PLEASE READ THIS PAGE

(yes, I know disclaimers are boring but)

Stereonet is distributed on an "as is" basis without any warranty, explicit or implicit. The author will not be liable for direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential
damages resulting from any defect in this software or this user's manual. Furthermore,
I make no systematic effort to inform all users of either bug fixes or upgrades. The program is upgraded periodically; write to me if you want to know the latest version.
I distribute the program Stereonet to non-commercial users without charge in the
interest in scientific communication (and because I don't want to have to worry about
whether a colleague pirated the program every time I see a plot produced by it in a
journal or at a meeting!). I grant my permission for non-commercial geoscientists to
distribute the program and the user's manual to others, but only free of charge. This
program may not be sold or offered as an inducement to buy any other product. Commercial users, please contact me for details.
I do not distribute copies of the source code in order to protect myself from unauthorized changes for which I might be blamed later. Please do not ask. If you have
scientific questions about any of the procedures, I will provide copies of the individual
subroutines for your inspection.
I have tried to make the program as bug free as possible (after all, I use it for my
own research), but errors may remain. I am always interested in errors people have
found or suggestions for improvement. Please write with your comments or suggestions. Thanks for your interest. I hope your find the program useful.
Rick Allmendinger
Dept. of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
Snee Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-1504
e-mail: rwa1@cornell.edu
Any product names used herein are copyright by their owners.
Stereonet v. 6.x for Macintosh was compiled by Absoft ProFortran v. 7 and is permanently linked to files which are copyrighted by Absoft Software. StereoWin v. 1.1 for
Windows was compiled by Compaq Visual Fortran. Neither Absoft nor Compaq, however, is responsible for the performance of this software.

Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................................... 3
OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................................................................................ 4
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................................. 4
GENERAL ORGANIZATION ................................................................................................................................................ 4
Differences between Mac and Windows Versions ..................................................................................................... 5
User Interface.............................................................................................................................................................. 5
Data and Plot Files ..................................................................................................................................................... 6
HOW DATA ARE HANDLED IN THE PROGRAM ................................................................................................................. 7
DATA FORMAT .................................................................................................................................................................. 8
Lines: ........................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Planes: ......................................................................................................................................................................... 9
PLOTTING DIRECTLY IN LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE .................................................................................................... 10
MENU REFERENCE....................................................................................................................................................... 12
THE FILE MENU .............................................................................................................................................................. 12
THE EDIT MENU .............................................................................................................................................................. 15
THE DATA MENU ............................................................................................................................................................ 19
THE OPERATIONS MENU................................................................................................................................................. 22
THE PLOT MENU ............................................................................................................................................................. 27
THE SYMBOLS MENU...................................................................................................................................................... 35
THE WINDOWS MENU..................................................................................................................................................... 39
NOTES ON CONTOURING WITH STEREONET .................................................................................................... 40
ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND REFERENCING ......................................................................................................... 40
DISTRIBUTION POLICY .............................................................................................................................................. 41
CREDITS ........................................................................................................................................................................... 41
REFERENCES CITED .................................................................................................................................................... 42

Overview
Introduction
This program was designed to accomplish most of the operations and plotting
normally needed by structural geologists and geophysicists dealing with orientation
data. The program, Stereonet, plots three-dimensional data on a lower hemisphere
projection.
Virtually all orientation data can be represented by two fundamental geometric
entities: Lines and Planes. Stereonet recognizes only data that can be input as either
one or the other. Three-dimensional shapes such as folds can be represented as a series
of planar elements, a standard practice in structural geology. Stereonet can perform
various operations on linear or planar orientation data, including:

Calculating poles to planes

Rotation of lines or planes

Constraining lines to lie on respective planes

Cylindrical best fit to a planar distribution, and

Conical best fit to a planar distribution.

It also produces various types of plots:

Scatter plots of linear data

Contour diagrams of linear data

Great circle plots of planar data

Plots viewed from any orientation, and

Plots of Latitude-Longitude data (e.g., digitized continental outlines) on the

upper hemisphere

The plots produced by the program can be saved as standard graphics files for labeling
and printing by third party applications.

General Organization
Stereonet is organized around two data arraysone for Lines and one for
Planeseach of which can hold 2,500 individual measurements. The program can recognize four different lines formats, including latitude and longitude, and four different
planes formats. Lines can be treated as vectors (with directional significance as in pa-

leocurrent directions or paleomagnetic vectors) or as axes (e.g., P and T axes of earthquakes). Data can be plotted either in the lower hemisphere (with positive plunges or
dips) or in the upper hemisphere (with negative plunges or dips). Latitude and longitude data are always plotted on the upper hemisphere.
You enter these data into the program, either by entering one datum at a time in
a dialog box or by recording data in a standard ASCII text file and then reading the file
into the program. If you choose the latter method, the text file can only contain one data
type (i.e., lines or planes) in one data format. Stereonet can save data to disk in a variety
of formats, identified by writing a simple one-line header to the file that identifies both
the data type and format (details, below). The program can also read data files with no
identifying header information with additional input from the user.
Stereonet can (1) manipulate data (e.g., rotations, calculating planes from poles),
(2) calculate new entities from the entered data (e.g., determine the mean vector), and
(3) make a variety of plots from the entered data

Differences between Mac and Windows Versions

Both Stereonet for Macintosh and StereoWin for Windows follow the same organizational scheme, with only minor differences in menu structure and dialog box content. In the remainder of this manual, characteristics specific to Macintosh are shown in
red, and features or limitations specific to Windows are shown in blue.

User Interface
Both programs use standard graphical user interface elements to interact with
the user, including menus, windows, and dialog boxes.
Stereonet for Macintosh uses three separate windows: (1) a Plot Window where
your plot appears, (2) a Plot Record Window where a text record of what you plotted in
the Plot Window appears, and (3) a Data List Window where listings of your data or
data subsets appears. The Data List Window is hidden at start up but can be displayed
at any time using the Windows Menu. StereoWin uses just two children windows inside the main program window. Initially, the only one visible is the Plot Window on
which both the plot and the plot record appear side by side. Behind this window is the
Data List window. In either version, any windows can be brought to the front by

choosing them in the windows menu. The plot in Stereonet/StereoWin responds to

mouse clicks in various ways. At any time you can (right) click inside the plot the trend
and plunge of the coordinate beneath the mouse will be displayed interactively. If you
are near a line that has been entered, its index number will also be shown. Several other
ways of interacting with the plot are described in the Menu Reference section of the
manual.
Menus are organized more-or-less according to Macintosh and Windows guidelines. The File Menu handles the input and output of data and plot files. The Edit
Menu has the standard editing commands (e.g., Undo, Copy, etc. note that these
commands work somewhat differently in StereoWin as described below) and preferences in it. The Data Menu contains items that allow you to manipulate, list, and sort
your data once you have entered them in the program. The Operations Menu is where
you will find various routines for scientific calculations on your data (e.g. rotation, statistics, etc.); this menu, however, does not affect anything in the Plot Window at all but
several items will change the value of your data in various ways. For example, when
you rotate a set of lines, the new lines will overwrite the old lines in the lines array. The
Plot Menu causes things to be plotted in the corresponding window but none of the
items will affect the affect your data in any way. The items that control how the plot
will look are found in the Symbols Menu. Finally, the Windows Menu allows you to
show any of the windows that have been hidden for any reason.
You interact with and get feedback from Stereonet via dialog boxes. The Tab Key
will move you from one editable text field to the next and, in Windows, will also select
various controls like radio buttons, etc. StereoWin dialog boxes have a variety of
scrolling List Boxes and drop down combo boxes that Stereonet for Mac lacks.

