Technical Document #2001

Subject: Understanding annotation sets

Product: RIS-Info

Last Updated: February 22, 1999

Overview

The annotation sets capability of the RIS-Info product is a source of confusion for many. The feature has been designed to allow a great deal of flexibility. The multiple sets allow the categorization of annotations in the database. The sets can also be selectively displayed on a presentation, depending on the design and intent of any given template. This document describes the annotation sets, and provides guidance on adding annotation sets to log templates.

Details

There are two basic types of annotations, global and constrained annotations, in five categories (text, lithology, modifiers, symbols, and other). When presented on a template, constrained annotations must be tied to a track within the template. Global annotations are maintained as a physical offset from the left side of the template. Thus, you have control over the presentation of constrained annotations on different templates. We recommend the use of constrained annotations.

RIS-Info includes the capability to have multiple 'sets' of annotations. A set describes the types of annotations it contains. For example, we provide a 'Wellsite Geologist's Interpretations' set (referred to as the WGI set below) which contains constrained text, lithology and modifiers (you may also set up your own annotation sets from the Annotation | Edit Annotation Sets menu option. To present or draw annotations onto a template, the template must be set up to receive annotations. In other words, you might set up a template to receive annotations into the 'WGI' set. When you do this, you would define which tracks in the template will be used for each constrained annotation type. You set up a template to receive annotations for a given set from the Log Properties | Annotations tab. This may only be done in Design Mode. From this page, you may Insert or Edit the annotation sets in this template, which uses the Annotation Set Wizard to define the properties.

Once the template is set up to receive annotations, you will exit Design Mode to actually work with the template and enter annotations into the well. A template may be set up to receive annotations into multiple sets. If more than one set is set up to receive annotations at the same location on the template, the first annotation set listed in the template will receive the annotation. The program will always select a constrained annotation set before a global annotation set.

Note: the definition of the annotation set and its constrainments is saved into the template. All annotations drawn using the template are saved into the selected well.

Here is an example of how you might use this.

Template 1:

Let's say this template will be used on-site to enter annotations into the 'WGI' set. For this template, you want to keep the design simple, and allow maximum detail for the annotations. Perhaps you have the first track for mud log data, and a second track next to it for the depth. Then you have just two additional tracks, one for the lithology and geological modifiers and the other for the lithologic text descriptions. You might design both these tracks at, say, 3 inches wide for sufficient detail when entering annotations. In this case, when you add the 'WGI' set to the template, you would select Track #3 for the constrained lithology and constrained geologic modifiers, and select Track #4 for the constrained text. Once you exit Design Mode, you will be able to enter annotations into your well using this template. When you select any of the lithology or modifier tools from the toolbox (Edit | Show Toolbox), the mouse cursor will change to reflect the tool when moved over Track #3. Likewise, when the text tool is selected, the cursor will reflect the tool when placed over Track #4. You may also use the annotation text entry option for creating annotations. Once created and saved, this template can be used for any well, in any project.

Template 2:

After we have used Template #1 to enter annotations (perhaps on-site), we may want to present these same annotations on a completely different presentation (perhaps on a composite log). For this template, we may wish to present a great deal more information, including core data, wireline data, etc. As a result we may have a very different presentation, with much less available space. When we add the 'WGI' set to this template, we will again define the tracks to receive the constrained annotations. The advantage of the constrained annotations will be evident here. If we select a much smaller track, perhaps only 1 inch wide, the program will scale the annotations to fit. And it will not matter where on the template the track is either. We may have this track at the very right hand side of the total presentation, and the program will correctly position the annotations. If we had used any global annotations in the 'WGI' set, the physical offset from the left side of the plot would have been used to position the annotations, and even if we bring the annotations up on our new template, these annotations would not move. At times this may be useful, but unless you work with templates which have the same basic overall design, you will find the constrained annotation types easier to manipulate. As an additional feature, you may wish to mark the annotation set on this template as read-only (done from within the Annotation Set Wizard). Each piece of information that is marked as read-only will be presented on the template, but the user will not be able to select and modify any of the annotations. This is very convenient on this type of presentation, where you might be presenting data from multiple annotation sets, but do not want to accidentally edit any of the information.

The STRIPLOG template is a simple template, similar in design to Template #1 described above. The ABUDHABI and EXAMPLE templates are similar to Template #2.

Conclusions

The annotation sets capability can be complex, but allows a great deal of flexibility for controlling the organization and presentation of the various types of annotations.