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MESA 12.

0 Training Manual
This series of exercises will introduce you to many of the options
that are available in MESA for the design and QC of 3D surveys.
Refer to the MESA online help for more detail on the use of
individual program functions.

Introduction ........................................................................ 2
Lesson 1: Introduction to Using MESA............................... 4
Lesson 2: Line/Brick Layout Options ............................... 19
Lesson 3: Unit Template Layout....................................... 34
Lesson 4: Importing Survey Files ..................................... 45
Lesson 5: Analyzing Bin Attributes................................... 54
Lesson 6: Exclusion Zones and Source/Receiver Editing . 65
Lesson 7: Using the Shooting Grid................................... 74
Lesson 8: Offset-based Shooting ..................................... 82
Lesson 9: More on Automatic Shooting Options............... 85
Lesson 10: Background Images....................................... 91
Lesson 11: Marine Design Tools...................................... 99
Lesson 12: Managing Multiple Projects...........................107
Lesson 13: Attributes and Filtering..................................114
Lesson 14: Utility Tools...................................................135

Introduction
This training manual is designed to give the user an overview of the standard workflow for
creating a survey design project in MESA. The focus is on creating familiarity with the tools and
the functions that are used most frequently. If a user has more questions on particular options or
desires more detail, they are encouraged to refer to the online help.
The lessons in this manual are structured such that the user will first become proficient with the
primary objective of MESA--which is to create the locations of the sources and receivers. The
remaining lessons focus on various methods for assigning the active receivers to a source point,
analyzing the bin attributes, and using the various tools in the program to modify the basic design
geometry.

Overview of the lessons in this training manual


Lesson 1: The first lesson will introduce you to the basic MESA workflow. We start with a simple
orthogonal survey design and introduce the concept of "shooting" a project in MESA. After
shooting the survey, we will produce a fold plot for the project. The other primary objective of the
first lesson is to demonstrate how to navigate the program. The user interface for MESA 12.0 is
considerably different than previous versions. Many of the conventions for zooming in on data,
scrolling the display, and identifying data points have been improved.
Lesson 2: Most survey designs are a variation on the orthogonal geometry in which we have
parallel lines of receivers running orthogonal to parallel lines of sources. In this exercise, we will
demonstrate how to use the program options for creating orthogonal, brick, and slant geometries.
Lesson 3: There are three primary methods for creating survey design geometries in MESA. The
first method of laying out receiver lines, laying out source lines, and then shooting the project was
introduced in the first two lessons. In the third lesson, we will introduce the Unit Template
function. This function allows you to create a patch of live receivers and then add the source
points that fire into these receivers. This creates the "unit template," which then gets repeated in
the inline and crossline directions to create your project.
Lesson 4: The third method for creating a project is to import data from an external file. Quite
often, receiver, source, and template information will be available in SPS format (or some other
survey format) and this lesson demonstrates how the ASCII Import Window functions.
Lesson 5: MESA has a wide variety of displays for analyzing the results of fold calculations. This
lesson demonstrates many of the options for displaying fold, offset, and azimuth information in
map view. We will also introduce some of the other displays for looking at bin attributes in cross
sections across a project and looking at the global statistics of the bin attributes.
Lesson 6: Virtually all survey design projects have to deal with cultural and topographic obstacles.
In this lesson, we will introduce how to create exclusion zones and how to modify the positions of
source and receiver points in response to these obstructions.
Lesson 7: The most complicated task in MESA is assigning the shooting template to each source
point. There are numerous methods for performing this function. In this lesson, we will cover the
single most important topic that a beginning MESA user needs to learn. If a survey has
irregularities in the lengths of the receiver lines and you wish to use one of the automatic template
centering algorithms, you must use the shooting grid function.

Lesson 8: In addition to the shooting algorithms that automatically center the template around a
source point, MESA has functions for creating templates based on the offset between the sources
and receivers. This lesson will introduce these functions.
Lesson 9: Since shooting surveys is the most complicated task in the program, this lesson
continues on with more exercises on this topic. This lesson covers skewing the location of
templates, holding the template fixed at the edge of the survey (shoot-through), and centering the
template on groups of source points instead of centering the template on individual source
locations.
Lesson 10: The use of maps, photos, and cultural data is a very important part of designing a
project in MESA. This lesson introduces how to use various types of background imagery in the
program.
Lesson 11: Although MESA is primarily a tool for designing land or transition zone projects, there
are several functions for analyzing marine design concepts and for doing limited quality control on
actual P1/90 data files. This lesson covers these functions.
Lesson 12: Many survey design projects are extensions of previous projects in an area. This
lesson covers how to manage multiple projects and how you can analyze the fold coverage that
results from merging projects.
Lesson 13: One of the most flexible and powerful functions in MESA is the combination of using
the filtering tools with the source and receiver attributes. The filtering options allow you to turn
portions of the project on and off and operate only upon the unfiltered data. In this lesson, we will
demonstrate how to use these functions to selectively move points outside of exclusion zones
and how to shoot sources after modifying their locations.
Lesson 14: There are many tools in MESA that are not necessarily part of the standard survey
design workflow for every project. This lesson highlights some of these tools and demonstrates
when they may be valuable.

Lesson #1 -- Introduction to using MESA


Objective: This exercise shows the basic sequence of steps for creating a survey in MESA and
displaying a fold plot. The exercise also covers navigating the program and conventions for
mouse buttons.
Note: There are different versions of MESA. Depending upon which version you are using (Field,
Professional, or Expert), the menus and buttons in this document may vary slightly from the
version of MESA you are running.
In this exercise, we will create a simple, orthogonal geometry and a rectangular template.
1.) The Edit menu is organized such that the basic MESA workflow follows this menu from top to
bottom. The first step in any project is to define the units. Select Units from the Edit menu. In
the dialog box, select Feet and press OK.

Most of the operations in MESA are unitless. If you are working on a project and discover later
that you have the units defined incorrectly, the problems are usually no more severe than
incorrect labels on a diagram. Switching units mid-project will not automatically trigger a change
in xy-coordinates, for instance. Still, it is a good habit to start every project by setting the units
properly.
We will skip setting the map projection in this first lesson. This is an optional step for most
projects and we will return to it in a later lesson.
2.) Select Receivers from the Edit menu. A submenu will appear with all of the options for
laying out and importing receiver locations. A majority of the survey design projects around the
world start with parallel lines of receivers prior to editing the receiver positions due to surface
restrictions. To lay out a set of parallel receiver lines, select Lines/Bricks from the menu.

The Line/Brick Layout dialog box will appear. This is the most commonly used dialog box in
MESA for starting a survey design project. In this dialog box, you set the spacing between
receivers in the inline direction and the spacing between lines in the crossline direction. You also
set the compass bearings for the inline and crossline directions. Finally, you select how many
lines to create or you select a region to fill. For this lesson, fill in the parameters as shown below
and press OK.

We have created a set of 21 N-S receiver lines with an inline spacing of 110 feet and a crossline
spacing of 440 feet. The Design Window should appear as shown below:

3.) Select Sources from the Edit menu. The options for laying source and receiver positions in
MESA are identical. As with the receivers, select Lines/Bricks from the submenu for Sources.
We are going to create a set of source lines orthogonal to the receiver lines.
Fill in the parameters as shown in the following diagram. For this lesson, our sources will also
have an inline spacing of 110 feet and a crossline spacing of 440 feet. It is important to note that
sources and receivers each have their own inline and crossline spacing. There is not a single
inline and crossline direction for the entire project. Receiver lines have their own inline and
crossline directions. Source lines have their own inline and crossline directions. The CMP
binning grid has its own inline and crossline directions. There are various utility grids in the
program that can have their own inline and crossline directions. The reason for not having a
global inline and crossline direction for the project is to provide maximum design flexibility in case
your project does not have orthogonal source and receiver lines.
As you fill in the parameters, take note of a few things. First, the inline and crossline bearings for
your source lines are switched from the receiver lines so that the source lines run W-E. Next,
note that we are putting in a starting coordinate of (55, 55) for the first source location. This will
have the effect of offsetting our source locations by half a station interval from the receiver lines.
Although we have several options for filling regions with source lines, select Define by Lines and
Sources and create 21 source lines with 80 sources. Press OK when you have entered all the
parameters.

2.) Sources and receivers are colored according to their state. In general, there are two
receiver states that are routinely encountered. A receiver can either be Live or Dead. If a
receiver is Live, the receiver will be active for all program functions. It will be included in shooting
templates, fold calculations, and statistical calculations. If a receiver is Dead, it will not be
included in any program calculations. For example, receivers in your initial layout may fall inside
of an exclusion zone and you will want to set their state to Dead so that they dont contribute to
the project. By default, Live receivers are colored blue. Dead receivers are colored light gray.
When you initially add receivers to your project, their state is set to Live.
When you add sources to your project, their initial state is also set to Live. The default color for a
Live source is black. The default color for a Dead source is light gray. As with a Dead receiver, a
Dead source does not contribute to shooting operations, fold calculations, or project statistics.
There is a third state for sources that you will encounter in most projects. When a source point
has a shooting template assigned to it, it assumes a state of Fired. By default, Fired sources are
colored red. The color assignments for source and receiver states are displayed in the legend on
the left hand side of the Design Window.
From the View menu, select Display Options Colors and Symbols. This will open a dialog
box for setting the symbol size and shape for source and receiver locations and for setting colors
for the various states. Since this is a commonly used function in the program, spend a moment
changing the symbols for the sources and receivers and choosing new colors for the Live state.

To change a symbol, press the down arrow next to the current symbol for either receivers or
sources. A palette of symbols will appear. Move your mouse over the desired symbol and
release the mouse button to choose a new symbol. At any time, press the Apply button to
update the display with your current choices.
To change a color, press the down arrow next to the selected color for a given state. Select a
new color from the palette that appears. For this example, just change the Standard Live color
for sources and receivers and press the Apply button. Note that there are two sets of colors for
both sources and receivers. It is a common practice in MESA to use background maps and aerial
photos as a backdrop for your survey design project. A color scheme that looks good on a white
background may be hard to see on top of a satellite photo. If you have a background image
loaded, MESA will display the sources and receivers using the colors in the w/Image column.
This allows you to toggle background images on and off without having to constantly reset your
symbol colors.
To change the size of source and receiver symbols, change the Symbol Size in the edit box and
press Apply. For large survey design projects, most users will change the symbol size from 1.75
(default) to 1.0 or smaller. When you are finished experimenting with changing the settings, set
the Standard Live colors and symbols back to blue crosses for receivers and black squares for
the sources. Press OK to exit the Color and Symbol Settings dialog box.

3.) The source points in our project are displayed in black because we havent assigned a
shooting template yet. A template is the set of receivers that will record a trace when a given
source point is fired. Sources that are Live can get a template assigned. Sources that are Dead
cant get a template assigned. From the Edit menu, select Shoot Survey.
The Shooting Options dialog box will appear. MESA has over a dozen different methods for
assigning a shooting template to the sources in your project. A large portion of this training
course will be devoted to understanding the options in this dialog box. Many of the options, such
as Automatic Template Centering are grayed out initially. Radio button options that are grayed
out require you to first define the size of your shooting template. Press the Create Template
button. This will bring up a dialog box for defining the size of a rectangular shooting template.
Create a template with 8 receiver lines and 64 receivers per line. Press OK when you are
finished.

Once you have created a template, shooting options which depend on a template will now be
active. Select the 8x64 template from the list box and select the Automatic Template Centering
radio button. Also verify that the Template Roll On/Off checkbox is selected.

Automatic template centering is the most commonly used shooting method in MESA. For each
source point, we center the template so there are an equal number of receiver lines on each side
of the source and an equal number of receivers on each side of the source along the receiver
lines. We will examine other options for placing the template in subsequent lessons. For now,
press the Shoot button and MESA will begin centering the 8x64 template around each source
point in your project.
After a source point has a template assigned, it becomes 'Fired' and the color will turn red. Every
source point in your project should have the Fired color.
6.) After shooting your project, it is always a good idea to check the results of your template
assignments. This is done by selecting Edit Templates from the Edit menu.
When you are in edit templates mode, all of the sources and receivers turn gray except for the
selected source point(s) and the active receivers for the selected source points. The selected
source points will appear in their 'Highlighted' color (green by default) and the active receivers for
those source points will appear in their 'In Template' color (magenta by default).