Data and Plot Files

Stereonet uses two basic types of disk files. Data are stored on disk as a standard
ASCII text file. The program can read ASCII text files as long as they are in some consistent, identifiable format, as described below. All word processors and spreadsheets
can read and save data in this format; many users have found it more convenient to record their data in a spreadsheet program and then save the spreadsheet as tab separated
columns for input into Stereonet. Data files are interchangeable between the Windows

and Macintosh versions of the program with one caveat: In Macintosh, text files the end
of a line is identified by a carriage return whereas in Windows text files the end of a line
is identified by a carriage return and a line feed character. Thus to use files from one
platform on the other, you will first have to translate them, using any of a variety of
commercial and/or freeware tools (e.g., Excel, BBEdit Lite, MacLink, etc.).
In Stereonet for Macintosh, plot files are stored on disk as PICT files, a generic
type of object oriented (vector) graphics file that can be read by any commercial graphics program. Likewise, you can use the system clipboard to copy Stereonet graphics as
PICTs for pasting into commercial graphics programs. PICTs of either the Plot Window
or the Plot Record Window can be saved/copied. Stereonet can also read and display in
the Plot Window PICT files saved on disk, either by Stereonet or by any other graphics
program. However, such PICTs are for display only or for use with Extract Data
(Data Menu) and cannot be manipulated in any way.
StereoWin can save graphics to disk in two different formats: Using Save
Graphic in the File Menu, the entire contents of the Plot Window will be saved as a
.BMP file. This is a bitmap file at the resolution of the screen and is not suitable for publication quality graphics. For high quality graphics, one must Export a DXF file, a text
file in the AutoCad graphical exchange format. DXF files can be read by most graphic
programs (e.g., Corel Draw, Canvas) as vector graphics that can be printed at high
resolution. There are some minor limitations to this but none serious.

How Data Are Handled in the Program

While use of the program is largely self-explanatory, the user should be aware of
the way in which Stereonet manipulates data. The program operates on two basic arrays: the first contains Trend and Plunge (T&P) data describing the orientation of a
group of lines, and the second contains Strike, Dip, and Dip direction (SD&D) data describing the orientations of a group of planes. The arrays will hold a maximum of 2500
lines and planes. Only one group of lines and one group of planes can be entered and
manipulated at any one time. Entering additional data will replace whatever was previously in the lines or planes arrays. Furthermore, certain operations will automatically
replace previous data in the arrays. For example, if one has entered a group of planes
and asks the program to calculate the poles to those planes, Stereonet will store the re-

sulting poles in the lines array, replacing whatever was previously there. Other examples of this are noted below. One can think of a file of lines or planes as representing
data from one structural domain. For example, one would not want to mix fold axes
with poles to cleavage and plot them with the same symbol. Stereonet will plot multiple data sets on a single diagram, but they must be entered one at a time, and each new
data set will replace the old one in the active array. For this reason, if you are using
Stereonet to enter data, be sure to save your data to disk immediately after entry and
before doing any analysis. Stereonet offers limited data editing functions. If you anticipate needing to do a lot of editing, I suggest that you do so in a spreadsheet or word
processor rather than in Stereonet.

Data Format
As noted above, Stereonet can recognize data in four different formats for lines
and four different formats for planes. If you are entering data in Stereonet, the format
used should be specified first in the Preferences dialog. If you have entered your data in
another program, Stereonet will be able to read the file without help if you provide the
two letter format code as the first line in your text document (listed in curly brackets,
below). Otherwise, Stereonet will ask for your help interpreting the format of the file, as
described in the Menu Reference/File Menu section of this manual. Individual numbers
and letters in a single line of data can be separated by commas, spaces, or tabs and the
numbers need not be formatted in any particular fashion.

Lines:

Trend, Plunge {TP} (e.g., 277 42). The trend value appears first, followed by
the plunge. A negative plunge indicates a vector pointing into the upper
hemisphere.

Plunge, Trend {PT} (e.g., 42 277). The plunge value appears first, followed by
the trend.

Plunge, Quadrant {PQ} (e.g., 42 N 83 W). The plunge value appears first,
followed by the trend, given in quadrant format. The trend must contain a
letter (N, E, S, W), a number between 0 and 90, and another letter (N, E, S, W).

Latitude, Longitude {LL} (e.g., 41, -76). The latitude of the point appears first,
followed by the Longitude. South latitude and west longitude are given as
negative numbers. See the following section for more information on Latitude-Longitude format.

Planes:

Azimuth, dip, dip direction {AD} (ex. 320 25 W). Strike azimuth between 0
and 360 is given first, followed by the dip magnitude, and then a letter specifying the quadrant (N, E, S, W) of the dip direction. This format is the one you
will see when you "List current data", even though input and output will be
in the format you specify.

Azimuth, Dip {AZ} (ex. 140 25). This format assumes that the dip azimuth is
located clockwise from the strike azimuth. In other words, if you give a strike
of 137, Stereonet will assume that the dip azimuth is 227 (to the southwest).
In this example, if your dip is to the northeast then you should specify a strike
azimuth of 317. This is actually the format that Stereonet uses for all of its
internal calculations, even if you don't enter it that way.

Quadrant, Dip, Dip Direction {QD} (ex. N 40 W 25 W). In this format, you can
report any bearing with respect to N, S, E, or W. For example, the program
will correctly interpret W 50 N the same as N 40 W. Only the first letter is
significant for the compass directions (SW is interpreted as S). Data entered
in this format will be saved in the same format if you don't change the settings in the mean time. However, it may well not be in the identical form to
what you entered originally because the program will translate it into Azimuth, Dip format and then on saving back into Quadrant format. Thus, if
you enter N 77 W 30 W the program will save it as S 77 E 30 W (dip clockwise
from strike).

Dip, Dip Azimuth {DD} (25 230). A format more commonly used in Europe.
Note that the dip magnitude (vertical angle) comes before the dip azimuth.

Note that you can read data into the program in one format and save it in another.
Thus, you can use this utility to translated data files from one format to another. For
example, you can read data in Quadrant format, but save it to disk in the Azimuth format.
The preset formats are shown in the dialog box when you open it for the first
time. These are Trend, Plunge and Azimuth, Dip, Dip Direction. If you don't like my
preferences, you can save your own to disk by selecting the Save Preferences option in
the Data Menu. Stereonet will then save a file named "StereoPrefs" to disk in the same
folder as the main program. The next time you start up the program from the desktop,
Stereonet automatically looks to see if there is a file named "StereoPrefs" on disk in the
same folder; if the file is found, the program will automatically use the format you
specified. If no such file exists, it will use my preset format.

Data can also be entered as planes and Pitches (i.e., Rakes) of lines as follows:
Strike azimuth nearest the trend of the line (0-360), dip (0-90), dip direction (N, E, S, W),
and pitch (0-180). For example, if your plane is oriented 045, 50 E and your line has a
rake of 55 due east, you could enter that datum as either 045, 50 E Rake = 55 or as 225,
50 E, Rake = 125 (i.e., 180 55). Stereonet will immediately convert your input data to
Lines and Planes format and will not save the data in the Pitch format.

Plotting Directly in Latitude and Longitude

Most digital stereonets are cumbersome to use for plate tectonic type calculations
of, say, pole of rotation between to plates, because they work in terms of trends and
plunges of lines rather than latitudes and longitudes. This version of Stereonet now allows you to enter lines in terms of latitude and longitude, by specifying that format in
the Preferences dialog as shown above. Note that you specify south latitude and west
longitude with minus signs. When Latitude and Longitude are selected, Stereonet
automatically treats the projection as an upper hemisphere projection:
Equal Area
Upper Hemisphere

Clicking the mouse inside of the stereonet will give you the coordinates in latitude and
longitude, although if you hold down the Shift Key it will show traditional trend and
plunge. When you do an operation like angle between two lines, the program will re10

port the points clicked in Latitude and Longitude and will calculate the great circle distance, assuming an average Earth radius of 6378 km.

When you have selected Latitude and Longitude, Stereonet only shows those points
that are visible on the part of the globe that you are looking at.
When Latitude & Longitude is selected, the Set View Direction dialog box
changes to allow you to enter the view in terms of latitude and longitude. In this case,
the view direction will be situated in the middle of the globe and you will be looking
down on an upper hemisphere projection with the equator running from the left to the
right side of the plot. If your line type is specified as Latitude-Longitude (LL) and you
choose Scatter from the Plot Menu, Stereonet will ask you if you want to plot the separate points or connected line segments. This enables you to, for example, enter the outline of continents as sequential latitude-longitude pairs. You can then rotate continents
around the globe, as shown for South America, below:

Equal Area
Upper Hemisphere

11

Menu Reference
The File Menu
The File menu accomplishes the Input/Output of data. Using this menu, you tell
the program whether or not the data is on disk or will be entered in this session, that
you want to save the data, etc.
NewTo enter new data (i.e. that is not already stored on disk) in the program, select
"New." A dialog box will appear, allowing you to choose a data type Lines,
Planes, or Rakes because the program does not know in advance what format the
data will be in. If you have already entered some data, you will also be able to select
whether or append the new data to that already existing in the program arrays or
replace those data. After the data type is chosen, Stereonet will show a dialog box,
the exact format of which reflects the data format setting made in the Preferences
dialog box (Edit Menu).

