Cauldron: Getting Started

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This page is a quick overview of some basic operations. Exercises are given in itallics.

Setting up the system

For information on downloading the program, the help file and obtaining a license go the downloading page

Entering Data

Entering data with a mouse click on the paintbox

Move the cursor into the white circle in the blue square and left click the mouse. A cross will be left on the plot, indicating that you have entered a point.

But what point have you entered?

On the left side of the screen is the 'tabbed note-book'. Look at the top and select the 'edit' tab by left clicking on it with the mouse. You will now see a large white rectangle in which all the entered data points are listed. If you have only entered one there will be only one. Click agian on the plot circle to see a second data point appear in the data list. Note that the term 'dip' here means 'angle of the the point' to the horizontal.

I'd like to 'click' a little more accurately

Select the 'Style' tab on the note-book. You will now see the a box labelled 'pole for net' Inside this there are 'radio buttons'. Click on the button labelled 'down'. Then click the 'net on' check box. This will produce a stereonet on the display (this polar style is the most use). You can change the number of circles on the plot using the arrows next to the text which initially says "Net Circles every 5 degrees". You can change the occurance of thick circles using the arrows next to "thick circles every".

Yes -But I Wanted Planes (Great Circles) Not Points

Uncheck the 'net on' box to speed things up then return to the 'edit' tab of the notebook. In the data-list (the white rectangle) click on one of the items listed. The corresponding point in the plot circle should turn green to indicate that it has been 'picked'. Look below the list box for a button labelled "Make Pick Into". Next to it is a white selector box. Click on its arrow and choose "Great Circle". Now click the "make pick into" button and the point has been changes into a great circle. You can repeat this for any points you want to change into planes.

My Data was for Maximum Dips -Not Poles

It often happens that data ends up 90 degrees from that which was intended. Pick the plane to be changed and click on the "Pick:pole to dip" button (under the edit tab). Clicking a second time will reverse the transformation.

I need Accuracy -Clicking will not do

Select the 'enter' tab. The first selector box, in the top left corner, determines the format to be used for data entry. Play with it a little and you will notice that depending on what is selected various other controls will appear or disappear. The simplest formats to understand are either 'bearing of dip' or 'bearing of pole'.More on formats. We will choose 'bearing of dip' for our example.

The second selector box (under the format box) chooses data type. Choose "3 Great Circle".

Next, write a short identifier for this data point in the box called "remark".

Finally hit the enter button to make it appear on the plot. If you now go to the edit tab you will see your data there with one surprise: the bearing is 180 degrees out! Internally Cauldron likes to think of everything as poles to planes.

I need to annotate my plot and insert it into a report

This is simply done by pasting it to the clipboard (see the 'print tab' for the button). However, there is a slight complication. The image put onto the clipboard is rather large, so you will generally want to shrink it in your target program (which might be the paint program that comes with your p.c.). Often you will find that this results in lines and marks which are thin and perhaps broken by the shrinking process. The answer to this problem is to adjust the various line thicknesses using the adjustments found on the 'style' tab rather than on the print tab. Create an image that has slightly thicker lines (perhaps 2 rather than 1) than you would normally choose, then go to the print tab and copy the image to the clipboard.
Copyright: The copyright (2001) of this page is owned by Dr Nigel Stuart of Resource Dynamics, Alberta, Canada. You are welcome to use, reproduce it in part or in whole. Should you reproduce it in part please ensure that credit/blame for authorship is given. A link to the Resource Dynamics home page would be appreciated.