You should see the first four source points on the first source line highlighted in green. You
should also see the first 33 receivers on the first 5 receiver lines highlighted in magenta. These
are the active receivers for the first four source points. Since we centered an 8 line by 64
receiver template around each source location, only a portion of template is active for sources on
the edges of the survey. Even though the automatic centering algorithm centered the template
around each source point individually, the resulting set of active receivers for the first four source
points was identical. In edit templates mode, you are highlighting all of the source points that fire
into a common set of active receivers.
Click the left mouse button on a source point in the center of your project. All of the active
receivers for this source point will be highlighted. Three other source points that fire into the
same set of receivers will also be highlighted.

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Spend a moment clicking on a few other sources in the project. Sources in the center of the
project will have the entire 8x64 template active. Sources on the edges will have fewer receivers
and/or receiver lines active since we rolled the template on and off while shooting.
Due to the variability in survey design geometries, shooting surveys in MESA is usually the most
difficult and error-prone step in the program. It is always an important step to check the template
assignments before moving on. When you have finished examining the templates, go to the Edit
menu and uncheck Edit Templates to exit this mode of operation.
7.) After you have laid out source and receivers and assigned shooting templates, the next step
is to create a binning grid and perform a fold calculation. Select Define Bin Grid from the Bin
Analysis menu. This will open the Bin Definition dialog box.
Since the receiver spacing is 110 feet, the natural bin size for this project is 55 feet. Enter 55 in
the edit boxes for Inline Bin Size and Crossline Bin Size. To position the bin grid, press the
Auto Fit button. This function scans the coordinates of the receiver lines and comes up with a
best fit bin grid. For this project, the receiver lines run N-S so the line bearing that gets calculated
is 0.0 degrees. In this lesson, change the Line Bearing to 90 degrees and press OK.

To calculate the bin attributes for your project, select Fold Calculation from the Bin Analysis
menu. The Fold Calculation dialog box will appear. There are many options in this dialog box for
performing flex binning, calculating bin attributes for a portion of the project, and saving
calculations using offset and azimuth limits.

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Although you may choose to only calculate fold, MESA contains a great number of diagnostic
displays based on the offsets and azimuths of source-receiver pairs in your project. For that
reason, we recommend that you usually select Fold, Offsets, and Azimuths when performing a
fold calculation. Unless your project is enormous, the extra time required to calculate offset and
azimuth information is usually trivial. Select the Fold, Offsets, and Azimuths radio button and
press OK to start the calculation. For larger projects, a status bar will appear to report the
progress of the calculation. For our project, the calculation will be almost instantaneous.
8.) The display of data in the Design Window is controlled by the Project Tree. To show or hide
the receiver locations, check or uncheck the box next to Receivers under the Views node of the

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Project Tree. To expand any node in the Project Tree, press the '+' sign next to the item. To
contract any node in the Project Tree, press the '-' sign next to the item. At this point in the
lesson, we only have receivers, sources, and a bin grid to display from the Views node.
Checking or unchecking any other item under the Views node will have no effect on the display.
Our fold calculation is stored under the Bin Attributes node of the Project Tree with the name
Default Calculation. Expand both the Bin Attributes node and the Default Calculation node
by pressing the '+' sign next to each. You will see a list of available diagrams under Default
Calculation. Select the checkbox next to Fold Diagram and a fold plot will appear in the Design
Window.

Uncheck Receivers, Sources, and Bin Grid in the Project Tree to make it easier to see the fold
diagram. On the far left of the Design Window is a color scale that shows our maximum fold in
the middle of our project is 32. With the default color scale, the maximum fold is shown in red.
From the File menu, select Save Project and name your project "lesson1".
9.) The remainder of this lesson will cover navigating windows in MESA, the standard uses of
mouse buttons, and utility tools for identifying data points.
We have already introduced the Project Tree. Select Receivers and Sources from the tree and
uncheck Bin Grid and Fold Diagram so that only the sources and receivers are visible.
The first topics we are going to discuss are zooming, unzooming, and scrolling the display. Most
of these functions are found on the Zoom toolbar in the upper right hand corner of the Design
Window.

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Press the Zoom in to twice current level button twice (this is the button with a picture of a
magnifying glass with a plus sign in it). The Design Window will appear as shown below.

Another method for zooming in is to use the right mouse button. Click and hold the right mouse
button to drag out a rectangle. Release the right mouse button to zoom in on the selected area.

To scroll around on the display, you can use either the horizontal and vertical scroll bars, or you
can use the Pan tool (picture of a hand). Press the Pan button. The cursor will change to the
shape of a hand. Click and hold with the left mouse button and scroll the display by dragging the
screen to a new location. Release the left mouse button to reposition the display. When you are
finished panning, press the Pan button a second time to exit the mode of operation.

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To unzoom the display to half the current zoom level, press the Zoom out button once (this is the
button with a picture of a magnifying glass with a minus sign in it). Finally, to zoom out and
recenter the display to the original extents, press the Zoom out 100% button (this is the button
with a picture of a magnifying glass with an 'F' in it).
10.) Zoom in on a small region of your project (similar to the diagram above). Another
convention used in MESA is holding down the <shift> key and clicking the left mouse button on
an object in any window will usually bring up an informational box about that object. Hold down
the <shift> key and click the left mouse button on a source point.

This box provides information about the line and point number of this source, its xyz-coordinate,
and any attribute information we wish to view. Press the Close button to close this informational
box. We will return to the topic of identifying data objects in the project in later lessons after we
have added more data types to a project.

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11.) Measuring distances and bearings in MESA windows is a function that has many uses. We
may need to know the distance between receiver points to calculate the optimum size of the bin
grid. We may want to know the directions of source and receiver lines so we can add more lines
with the same bearing.
Press the Range Bearing Tool button on the Zoom toolbar. If you have zoomed out,
zoom back in on a small region of your project. Click and hold the left mouse button. Drag the
mouse to create an arrow which reports the distance and bearing of your movement. Release
the left mouse button to finalize the measurement.

To measure the distance between source or receiver points, move your mouse close to a receiver.
Hold down the <ctrl> key and hold down the left mouse button. The measurement tool will snap
to the closest receiver. Continue holding down the <ctrl> key and left mouse button and drag
your mouse to another receiver. Release the left mouse button to snap to that receiver.

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To erase the measurement symbols, select Clear All from the drop down menu. Exit range and
bearing measurement mode by pressing the Range Bearing Tool button a second time.

Range and bearing measurements are transitory annotations that are not saved with the project.
12.) Finish this lesson by selecting Exit from the File menu. You will be prompted to save your
project.

Press Save to save your project and exit the program.

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Lesson #2 -- Line/Brick Layout Options


Objective: Most seismic survey designs are a variation of orthogonal or swath geometries. This
exercise will demonstrate how to use the options in the Line/Brick Layout dialog box to create a
variety of survey types.
Note: There are different versions of MESA. Depending upon which version you are using (Field,
Professional, or Expert), the menus and buttons in this document may vary slightly from the
version of MESA you are running.
1.) Start MESA, or select New Project from the File menu if MESA is already running. Select
Receivers - Lines/Bricks from the Edit menu. Fill in the parameters as shown below.

Press the Numbering button. This will open the dialog box for setting the numbering increments
for the receivers and sources. Even though we are generating receiver lines, we can set the
numbering scheme for both receivers and sources in the same dialog box.
A unique identifying number is usually created by combining a line number with a number for the
receiver or source. For example, if the first receiver line of a survey is named the 101 line and
the first receiver on that line is named 501, then the receiver point is named 101501. The next
point on that line will be numbered 101502. In the survey you are laying out, there will be 6
sources per source line between each receiver line. Because of this, the receiver line numbering
interval will increment by 6 (Line 101, Line 107, etc.). So the first receiver on the second receiver
line will be 107501. The sources will start with Line 501 and the sources will start numbering with
101, so the first source is 501101. Since there will be 8 receivers per line between each source

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line, the source line will increment by 8 and the first source of the next line will be 509101. Fill in
the parameters as shown below.

The First Receiver field contains the full unique identifying number for the first receiver. The
Receiver Increment field contains the increment for numbering the next receiver in that line. The
Receiver Line Increment field contains the increment for numbering the first receiver of the next
line. You can also specify a Line Name Prefix or Suffix in this dialog. The Line Name will be
created by taking the Line Number and adding any prefix or suffix that is specified. Press OK to
return to the Lines/Bricks Layout dialog box.
Press OK in the Lines/Bricks Layout dialog box to generate your receiver lines. Toggle on
Receivers and Labels under the Views node of the Project Tree.

2.) Next, we will lay out the source lines. Up to this point, we have been using options from the
main menu bar. There are several ways to access most functions in MESA. Instead of creating

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our source lines from the Edit menu, this time we will access the layout options from the Project
Tree. Right-click on Sources under the Views node of the Project Tree. A menu of options
related to source points will appear. This menu gives access to the color and symbol settings
accessed in the previous lesson by selecting Display Options Colors and Symbols from the
View menu. It also gives access to all of the source layout options available from the Edit menu.

Select Add Lines/Bricks from the menu. This will open the Line/Brick Layout dialog for source
points. We are going to create a set of source lines orthogonal to the receiver lines. Fill in the
parameters as shown below.
For all examples until now, we have specified the number of sources and source lines that we
want to create. You can also use the existing receiver lines to determine the bounds for our
source lines. Select the Fill Receiver Line Region radio button. Notice that the group box in the
lower left corner changes depending upon which layout option you select. If you select the
Define by Lines and Sources or Define by Survey Size radio buttons, then you enter the
coordinate of the first source point in the two edit boxes. If you select the Fill Receiver Line
Region or Fill Zone radio buttons, then you enter a Shift of First Source in the two edit boxes.
The bounds of the area you are going to fill with source lines are already set by the receiver lines
so there is no need to specify an actual coordinate for the source points. However, you may wish
to offset the sources from the receivers in the region you are going to fill. Entering an xy-shift in
the edit boxes allows you do this. In our example, we are going to enter an X-Shift and a Y-Shift
of 25.

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Press OK to generate the source lines. Toggle on Receiver, Sources, and Labels on the
Project Tree. Zoom in on the lower left corner of your survey to verify that the numbering is
correct and that you have properly offset the sources by one half point interval from the receivers.

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3.) Some survey designs do not have uniform spacing between lines. Open the Line/Brick
Layout dialog box for receivers by either selecting Receivers - Lines/Bricks from the Edit menu
or by right-clicking on Receivers in the Project Tree and selecting Add Lines/Bricks.
Set the parameters as shown below. Check the Use Var. Crossline Spacing checkbox. Press
the Variable button. This will open an additional dialog box for specifying a set of line spacings to
use in sequence. Check the First, Second, and Third checkboxes and enter 300, 200, and 100
in the appropriate edit boxes.

The receiver lines will be laid out with a repeating pattern of 300 feet between the first and
second lines, 200 feet between the second and third lines, 100 feet between the third and fourth
lines, and then 300 feet again between the fourth and fifth lines. Press OK to close the Variable
Crossline Spacings dialog box.
Make sure that the Remove Existing Receivers checkbox is selected. Press OK to create the
receiver lines. You will be prompted that existing data will be removed. Select Remove.
The first example in this lesson used a fixed increment to sequentially number the receiver lines.
Those settings were still in place when we generated the new set of receiver lines with variable
spacing between the receiver lines. Our original numbering system may not be appropriate for
our current geometry. To illustrate this point, zoom in on the lower left section of your project.
Right-click on Labels in the Project Tree and a menu will appear for changing the display settings
for labels. This will bring up the Labeling dialog box.
The Labeling dialog box controls the settings for source, receiver, and bin grid labeling. You can
change the labeling increments, colors, sizes, and orientations. Select the Receiver Labels tab.
Set the Line Increment to 1 and the Record Increment to 2. These settings will draw a label on
every second receiver on every receiver line. Press OK to exit the dialog box.

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Examine the label numbers for the receivers. There are six sources between the first two
receiver lines, so having the receiver line numbers increment from 101 to 107 is appropriate.
However, there are only four sources between lines 107 and 113. It would make more sense if
line 113 had a receiver line number of 111. Line 119 should have a receiver line number of 113.