OldSelect old if the data you want to enter is already on disk. First, the standard
open file dialog box will appear, asking you to choose the file that you want to read.
If your data was saved with a first line header consisting of a two-letter code telling
the program whether the data are lines or planes and what the data format is,
Stereonet will read the file without any further input from you.
Stereonet can now read a wide variety of formats, as long as (a) a file contains only
lines or only planes, (b) each line of the file has data on only one orientation (except
for the first line, which can be a header), and (c) the entire file follows the same formatting convention. This allows you to save your data in a spreadsheet and just
save a copy of the spreadsheet as text. When you try to open a file which lacks
Stereonets two character format code in the first line, Stereonet now presents you
with the dialog box shown below:

12

Although somewhat complicated, the use of the dialog is reasonably straightforward. Stereonet can attempt to parse a file that has zero or more header lines at the
beginning of the file. Note that, with respect to column separator characters, Fortran,
in which Stereonet is written, converts the Tab character to spaces on input, so
reading a tab-delimited file is identical to a space delimited file. Leading spaces in a
column are always stripped before parsing, regardless of what separator character
you use. However, spaces within a column are not stripped if the delimited character is a comma. Your first column of data does not have to be the first column in the
line but, the first data column has to be the same in each line of the file, and each
data column must be adjacent to another data column (i.e., no descriptive columns
in-between columns of data). This allows you to have a column of description either
before or after the contiguous data columns but not in the middle of the data columns. Note that, if your description column precedes the data columns it must ei13

ther (a) contain no spaces, or (b) use commas as column delimiters due to the limitation of Fortran regarding tabs. Stereonet simply ignores any columns following the
data columns and so you can use as many spaces as you want in those.
Underneath each of the Column labels, Stereonet shows you how it attempts to
parse either the first or the second line of your file (depending on whether you have
specified the first line as a header or containing data). These change dynamically as
you change delimiter characters, number of columns of data, etc. It is still up to you
to tell Stereonet what those numbers and letter mean by selecting the radio buttons
underneath each column. The only potential ambiguity here is in using letters to
identify quadrants. If planes are selected and no quadrants are entered, a right hand
rule is assumed for the relation between strike and dip. If quadrant format is used
for planes (QD in Stereonets two letter code), Stereonet will always expect to find
a letter on either side of the column with the strike value and a letter to the right of
the dip value (e.g., N 35 E 22 E and 22 E N 35 E are both interpretable) but other
combinations/conventions involving quadrants cannot be parsed. If Stereonet cannot determine your format or you have made inconsistent or incomplete entries in
the dialog box, you will be informed and Stereonet will leave the existing data in the
lines and planes array untouched. All possible abuses of this dialog box have not
been tested and there are quite likely combinations that will cause a crash! Save
early and often! :-)
Once you have the input parameters set up, you can save a file to disk with format
definition. If Stereonet finds a file called FileFormatDef in the same folder as the
data that you are trying to import, Stereonet will ask you if you want to use that
format definition. If you answer affirmative, Stereonet will attempt to parse the file
without showing you the big dialog. Alternatively, you can click the Show dialog
button and Stereonet with open the big dialog with the values from the file filled in.
After you click Okay, if there are already data in the lines or planes arrays, you
will be presented with a dialog box asking if you want to append or replace the data
to that already in the program.
Import PICTYou can import any PICT file into Stereonet's Plot Window with this
command. Practically, you will only want to import PICT's with stereonets on them!
This is especially useful if you want to read in an existing plot to add more items to
it. It is also invaluable in combination with the Extract Plot Data command in the
Data menu. You can, for example, scan a net in a published paper, import it with
Import PICT, and then use the Extract Plot data command to convert it into ASCII
text files of lines and planes by clicking on the points and great circles. Be sure to
observe the following:
The scanned image or plot can have a rectangular outline without introducing any
distortion. The image can be of any resolution but, the higher the dpi, the more
memory it will take. Stereonet will assume that the plot has North at the very top of
the circle. If your scanned image is rotated, you should rotate it in a graphics program before reading it into Stereonet. There is no way to reposition or scale the
graphic once imported.
Stereonet has no way of knowing if your PICT has an equal area or angle plot in it so
you must select manually Equal Area or Equal Angle from the plot menu before you

14

import the PICT. The Windows version will eventually be able to import .BMP files
but cannot do so at present.
Save DataChoose this option to save your data. You will be asked to choose Lines,
Planes, or Both in the dialog box that appears. The standard save file dialog box will
then appear, asking for you to name the file and choose the disk to save it on. The
data will be saved in the format specified in the Set Data Format dialog box (Fig. 1).
The first line of the data will be the two-letter code identifying the data format.
Save PlotStereonet plots can be saved to disk as "PICT" files for printing. PICT files
are object-oriented graphics files of the type produced by MacDraw and most other
graphics programs and can be printed at high resolution by the Apple LaserWriter
printer. When you choose this option, you will get a dialog box asking you to name
the file (a suffix of ".PICT" is supplied but you don't have to use it). Whatever is in
the plot window when you choose this option will then be saved as a PICT file created by whatever program you choose in "Set File Formats" under the Data Menu.
To open up the file after you exit just double click on its icon on the desk top and it
will be opened by your favorite graphics program.
You can still save the screen to disk as a bitmap file; use the key combination Command-Shift-3 (hold all three down at once) will save the screen on disk as a file
named "Picture 1", "Picture 2", etc. In MacOS X you can set a system preference for
whether such files are saved as TIFFs, PICTs, or GIFs.
In the Windows version, Save Plot will save the entire contents of the Plot Window
to disk as a .BMP file, with a resolution equivalent to that of the screen (nominally 96
dpi). To get a higher resolution plot you must
Export DXFA DXF file is an ASCII text file in the AutoCad Graphical Exchange format. This file can be read by most graphics programs (e.g., CorelDraw, Canvas, etc.),
which will plot, and allow you to edit the individual plot elements as vectors. The
resolution of this file is identical to that of a Macintosh PICT file. There are certain
limitations to DXF files, the main one being that polygons cannot be filled, and thus
the result is not exactly WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) but it is close
enough that it shouldnt be an undue burden to fix up in a graphics program.
Print PlotPrinting has been temporarily disabled in Stereonet v. 6.1.1 for Macintosh
until I learn how to print in MacOS X. Apple introduced significant changes to these
APIs with the CarbonLib and the printing that used to work is now broken. You can
print at the resolution of the Screen in StereoWin. For better resolution, export your
plot as DXF and print it from within a commercial graphics program.
Quit or ExitUse this to leave Stereonet and return to the Finder. Stereonet will ask if
you want to save any unsaved data before quitting, but it will not prompt you to
save the plot.

The Edit Menu

UndoThis allows you to undo the most recent plot and revert to the previous version.
If you select Undo two times in a row, it will act like a redo feature (i.e. restoring the
original plot) the second time around. Note that Undo only works with the plots in
the plot window; it has no effect on any operations that were performed on the lines
or planes arrays. For example, you cannot undo the calculation of poles to planes

15

and restore whatever was previously in the lines array. This choice is currently disabled in StereoWin.
Select TextThis command works only in the List Window of StereoWin. It will allow
you to select text in that window with an I-beam cursor. In StereoWin, you must
select the text before you can copy it to the System clipboard. Text copied in this way
can be pasted as fully editable text in any appropriate application.
Select GraphicsBefore you can copy any graphics in the Plot Window of StereoWin,
you must select them first by choosing this menu command and then dragging a
selection rectangle across the part of the screen that you want copied. In certain versions of Windows, the selection rectangle may not show up on screen but the area
that you drag across will nonetheless be copied when you subsequently choose
Copy, below.
Select AllYou can select the entire Plot Window or the entire contents of the List
Window with this command; no dragging necessary. Note that once you choose any of
these three Windows Select commands you must subsequently choose Copy before
you can do anything else in the program.
CopyCopy works on either the Plot Record Window or the Plot Window (whichever
is in front) and copies the contents of the window to the clipboard. The window itself is unaffected by the command. The graphical format copied to the clipboard in
Macintosh is PICT vector graphics. In Windows the text is copied as editable text
and graphics are copied as BMP format.
ClearThis command will erase both the Plot Record Window and the Plot Window,
without copying either to the clipboard. This is the fastest way of erasing the plot
window when you want to start over with a blank plot. The command can be revoked by choosing Undo. StereoWin does not currently have a Clear command
but will in subsequent versions.
Edit DataYou can interactively edit the data in the lines or planes arrays using the
Edit Data dialog box (Figure 2), accessed under the Edit Menu (control-U). You
must type the number of the datum you wish to edit into the box and the trend and
plunge or strike and dip will appear in two editable text boxes below. For information purposes, the dialog box also displays the direction cosines of the datum selected. You can also enter new data using the Add button (new data are always
added at the end of the array) or delete data using the Delete button. If you use the
Edit Data dialog box and click Okay to close it, the status of the data will be set to
Untitled and Unsaved and any lines and/or planes subset you have set up will be
reset to the entire data set (even if you have made no changes). The format of the
Edit Data dialog in Macintosh is different than in Windows. In the former, you must
type the number of the datum you wish to edit, whereas in the latter you need only
select it from a scrolling list that shows all of your data, as shown below:

