQC-Field Density - Updated
Database systems (with log production)
- gINT for Windows - Updated
- HoleBASE Wizard - New
Educational
- 2DNOTES - New
- MCCGUI v0.5 - New
- MFteach - New
- Practical Rock Engineering - New - See my pick of the new programs below
Geographical information systems
- AreaBNA - New
- CellBNA - New
- CheckBNA - New
- DigiBNA - New
- FlowBNA - New
- GRASS - Updated
- KeyGeoView - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- Manifold System - Updated
- MFworks - Updated
- Petro Spase - New
- SPANS - Updated
- SPANS Observer - Updated
- SurfLink - New
Geological illustration
- Tasa Graphic Illustrations - New
Geological modelling
- IRAP RMS - New
- RockWorks99 - Updated
- RockWorks99 3D Visual Pro - Updated
- TerraStation II - New
Geophysics (borehole)
- EKKO_IMAGE - New
- LAS Converter - New
Geophysics (surface)
- EKKO_3D - New
- EKKO_ANALYSIS - New
- EKKO_BASE - New
- EKKO_MODEL - New
- EKKO_POINTER - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- EKKO_RUN - New
- EKKO_TOOLS - New
- ELETOM - Updated
- GeoModel - New
- GRORADAR - New
- RESIX - New
- RESIX PLUS - New
- RESIX2DI - New
- RESIXIP2DI - New
- SeisOpt@2D - New
- Signproc - New
- SpiView - New
- VES - New
Geostatistics
- EcoSSe - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- Enviro Stats - New
- GS+ - Updated
- ISATIS - Updated
- OmniVar - New
- STORM - New
- VISOR - New
Image analysis
- DIMPLE - New
Mapping
- Geological Map Maker - New
- George - New
- Versamap for Windows - New
Plotting (2.5D & contouring)
- 3DField - New
- ISOMAP - Updated
Plotting (3D visualisation)
- 12d Model - Updated
- GenesisII - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- SlicerDicer - Updated
Plotting (special)
- Dips - Updated - See my pick of the new programs below
- StereoNett - Updated
Risk analysis
- Crystal Ball - Updated
- HAPPIE - Updated
- RBSSL Power ToolKit - New - See my pick of the new programs below
- SADA - New
Site procedures
- DHLogger - New
- EXEPF-ECL - New
- MapPad Drillog - New
- MineMapper - New
- PenCore - New
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My pick of the new programs
As always, this section has to be preceded by a disclaimer. The programs listed below are ones that caught my eye as being useful/interesting/different from the many submissions I receive. I have not tried any of these programs, and I am not making a recommendation. It is up to you to make your own choice. Some of these may not be "New" programs, but their entry in GGSD is new. That said, here is my pick. All the programs run under Windows.
GEOTECHNICAL PROGRAMS
Dynamics (behaviour and earthquake) - FEQDrain
FEQDrain is a public domain FE program to analyse the use of vertical drains to prevent liquefaction of a sand by dissipating the pore water pressure generated during an earthquake.
Dynamics (soil-structure interaction) - VERSAT-D2D
VERSAT-D2D is an FE program for 2D plane strain dynamic stress and deformation analyses of earth structures subjected to base excitation or to dynamic loads. The program includes a variety of different stress-strain constitutive relationships from simple linear-elastic, to a non-linear hyperbolic model that can simulate the hysteresis response of soil under cyclic loads.
Geosynthetics - MACRA 1
MACRA 1 carries out the stability analysis of watercourse cross-sections with respect to both water flow and wave motion. It assists in the design of bank stabilising measures such as gabions, reno mattresses and bio-engineering techniques.
Geotechnical processes - EXPVD
EXPVD collates and analyses the data from grouting operations including pressure and flow, to produce a graphical account of the grouting and an interpretation of the ground conditions.
Geotechnical software suites - FADcom 1.2
FADcom 1.2 is a student research project that indicates how knowledge base systems may be applied to geotechnical problems. It has been developed in Java and runs on the Internet. Given inputs of column and wall loads and the borehole profile information; it selects appropriate foundation type and computes the required dimensions and the necessary reinforcement using various codes of practice.
Insitu testing - CONRAD for Windows
Conrad for Windows is a program for the plotting and evaluation of CPT tests. It assesses soil type, stiffness, overconsolidation, undrained shear strength, friction angle, relative density, modulus, prevailing effective pressure and preconsolidation pressure.
Laboratory testing (soil) - GDSLab Standards
GDSLab Standards is software for commercial testing laboratories working to BS or ASTM standards. It covers the control, analysis and presentation of soils laboratory tests, including advanced stress path and dynamic triaxial tests, continuous consolidation and ring shear.
Reinforced slopes and walls - GoldNail
GoldNail is a circular slip, slope-stability model for slopes with soil nail reinforcement or structural facing.
Settlement analysis - TUNSET
TUNSET analyses the ground movements induced by tunnelling in terms of three-dimensional displacements and horizontal strains. The settlement can be analysed by four separate methods to create a profile of settlement at any level above the tunnel.
Slope stability (rock) - ACCECALC
ACCECALC carries out the analysis of rock slopes under seismic conditions through the evaluation of movements of a block of rock subject to dynamic forces, based on the form of a given accelerogram. Using a pseudo-static type analysis the acceleration capable of bringing the slope to a condition of equilibrium limit is determined.