There are two different functions for renumbering sources and receivers in MESA. If we have
evenly spaced lines and receivers, then the sequential numbering function shown earlier is
usually adequate. When we have variable spacing or if we have large gaps in our lines due to
obstructions or permitting issues, then it is more appropriate to renumber our lines based on
numbering grid.
Right-click on Receivers in the Project Tree. From the menu, select Edit Receivers Toolbar. A
toolbar will be added to the bottom of the Design Window. This toolbar contains all of the
functions for graphically editing the receivers and we will return to this toolbar for a more in depth

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review of the features in an upcoming lesson. For now, we will just look at the functions for
renumbering receivers. On the far right end of the toolbar is a button that brings up the options
for renumbering the receivers based upon a grid. Press the Grid Based Renumbering button
(circled in the diagram below).

The Grid Based Receiver Renumbering dialog box will appear. This function allows us to define
a grid and to assign receiver numbers based upon the closest grid intersection. Press the Auto
Fit button. The orientation of the receiver lines will be calculated. In this case, the Grid Line
Bearing will be set to 90 degrees. Fill out the rest of the parameters as shown below.

In the inline direction, our receivers are spaced 50 feet apart. We want the receivers to be
numbered sequentially in the inline direction, so we have set the Inline Grid Spacing at 50 feet

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and we have set the Inline Inc for numbering at 1. In the crossline direction, we want our
receiver line numbering to increment based on the source spacing. The sources are spaced 50
feet apart, so we also set the Crossline Grid Spacing at 50 feet. We want the receiver line
numbering to increment by 1000, so set the Crossline Inc for numbering at 1000.
The last value to set is the label number at the origin of our numbering grid. The auto fit function
put the origin of our grid at (0.0, 0.0) which is the location of the first receiver on the first receiver
line. Set the Reference Value label at 101501 to retain the same number for this receiver. Press
OK to renumber the lines.

Examine the new numbering scheme. Note that the receiver lines are now numbered according
to the grid instead of having an equal numbering increment between lines.
To exit receiver editing mode, right-click on Receivers in the Project Tree and uncheck Edit
Receivers Toolbar from the menu.
4.) Another common variation of the orthogonal survey design is the brick pattern. This type of
geometry can be used to improve the distribution of near offsets even though the source line
spacing may be large.
We will start this section of the lesson by laying out the receiver lines again. Open the Line/Brick
Layout dialog box for receivers by either selecting Receivers - Lines/Bricks from the Edit menu
or by right-clicking on Receivers in the Project Tree and selecting Add Lines/Bricks. We are
going to lay out the receivers as we did originally at the start of the lesson. The parameters are
shown below. Make sure that the Use Var. Crossline Spacing checkbox is NOT selected and
that the Remove Existing Receivers checkbox is selected. You will be prompted to remove the
existing data. Select Remove.

25

Open the Line/Brick Layout dialog box for sources by either selecting Sources - Lines/Bricks
from the Edit menu or by right-clicking on Sources in the Project Tree and selecting Add
Lines/Bricks.
In the lower right corner of the Line/Brick Layout dialog are the options for creating brick
geometries. The standard pattern for a brick geometry is to have a set of source points between
two receiver lines 1 and 2 and then to skip the sources points between receiver lines 2 and 3.
The pattern alternates on every other source line so that on source line 2, there are no sources
between receiver lines 1 and 2 but there are sources between receiver lines 2 and 3. The overall
result is a pattern that resembles interlocking bricks in a wall.
Select the Brick Pattern checkbox. Since our receiver lines are 300 feet apart, we will need 6
sources spaced at 50 feet to fill the space between two receiver lines. Set the Sources Per
Group at 6. The line repeat interval is how often the brick pattern will repeat. For this example,
set the Line Repeat Interval to 2.
Set the rest of the parameters as shown below. Make sure that the Remove Existing Receivers
checkbox is selected. You will be prompted to remove the existing data. Select Remove.

26

You should now have a brick geometry as shown below.

27

5.) The last geometry variation in this lesson will be a slant geometry. In a slant geometry, the
source lines cross the receiver lines in a diagonal direction. Select New Project from the File
menu and discard the changes to your current project when prompted.
Open the Line/Brick Layout dialog box for receivers by either selecting Receivers - Lines/Bricks
from the Edit menu or by right-clicking on Receivers in the Project Tree and selecting Add
Lines/Bricks. Fill in the parameter as shown below and press OK.

Open the Line/Brick Layout dialog box for sources by either selecting Sources - Lines/Bricks
from the Edit menu or by right-clicking on Sources in the Project Tree and selecting Add
Lines/Bricks.
Fill in the parameters as shown below. Remember, depending on which of the Survey Size
options you choose (Define by Lines and Sources, Fill Receiver Line Region, etc.), the
parameters in the lower left group box will change between a coordinate for the first source and a
shift for the first source. Select the Fill Receiver Line Region radio button before entering a shift
for the first source.

28

After you have filled in the parameters, select the Use Slant Parameters checkbox. Press the
Slant button. The Slant Layout Parameters dialog will appear. The spacings between sources in
a slant geometry are defined in terms of the distance in the x and y directions - not by the
absolute spacing. For this lesson, enter an X Moveup of 110 feet and a Y Moveup of 220 feet.
The Line Spacing is the distance between source points on adjacent source lines, measured in
the direction of the Crossline Bearing (set to 90 degrees in this case). Set the Line Spacing at
1320 at press OK.

When you set the slant parameters, the original settings in the Line/Brick Layout dialog will
change to reflect the line orientations and spacing calculated from the slant parameters. The
parameters should now appear as shown below.

29

Press OK to lay out the slant geometry. Your project should appear as follows:

Select Save Project from the File menu and save this project as "lesson2_slant". This geometry
will be used in a future lesson on salvo shooting techniques.

30

Lesson #2 - Additional Practice


Select New Project from the File menu. Design a survey with the following parameters:
Units - Meters
Receivers:
Inline Spacing
Crossline Spacing
Survey Size
Inline Bearing
Crossline Bearing
XY Coordinate of First Receiver
Number of First Receiver
Receiver Numbering Increment
Receiver Line Numbering Increment

25m
200m
3925m x 4000m
90 degrees
0 degrees
0.0, 0.0
10011001
1
80000

Sources:
Inline Spacing
Crossline Spacing
Survey Size
Inline Bearing
Crossline Bearing
Shift of First Source
Brick Pattern
Number of First Source
Source Numbering Increment
Source Line Numbering Increment

25m
100m
Fill receiver line region
0 degrees
90 degrees
12.5, 12.5
8 sources per group, line repeat interval of 2
50011001
1
40000

Note: In the Line/Brick Layout dialog, select the Use Brick Numbering checkbox. This option
takes the missing sources into account when assigning the point numbers. After you create the
source lines, examine the source numbering by zooming in and changing the labeling display
settings so you can see the results of this option.
Your survey should appear as shown on the following page.
Shoot this survey using automatic template centering and a template size of 8 receiver lines x 96
receivers per line. Allow the template to roll on and roll off. Examine the templates after shooting
to verify the shooting procedure was correct.
Perform a fold calculation using a 12.5m x 12.5m binning grid. Examine the fold plot. You should
have a survey with uniform 24 fold, plus a taper zone around the edges. Save the project as
"lesson2_practice".
If you did not get this result, try the exercise again or ask the instructor for assistance.

31

32

Lesson #3 -- Unit Template Layout


Objective: There are three methods for laying out survey geometries in MESA. In the previous
lessons, we learned how to lay out receiver lines and source lines and then how to assign a
shooting template to the sources. In this lesson, we will learn how to use the Unit Template
mechanism for creating a survey geometry. The Unit Template allows you to set up the
relationship between source points and their active receivers and then you can repeat this 'unit
template' in the inline and crossline directions to create your geometry.
1.) Start MESA, or select New Project from the File menu if MESA is already running. Set the
units to meters for this lesson.
Select Unit Template from the Edit menu. The Unit Template Window will appear.
Press the Layout Template button. All source and receiver locations in a unit template
must fall on a grid. You will be prompted to enter a grid size. Enter 25 and press OK.

2.) The Template Layout dialog box will appear. In the Receiver Layout group box, you will
enter the size and shape of the active receiver patch. Create a patch that has 48 receivers in the
x-direction and 12 receivers in the y-direction. Enter the parameters as shown below. Press the
Apply button in the Receiver Layout group box.

You should see a patch of 12 receiver lines with 48 receivers per line in the Unit Template
Window. Next, enter the parameters in the Source Layout group box as show below. We are
going to create a group of 4 sources that fire into this patch of receivers. Press the Apply button
in the Source Layout group box.

33

Press the Exit button in the Template Layout dialog box. You should now have a unit template
with 4 sources and 576 receivers.
3.) The next step in creating a survey design with the Unit Template Window is to repeat our unit
template in the x and y directions.
Press the Shoot Options button. The Unit Template Repeat dialog box will appear. There
are many options in this dialog for rolling the template a set number of times, filling regions, and
specifying the orientation of the lines. We will return to some of the more advanced options in
later lessons. For this example, we are going to repeat the template 10 times in each direction.
Select the Number of Rolls radio button. Enter 10 for Inline Rolls and Crossline Rolls.

34

Since our receiver lines are 200 meters apart, it is logical to roll our unit template by 200 meters
in the crossline direction. Enter a Crossline (Y axis) spacing of 200 in the edit box. For this
example, we will have 200 meters between our source lines, so enter an Inline (X axis) spacing
of 200 in the edit box. Once your parameters match those shown in the previous diagram, press
the OK button to create your survey. Your survey should appear as follows (toggle on Receivers
and Sources in the Project Tree to see the survey).

4.) When you create a project with the Unit Template function, the bin grid is defined
automatically so you can proceed directly to the fold calculation. Select Fold Calculation from
the Bin Analysis menu. Select Fold, Offsets, and Azimuths and press OK.
When the fold calculation is complete, select the Fold Diagram under Bin Attributes - Default
Calculation from the Project Tree.

You should see that this survey design has a maximum fold of 36 in the center of the project.

35

5.) Toggle off Default Calculation in the Project Tree to hide the fold diagram. Select Unit
Template from the Edit menu. You will see your previous unit template displayed in the window.
We are going to alter this unit template to make a brick survey.
Press the Copy/Move Template button. The Copy & Move Options dialog box will appear.
To make a brick pattern, we need to make a copy of our original template and offset it from the
original template by the distance between two bricks. In this case, the distance is 200 meters in
the x and y directions. Select Copy Template(s) and enter 200 for the X and Y distances as
shown below. Press OK when you are finished.

You should now see two copies of the original template. You can toggle back and forth between
the two templates by pressing the Previous Template and Next Template buttons on the toolbar
(arrow buttons). The active template will be displayed with red sources and blue receivers. The
inactive template will be drawn in magenta.

36

6.) Press the Shoot Options button. As with the previous example, we are going to roll this unit
template 10 times in each direction. However, this time we need to roll 400 meters in each
direction to create the brick pattern. Enter a Crossline (Y axis) spacing of 400 in the edit box.
Enter an Inline (X axis) spacing of 400. Make sure that the Remove Existing Survey checkbox is
selected and press OK.

You should now see a brick survey in the Design Window as shown below.

37

The bin grid was automatically reset when you generated the new design, so you can proceed
directly recalculating the fold, offsets, and azimuths. Toggle on Bin Attributes - Default
Calculations - Fold Diagram in the Project Tree to verify that you have a maximum fold of 18 for
this brick design.
6.) Toggle off Default Calculation in the Project Tree to hide the fold diagram. Select Unit
Template from the Edit menu. Your existing unit template will be displayed. Press the Next
Template button until template number 2 is highlighted.
Press the Delete Active Template button to remove template number 2. You will be
prompted to confirm that you wish to delete this template. Press Yes. You should now be back
to your original template of 4 sources and 576 receivers.
The Unit Template Window can be used to make a variety of survey geometries. In this final
example, we will make a slant survey design and a slanted bricks design to illustrate some of the
editing capabilities in the tool. Press the down arrow next to the Edit Sources button. Select
Move a Point from the menu.