16

PreferencesIn Preferences, you set the format of the Lines and Planes data as well as
several other features related to the general operation of the program. You can select
only one lines format and one planes format at any particular time. The two letter
header code that Stereonet places in the first line of each data file is shown in square
brackets just to the right of the name, followed by an example of the format in parentheses. Note that choosing Latitude, Longitude for a data format will automatically force Stereonet to produce upper hemisphere plots. The formats that you select
will determine the exact layout of the dialog boxes used to enter new data.
In the Mac version, you can enter the four letter Creator Code to have your favorite graphics program open the PICT files that you save. The Mac version also allows

17

you to specify that white space be plotted behind points. Checking Save all current
settings has the same effect as choosing Save Preferences from the Edit Menu.

To turn on or off the light gray grid that the program draws inside the stereonet,
check, or uncheck, Show grid backdrop. You can select whether the grid lines are
drawn every 2 or every 10.
If you check Automatically plot newly opened/entered data files, Stereonet will
automatically make a scatter plot of each new lines file or a great circle plot of each
new planes file as soon as you enter it from the Open command in the File Menu.
You will still have to click a dialog asking whether this is a new plot or old (except if
you hold down the Shift Key in the Mac version).
Save PreferencesYou can save all parameters of the program (about 20 in all) to disk
in a file called StereoPrefs. Set every thing as you want it (e.g. equal area or angle,
data format, point size and shape, show number, colors, etc.), then choose Save Preferences from the Data Menu to save StereoPrefs. The next time that Stereonet opens,
it will look for this file in the same folder as the program itself. If program finds the
file, it will set your previously selected preferences; otherwise it will use my preferred defaults. Note that the file StereoPrefs can be opened and edited by any word
processor capable of reading an ASCII text file but I do not recommend that you do
this because you can easily enter an incorrect value that may cause the program to
bomb. If this happens, you should throw out the old StereoPrefs file and save a new

18

one from within Stereonet. Although data files are interchangeable between Mac
and Windows versions, Preferences files are not!

The Data Menu

Data Countwill display a dialog box showing the total number of lines and planes
entered, as well as the number of lines and planes in the active subsets. This command allows you to see the name of the disk files input to the line and planes arrays,
as well as to see if the data in those arrays have been saved or not. Data entered as
"New," or recalculated using one of the commands under Operations menu will be
listed as "Untitled and unsaved." If you save the data to disk and then choose this
option, you will see the new file name.
List Current Datawill show and type into the "Data List" Window the contents of the
current lines and planes subsets (not the total data entered). In StereoWin, the Data
List Window can show a maximum of 100 lines and planes; if you have entered
more than that, a dialog box will appear asking you to specify a range to display. In
Stereonet, the entire data set is shown but to scroll the display to see it all you must
click and drag down (or up). In both, the data that are Hidden are displayed in
light gray.

As you can see in the screen shots from StereoWin, when you have entered data as
Latitude, Longitude, the equivalent upper hemisphere trends and plunges are also
shown.
Define Data SubsetsStereonet will allow you to define a subset of the total data entered. After you select the subset, all subsequent operations and plotting will apply

19

only to that subset. The lines subset does not have to be the same as the planes subset.

Reset to Total DataSelect this command to have the program forget any data subsets
that you may have established with the previous command.
Lasso DataWhen you choose this option from the Data Menu, you will be instructed
to use the mouse to circle the data points (i.e. lines) of interest in the plot window.
You can do this even if no lines are plotted, as long as some lines have been entered,
but obviously it is easier if you make a scatter plot of the lines first. If you have already specified a lines data subset, the lasso will only find the lines in the subset.
Once you have selected the lines, a dialog box will present you with three choices:
(1) List the lines in the Data Window. The number to the left of the line trend and
plunge shows its actual position in the data set. (2) Save the selected lines to disk in
a new data file. You will see the standard save file dialog box. (3) Delete the lines
from memory. This option only affects the lines in memory but has no effect on any
disk files. Once you choose this option all of the remaining lines will be renumbered
and any data subsets will be reset to the total remaining population. This option
does not affect the Plot Window. To get rid of the deleted points on the screen, you
must replot your data.
Show or Hide DataAlthough StereoWin does not have a lasso function, a similar type
of data sorting can be achieved using this command. A dialog box will be displayed
(below) showing all of the entered lines and planes in two scrolling list boxes. You
can select multiple lines by clicking repeated (no shift click is necessary). Once you
have selected all of the lines that you want to hide, click on the Hide radio button to
mark the selected lines as Hidden. Hidden lines will show up in data lists in light
gray color, but will not be included in any plot or analysis until they are unhidden.

20

Extract Plot DataChoosing this option allows you to convert mouse clicks in the Plot
Window into data points in the lines and planes arrays. You will probably use this
feature to extract data from old files (or scans of figures in journal articles published
by others) for which you not longer have (or never had) the ASCII text files. Extracting the data is a four step process:
1. First, you must import a PICT using the Import PICT command under the File
Menu. The PICT file can contain either vectorized graphics (like the PICT file
that Stereonet saves when you choose "Save Plot") or a bit map (which is what
you get when you scan data on a scanner).
2. Next choose Extract Plot Data. The first thing you will be asked to do is define
the outer circle of the imported stereonet by clicking on three points on the
primitive. As soon as you depress the mouse button for the third point, Stereonet
draws a circle which resizes itself automatically until you release the button, allowing you to fine tune your selection. Note that Stereonet automatically assumes that North is at the very top of the imported projection. For imported
PICTs with north at a different position, just do a vertical axis rotation after extracting all the data.
3. Then you just click on the points to extract line data or click at two different spots
on great circle traces to extract planes. Stereonet marks your clicks with a red X
and makes an audible click so you can see if you have already extracted a point
or not.
4. Finally, you must click the mouse outside of the net to end the data extraction.
Note that the data that you extract will replace whatever was previously in the
lines and planes array!!

21

Steps one and two, above, will cause Stereonet to reset the radius of the projection
but does not reset the center of the projection for subsequent plotting. Any additional plotting will continue to use the reset radius, which may cause problems in
contouring if you do not first reset the radius using the change net command in the
plot menu. This is because only certain net radius' work with Stereonet's 21 x 21
contour grid and 3 x 3 pixel pattern box size. If this happens to you just select the
Change Net Radius command under the plot menu, enter whatever value you want
and Stereonet will rescale the net to the closest acceptable radius. Then just recontour the plot.
Stereonet has no way of knowing if your PICT has an equal area or angle plot in it so
you must select manually Equal Area or Equal Angle from the plot menu before you
import the PICT.
Add Data ManuallyThis option enables you to add data to your plot by clicking the
mouse within the primitive of the stereonet. The orientation of the point is shown in
the upper right hand corner of the window. The point is recorded and marked with a red
X when you release the mouse button. The data entered this way can either be appended to or replace any data already entered in the program.
StereoWin will eventually have both extract data and add data manually functions
but it does not have them at present.

The Operations Menu

The various options in the Operations menu make calculations on the data in the
current arrays but do no plotting. Many of these options will change the data in one or the
other of the two arrays, so careful attention should be paid to the sequence in which you
do calculations and plotting of multiple data sets.
Polescalculates the lower hemisphere poles (line perpendicular to a plane) to the
planes stored in the active planes array and places the resulting lines in the active
lines array. This requires no input from the user (except of course the original
planes).
Planes from PolesCalculates the planes that are oriented at 90 to the lines in the Lines
array (i.e. it assumes the Lines are Poles and calculates the corresponding Planes).
The result of this calculation is stored in the active Planes array, replacing whatever
was in it before. This requires no input from the user.
Rotate DataA dialog box will appear, asking you to choose Lines, Planes, or Both
(Figure 6). The data type that you choose will then be rotated about an axis with any
orientation and in any amount. In the same dialog box, you enter three values that
define the Rotation. The rotation is always in a clockwise sense (i.e. right hand rule)
looking in the direction of the given azimuth of the rotation axis (in the figure below,
because the magnitude of rotation is a negative number, the rotation will be counterclockwise looking toward azimuth 035). After the calculations are complete, the
new lines and/or planes are stored in the active arrays (for plotting, saving, etc.) and
the old data are wiped out.

