3D view — g-Viewer
3D view

3D seg-y viewer

Load a SEG-Y volume — or 2D pre-stack data displayed as a volume — and move through it directly: grab an inline, a crossline or the time/depth slice and drag it, rotate the cube with the mouse, and give every dataset in the scene its own colour bar.

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IL · XL · Slice
Dragged, not typed in
Post + pre-stack
Volumes and gathers in 3D
Per item
Palette, opacity, gain
A 3D seismic volume in g-Viewer showing an inline, a crossline and a horizontal time slice cutting through the cube, with axis annotation on every edge
A 3D pre-stack display in g-Viewer beside the View properties panel listing vista items and their per-item display settings
In view
3D volume with inline, crossline & slice
The 3D view is a scene, not a picture. Once a volume is loaded, the inline, the crossline and the time or depth slice are objects you grab with the mouse and move; the sections redraw as they travel. Sizing is the one thing worth checking first: the manual asks that the 3D volume be smaller than the workstation's RAM, and that RAM be about two and a half times the input data size. Get that right and everything after it — rotating, zooming, changing a palette, dropping in a surface — is interaction rather than waiting.
Build the volume

From a file on disk to a cube on screen.

The 3D view is created the same way as any other g-Viewer view — through the Vista groups in the View Manager — after the volume itself has been built from the loaded files.

1
Check the sizing
The 3D volume should be smaller than the workstation's RAM, and RAM should be around 2.5 times the size of the input data. Worth knowing before the load, not after.
2
Add the files
Add the data file or files from the File tab. They land in the Seismic files panel with their headers partially read.
3
Load the trace headers
Load trace headers from the selected files to read them in full. This updates the location map — check the positioning there, and if it is wrong, fix the trace header format and repeat.
4
Load 3D
Load3D on the Windows configuration tab builds the volume. Its drop-down offers two modes, including displaying 2D data as a volume — set the grouping and apply; that mode wants pre-stack 2D data.
5
Open the view
Windows configuration → Vista groups → 3D view → Add view in new window, and the vista items appear in the new window.
6
Add surfaces if you have them
Surfaces loaded from tab-delimited XYZ, space-delimited or CSV files are drawn in the same scene — Surfaces 3D is a vista item like any other.
Display

What is in the scene, and how each part looks.

The View properties panel for a 3D view has the same three parts as everywhere else in g-Viewer: settings for the view, the list of items drawn in it, and the properties of whichever item is selected.

View
Scene settings

Label size controls how large the X, Y, inline, crossline and time/depth-slice labels are drawn — the difference between a readable screenshot and a cluttered one. TTD expands or compresses the volume vertically. Properties can be reset to their defaults or propagated to every other view of the same type.

Vista items
What is drawn

A 3D view typically carries Gathers 3D, the 3D volume itself, and Surfaces 3D. Each can be turned on or off, and the layer order changed, so a surface sits over the volume rather than inside it. Selecting an item brings its own properties up underneath.

Per item
Colour & range

Colour bar, inverted palette, normalization source, min/max range and hide-out-of-range are set on the selected item — so two datasets in one scene need not share a palette.

Per item
Opacity & amplitude

Transparency level sets the item's opacity, which is what lets you see through a volume to what sits behind it. Gain and an AGC window are display settings on the same panel.

More g-Viewer capabilities

The cube is one view among several.

Sections, gathers, the location map and the header table all live in the same workspace and stay in step with each other. These are the other g-Viewer topics.

g-Viewer overview Seismic data view Multiple datasets Pre-stack QC Location map More formats & plug-ins
FAQ

Questions, answered.

How much memory does a 3D volume need?
The manual's guidance is direct: the 3D volume you display should be smaller than the workstation's RAM, and RAM should be around 2.5 times the size of the input data. That is the number to check before loading a full survey rather than after — a decimated or cropped volume is the answer when the survey is larger than the machine.
Can I show pre-stack data in 3D?
Yes. The Load3D button offers a mode that displays 2D data as a volume — set the grouping and apply, with the note that the 2D data has to be pre-stack. Gathers 3D is one of the vista items a 3D view carries, alongside the 3D volume itself and any surfaces you have loaded.
How do I move around the volume?
The right mouse button rotates the volume in any direction, Shift and the right button moves it up, down, left or right without rotating, and the mouse wheel zooms. Click an inline or crossline with the left button and drag it to a new position; the time or depth slice moves the same way. Adjust to size, Ctrl+A, puts the whole volume back on screen.
Can each dataset have its own colour scheme?
Yes — the colour bar is a property of the individual vista item, not of the view. Select the item in the Vista items list and its properties appear below, where the colour bar, inverted palette, normalization, min/max range, transparency, gain and AGC can all be set for that item alone.
Get started free

Put your own volume on the screen.

g-Viewer is a fully functional free trial with auto-update, for Windows, Linux and macOS on Apple Silicon. Load a SEG-Y volume and start dragging sections through it.

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