38

Zoom in on the 4 sources. We are going to move the sources to new locations.

To edit the positions of the sources, press the Edit Sources button. With the left mouse,
click and drag the sources to the locations shown in the following diagram.

After you have moved the sources, press the Edit Sources button a second time to exit this
mode of operation. Zoom out 100% to verify that your unit template appears as shown in the
following diagram.

39

Press the Shoot Options button. As with the previous example, we are going to roll this unit
template 10 times in each direction. Enter a Crossline (Y axis) spacing of 200 and enter an
Inline (X axis) spacing of 200. Make sure that the Remove Existing Survey checkbox is
selected and press OK. You should see a slant geometry.

40

Select Unit Template from the Edit menu to return to the Unit Template Window. Press the
Copy/Move Template button. This time, copy the original template with an offset of 400 in the x
direction and 200 in the y direction as shown below. Press OK to copy the template.

You should see two templates as shown below.

Press the Shoot Options button. As with the previous example, we are going to roll this unit
template 10 times in each direction. Enter a Crossline (Y axis) spacing of 400 and enter an
Inline (X axis) spacing of 800. Make sure that the Remove Existing Survey checkbox is
selected and press OK. You should see a slanted brick geometry.

41

To verify that you have completed the exercise correctly, perform a fold calculation and view the
results. You should see a uniform fold of 9 across the survey with a taper zone around the edges.

42

Lesson #3 - Additional Practice


Select New Project from the File menu. Set the unit to feet. Design a survey using the Unit
Template Window with the following parameters:
Grid Size

27.5 feet

Receiver Layout:
Receiver Spacing (X direction)
Receiver Line Spacing (Y direction)
Template

55 feet
440 feet
12 lines (Y) by 96 receivers (X)

Source Layout:
Number of Sources Between Receiver Lines
Source Spacing (Y direction)
Source Starting Coordinate

8
55 feet
2612.5, 2227.5

After you have made the initial template, make a brick pattern that repeats every three source
lines. To do this, you will have to copy the active template with an offset of 440 in the x direction
and 440 in the y direction. You will then have to copy the active template a second time with the
same offsets.
When you have three copies of the original template, your unit template should look as shown
below.

Shoot this survey with 12 inline rolls and 12 crossline rolls. The inline and crossline spacings
should be 1320 feet. To verify that you have properly completed the exercise, calculate the fold.
This survey should have a uniform fold of 12.

43

Lesson #4 -- Importing Survey Files


Objective: There are three methods for creating land geometries in MESA. In Lessons 1 and 2,
we saw how to lay out source and receiver lines and assign a shooting template. In Lesson 3, we
saw how to use the Unit Template to make a survey design project. In this lesson, we will
demonstrate how to import survey and template information from an external source.
1.) Start MESA, or select New Project from the File menu if MESA is already running. Set the
units to feet for this lesson.
Select Receivers File Import from the Edit menu. The ASCII Import Window will appear. The
first step is to open the file that you want to import.
Press the Open Data File button. Open the file yampa.rps (this file is in the directory with
the training materials). The file will load into the window.

2.) The first step in importing an ASCII file is to define the first line of data in your file. In this
example, there are several SPS header records at the top of the file. Use the vertical scroll bar to
scroll the window down to where the data records begin. In this file, the header records have an
H in the first column. Data records have an R in the first column. After you have scrolled
down to the beginning of the data records, hold down the left mouse button and drag your mouse
over ANY of the text on the first line of the data records. Refer to the diagram below.

44

After you have highlighted text on the first data record, press the Set First Line button.
The First Line Selection dialog box will appear. It will report that the highlighted text in on line 76
in the file. Press OK to set this line as the first data record in the file to import.

3.) After the first data line has been defined, you will now go through the process of defining
which columns in the ASCII file correspond to the survey information necessary to create the
receiver lines. At a minimum, you need to import four pieces of information to create source or
receiver lines in MESA. You need to define the Line Number, the Receiver (Source) Number, the
X Coordinate, and the Y Coordinate. Other useful information can be also imported, but those
four items are required.
The process for defining the data columns is as follows. First, select the field that you wish to
define from the list at the left edge of the window. Second, click and hold the left mouse button to
drag out the range of columns in the file that contain the data for the field you have selected.
Third, press the Define Type button to specify whether this data field is integer, double precision,
or string (text) data.
We will start this procedure by defining the columns for the line number. Select Line Number
from the list at the left edge of the window. With the mouse, highlight columns 2-5 which contain
the line number in this particular file.

45

Press the Define Type button. The Format Definition dialog box will appear. The line
number is an integer data field, so select Integer and press OK.

Next, define the receiver number columns. Select Receiver from the list at the left edge of the
window. With the mouse, highlight columns 22-25 which contain the receiver number in this
particular file.

46

Press the Define Type button. The Format Definition dialog box will appear. The receiver
number is an integer data field, so select Integer and press OK. Note: It is important that you
define enough columns to import the chosen data field throughout the entire file. In this case, the
receiver numbers never exceed four digits. If the receiver numbers did exceed four digits further
down in the file, it would have been necessary to define a larger range of columns, such as 20-25.
Next, define the x-coordinate columns. Select X Coordinate from the list at the left edge of the
window. With the mouse, highlight columns 47-55 which contain the x-coordinate in this
particular file.

Press the Define Type button. The Format Definition dialog box will appear. The x-coordinate is
a double precision floating point data field, so select Double and press OK.

47

Finally, define the y-coordinate columns. Select Y Coordinate from the list at the left edge of the
window. With the mouse, highlight columns 58-65 which contain the y-coordinate in this
particular file.

Press the Define Type button. The Format Definition dialog box will appear. The y-coordinate is
a double precision floating point data field, so select Double and press OK.
4.) After you have defined the first data line and the columns that you wish to import, it is always
a good idea to check your work before attempting to read the data from the file.
Press the Review Configuration button. This button will step you through one field at a
time to confirm which fields you have defined and which fields you havent defined. Keep
pressing the button until you have cycled through all four of the data fields we have defined in this
exercise (line number, receiver, x-coordinate, and y-coordinate). If all of the fields have been
defined properly, you can proceed to the next step.
Press the Exit button. You will be prompted to confirm that you wish to import this data file.
Press Yes. The Import Options dialog box will appear.
There are choices in this dialog box for removing existing lines or updating existing lines. If you
are adding data to an existing project and wish to keep the existing receiver lines, selecting
Update Existing Lines is the appropriate choice. In our case, select Remove Existing Lines.

48

In MESA, receiver numbers must be unique. To satisfy this requirement, it is often necessary to
concatenate the line and receiver numbers into a single number. Press the Combination
Options button. The Import Combine Options dialog box will appear.
Select the Combine Line Number and Receiver Numbers checkbox. This signals our intention
to concatenate the line and receiver numbers during import. The receiver numbers have a
maximum of four digits in this file, so enter 4 in the Receiver Number Digits edit box. Press OK
to exit this dialog box.

Press OK to exit the Import Combine Options dialog box. The receiver data will be imported and
displayed in the Design Window as shown below.

49

5.) The next step is to import the source locations. As seen in previous lessons, there are
multiple ways to access most functions in the program. Instead of selecting Sources File
Import from the Edit menu, right-click on Sources in the Project Tree and select File Import
from that submenu. The ASCII Import Window for source information will appear. The
functionality is identical to the receiver import window, other than that there is a different list of
data fields that can be imported for sources. When importing new sources into your project, you
still need to define the Line Number, the Receiver (Source) Number, the X Coordinate, and the Y
Coordinate.
Press the Open Data File button. Open the file yampa.sps (this file is in the directory with
the training materials). Instead of defining all of the data field columns manually, this time we will
use one of the configuration files that come with a standard MESA installation.
Press the Load Configuration File button. You will be presented with a file open dialog
listing all of the standard import configuration files. Since we are dealing with an SPS file with
source information, select the file sps_sps.cfg and press Open.
Press the Review Configuration button. This button will step you through one field at a
time to confirm which fields were defined by the configuration file. For the standard SPS
configuration file, the Line Number, Source Number, X, Y, and Z Coordinates will be defined.
Press the Exit button. You will be prompted to confirm that you wish to import this data file.
Press Yes. The Import Options dialog box will appear. As with the receivers, press the
Combination Options button and select Combine Line Number and Source Number and set
four digits for Source Number Digits. Select Remove Existing Lines and press OK to import
the source data.

50

6.) Now that the receiver and source lines exist, we can use any of the shooting methods in
MESA to assign templates to this project. Since the theme of this lesson is importing data, we
will import an SPS relation file (XPS) to assign the templates.
Select Shoot Survey from the Edit menu. The Shooting Options dialog box will appear. Select
Import Templates from External File and press the Shoot button. The Template Import
Options dialog box will appear. Press the Import Window button to open the ASCII Import
Window for template information.
Press the Open Data File button. Open the file yampa.xps (this file is in the directory with
the training materials). Due to constraints on the number of lines MESA loads into this window,
you may get a message that the entire contents of the file cant be loaded because it is too large.
We only need enough of the file loaded to define the required columns so this is a non-issue.
The entire file will be imported.
A different set of data fields appear in the list on the left edge of the window. When we are
importing template information, we dont care about coordinateswe care about the ranges of
active receivers in the shooting templates. For template information, the required data fields are
From Chan, To Chan, Receiver Line, From Sta, and To Sta. These five fields define the active
set of receivers for one line of the shooting template. In addition to these five fields, we also need
to define which source matches this template segment. We have a choice of either matching on
FFID or a combination of Source Line and Source Number. For almost all MESA projects,
matching on Source Line and Source Number is the proper choice.
Press the Load Configuration File button. You will be presented with a file open dialog
listing all of the standard import configuration files. Since we are dealing with an SPS file with
template information, select the file sps_xps.cfg and press Open.

51

Press the Review Configuration button. This button will step you through one field at a
time to confirm which fields were defined by the configuration file. For the standard SPS template
configuration file, the Source Line Number, Source Number, From Chan, To Chan, Receiver Line,
From Sta, and To Sta data columns will be defined.
Press the Exit button. You will be prompted to confirm that you wish to import this data file.
Press Yes. The Import Combine Options dialog will appear automatically. Select Combine Line
Number and Receivers Numbers and Combine Line Number and Source Number and set
the number of digits equal to 4 for both options. You should also check Consolidate template
during import to condense the number of unique templates that get imported. Press OK to
import the template information.
The source points in your project should now be colored red to indicate that a template has been
assigned.

Select Save Project from the File menu and save your project as yampa4.

Lesson #4 - Additional Practice


Using the yampa4 project, define a bin grid using 55x55 foot bins. Auto fit the bin grid, but set the
inline bin direction to 90 degrees. Perform a fold, offsets, and azimuths calculation and view the
fold diagram. You should see a fold diagram with many irregularities due to moved sources and
receivers. The maximum fold for the project is 70.
Save your project after performing the fold calculation.

52

Lesson #5 Analyzing Bin Attributes


Objective: In the previous lessons, we have viewed the fold diagram for several of the survey
design projects. In this lesson, we will take a more in-depth look at the various options for
analyzing bin attributes available in MESA.
1.) Start MESA, or select Open Project from the File menu if MESA is already running. Open
the yampa4 project from the previous lesson. If you did not create a bin grid and perform a fold,
offset, and azimuth calculation at the end of the previous lesson, do so now.
2.) Toggle off everything in the Project Tree except the Fold Diagram and the Bin Grid. Zoom
in on the lower left corner of the full-fold area (colored orange).

3.) Right-click on Fold Diagram to bring up a submenu. Select Display Options to open the
Fold Display Options dialog box.

By default, fold gets displayed by filling the entire bin with a solid color corresponding to the color
scale. This dialog box allows you to change the Fill pattern for the fold plot or to change the
opacity of the display so that underlying background maps are visible. For this lesson, select the
Numeric checkbox and press OK.

53

Selecting this option will display the fold value in each bin in addition to the color map.

4.) Click on the drop down arrow from the Find button on the Edit toolbar. Select Bins from the
menu.

54

Press the Find button. Click the left mouse button on any bin in your project. For this example,
the lower left bin with a fold of 64 was selected. This will open the Bin Information dialog box.