22

You can rotate data either as axes or as vectors, depending on whether or not the
Treat data as VECTORS not axes box is checked (see below). Data treated as axes
will always be converted to lower hemisphere lines whereas data treated as vectors
can be rotated into the upper hemisphere. Vectors that point into the upper hemisphere will have negative plunges.

Variable RotationYou can now rotate a single array of lines and/or planes data
about variable axes by choosing Variable Rotation under the operations menu. This
option would allow you to, for example, unfold lineations by rotating the accompanying bedding back to horizontal, etc.
Two types of rotations are possible (following figure): (1) data can be unfolded by
rotating the corresponding bedding planes back to horizontal (a rotation equal to the
negative of the dip about a horizontal axis the same as the strike azimuth), or (2)
variable rotation axes can be specified.
There are two choices for unfolding bedding: you can use the planes currently in
memory in the planes array, or you can temporarily read planes data from a TEXT
file on disk. The data for the Variable rotation option is always read as a TEXT file
on disk. The disk file is read in temporarily at the time of the rotation; it does not
replace either the line or the planes file. The rotation axes or bedding orientations in
that file (or in the planes array) should correspond one-to-one with the data to be
rotated in the lines and/or planes arrays. If subsets of the lines and/or planes arrays have been defined (from the Data menu) and the bedding/rotation axes (B/RA)
file has as many or more data as the lines and/or planes, then the same subset of the
B/RA will be used for the rotation. For example, if the lines array has 20 measurements in it and a subset of 6 - 12 has been defined, beds 6 - 12 of the B/RA file will
be used for the rotation (assuming that the latter has 20 or more values in it). If the
B/RA file has fewer measurements in it than the total number of measurements in
the lines or planes array, then the current subset will be rotated one-for-one with the
values in the B/RA file until the end of the B/RA file is reached. Then, all remaining values in lines and/or planes will be rotated using the last value in the B/RA
file. If you are unfolding data, you should correct for fold plunge before choosing
this option.

23

For unfolding about bedding, any common planes file format saved normally by
Stereonet can be read in for the rotation. For Variable Rotation about horizontal
axes, any file in the planes format can also be read in. In this case, the strike azimuth
defines the azimuth of the rotation axis and the dip defines a positive (right hand)
rotation about that axis. This is just the opposite of unfolding bedding (where the
dip defines a negative rotation about the strike, because of the right hand rule for
strikes). For variable rotations about plunging axes, the text file must be created in
Edit or some word processing program with the following format: The first line has
the letters VR which tell Stereonet that it is a variable rotation. Each subsequent line
has one rotation axis defined by three numbers: Azimuth of axis, plunge of axis,
and amount of rotation. As with Rotate Data, a positive rotation is right-handed
looking in the direction of the given azimuth.
Line on PlaneSmall errors in the collection of field data often result from independent measurement of planes and lines lying on those planes (e.g. slickensides on fault
surfaces, or fold axes on axial surfaces, etc.). This operation recalculates the positions of lines so that they lie on their respective planes. To work, there must be an
equal number of lines and planes in the two arrays and the elements in the two arrays must correspond (i.e. the first line in the line array must correspond to the first
plane in the plane array). This operation assumes that the plane was correctly
measured and recalculates either the Trend or the Plunge of the line; the one it selects is that which produces the smallest change in the orientation of the line. For
example, if it calculates that the plunge should be changed by 5 (keeping the trend
the same) or the trend should be changed by 7 (holding the plunge the same),
Stereonet will change the plunge. No error checking is done by the program. For
example, if a given plunge is steeper than a given dip (an impossible situation, but
one which is not uncommon when the plane has a gentle dip), Stereonet automatically assumes that the plunge is in error and recalculates it. This operation requires
no additional input from the user.
Fisher Vector DistributionCalculates the Fisher distribution mean vector of the lines
in the lines array and displays the result in a dialog box. All lines are treated as
vectors pointing downward into the lower hemisphere, unless they have negative
plunges (see discussion of Plot Mean Vector under the Plot Menu). Thus a line that

24

plunges slightly east will nearly cancel out a line that plunges slightly in the opposite direction (i.e. west). To get a mean pole for axial data (i.e. lines with no directional significance), you should use the Bingham Axial distribution, which is described in the next section. See Ramsay (1967) p. 15-17, Fisher et al. (1987), or
Cheeney (1983) p. 110-119 for description of method. This option produces no
changes to the lines in the lines array.
Bingham Axial DistributionThe Bingham distribution is the statistical analysis of
choice for orientation of linear data when the lines have no directional significance
(in contrast to vector data). This routine calculates a symmetric matrix consisting of
the sums of the squares and of the products of the direction cosines for each line in
the lines array. The eigenvalues and corresponding eigenvectors are then calculated. The eigenvalues, normalized to 1, give a measure of the relative concentration
of points. In general, a point concentration will have one large eigenvalue and two
much smaller ones. A girdle concentration will have two large and equal eigenvalues and one much smaller one (the eigenvector of the latter corresponding, for example, to the fold axis when the lines are poles to bedding planes). The program
also calculates the 95% confidence "ellipses" (because of the orthorhombic symmetry
of the Bingham distribution) using the algorithm of Fisher et al. (1987) but does not
plot them. Finally, a uniform distribution will have three approximately equivalent
eigenvalues. This routine produces no change to the lines or planes array, and does
no plotting in the "Plot" window.
Angle Between Two LinesThis choice allows you to use the mouse to select any two
points in the "Plot" window to determine the angle between the corresponding lines.
Instructions are typed into the "Data Entry" window. Following selection of the second point, the acute and obtuse angles between the two lines and the trend and
plunge of the two lines selected appear in the "Data Entry" window. As you hold
down the mouse button and move it around inside the stereonet, the trend and
plunge of the line is interactively displayed in the upper right hand corner of the
Plot Window. If you are choosing the second line, the angle between it and the first
line are also shown.

While selecting the two lines on the screen,

Stereonet animates the selection by showing
both the points and the great circle through
them along which the angle is measured.
When you release the mouse for a second
time, the results are shown in a dialog box as
below.

25

The precise angle between any two lines in the lines can now be determined in a
dialog box (Figure 8) by holding down the shift key while choosing Angle Between
Two Lines. The lines can be any two in the Lines array, two user entered lines or a
combination of data in memory and entered in the dialog box. For the latter, first
choose In memory and the value of the lines will be entered in the trend and plunge
boxes. Then, click on User entered and enter your line in the other trend and plunge
box.
Angle Between Two PlanesThe dialog box for Angle Between Two Planes works
identically to the previous menu choice, except that strikes and dips are entered
and/or displayed in the boxes (strikes entered only with right hand rule).
Intersection of Two PlanesYou can use this dialog box to calculate the precise intersection of two planes, either both in memory, entered manually, or a combination of
the two. The dialog box is shown in Figure 9.
Apparent DipThe "Apparent Dip" command under the "Operations" menu will bring
up the Apparent Dip calculator dialog box (Fig. 10). In this box, you can
1. enter the strike and dip of a plane and calculate plunges of two different lines
with known trends in the plane
2. enter the trend and plunge of two lines and have the program calculate the plane
that contains them
3. enter a strike and a single line (i.e. apparent dip) and have the program calculate
the dip of the plane
4. enter a strike and dip and the pitch of one or two lines and have the computer
calculate the trends and plunges of the one or two corresponding lines.
The user identifies which data are being entered by checking the boxes to the left of
the label. Strike and dip are specified using only the right-hand rule (i.e. where the
dip direction is clockwise from the given strike azimuth). Once sufficient information has been entered, the program will automatically fill in the remaining boxes.
You will not be able to check or change the entries in those boxes. If you click on a
box that is already checked, the program will assume that you want to start over and
will erase all of the entries in the dialog box. Note that, when you specify a strike
and dip and a plunge of a line, there are two possible lines with that plunge. The
program will calculate both and will display the second line in the section of the
dialog box marked "--Line 2--".