Slope stability (soil) - CHASM
Slope stability (soil) is one of the largest, and by far the most popular, category in the Directory. Of all the slope stability programs listed, CHASM is the only one that integrates slope hydrology with the slope stability assessment. It aids the user to estimate the effects on slope stability of selected storm events, vegetation cover, slope plan curvatures and other important slope and material properties.
GEOENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS
Contaminant transport (1D) - WHI UnSat Suite
The WHI UnSat Suite combines VLEACH, PESTAN, and VS2DT in a graphical user interface for simulating one-dimensional groundwater flow and contaminant transport through the unsaturated zone.
Hydraulic properties - SizePerm
SizePerm is a low cost program that calculates hydraulic conductivity of soils from grain size analysis using 10 different methods and provides a detailed report documenting the methodology for each.
GENERAL PROGRAMS
Educational - Practical Rock Engineering
Practical Rock Engineering is not a program, but is a state of the art text book by Dr. Evert Hoek that can be downloaded for free from the Internet. It covers analytical techniques and case histories of rock slope, tunnel and underground cavern design.
Geographical information systems - KeyGeoView
KeyGeoView is the first program of its type in the Directory. It is a document archive and retrieval system for site investigation data that allows users to archive projects either as scanned documents or as live computer files and to locate the stored data using a GIS map interface, either locally or over the Internet. An e-commerce version is available for Client organisations to sell their borehole data over the Internet.
Geophysics (surface) - EKKO_POINTER
EKKO_POINTER is ground penetrating radar software that automatically identifies areas where subsurface objects are likely to exist. It searches GPR data and locates hyperbolas which are then rated on a scale of one to 100, where 100 represents the highest likelihood of objects being present.
Geostatistics - EcoSSe
EcoSSe is an application for the statistical and geostatistical analysis of spatial data. It is specifically aimed at geoenvironmental data analysis and includes trend surface and residual analysis, semi-variogram construction and modelling, kriging, sequential gaussian simulation and principal components analysis.
Plotting (3D visualisation) - GenesisII
GenesisII is a Freeware program that generates photorealistic and schematic images of landscapes from geographic data. It describes a landscape surface using a grid of heights and will generate the details of the fractal surface in a realistic manner and place vegetation with regard to surface features.
Plotting (special) - Dips
Dips is one of the most widely used geotechnical programs in the world. It is now, at last, available in a Windows version. The program is a tool kit that allows the user to analyse and visualise structural geological data following the same techniques used in manual stereonets. It provides statistical contouring or orientation clustering, mean orientation calculation and qualitative and quantitative feature attribute analysis. It also produces histograms of data related to discontinuity sets and rosette plots.
Risk analysis - RBSSL Power ToolKit
RBSSL Power ToolKit is based on the US Environmental Protection Agency Soil Screening Guidance which screens out sites for further investigation or cleanup.
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Electronic transfer of geotechnical and geoenvironmental data
Ground investigations can generate large quantities of data. If you are a site investigation Contractor you are probably using software to create your borehole logs and to calculate and present your laboratory test results. The end result is a paper report which is passed to the Engineer or Client, who then uses other software packages to carry out his analysis of the data and to design the works. In order to do this he takes the ground investigation data, and re-types it into his own programs. Isn't this a waste of time and effort? Wouldn't it be much more sensible if there was a standard format for electronically transferring the ground investigation data between the Contractor, Engineer and Client, and between the various software programs?
In 1992 the Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists (AGS) published the first edition of a standard format for the Electronic Transfer of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Data. The specification, known as the AGS Format, covers all the information from a normal ground investigation including, borehole and trial pit logs, insitu test results, field monitoring data, laboratory test results on soil, rock, water, gases and chemical contaminants. The AGS Format is a simple ASCII file format, that defines a data dictionary, covering all the main aspects and tests carried out in a ground investigation. AGS Format files can be read by any spreadsheet program, and export filters are relatively straightforward to write for existing specialist programs.
The AGS Format is now a national standard in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, and is being adopted in Australia, South Africa and Singapore. Other countries around the world are also showing interest in the Format, and are likely to adopt it. The number of software programs that can import and export data in AGS Format is growing all the time, and currently programs from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Poland use the Format.
The third edition of the AGS Format has just been published, and the whole of the specification document, together with extensive notes on how to use the Format, can be downloaded for free from the AGS web site at http://www.ags.org.uk .You will need to register your name and email address before downloading, and the AGS will then keep you informed of periodic updates to the Format.
I have included a special section in the Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Software Directory, accessed from the top of the Main Index, which gives details of all the programs that are currently available that can import and export data in AGS Format. I would encourage all producers of geotechnical and geoenvironmental software, particularly borehole log, database, laboratory testing, insitu testing, modelling, data analysis and visualisation programs, to write AGS Format import/export filters for their programs. And I would encourage all Engineers and Clients to specify the use of the AGS Format in their ground investigation contracts. I have been using the AGS Format since 1992 for all the ground investigations that I commission. It saves so much time in report production, and avoids the possibility of introducing errors into the data during re-typing.
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