This dialog contains information about the properties and contents of the selected bin. It contains
offset histograms of absolute, inline, and crossline offset. It contains a spider diagram. By
pressing the Previous and Next buttons, you can step through every trace in the bin and a line
connecting the associated source-receiver pair will be drawn in the Design Window. Click on
other bins in the surrounding area to see how the offset histograms vary for nearby bins. Press
the Close button to close the Bin Information dialog box. Press the Find button a second time to
exit this mode of operation.
Return to the fold display options and turn off the Numeric display. Toggle off the Bin Grid and
Fold Diagram from the Project Tree. Toggle on Receivers and Source and zoom out 100%. A
few moments ago, we selected Bins from the drop down menu of the Find button. As long as
Bins is selected on this menu, we can access a special diagram which shows all of the sourcereceiver pairs that contribute to a particular bin.
Hold down the <ctrl> button and click the left mouse on a bin. A super-spider diagram will be
drawn that shows all of the contributors to that bin. This is a transitory diagram that disappears
whenever the screen updates. Zoom in on an area that displays roughly 10 source lines and 10

55

receiver lines and <ctrl> click on a bin in the center of the window as shown in the following
diagram.

This is a very informative diagram for understanding which source and receiver lines contribute to
the traces in a given bin.
6.) Toggle off Receivers and Sources in the Project Tree. Right-click on Offset Diagram in the
Project Tree and select Display Options from the menu. The Offset Display Options dialog box
will appear.

There are two types of offset diagrams. You can select a histogram diagram and/or a color
diagram. By default, the Near Offset color diagram in selected. Select the Offset Histogram
radio button and the Far Offset radio button and press OK. If the diagram doesnt display, make
sure that Offset Diagram is selected in the Project Tree.
You should see an offset histogram in each bin with a color display of the maximum offset in each
bin as shown below.

56

7.) Toggle off Offset Diagram in the Project Tree. Right-click on Azimuth Diagram in the
Project Tree and select Display Options from the menu. The Azimuth Display Options dialog
box will appear.

By default, the Spider plot option is selected. This is the standard diagram for looking at the
offset and azimuth distribution in a bin. Select the Circle Plot radio button and set the Offset to
1000. The circle plot is a polar plot of offset vs. azimuth (essentially a spider plot showing only
the end points of each spider leg) which can be easier to interpret than a spider plotespecially
for higher fold bins. Press OK to display the circle plot. If the diagram doesnt display, make sure
that Azimuth Diagram is selected in the Project Tree.

57

8.) There are other displays in MESA for analyzing bin attributes that are not map view displays.
Select Displays Bin Attribute Graph from the Bin Analysis menu.

This window displays a cross section of bin attributes in one bin line across the survey. All of the
midpoints in a given bin are aligned vertically, sorted from bottom to top by increasing offset. By
default, the midpoints are colored according to azimuth.

58

Press the Display Crossline Bins button. When this button is pushed, a green line will be
drawn in the Design Window which shows the current location of the cross section you are
viewing in the Bin Attribute Graph. In the Design Window, toggle off all displays in the Project
Tree except for Receivers and Sources and zoom out 100%.
Type 190 for Bin Row in the edit box in the Bin Attribute Graph. The display will update to show
the bin attribute cross section for bin row 190. Notice the missing near offset traces on the
western edge of the display and the large gap of missing offset traces centered near bin 457900.
The highlighted areas on the diagram below illustrate how the holes in coverage for our survey
are manifested in the offset distributions in a range of bins.

The Bin Attribute Graph is an excellent tool for analyzing holes in offset distribution. Press the
red X in the upper right hand corner of the Bin Attribute Graph to close the window.
9.) The last bin analysis display window we will introduce in this lesson is a window for showing
global statistics. Select Displays Bin Statistics from the Bin Analysis menu.
There are six displays in the Bin Statistics Window. The default window is a graph of fold vs. the
number of bins in the survey that have a particular fold value. In the display below, the graph
shows that the nominal fold for this survey is 64. There are minor spikes of higher fold that
correspond to the fold values in the taper zone around the edge of the survey. There are also a
few bins with 65-70 fold that are the result of some source and receiver moves in some regions of
the project.

59

Press the Offset Plot button. This will display a line graph of offset vs. how many traces
in the project have that offset value. To make this plot easier to interpret, press the down arrow
next to the Offset Plot button and select Bin Statistics Options from the menu. The Bin
Statistics Options dialog box will appear.

The offset plot is more useful if we sum the offsets into groups to analyze the distribution. Set the
Offset Increment to 110 feet. Select the Display as Bar Graph checkbox. Press OK to update
the display.

60

Press the Rose Diagram button. The rose diagram is a polar plot of offset vs. azimuth that
shows how many traces fall in particular offset and azimuth ranges. This is a useful diagram for
analyzing how well your survey is sampled in the offset and azimuth domains. If you are
attempting to have a wide azimuth distribution, the coverage in this plot should be fairly
symmetrical.

Press the red X in the corner of the window to close the Bin Statistics Window.
10.) MESA has a very flexible set of tools for limiting all of the program displays by offset and/or
azimuth. Return to the Design Window and toggle off all displays in the Project Tree except for

61

the Fold Diagram. Right-click on Fold Diagram to open the Display Options. The Fold Display
Options dialog will appear. Press the Limits button to open the Bin Limits dialog.

By calculating fold, offsets, and azimuths whenever you perform a fold calculation, all of the
limiting options in this dialog box are available. You can limit displays by absolute offset or by the
inline or crossline component of the offset. You can limit displays by narrow azimuth ranges.
You can remove reciprocal raypaths from the displays.
For this example, we will limit our fold display in the absolute offset range of 0-4000 feet. Select
the Absolute offset checkbox and enter a Far Limit of 4000 feet in the edit box. Press OK to exit
the Bin Limits dialog. Press OK to exit the Fold Display Options dialog.
The fold diagram will be redrawn with the offset limits applied. Using the default color scale, the
diagram will be dominantly blue in color.
Press the Set Options button (beneath the color scale). This will bring up the Color Scale
Settings Window for creating and editing color scales. There are several color scales included
with a standard installation and it is easy to create and save color scales of your own making.
For this lesson, we will just make a simple change to the existing color scale.
Without any offset limits applied, the fold in this project has a maximum value of 70. With the 04000 feet offset limit applied, the maximum fold is somewhat less. Change the value for Max to
30 and press the Solve button. The color scale will rescale based upon the new maximum value.

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Press the Apply button to apply the modified color scale to the fold diagram. Press OK to close
the Color Scale Settings Window.

We will revisit the options for analyzing bin attributes in future lessons.

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Lesson #6 Exclusion Zones and Source/Receiver Editing


Objective: In this lesson, we will introduce exclusion zones. Exclusion zones have a variety of
purposes in MESA. They can be used to remove sources and receivers from the project, as
annotations, as areas to fill in with new lines, as areas to fill when creating marine geometries,
and as regions for assigning attributes. We will also demonstrate how to access some of the
graphical editing tools for modifying a design project.
1.) Start MESA, or select Open Project from the File menu if MESA is already running. Open
the lesson1 project from the first lesson.

Up to this point, we have been accessing program functions from the main menu or from the
Project Tree. In this lesson, we will access functions from the Edit toolbar.

Whenever a button on this toolbar is pressed, you are in that mode of operation. To exit a mode
of operation, press another button on the toolbar or press the depressed button a second time.
2.) Press the Edit Exclusions button on the Edit toolbar. The exclusion editing toolbar will be
added to the bottom of the Design Window.
Press the Create Exclusion button. The Exclusion Creation dialog box will appear. There
are two tab sheets in this dialog. Select the Exclusion Properties tab sheet. In the first phase
of this lesson, we are going to create circular exclusion zones that represent well locations.

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Click on the down arrow for the Current Layer list and select <New Layer> from the list. You will
be prompted to enter a name for the new layer. Enter Well Locations and press OK.

Select the exclusion type by choosing the Circle radio button. Set the Radius at 300 feet. Select
the Receivers and Sources checkboxes to indicate that our exclusions zone will turn off any
source or receiver that falls inside of one or our circular zones. Choose a different Color from the
drop down list (green is nice).

Select the Exclusion Coordinates tab sheet. There are three options for defining the
coordinates for exclusion zones. You can enter xy-coordinates manually, you can use the mouse

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to define exclusions zones, or you can import exclusions from an ASCII file. For this lesson,
select the Mouse Definition radio button.
All of the parameters are now set to begin creating exclusion zones. Every time you click the left
mouse in the Design Window, you will create a circular exclusion zone with a radius of 300 feet.
Make 5 or 6 circular exclusion zones and press the OK button to exit exclusion creation mode.

Notice that the sources and receivers inside of the circular exclusion zones are not Dead.
Depending on the size of the project and the complexity of the exclusion zones, MESA does not
automatically update the live/dead status of sources and receivers.
Press the Recalculate Effects button. All of the sources and receivers inside of the
exclusions zones will now be shown in their Dead color.
3.) This time, we will create a few polygonal exclusion zones.
Press the Create Exclusion button. The Exclusion Creation dialog box will appear. Select
the Exclusion Properties tab sheet. Create a new layer named Boundaries.
Set the exclusion type to Polygon. Select the Receivers and Sources checkboxes. For
polygonal exclusions, the Radius field is meaningless. Select a different Fill pattern, such as the
cross-hatch pattern. The parameters should appear as shown below.

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Create two polygons in the southeast corner of the project. Click the left mouse to define each
vertex and double-click the left mouse to define the last vertex and close the polygon. You do not
need to double-click on the first vertex to close the polygon. Exclusion zone definition is
continuous. After you double click to close the first polygon, you can start clicking out the vertices
of the second polygon.
After you have defined the second polygon, return to the Exclusion Properties tab sheet.
Change the Exclusion Type to Survey Boundary. The survey boundary is a special exclusion
zone which excludes sources and receivers OUTSIDE of its perimeter instead of inside. Create a
survey boundary similar to the diagram below. Press OK to exit exclusion creation mode.

Press the Recalculate Effects button. All of the sources and receivers inside of the exclusions
zones and outside of the survey boundary will now be shown in their Dead color.

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Press the Edit Exclusions button on the Edit toolbar to close the exclusion editing toolbar.
4.) Zoom in on one of your exclusion zones which excludes some of the receivers in your project.
Press the Edit Receivers button. The receiver editing toolbar will be added to the bottom
of the Design Window.

There are editing functions for operating on individual receivers, receiver lines, and polygonal
groups of receivers. Press the Record Selection Mode button (first button on the toolbar) to
operate on individual receivers. The drop down list contains all of the functions that you can
perform on individual receivers. Select Move from the drop down list.
In the diagram below, there are six dead receivers inside of the circular exclusion zone.

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Click the left mouse button on one of the dead receivers and drag it to a location outside of the
exclusion zone. Release the mouse to place the receiver. Grab a few more receivers and move
them outside of the exclusion zones.

Notice that even after moving the receivers outside of the exclusion zone, the receivers are still
dead until we return to the exclusion editing toolbar and recalculate the exclusion effects.
Press the Edit Receivers button a second time to exit this mode of operation.
5.) Zoom in on one of your exclusion zones which excludes some of the sources in your project.

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Press the Edit Sources button. The source editing toolbar will be added to the bottom of
the Design Window. The options for editing sources are nearly identical to the options for editing
receivers other than a few options for editing template assignments.
Press the Design Grid Options button. Quite often, you will need to move sources and
receivers but wish to constrain the movements to grid locations consistent with the line and point
spacings used for the rest of the project. The Design Grid dialog box will appear. Press the Auto
Fit button to calculate a default orientation for the grid based on the source lines. For this
example, the auto fit function will calculate an inline grid spacing of 110 and a crossline grid
spacing of 440. Change the Crossline Spacing to 110. Select the Display Design Grid
checkbox and select light gray as the Grid Color. Press OK to close the Design Grid dialog box.

Depending on the complexity of your survey and the number of exclusion zones, moving sources
and receivers out of exclusion zones can be a time-consuming process. The source and receiver
editing toolbars have a function to help automate this task.
Press the Exclusion Repulsion Mode button. This will activate the Repelling Options
button.
Press the Repelling Options button. This will open the Repelling Options dialog box. The
options in this dialog box allow you to set up rules for automatically moving sources out of
exclusions zones.