26

In the apparent dip calculator, you

must check the boxes to the left of
the numbers you are entering. The
rest of the boxes are filled in when
you click the calculate button. In this
example, note that Line 1 has a
negative plunge. This means that the
line points up into the air and would
plot in the upper hemisphere.

The Plot Menu

Plot produces the diagrams of various types in the "Plot" window. None of the
options produces any change in the active lines and planes arrays.
A neat feature of the "Plot" window is that, at anytime, you can point and click
the mouse at any point in the projection and Stereonet will record the Trend and Plunge
of the corresponding line in the upper right hand corner of the Plot window (trend always before plunge). You can move the mouse around with the button held down and
see the T&P values change as you go. When you click on a line, the number of the line
in the data array will be displayed. If you click the mouse outside the boundaries of the
projection, the program does nothing. This feature can be used to find out the line of
intersection of two planes (after plotting the planes, of course) or apparent dips along a
plane, etc.
Equal AreaWhen this option is chosen, the plot will be an equal area projection; this
is the preset condition when you open up the program. The type of projection is
printed in the upper left corner of the Plot Window for reference.
Equal AngleStereonet can also make plots using an equal angle projection. You can
only use Equal Area or Equal Angle on a single plot, not both. If you were in Equal
Area and you chose this option, an alert box will appear asking you if you want to
Go Ahead or Cancel.

27

Change Net RadiusWhen you start Stereonet, the projection displayed in the Plot
Window has a radius of 192 pixels. The size of the net can be changed at any time,
either before or after plotting, using this command. The size of the net can now be
specified to the pixel. [However, if you are using contour patterns rather than lines,
you are still limited to even multiples of the contour grid spacing as previously (see
below).] This allows you to set the radius to print the nets at any size you want. A
stereonet prints at 72 pixels per inch. Therefore if you want an 8" in diameter (4 inch
radius) net, you simply set the net radius to 72*4 = 288 pixels. If you want a 15 cm
diameter net, you set the radius to 72*(7.5 cm)/(2.54 cm/in) = 213 pixels [note that
you must choose the nearest integer value; the program will crash if you enter a real
number]. Changing the net radius will cause the current plot to be erased!
Set View DirectionStructural geologists are accustomed to viewing the stereonet as a
lower hemisphere projection, as if one were looking vertically downward. However, there are many times when a different frame of reference is better. For example, you may want to plot data in the plane of a cross section (a view direction which
is horizontal and perpendicular to the azimuth of the cross section), or in the profile
plane (down plunge view) of a cylindrical fold (a view direction parallel to the fold
axis). Of course, you can do this by rotating all your data, but it can be a bit tedious,
and you dont have and visualization aids. Stereonet now allows you to set any view
direction without having to rotate all of your data. Because of the potential unfamiliarity of this new option, I describe it in detail here.

When you choose Set View Direction under the plot menu, the above dialog box
will appear. The trend and plunge that you enter in this dialog will become the new
center of the projection and the primitive plane perpendicular to that direction. As
warned in the dialog box, your current plot will be erased and you will have to replot everything. You can easily return to the default view of North-East-Down by
clicking the Default View button in the set view dialog box. You do not need to
enter any values first. The following diagram shows the relationship between the
Cartesian coordinates of a normal geographic stereographic projection (in black) and
those of the new view (in red).

28

This diagram shows the relationship between the two coordinate

systems used when you set the
view direction. The default view
orientation is shown in black and is
labeled with the unprimed Xs. An
arbitrary new view is shown in red
with axes labeled with X. This diagram is for a typical transformation.
A slightly different one is used
when latitude-longitude data have
been entered.

The new view coordinate system axes are plotted at the same position as the old
axes. For example, the new X3 is plotted in the center of the net at the same place as
the old X3. Stereonet actually maintains your data in the format of the new coordinate system (view coordinates) in memory to speed up operations, but transforms
the data back into geographic coordinates whenever it reports the results of a calculation, and before saving to disk, etc.
To maintain a sense of orientation, I highly recommend that you have Show Grid
turned on in Preferences; Stereonet will then plot the rotated grid, with the great circles intersecting at the north or south pole. This essentially lets you see both coordinate systems at once. For the values shown in the above dialog, the rotated grid with
the new and old coordinate systems, is shown below. Note that for the entered values, X1, X2, and X3 are all positive, but other view directions can result in negative
axes being plotted.
X 1

Equal Area

North or South
(X 1 or X 1)

horizon

East or West
(X 2 or X 2)

X 2
view direction
X 3

Down or Up
(X 3 or X3)

29

Example of a rotated view direction

with a trend of 045 and a plunge
of 37. This vector constitutes coincides with the center of the
stereonet and is the X3 axis. The
primitive of the stereonet in this
view corresponds to a plane striking 135 and dipping 53 to SW.
The light gray grid still corresponds
to the geographic coordinate system.

When you click and hold down the mouse on the stereonet, the orientation that you
see is in geographic coordinates. That is, if you click on the pole in the above diagram, the trend and plunge will show T&P = 0, 0, or perhaps T&P = 360, 0. This
is the fastest way to determine whether or not the pole showing is north or south
(the latter, of course, will have a trend of 180). Clicking on points above the horizon
will show negative plunges, because these points are plunging upwards into the
upper hemisphere, negative by standard structural convention. If you hold down
the shift key while you click on the stereonet, you will see the trend and plunge of
the clicked point in the new view coordinate system. It is unlikely that you will need
this very often!
One potentially confusing aspect of this new capability is the concept of upper
and lower hemispheres. Once you set the view direction, the upper hemisphere is
the one in the direction opposite to the direction in which you are looking. Lines that
plunge downward geographically (and thus have positive plunges) may well end
up in the upper hemisphere of the new view. When you choose Scatter or Mean
Vector, Stereonet will ask you how you want to handle these upper hemisphere
lines. The figure below shows the same data set plotted in geographic coordinates
(left) and with a view direction of 045, 37. Note that some of the lines have become
upper hemisphere (to the new view direction) because of the coordinate transformation:
Equal Area

Equal Area

"upper" hemisphere
lines plotted in
"lower" hemisphere

N = 70

N = 70

ScatterThis option produces a scatter plot (point plot) of the lines in the current lines
array. Stereonet will first ask if this is a New Plot or an Old Plot in a dialog box; if
you answer New Plot, the "Plot" window will be erased and the border of the projection redrawn before plotting. Pressing Return selects the default, Old Plot, and
will leave the existing plot intact and will plot the points on top of it. Thus you can

30

plot multiple data sets on the same diagram. Scatter uses variations on four different point symbols: circle, box, triangle, and diamond. These symbols can be plotted
with three different types of fill (black, gray, or white), at a wide variety of sizes, and
with any color your computer is capable of plotting. These options are selected in
the Symbols Menu. Once the point symbol characteristics of a line are selected, all
lines plotted with Scatter will have the same characteristics until you redefine the
lines symbol.

Whenever you ask for a Scatter plot, the program will scan the file of lines for orientations with negative plunges (indicating lines which plunge into the upper hemisphere). If it finds any, you will see the above dialog box, which asks you how to
display those negative plunges. This first choice is self-explanatory. In the second
choice, if you select a different symbol then what you get depends on what has been
selected in the symbols menu. The lower hemisphere lines are always displayed
with the selected symbol (including size and shading). The point characteristics for
the upper hemisphere lines are selected in the same menu:

