Version 15.0 Enhancements and Fixes
1. Window size, geometry and zoom levels can now be saved as views. Saved views allow you to return to previous states of the program which greatly simplifies the process of capturing screens for reports and presentations. Views can also be shared between different projects. If you are evaluating multiple survey designs for a project, the saved view feature gives you the ability to make equivalent screen captures across all of the projects.
2. A screenshot button has been added to the zoom toolbar. This button allows you to quickly capture the current window and save it to either the Windows clipboard or to a PNG file.
3. Elevation dependent fold calculations now have a function for creating a downgoing sea-air multiple for marine and ocean bottom surveys. Fold calculations can contain either the upgoing reflection, the downgoing multiple, or both events in the same calculation.
4. The line/brick layout now has an option for creating flip-flop source geometries.
5. Marine boat configurations now have the ability to define a source depth and a streamer depth. Slanted cable geometries are also supported.
6. Marine shooting now supports simultaneous source shooting geometries.
7. A new source point consolidation tool allows you to merge co-located source points into a single source with a merged template.
8. Discrete range color scales now display a histogram of the data distribution of the current display as well as a numerical percentage. The histogram dynamically updates as the zoom level changes in the window.
9. There is a new raytracing mode named illumination raytracing. Illumination rays are exploding reflector raypaths similar to the Smart Aperture tool. The major difference is that illumination raytracing is done for every grid location on a model horizon. Instead of testing individual locations on a horizon and shooting a single cone of 30 degree exploding reflector raypaths, illumination raytracing shoots a dense cone of rays out to the critical angle (or other user defined take off angle) across the entire horizon. The resulting diagnostics allow you to analyze the source-receiver maximum offset required across an entire model. You can also analyze where imaging may be problematic–even with full azimuth sampling. Illumination rays are generated in the Raytracer application
10. The illumination raytracing feature comes with two new modes of interactive raytracing. Illumination analysis mode has a mode for modeling “test shots.” You can click the mouse on a location and shoot a cone of rays into the model. The emergence points of the raypaths will be displayed so you can analyze the effects of the model and get a sense for the size of the proper recording patch. The test shot raypaths can also be viewed in the 3D window. The second interactive raytracing mode allows you to see the results of the illumination raytracing on a grid node by grid node basis.
11. Offset raytracing attributes can now be limited by takeoff, incidence and emergence angle. Bin limits can also be applied to the offset raytracing attribute calculations.
12. Depth slices from MESA Expert velocity models can be displayed as contour maps in the Design Window.
13. Velocity models can be viewed as x, y, and depth slices in the 3D window.
14. MESA Expert attributes calculated from offset, normal and image raytracing can be exported to ASCII CSV files.
15. ASCII files containing an xy-coordinate and a data value can be converted into a GeoTIFF file for use with the data raster display and analysis tools.
16. Parameters formerly set as environmental variables have been replaced with project-independent user preferences set inside of MESA. User preferences control the default data directory, the locations of the color scale and configuration files, and whether or not to display the release notes at startup.
17. Source and receiver attributes can be calculated from offset raytracing results. These attributes include fold, mean amplitude and mean travel time. Previously, all offset raytracing attributes were CRP-based.
18. A calculator has been added to the project statistics to show the number of channels needed for a specified range of receiver lines.
19. The source and receiver count has been added to the toolbar in edit templates mode.
20. Source and receiver numbering options have been added to the unit template layout tool.
21. Marine point counts and line lengths are now included on the project summary tab of the survey statistics.
22. Marine project size has been expanded from 2 billion traces to 4 billion traces.
23. Numeric fold display option will change label color from black to white depending on the darkness of the fold color in a bin. Dynamic sizing was also added to these labels.
24. MESA will now reopen in the same screen location as when it was last closed.
25. Improved symbol sizing in the 3D window.
Bug fixes
26. Fixed a printing problem. When printing to PDF, the first plot would work fine but subsequent print jobs would produce zero length plots or MESA would hang.
27. Fixed crashes in Model Builder related to cross section creation.
28. Fixed a problem merging marine projects using imported P190 data or using marine sail polylines.
29. The first marine source in an imported P190 data set was incorrectly getting flagged as dead.
30. Fixed an issue with temporary databases when multiple instances of MESA are running.
31. Fixed an issue during fold calculations when the reciprocal/redundancy limits were used in conjunction with other limiting options.
32. Fixed an issue with the unit template window crashing if all shooting configurations have been deleted.
33. Fixed a Shapefile reading problem when the polygon vertices were ordered incorrectly.
34. Fixed an issue with occasional template positioning errors after merging surveys.
35. Fixed an issue with inline and crossline offset limits applied during fold calculations on rotated surveys.
36. Fixed a drawing bug with displaying the line connecting receivers after exiting an editing mode.
37. Fixed an issue with source and receiver labels disappearing at certain zoom levels.
38. Improved the calculation of model dips in the model attribute generation tool.
39. Fixed a crash in unit template window when copying/moving templates with the receiver checkbox unselected.
40. Changed the wording of the anchor point controls in the source/receiver line layout dialog when filling a region.
41. Fixed a problem smoothing horizons in Model Builder.
42. Fixed a visibility problem when toggling on/off points when multiple projects are loaded.
43. Fixed a problem with the opacity controls for bin attribute diagrams.
44. Fixed a problem when creating more than one survey boundary exclusion zone.
45. Fixed a display problem when highlighting the sources firing into a selected receiver and scrolling the display.
46. Changed the wording on the data raster menus to clarify the difference between images and data GeoTIFF files.
47. Fixed a problem with the working directory getting set incorrectly after cycling through color scale choices.
48. Fixed a problem with direct arrivals and gradient velocity models for VSP geometries.
49. Fixed an issue displaying bin attributes in the 3D window.
50. Fixed a symbol size problem in the legend.
51. Fixed a crash opening a spreadsheet before a survey is created.
52. Fixed a crash opening the 3D window when horizon contours are being displayed in the Design Window.
53. Fixed problems loading saved discrete color scales.