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The rules for moving points are defined in the Movement Limits group box. You can restrict
movement to a particular direction (inline or crossline), or you can move points to the nearest grid
node outside of the exclusion zone. For this example, we are going to restrict the movement of
source points to the crossline direction. Select the Crossline radio button. We are going to allow
sources to move up to 3 grid cells in the crossline direction, so set Max Grid Points to 3 in the
crossline direction and set Max Grid Points to 0 in the inline direction. Press OK to close the
Repelling Options dialog box.
The Exclusion Repulsion Mode button is still pressed. For this example, we are going to move
the source points from the exclusion zone below (zoom in on any similar exclusion zone in your
project). There are seven sources inside of the exclusion zone.

Click the left mouse button on the exclusion zone. All seven source points inside the exclusion
zone will be moved in the crossline direction to a grid node outside of the exclusion zone.

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This is one of the few functions in MESA that has an undo function. Click on the exclusion zone
a second time. All of the source points will move back to their original positions. The undo
function ONLY works for the previous exclusion. If you do not like the results of the repelling
function, click on the exclusion zone a second time or you will lose the ability to move the points
back to their original positions.
Press the Edit Sources button on the Edit toolbar to exit editing sources mode.
6.) Press the Edit Exclusions button on the Edit toolbar. Press the Recalculate Effects button
to turn on any sources and receivers that you have moved outside of an exclusion zone. Press
the Edit Exclusions button on the Edit toolbar to exit this mode of operation.
2.) To end this lesson, save your project.

Lesson #6 - Additional Practice


Open the receiver editing toolbar. Set up an appropriate design grid (110 x 110 feet). Use the
exclusion repelling function to move the receivers out of all exclusion zones in your project.
Some of your exclusion zones may be large enough that moving a receiver 3 grid nodes is not
enough distance to get the receiver out of the exclusion zone. You can leave these receivers
inside the exclusion zones.
Open the source editing toolbar and move the rest of the excluded sources out of the exclusion
zones.

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Lesson #7 Using the Shooting Grid


Objective: In this lesson, we will discuss the procedure for shooting projects with irregular
boundaries and demonstrate the difference between dead receivers and missing receivers.
1.) Start MESA or select New Project from the File menu if MESA is already running. Create an
orthogonal geometry using the Line/Bricks Layout with the following parameters:
Receivers
Inline Spacing
Crossline Spacing
Inline Bearing
Crossline Bearing
First Coordinate
Size

110 feet
440 feet
0 degrees
90 degrees
(0.0, 0.0)
21 lines x 82 receivers per line

Sources
Inline Spacing
Crossline Spacing
Inline Bearing
Crossline Bearing
First Coordinate
Size

110 feet
440 feet
90 degrees
0 degrees
(55.0, 55.0)
21 lines x 80 sources per line

2.) Create a polygonal exclusion zone in the southwest corner of the project. The exclusion zone
should exclude both sources and receivers. Recalculate the exclusion effects so that the sources
and receivers are dead.

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3.) Select Shoot Survey from the Edit menu. Create a template with 8 lines by 32 receivers.
Shoot the survey using Automatic Template Centering with Template Roll On/Off checked.
4.) Select Edit Templates from the Edit menu. Click on a few of the sources near the exclusion
zone. Note the effects of the exclusion zone. Dead sources inside of the exclusion do not get a
template assignment during shooting. Dead receivers inside the exclusion zone are shown in
green. This indicates that these receivers would be included in the active template if they were
live receivers, but since their state is set to dead they wont be included in the active template.
Exit edit templates mode by unchecking Edit Templates from the Edit menu.

5.) We will now demonstrate the difference between dead receivers and missing receivers in a
MESA project.
Press the Edit Receivers button. The receiver editing toolbar will be added to the bottom
of the Design Window. Press the Group Selection Mode button and select DELETE from the
drop down list of functions.

When you are using one of the group editing functions, you will be drawing a polygon around the
group of receivers you wish to operate upon. As with exclusion definition, click the left mouse
button at each vertex location and double-click the left mouse button to close the polygon. When
you double-click to close the polygon, you will be asked to confirm that you wish to delete the
receivers from the project. Delete a polygonal region of receivers in the southeast corner of the
project as shown below.

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After you have deleted the receivers in the southeast corner, delete another small polygonal
region of receivers in the center of the project.

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Press the Edit Sources button. Repeat the same procedure and delete two groups of
sources in the same locations as shown below. For the purposes of this exercise, it does not
matter if the polygonal regions used to delete receivers and sources do not match exactly.

Exit edit sources mode by pressing the Edit Sources button.


6.) Select Edit Templates from the Edit menu. Click on a source point in the southeast corner
of the project. Notice that segments of the template are no longer a perfect rectangle. The
segments of the template are staggered due to the irregular border of the receiver lines in the
southeast corner of the project. Click on a source point near the hole in the middle of the survey.
The template segments around the hole are now distorted. Pictures of both situations are shown
on the following page.
This result brings us to the first important rule of this exercise:
Deleting receivers after shooting will alter the existing template assignments. If you delete
receivers, you need to re-shoot the project.
Dead receivers do not affect template assignments. You can turn receivers on and off
without needing to re-shoot the project. Dead receivers will not be used in any fold or
statistical calculations.

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Exit edit templates mode by unchecking Edit Templates from the Edit menu.
7.) Select Shoot Survey from the Edit menu. Press the Unshoot Survey button. Press Yes
when prompted to confirm this action. Unshooting a survey removes the template assignments
for all sources.

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We are going to shoot the survey with the same parameters as before, only this time we will see
the effects of having missing receivers on the template placement. Select the 8x32 template from
the list. Select Automatic Template Centering. Check Template Roll On/Off. Press the
Shoot button.
3.) Select Edit Templates from the Edit menu. Click on a source point near the exclusion zone.

The template placement looks fine. Click on a source point in the southeast corner and then click
on a source near the hole in the center of the project. The templates are not rectangular.

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This result brings us to the second important rule of this exercise:


If your receiver lines have different lengths or if there are missing receivers in the middle
of the receiver lines, you must use the Shooting Grid to compensate for the irregularities.
Using Automatic Template Centering or Salvo Shooting will result in distorted templates if
you do not use the Shooting Grid.
9.) Select Shoot Survey from the Edit menu. Press the Unshoot Survey button. Press Yes
when prompted to confirm this action
Select the Use Shooting Grid checkbox. Press the Grid Definition button. The Shooting Grid
dialog box will appear. The concept of the shooting grid is to make a grid which simulates the
positions of our receivers as though they were all on a fixed grid and as if there was a live
receiver at every grid location. Press the Auto Fit button.

You should have a shooting grid with an Inline Spacing of 110, a Crossline Spacing of 440,
and an Inline Bearing of 0 degrees. Press OK to return to the Shooting Options dialog box.
Select the 8x32 template from the list. Select Automatic Template Centering. Check
Template Roll On/Off. Verify that Use Shooting Grid is selected. Press the Shoot button.
10.) Select Edit Templates from the Edit menu. Click on source points in various parts of the
project to verify that the templates are now correct everywhere. The template for every source
should be rectangular. There may be missing receivers in some templates, but the shape should
always be rectangular.
Exit edit templates mode by unchecking Edit Templates from the Edit menu.
11.) Save your project as lesson7 and exit MESA.

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Lesson Recap
Issues shooting surveys with irregular receiver line lengths or missing receivers are easily the
most commonly reported problems by MESA users. Keep these rules in mind:
1. Deleting receivers after shooting will alter the existing template assignments. If you
delete receivers, you need to re-shoot the project.
2. Dead receivers do not affect template assignments. You can turn receivers on and off
without needing to re-shoot the project. Dead receivers will not be used in any fold or
statistical calculations.
3. If your receiver lines have different lengths or if there are missing receivers in the
middle of the receiver lines, you must use the Shooting Grid to compensate for the
irregularities. Using Automatic Template Centering or Salvo Shooting will result in
distorted templates if you do not use the Shooting Grid.

In a future lesson, we will do a more thorough review of the shooting methods available in MESA.
Some of these methods are impervious to irregularities in the positions of the sources and
receivers. Methods that require you to first define a rectangular template (such as Automatic
Template Centering) are very sensitive to irregularities in the positions of the receivers and
require the use of the shooting grid.

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Lesson #8 Offset-based Shooting


Objective: In this lesson, we will discuss the shooting methods that dont require a template but
assign the active receiver patch based on the distance away from the source.
1.) Start MESA or select Open Project from the File menu if MESA is already running. Open
project lesson7 from the previous exercise.
2.) As stated previously, there are several ways to access most functions in MESA. Instead of
selecting Shoot Survey from the Edit menu, press the Shoot Survey button on the Edit toolbar.

Press the Delete All Templates button. You will be prompted to confirm this action. All of the
sources in your project will revert to their Live color.
3.) Select the Circular Templates radio button. Press the Circular Options button. The
Circular Shooting Options dialog box will appear.
Instead of using a fixed number of lines and receivers to create the active patch, this method
creates the active patch by finding all of the receivers within a specified radius of the source point.

Set the Minimum Offset at 0. Set the Maximum Offset to 2000. In cases where you wish to
shoot a ring of receivers around a source point, set the Minimum Offset to a value other than
zero. Press OK to close this dialog.
Press Shoot to assign the circular templates.
4.) Review the template assignments. Instead of selecting Edit Templates from the Edit menu,
press the Edit Templates button on the Edit toolbar.

Click on a few of the source points. You should see a circular template of receivers centered on
each source point. Also note that the offset-based shooting methods are not affected by missing
receivers or variations in receiver line length.
Press the Edit Templates button on the Edit toolbar to exit this mode of operation.

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5.) Press the Shoot Survey button on the Edit toolbar. In the Shooting Options dialog, notice
that the template list contains a single entry named Mesa Generated(xxx). Whenever Mesa is
using a shooting method that creates templates, these templates will be consolidated into a single
entry. Press the Delete All Templates button. You will be prompted to confirm this action.
6.) Select the Rectangular Templates radio button. Press the Rect Options button. The
Rectangular Shooting Options dialog box will appear.
Rectangular shooting works very much like automatic template centering with the shooting grid
turned on because it includes all receivers inside a rectangular region as the active template.
However, instead of using a number of lines and receivers per line, this method uses distances

Define the size of the rectangle. Enter 4000 for Rectangle Length (receiver inline bearing).
Enter 2000 for Rectangle Width (receiver xline bearing). This method automatically calculates
the orientation of the receiver lines to determine the orientation of the rectangle. You can alter
the orientation of the rectangle by unchecking the Auto-calculate receiver line bearing
checkbox and entering a new value. We will let the program calculate the orientation for this
example. Press OK to exit this dialog box.

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Press Shoot to assign the rectangular templates.


7.) Review the template assignments. Press the Edit Templates button on the Edit toolbar.
Click on a few of the source points. You should see a rectangular template of receivers centered
on each source point. Also note that the offset-based shooting methods are not affected by
missing receivers or variations in receiver line length.

Press the Edit Templates button on the Edit toolbar to exit this mode of operation.

Lesson #8 - Additional Practice


Shoot this survey using circular templates. Instead of including all receivers within a maximum
offset, shoot the survey with a ring-shaped template. Use 440 feet for the minimum offset and
3520 for the maximum offset.
After shooting, examine the templates to verify the ring shape. Use 55 x 55 foot bins and perform
a fold calculation. Open the Bin Statistics Window and examine the Offset Plot to verify that the
offsets fall within the range specified by the circular template.