Great CirclePlanes can be plotted as great circles using this option. Stereonet will first
ask if this is a New Plot or an Old Plot in a dialog box; if you answer New Plot, the
"Plot" window will be erased and the border of the projection redrawn before plotting. Pressing Return selects the default, Old Plot, and will leave the existing plot
intact and will plot the points on top of it. Thus, you can plot multiple data sets on
the same diagram. Great circles are plotted according to the pen style style, size,
and color in the options accessed from the Symbols menu; the default is a solid line
one pixel wide. StereoWin cannot plot lines heavier than one pixel.
Kamb ContourContour produces a contoured diagram of the lines in the lines array
using the method of Kamb (1959). This method uses a variable area counting circle
31

and calculates the number of standard deviations ("") from a uniform distribution
of points on the projection. The resulting plot shows contours of point density with
the lowest contour having a value of 2 and 3 the default value of a uniform distribution (this can be changed with the Contour Parameters dialog box). The contour
counting grid has been increased from 17x17 to 21x21, providing somewhat increased resolution on the contours.
Contours are now drawn as unfilled continuous polygons by default. These can be
filled with the patterns or colors of your choice in your favorite graphics program.
You can now contour multiple data sets on the same diagram. The color of the contour lines is specified in the Symbols Menu. The old style patterns are still available.
Contour Lines and Patterns are turned on and off using the "Contour Parameters"
command under the symbols menu. It is possible to plot both contour patterns and
contour lines on a plot, but be aware that these two commands use slightly different
algorithms so the boundaries of the fields are close but do not always coincide exactly. If the difference between the two algorithms is important to you, then you are
probably up to no good anyway! Contour patterns still cause the existing plot to be
erased. Furthermore, because I am still using the old way of painting contours to the
screen, the net radius of your plot will be rescaled to the nearest even multiple of 30.
Contour lines can be plotted on top of an existing plot and do not change the net radius. Contour patterns are now saved to PICT file (or the clipboard) just as thousands of little rectangles. It is no longer possible to save them as bitmaps. I suggest
using the patterns for screen display, but lines for printed output. To show the
counting grid and the individual numbers at each node, hold down the shift key
while choosing either of the two contour options in the plot menu.
If you hold down the Shift key while you select either Kamb or 1% area contouring,
the grid used with the number of counts at each node will be displayed prior to
contouring. After you have looked at the grid, you will have to press the Return key
to continue the contouring process.
For a more in depth discussion of how the program does the contouring, see the
section entitled "Notes on Contouring" at the end of the manual.
1% Area ContourStereonet also allows contouring using the more classical and
widely used 1% area method, where the counting circle is automatically constrained
to be 1% of the total net area. As in the Kamb method, above, you can set the contour interval to whatever value you want (e.g. 0.5, 2.7, etc.). As above contouring
will always erase whatever was previously on the net.
Rose DiagramThis selection will make a rose petal diagram of either the trends of
lines in the line array or the strikes of planes in the planes array. Dips or plunges are
ignored. Petal width can be set at the time of plotting to 5, 10, or 20 increments.
The length of a petal is calculated as the percentage of the total number of data
points that fall within the selected width bin. You set the value of the outer perimeter of the plot (in percentage of total data set) and Stereonet scales the petals to that
input value. This gives you the option to plot single data sets as large as possible or
to plot multiple data sets with the same outer perimeter. Stereonet tells you the
minimum value for the outer perimeter that can be chosen so that the petals do not
exceed the size of the plot. Following plotting of the diagram the maximum petal
size in percent and the 10 azimuthal increments are printed in the Data Entry Win-

32

dow. The outer perimeter of the Rose Diagram is the same size as the stereonet and
thus the orientation of lines or planes can be plotted on top of the rose petals if desired.
Pick Great CircleWith this option, you can use the mouse to pick the orientation of a
great circle and plot it on the net; it does not change the values in either the Lines or
the Planes arrays. There are two ways to pick a great circle: In the default method,
press and hold down the mouse button inside the net; that point is the pole to the
flashing great circle that appears. As you move the mouse around the screen, the
great circle will change accordingly. When you release the mouse button, the great
circle becomes part of your diagram. Alternatively, you can press the Shift key
while choosing Pick Great Circle. Then the great circle is defined by clicking any
two points on the net. A great circle will be drawn through those two points and a
solid square will be plotted at the pole to the great circle. The orientations of the
great circle and the pole, as well the orientations of the two points selected, will be
printed in the "Plot Record" window. With either method, the trend and plunge of
the line at the point of the mouse cursor (the pole in the first method) will be displayed interactively in the upper right hand corner of the Plot Window, along with
the orientation of the great circle as long as you hold the mouse button down.
This option is very useful for estimating a best-fit great circle to poles to bedding to
get a fold axis. It can also be used to pick perpendicular nodal planes for earthquake
focal mechanism or structural analysis. Select the first plane, then choose Pick Great
Circle again and select your second plane, making sure that one of the two points
selected is the pole to the first great circle.
Plot Small CircleYou can plot small circles in either Equal Angle or Equal Area
mode. A dialog box will appear, asking you for the position of the center of the
small circle (entered as a trend and plunge) and its radius in degrees. If the small circle intersects the primitive of the net, you will be asked whether you want to plot the
remaining part of the small circle in the upper or lower hemisphere. Note that, unlike an analog (i.e., paper) stereonet where the center of the small circle must coincide with the north or south pole of the grid, the digital stereonet can plot a small
circle in any orientation, making all those drill hole problems a whole lot easier :- )!
Plot PointAt any time, you can tell Stereonet to plot a point that is not in the current
lines array by choosing this menu option. A dialog box will appear. In addition to
specifying the orientation of the line, you can also choose between a box and a circle
and you can specify the size of the point. The point will be drawn with the colors
that have been chosen using the Set Color submenu in the Symbols Menu.

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Cylindrical Best FitThis option will calculate a best-fit plane to a distribution of lines
and will plot the plane and the pole to the plane in the "Plot" window and the orientations of the two in the "Plot Record" window. The calculations do not affect either the lines or the planes arrays. This can be used to find the cylindrical fold axis
from bedding pole data (Figure 20) or the true strike and dip of a plane from two
apparent dips. This routine calculates the Bingham distribution and displays the eigenvalues and eigenvectors both on the plot and numerically in the "Plot Record"
window (see discussion under Bingham Axial Distribution). The great circle is
drawn through the two eigenvectors corresponding to the two largest eigenvalues,
with the fold axis given by the vector corresponding to the smallest eigenvalue.
Conical Best Fitdoes the same thing as the previous option except that it calculates
the best-fit cone to a distribution of lines (from Ramsay, 1967). In either Equal Angle
or Equal Area projections, both the axis and the small circle itself are plotted. The
"Data Entry" window lists the trend and plunge of the cone axis and the half apical
angle of the cone. A half apical angle of 90 means the cone is equivalent to a cylinder. A minimum of three lines is needed. The conical best fit algorithm assumes that
all the lines entered are vectors. This can lead to unexpected results, so Stereonet
actually does a grid search, progressively rotating the lines and calculating the best
fit cone repeatedly until it finds the best fit of all.
Plot Mean VectorPlots position of mean vector as a solid box on the stereonet. The
95% confidence cone will be plotted as a small circle. The color and point symbol
used to plot the mean vector is specified in the Symbols Menu. If you ask Stereonet
to calculate or plot mean vectors, it will also check the lines array for negative
plunges. If it finds any, you will see a dialog box (below), which asks you how to
calculate and display the mean vector. You can calculate just one mean vector for
the entire data set (No, all together) or you can calculate two, one for upper and one
for lower hemispheres. In the latter case, the statistics are calculated and displayed
separately. The resulting mean vectors and confidence cones can be plotted in either
the upper or lower hemisphere. Plotting the mean vector for upper hemisphere
lines in the lower hemisphere is like performing a reversal test in paleomagnetic
studies.

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a single data set with negative and positive

plunges plotted separately, and with their corresponding mean vectors (in blue) also plotted
separately in upper and lower hemispheres

Equal Area

The Symbols Menu

The Symbols Menu gives you control over the appearance of your plot. You must
select these options before choosing the plot from the Plot Menu. Whatever choices you
make from the Symbols Menu will remain in effect until you select something else from
the menu; it does not automatically revert to the defaults after plotting. Although both
Stereonet and StereoWin have a Symbols Menu, the organization of the two is quite different. Most notably, in StereoWin, you select shapes, sizes, and colors all in a single
dialog box, whereas in Stereonet, colors are selected from a different submenu than the
shapes (because Stereonet uses the Macintosh color picker dialog).
Set SymbolsFrom this submenu, you define the shape, size, and fill for all of the different points and great circles that Stereonet can plot (see figure, below left). Depending on which specific graphic element you choose, the format of the dialog
varies slightly. The graphic element you choose retains its characteristics until you
change it in this menu. You can set your preferred shapes and sizes as the defaults
upon opening the program by choosing Save Preferences in the Edit Menu.

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The Set Symbols submenu (below) and the

Set Colors submenu (right) are where you
define the appearance of the various graphical
elements plotted by Stereonet.

Set ColorsYou use this submenu (shown above at right) to set the colors for all the
graphic elements in Stereonet, including the background grid. The colors are chosen
with the standard Mac color picker dialog, shown below. You can use any of the
color schemes at the left side of the dialog.