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Lesson #9 More on Automatic Shooting Options


Objective: In previous lessons, we have seen some of the options for automatically centering a
template on a source point. In this lesson, we will demonstrate how to skew the template, how to
shoot through the template, and how to use the salvo shooting options.
1.) Start MESA or select New Project from the File menu if MESA is already running. Create an
orthogonal geometry using the Line/Bricks Layout with the following parameters:
Receivers
Inline Spacing
Crossline Spacing
Inline Bearing
Crossline Bearing
First Coordinate
Size

110 feet
440 feet
0 degrees
90 degrees
(0.0, 0.0)
21 lines x 82 receivers per line

Sources
Inline Spacing
Crossline Spacing
Inline Bearing
Crossline Bearing
First Coordinate
Size

110 feet
440 feet
90 degrees
0 degrees
(55.0, 55.0)
21 lines x 80 sources per line

2.) Press the Shoot Survey button. Create an 8 line by 32 receiver template. Select the
Automatic Template Centering radio button. This time, instead of centering the template on
each source point, we are going to skew the template to simulate an off-end style geometry.
These types of geometries can be used if you wish to bias the longer offsets in a particular
direction.
Press the Skew Options button. The Template Skewing dialog box will appear. Enter 8 for the
Inline Skew. After the template is centered on a source point, the template will be shifted by
eight receiver positions along the line.

Press OK to exit this dialog box. Make sure the Template Roll On/Off checkbox is selected and
press the Shoot button.
4.) Review the template assignments. Press the Edit Templates button on the Edit toolbar.
Click on a few of the source points. Zoom in on the display. You should see that the active
receiver patch is not centered on the source locations. It is shifted eight receiver locations to the
north.

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5.) Press the Shoot Survey button. Press the Unshoot Survey button to erase the template
assignments. Press the Skew Options button and reset the Inline Skew and Crossline Skew
back to zero.
Uncheck the Template Roll On/Off checkbox. For this example, we are going to demonstrate a
shoot-through geometry in which the template is held in a fixed location on the edges of the
project. Press the Shoot button. The Auto-Shoot Limits dialog box will appear.

This dialog box can be used to limit which source points get fired. It is also used to place limits
on how the template will be allowed to roll. Press the Survey Edges button. The edit boxes will
be filled in with the minimum and maximum receiver line and the minimum and maximum receiver
position on the longest receiver line. With these limits set, the template will be constrained from
rolling on or off the projectthat is, every receiver in the template will be active for every source
point.
Press the Shoot button.
6.) Review the template assignments. Press the Edit Templates button on the Edit toolbar.
Click on a few of the source points on the edge of the project. You should see that the active

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receiver patch does not roll on and off the project. For every source, 8 lines by 32 receivers are
active. In the center of the project, the template is centered on the source points as before.

Exit edit templates mode when you are finished.


7.) Select Open Project from the File menu. Discard any changes to the current project. Open
lesson2_slant from Lesson #2.
Salvo shooting is used when you want to center the template on a group of source points as
opposed to centering the template on each source point individually. For most of the orthogonal
geometries we have used so far, salvo shooting and automatic template centering produce
identical results. However, for slant geometries and transition zone geometries where the active
sources span across several receiver lines, automatic template centering does not produce the
desired result.
Press the Shoot Survey button. Create a 10 receiver line by 72 receiver template. Select the
Salvo Shooting radio button. Make sure that the Template Roll On/Off checkbox is selected.
Press the Shoot button.
Zoom in on the center of the project. The first step is to click the left mouse button on a source
point. Clicking on a source point will highlight a salvo. A salvo is a group of sources on a
source line that fall between two receiver lines. All of the sources in the salvo will be highlighted
in green. The center of mass for these sources is calculated and the receiver template is
centered on the center of mass. In this way, all of the sources in the salvo get the same template
assignment.

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After you have selected a salvo, press the Shoot Survey button on the Edit toolbar to signal that
you have finished selecting the starting salvo. The Salvo Roll Parameters dialog box will appear.

To complete the parameterization for salvo shooting, we need to specify how the template needs
to roll in each direction. For this geometry, the template needs to roll one line in the receiver line
direction and roll one line in the source line direction. Press the Shoot button.
8.) Review the template assignments. Press the Edit Templates button on the Edit toolbar.
Click on a few of the source points to verify that the templates are centered on salvos of sources
points along the slanted source lines.
Exit edit templates mode when you are finished.

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9.) Press the Shoot Survey button. Press the Unshoot Survey button. Select the Salvo
Shooting radio button. Make sure that the Template Roll On/Off checkbox is selected. Press
the Shoot button.
This time, instead of centering the template on one salvo, we are going to center the template on
multiple salvos. Zoom in on the center of the project. Click on three source points so that three
salvos get highlighted in green.

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After you have selected the three salvos, press the Shoot Survey button on the Edit toolbar to
signal that you have finished selecting the starting salvos. The Salvo Roll Parameters dialog box
will appear.

As with the last example, we only need to roll one line in the source line direction. However, our
three source salvos span three receiver lines, so we need to roll the template three lines in the
receiver line direction (unless we are trying to revisit the same source locations multiple times).
Fill out the parameters as shown above and press Shoot.
10.) Review the template assignments. Press the Edit Templates button on the Edit toolbar.
Click on a few of the source points to verify that the templates are centered on three salvos of
sources points along the slanted source lines.

Exit edit templates mode when you are finished. Save your project and exit MESA.

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Lesson #10 Background Images


Objective: MESA supports a variety of image formats that can be used as backgrounds for the
survey design process. This lesson provides an introduction to using image data.
1.) Start the program gmgimage. GMG-Image is a utility program for preparing background
images for use in MESA. Although MESA can read the native image formats directly, GMGImage can be used to reformat images into GMG proprietary formats. These proprietary formats
will display more rapidly in MESA than the native image formats.
2.) Select Load TIFF from the File menu. Open the file image.tif. The Coordinate Entry
dialog box will appear.
In order to use a background image in MESA, the image must be geo-referenced and a pixel
scale must be specified. Some image formats, such as GeoTIFF have this information
embedded in the file header. Some images come with an accessory file containing georeferencing information. For some images, you will have to enter the geo-referencing information
manually. In this example, our image has an accessory file named image.tfw and the positioning
and scale information is read automatically from the file.

Press OK to accept the positioning and scale information. The image will be displayed in the
main window.

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3.) Select Save Layer File from the File menu. Name the file image.lyr. Layer files are a
proprietary image format used by MESA. These files have an lyr suffix. Select Exit from the
File menu to exit the program.
4.) Start MESA. Expand the Backgrounds node in the Project Tree. Right-click on Images and
select Load GMG Layer from the menu.

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Load the file image.lyr. Select Images in the Project Tree if the image doesnt display in the
Design Window. Since GMG Layer files have the geo-referencing and pixel scale embedded,
you do no have to re-enter this information.

5.) In addition to raster images, MESA can also display vector data as a background. DXF is a
common format for vector data. As with raster images, GMG-Image can be used to reformat
vector data into a GMG proprietary format named vyr. If you have a data file of points that you
wish to convert into a vector background, it will be stored in this proprietary format.
For this lesson, we will import a vector data file that was previously created in GMG-Image.
Right-click on Vectors and select Load GMG Vector from the menu.

Open the file wells.vyr. Select Vectors in the Project Tree if the image doesnt display in the
Design Window. Well locations and names will be displayed on top of the raster image.

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6.) Another type of data that can be useful as a background in MESA is a contour map. This
could be a map of surface elevations or it could be a structure map of the target horizon for your
project. GMG-Image has a function for importing an ASCII file of xyz data points and converting it
into a contour map file (suffix cyr).
Right-click on Contours and select Load from the menu. Open the file structure_map.cyr.

Select Contours in the Project Tree if the contour map doesnt display in the Design Window.
You should see a contour map, well locations, and an aerial photograph in the Design Window. If
you wish to change any of the drawing properties of the contour map, right-click on Contours and
select Display Options from the menu. You can change the colors and contour intervals.

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7.) Toggle off Contours and Vectors. We are going to use the raster image to help define the
boundary area for a survey design project.
Press the Edit Exclusions button to add the exclusion toolbar to the bottom of the Design
Window.
Press the Create Exclusion button. Select the Survey Boundary radio button. Make sure
that the Receivers and Sources checkboxes are selected. With the mouse, define a polygonal
exclusion zone similar to the one shown in the following diagram.

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Press OK to exit the Exclusion Creation dialog. Press the Edit Exclusions button to close the
exclusion editing toolbar.
8.) Select Unit Template from the Edit menu. Press the Layout Template button to create a
new unit template. Set the Grid Size at 25 feet. Create a unit template with the following
parameters.

Press the Shoot Options button in the Unit Template Window. In previous lessons, we have
simply repeated the unit template a fixed number of times in the inline and crossline directions.
This time, we will fill our exclusion zone with sources and receivers.
Select the Fill Polygon radio button. If you have more than one exclusion zone, you will need to
select a Layer and a Zone to fill. In our case, our one zone is already selected. Set the Inline
and Crossline spacings at 200 feet.
We have the option of either clipping the extents of our source and receiver lines to the boundary
of the polygon, or we have the option of clipping our full-fold area to the boundary of the polygon.
Select the Clip Receivers/Sources to Bounds radio button.
By default, MESA calculates the longest line segment of the polygon and aligns the receiver lines
in the unit template with this bearing. You can override this setting and enter a different
orientation if you wish. For this lesson, we wont override the default orientation. When your
settings match the diagram below, press OK to create the project.

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You should now have a survey design that looks like the following diagram.

9.) Save your project as lesson10. Select Shapefile Output from the Export menu. The
Shapefile Output dialog box will appear. We are going to save the boundary polygon of this
project as a Shapefile for use in a future lesson. Unselect the Sources and Receivers
checkboxes and only select the Exclusions checkbox. Press OK.

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You will be prompted to name the output file. Use the default name lesson10Exclusions.shp.
Exit MESA when you are finished.

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Lesson #11 Marine Design Tools


Objective: Although MESA is primarily a design tool for land and transition zone projects, there
are some tools for testing marine design ideas and doing limited quality control on P190 files.
This lesson demonstrates some of these capabilities.
1.) Start MESA or select New Project from the File menu if MESA is already running. Press the
Edit Exclusions button on the Edit toolbar.
2.) Press the Create Exclusion button on the edit exclusion toolbar. Select the Exclusion
Properties tab sheet in the dialog box. Set the parameters as shown below. Select the Marine
Sail Polygon radio button. Make the new layer named Block. Uncheck Receivers, Sources,
and Midpoints. We are using this exclusion zone as a boundary, not as a zone for turning off
points.

Select the Exclusion Coordinates tab sheet. Instead of defining this exclusion zone by clicking
out a polygon with the mouse, we are going to enter the coordinates of the vertices manually.
Select the Enter Coordinates radio button. Enter the five points in this list by typing the values
into the X and Y edit boxes and pressing the Add button.
X Coordinate

Y Coordinate

10000
20000
20000
10000
0

0
0
10000
20000
10000

After you have added all five points, press the arrow on the drop down list to verify and you have
entered all of the points correctly.

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Press the OK button to close the dialog box. Press the Zoom Out 100% button in the Design
Window to display the exclusion zone. Press the Edit Exclusions button on the Edit toolbar to
exit edit exclusion mode.

3.) Select Marine Design Window from the Marine menu. The Marine Window will open. In
this window, we define boat configurations, which are the building blocks of marine designs in
MESA. A boat configuration is essentially a unit template for marine shooting. We define the
spatial relationships of the airguns and streamers and repeat this configuration to generate the
sail lines. Since we dont yet have a boat configuration, the Edit Boat Configuration dialog box
will appear.
In this dialog box, we define the number of sources and streamers for this boat. A boat can have
sources, streamers or both. Fill out the parameters as shown below.

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Press OK when you are finished. A diagram of your boat configuration will appear in the window.

4.) One of the purposes of the Marine Design Window is to test the bin attributes of a marine
configuration without having to generate thousands of source points.
Press the Unit Cell Binning button. This will open the Unit Cell Binning dialog box. In this
dialog box, you will set the parameters for repeating the boat configuration enough times to
create a representative sample of the bin attributes that this boat configuration would generate
across the entire project. Set the parameters as shown below.

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Press the OK button. MESA will display a fold map below the boat configuration. The region
covered by the bin attribute display does not correspond to the boat configuration. The bin
attribute map is just a representative sample of the full-fold area this configuration would create.
You should see a uniform 18 fold for this project.