Set Point/Line AttributesIn StereoWin, you set the size, shape, fill, and color all in
the same dialog box. Both the size and the shape are chosen using the drop down
lists, as shown below. When selecting a color, note that you have to click on the radio button to the left of the color and not click on the color itself (which will do
nothing).

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Set Great Circle ColorThis command shows a dialog where one can set the color or
the great circles.
Set MiscellaneousIn this dialog, you set the color, shape, size, and fill for all of the
remaining graphic elements in StereoWin, as shown in the figure, below:

Contour ParametersThis choice brings up a dialog box that allows you to change all
of the basic aspects of a contour plot. A brief description of each choice in the dialog
box follows:
Set Contour Interval: The default value for the contour interval is 2s (i.e. 2 standard
deviations) or 2% per 1% area. This value can be change to whatever the user
wishes; whole numbers or decimals are permitted.
Set Significance Level: This choice allows you to change the default, 3s level for Kamb
Contouring. The practical effect is to make the counting circle bigger or smaller depending on whether you use a bigger or smaller significance level.

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Contour Patterns Check box:

Shades, Stripes: These are the two different pattern options for the contour plot (as
shown in Figure 12); Shades is the default.
Solid Colors, Shaded Colors: Contouring in color is possible on a Macintosh II
equipped with a color screen, if you have selected PICT contours. Shaded colors are
the same as solid except that they are plotted with a 75% gray screen so that they
come out lighter. Contour Patterns are not available in StereoWin.
The contour parameters dialogs differ considerably
between Mac and Windows version. Patterns and
Terzaghi correct are currently unavailable in Windows. Contour colors are chosen separately with
the Set Colors submenu in the Mac version

Terzaghi Correction:
Data that you sample along a 1-D linear transect (borehole, etc.) can be biased by the
fact that you are very unlikely to sample a representative number of structures that
trend sub-parallel or parallel to your sampling line. As Randy Marrett explained it
to me, to apply the Terzaghi correction for this bias, you just multiply the value at
each counting node times 1/cos(angle between the sample line and the counting
node). The trend and plunge that you enter in the following dialog box gives the orientation of the sampling line or transect. Counting nodes that are parallel to the
sample line should have a value of infinity, but that would result in an awful lot of
contours, so you must specify some upper maximum value, the default value being
10.
Show NumberIf you select this option, Stereonet will write a number next to each
point in a scatter plot which corresponds to the position of that line in the data file.
Label RecordYou can personalize the Plot Record by selecting "Labels" from the
"Symbols" menu. If selected, each time you plot something new a dialog box will
appear asking you to label the item. Stereonet starts up with labels not selected.

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Fonts etcThis allows you to determine what font Stereonet uses for the Plot windows.
You can only choose the fonts and styles shown in Figure 26 but any size may be
entered. These settings apply to everything plotted in the Plot window. It is especially useful when combined with the Annotate Plot menu option described next.

Annotate PlotThis allows you make annotations directly on the plot window that will
be saved with the plot as a PICT file. Annotations can be only one line long and 256
characters in length. When you select Annotate plot, the Data Entry Window reminds you to click the pointer (mouse) at the place where you want the text to occur.
The letters will appear immediately to the right and above the pointer tip. To terminate an annotation, press the Return Key. Annotations have whatever text characteristics you have defined in the Fonts etc. dialog box above.

The Windows Menu

The items in the Windows Menu control the display of the three windows used
by Stereonet. They do nothing more than making a window visible (if it has been hidden with the "go-away" box) and they bring the window to the front.
PlotSelect this to show and/or bring to the front the Plot Window. The Plot Window
can be cleared by selecting "Clear" from the Edit Menu. Either one of these commands will erase whatever is in the Plot Record Window as well.
Plot RecordSelect this to show and/or bring to the front the Plot Record Window.
StereoWin combines the Plot and Plot Record in a single window.
Data ListSelect this to show and/or bring to the front the Data Entry Window. The
data list Window does not have a scroll bar, but you can click and drag the mouse in
the window to move through the entire contents.

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Notes on Contouring with Stereonet

Several people have requested more information about how Stereonet does its
contouring. The program uses a rectangular, 21 by 21 grid. The location of each of
these grid points on the sphere is calculated (i.e. the orientation of a reference line to
each grid point, in direction cosines, is calculated). The counting area is actually a
spherical cap on the surface of the sphere (see the following Figure). Once the size of
the counting area is calculated, the apical angle of the cap (a, below) is determined. For
each line in the data set, the angle between it and the vector to the grid point is calculated. If the angle is smaller than the apical angle of the cap (e.g. for line a, below, y < a)
the line is counted at that grid point; otherwise (e.g. line b) it is not counted. This process is repeated for each grid point (for 100 lines: 44,100 calculations). You can see the
number of lines counted at each grid point by holding down the Shift Key while selecting either Kamb or 1% area contouring. The contours are then painted as a single bit
map (or with many small rectangles if PICT is selected) using a simple algorithm that
interpolates between grid points with 3-pixel resolution (nearly 10,000 more calculations). Note that, because counting is done on the sphere, you can do contouring in either Equal Area or Equal Angle modes. However, the rectangular grid is more distorted and unevenly spaced when projected using an Equal Angle projection (i.e. the
grid points will be squeezed in the middle of the projection and stretched at the edges).
Because the contouring subroutine uses a square grid in which only 20 out of 441
nodes fall on the primitive, there remain slight contour mismatches from one side of the
primitive circle to the other.

Acknowledgment and Referencing

There is no scientific publication that, at present, documents all of the features
contained in Stereonet. Most, if not all, of the scientific algorithms are well known and
documented in various places, such that I have not felt it necessary to clutter the literature with yet another description of the same routines. Stereonet-produced diagrams
have appeared in several publications, occasionally without identification. The lack of
acknowledgment is understandable; in as much as Stereonet is primarily a plotting program, people may not feel any greater obligation to acknowledge it than they do their
favorite spreadsheet or graphics package. On the other hand, one should, maybe, feel

40

some obligation to thank or acknowledge a colleague for the use of a program which
they obtained free of charge, if it has saved them a considerable amount of time. It is, I
think, a contribution on the same level as a constructive review of a manuscript or
pointing out the location of a particularly important outcrop. I consider a brief mention
of the use of the program in the Acknowledgments of a paper to be appropriate. (After
all, we all like to know that what we do is useful to others).

Distribution Policy
Stereonet is copyrighted and protected by the laws of the United States of America; it is not Public Domain. I am happy to have people distribute my programs to
others for non-commercial use, but only if they include a paper copy or this disk copy
of the users manual. The manual contains important disclaimers at the beginning and
saves me from answering a lot of questions. Any individual or organization distributing more than one copy of my programs must contact me with the details and obtain
my permission before proceeding. People can always obtain the most recent version of
the program by using the FTP site described below. Stereonet may not be offered for
sale or as an inducement to buy any other product.
Stereonet and this user's manual are available via anonymous FTP (file transfer
protocol) over the Internet free of charge to non-commercial users. The address of our
FTP site here at Cornell is <ftp://www.geo.cornell.edu/pub/rwa>. If you have questions about the program, just send an e-mail message to me at "rwa1@ cornell.edu" and
I will do what I can to help.
Any individual or company intending to use Stereonet for their own profit
should buy the commercial version of the program, regardless of from whom they
originally obtained the program. This includes students who have gone on to work in
industry and professors who use the program in their paid consulting. Please contact
me for details.

Credits

The rotation algorithm used in Rotate Data was written by Randy Marrett.

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The original programming of the Kamb (1959, Journal of Geophysical Research, 64:1891-1909) contouring method was done by David M. Miller and
was adapted for the Macintosh by Rick Allmendinger.

The routine that calculates eigenvalues and eigenvectors used in Bingham

Axial Distribution and in Cylindrical Best Fit comes from the book Numerical
Recipes (Cambridge Press).

The rest of the program, including all bugs and maddening interface quirks,
was written by Rick Allmendinger.

References Cited
Cheeney, R. F., 1983, Statistical methods in geology: London, George Allen & Unwin,
169 p.
Fisher, N. I., Lewis, T. L., and Embleton, B. J., 1987, Statistical analysis of spherical data:
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 329 p.
Kamb, W. B., 1959, Ice petrofabric observations from Blue Glacier, Washington in relation to theory and experiment: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 64, p. 1891-1909.
Press, W. H., Flannery, B. P., Teukolsky, S. A., and Vetterling, W. T., 1986, Numerical
Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing: Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University
Press, 818 p.

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