5.) You can use the Marine Design Window to test marine configurations, but you can also
generate sail lines for use in the rest of MESA.
Press the Sail Lines button. This will open the Sail Lines Options dialog box. Similar to the
unit template shooting options, this dialog box is used to specify how to repeat the boat
configuration.
Select the Fill Marine Sail Polygon radio button. If you had more than one marine sail polygon
exclusion, you would need to select the appropriate exclusion from the listbox. Set the Spacings
as shown below. Select the Generate Offlap checkbox. This option will extend the sail lines half
a streamer length beyond the boundary of the polygon so that the polygon becomes the full-fold
region for the project. Select the Generate Sail Lines checkbox so that actual marine sources
get generated in the Design Window. Select the Calculate Bearing With Longest Edge
checkbox so that the sail lines will parallel the long axis of the marine sail polygon exclusion zone.
There is one other parameter that requires elaboration. Enter a Seam Width of 10 lines. The

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seam width is the number of sail lines in which the boat sails in the same direction before flipping
and sailing in the opposite direction. This is MESAs way of simulating race-track style turning
and shooting.
When your parameters match those shown below, press the OK button.

Your marine sail polygon should now be filled with marine source location. Since marine sources
tow their streamers, there are no fixed receiver locations in a marine project.

5.) Zoom in on some of the source points along the northwest edge of the project. Press the
Find button on the Edit toolbar. Check the drop down menu from the Find button to verify that
either Sources or Receivers and Sources is checked. Click the mouse on a source near the
edge of the polygon as shown below.

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The source point will be highlighted and the position of the streamers will be drawn. If you click
on a source point from an adjacent seam, you will find that the streamers are being towed in the
opposite direction. Marine source points along a sail line retain their sail direction.
6.) MESA provides a very simple model for testing worst-case feathering situations. Select
Marine Feathering from the Marine menu. The Feathering Options dialog box will appear. This
allows you to define a constant direction for the current and the maximum angular deflection of
the streamer if the boat is sailing perpendicular to the current. Enter 45 degrees for the Current
Direction and 15 degrees for the Max Feather Angle. Press the OK button.
Make sure that the Find button is still pressed. Click on another source point. You will see that
the streamers are now deflected in the direction of the current.

Press the Find button again to exit this mode of operation.

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7.) Marine source points can be used for fold calculations. Select Define Bin Grid from the Bin
Analysis menu. The Bin Definition dialog box will appear. Set the Inline Bin Size to 12.5. Set
the Crossline Bin Size to 25. Press the Auto Fit button. After pressing Auto Fit, adjust the
Line Bearing to 135 and press OK.

Perform a fold calculation. You should see a project with a uniform fold of 18 (make sure you
return to Marine Feathering from the Marine menu and set the Max Feather Angle to 0 degrees
before the fold calculation).

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8.) Select New Project from the File menu (you dont need to save the previous marine project).
MESA can be used to QC marine P190 files. It is not a marine binning tool and should not be
treated as such (dont load hundreds of millions of traces into it), but it can be used to look at a
few files.
Select P1/90 Offshore Import from the Marine menu. The Offshore P1/90 Import dialog box will
appear. Press the Add Files button. Two P190 files are included with the training materials.
You can select multiple files from the file open dialog. Select lesson11_marine70.p190 and
lesson11_marine160.p190.

Press OK to import the files. After importing, an informational box will appear with statistics
regarding the number of source points that were imported. Press the Find button. Click on a
source and the hydrophone positions will be highlighted. Since these are actual hydrophone
positions, the marine feathering options do not operate on imported P190 data.

9.) Exit MESA. You do not need to save the marine project.

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Lesson #12 Managing Multiple Projects


Objective: Quite often, survey design projects are extensions or mergers with an existing project.
MESA has capabilities for managing multiple projects. This lesson will demonstrate some of
these features.
1.) Start MESA. Expand the Backgrounds node of the Project Tree. Right-click on Images and
select Load GMG Layer from the menu. Open image.lyr and display it in the Design Window.
2.) Right-click on Shapefiles and select Shapefile Manager from the menu. The Shapefile
Manager Window will appear. Press the Add Files button. Open lesson10Exclusions.shp.
Select lesson10Exclusions.shp in the list box.

Set the Fill Pattern to a cross-hatch pattern. Set the Fill Color and Outline Color to red. Press
the Apply button. Press OK to close the dialog box.

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3.) Press the Edit Exclusions button on the Edit toolbar. Press the Create Exclusion button.
We are going to make a Survey Boundary exclusion zone that partially overlaps with the outline
of the previous project. Set the exclusion properties as shown below and click out a polygon
similar to the green outline shown below. Press OK when the polygon is complete.

Press the Edit Exclusions button to exit this mode of operation.


4.) Use the Range/Bearing tool to measure the orientation of the long axis of the previous
project. For the example shown in this manual, the bearing is 131.45 degrees. Your
measurement may vary. After you have made your measurement, select Clear All from the drop
down menu of the Range/Bearing button and then exit range/bearing mode.

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5.) Select Unit Template from the Edit menu. Press the Layout Template button and set the
grid size at 25. Create a unit template with the following parameters (same as the geometry used
in Lesson 10).

After you create the template, press the Shoot Options button. Fill in the Unit Template Repeat
dialog parameters as shown below. Select the Fill Polygon radio button because we are going
to fill our survey boundary polygon. Set the Inline and Crossline Spacings at 200. Select the
Clip Receivers/Sources to Bounds radio button. Finally, check the Specify Line Bearing (X
axis) checkbox. Enter the bearing that you measured with the Range/Bearing tool (131.45
degrees in this example).
Press OK when you are finished.

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Your project should look as shown below.

5.) Perform a fold calculation. As with the project in Lesson 10, the maximum fold should be
approximately 72.
6.) Save your project as lesson12.

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7.) Next, we are going to load our previous project. Right-click on Projects in the Project Tree
and select Load Multiple Projects from the menu.

Open the project lesson10 when prompted. You should see both projects loaded and you will
have two projects (lesson12 and lesson10) listed under the Projects node of the Project Tree.

7.) MESA has the concept of the active project. You can only make changes to the active
project. The active project is the project selected under the Projects node. Make sure that
lesson12 is the active project.
8.) You can create a fold diagram using all loaded projects. Select Define Bin Grid from the Bin
Analysis menu. In the Bin Definition dialog, check the Fit to Multiple Databases checkbox and
press the Auto Fit button. Verify that your bin size is 25 x 25. Press OK when you are finished.

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9.) Select Fold Calculation from the Bin Analysis menu. Check the Named Fold Calculation
checkbox. Check the Use Multiple Databases checkbox. Change the Descriptor to Lesson 12
Merge. Press OK when you are finished.

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10.) The new fold calculation will appear under the Bin Attributes node of the Project Tree.
Check the box next to Lesson 12 Merge. Select Fold Diagram under Lesson 12 Merge.

You should now see a fold diagram using both projects.

11.) If you wish to merge all of the loaded projects, you can right-click on Projects in the Project
Tree and select Merge Projects. For the purposes of this lesson, you can simply exit MESA
without saving any of the projects.

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Lesson #13 Attributes and Filtering


Objective: This lesson introduces source and receiver attributes and filtering based upon
attributes. We will also expand on source and receiver editing functions that were introduced in
Lesson 6.
1.) Start MESA. Expand the Backgrounds node and right-click on Shapefiles. Select
Shapefile Manager. Press the Add Files button. Open yampa_canyon.shp. Select
yampa_canyon.shp from the list box so you can set the properties. Select a crosshatch Fill
Pattern and set the Fill Color and Outline Color to black. Press the Apply button. Press OK to
close the Shapefile Manager.

2.) Press the Edit Exclusions button on the Edit toolbar. We are going to import a file of
exclusion zones from another project.
Press the Read Exclusion File button. Open the file yampa_canyon.xcl. When you are
importing exclusions from another project, you will get prompted with another dialog box which
lists all of the exclusion zones in the file. You have the option of selecting a subset of exclusions.
This can be useful if you want to import boundaries or roads from an adjoining project but not all
of the cultural features. For this example, we want to import all of the exclusion zones in the
external file. By default, all of the zones in the list should be selected. If this is not the case,
press the Select All button. Press to OK button to load all of the exclusions into the project.

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Press the Edit Exclusions button to exit edit exclusions mode.

You should now see the exclusion zones in the Design Window. In this exercise, we are dealing
with an interesting area with multiple survey design challenges. There are several streams, a
large river, numerous historical sites, and a few bird nesting areas which are off limits for
acquisition equipment.
3.) Lay out an orthogonal survey. Select Receivers - Lines/Bricks from the Edit menu. Fill out
the parameters as shown below to create receiver lines with spacings 110 inline, 880 crossline, 0
degrees inline bearing, and 90 degrees crossline bearing. Also, select the Fill Zone option and
select the Boundary layer and the Survey Boundary exclusion zone to fill. Refer to the
following diagrams for the parameters.

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Repeat the process for the source lines, but swap the bearings such that inline = 90 degrees,
crossline = 0 degrees. Also, since we want to offset the source points, make sure that X-Shift
and Y-Shift are set to 55 feet.

4.) When you lay out source and receiver lines after defining exclusion zones, the effects of the
exclusion zones are not automatically recalculated. Press the Edit Exclusions button on the
Edit toolbar. Press the Recalculate Effects button. You will see all of the sources and receivers

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inside the exclusion zones turn graywhich indicates the points are now dead. Press the Edit
Exclusions button to exit edit exclusions mode.
Save your database as yampa13 before proceeding.
5.) In the next phase of this exercise, we will review some of the tools for analyzing how much of
our survey is affected by the obstacles in our design area. To do this, we will use the source and
receiver attributes feature. Select Edit Attributes/Display Options from the Attributes/Filtering
menu. The Attribute Management Window will appear.
In the Source Attributes group box, press the Add button and add an integer source attribute
named Obstructions.

In the Receiver Attributes group box, repeat the process and create an integer receiver attribute
named Obstructions. Press the Done button to close the Attribute Management Window.
6.) By default, attribute data are initialized with a null value. We have not yet introduced the
spreadsheet functionality in MESA. Right-click on Receivers in the Project Tree and select
Receiver Spreadsheet.

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Scroll the spreadsheet horizontally until you can see the Obstructions column. Enter a value of
zero in the first row. Click the left mouse button on the column title (obstructions) to select all of
the cells in the column. Click the right mouse button and select Fill from the menu. Select Fill
Range and enter an Increment of zero to fill the entire obstructions column with zeroes. Press
OK to fill the column.

Close the receiver spreadsheet. Right-click on Sources in the Project Tree and select Source
Spreadsheet. Repeat the process with the sources to initialize the Obstructions source attribute
with zeroes. Close the source spreadsheet when you are finished.
7.) We are now going to use the exclusion zones to assign source and receiver attributes for the
various types of obstructions. We will use the following assignments:
Obstruction Type
No obstruction
Rivers
Nesting Areas
Archaeological Sites

Attribute Value
0
1
2
3

We have already initialized a majority of the sources and receivers with an attribute value of zero
(no obstruction). Press the Edit Receivers button on the Edit toolbar.
Press the Exclusion Attribute Mode button. This will open the Exclusion Record Attribute
Settings dialog box. This interface allows you to set an attribute value for all of the receivers that
fall inside a particular exclusion or inside any of the exclusions for a selected layer. In this
exercise, we are going to set values for entire exclusion layers. Fill out the parameters as shown
in the following diagram:

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Select Set by Selected Layers. Select Rivers from the Layer list. Select Obstructions from
the Attribute list. Set the attribute Value equal to 1. Press the OK button to finish. The dialog
box will close. We need to repeat this process for nesting and archaeological sites.
Press the Exclusions Attribute Settings button. This will reopen the Exclusion Record
Attribute Settings dialog box. Fill out the parameters as shown below to set the attribute value
equal to 2 for the nesting areas. Press OK to finish.

Repeat the process a third time to set the attribute value for the archaeological sites. Fill out the
parameters as shown below. Press OK when you are finished.

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Press the Edit Sources button on the Edit toolbar. Repeat the exact same process for the
sources. Assign the same three attribute values for source obstructions that you assigned for
receiver obstructions. Exit the source editing toolbar when you are finished.
8.) Right-click on Attribute Data in the Project Tree. Select Edit Attributes/Display Options
from the menu. The Attribute Management Window will appear. There are two drop down lists at
the top of the window for selecting which source and receiver attributes you wish to display.
Select Obstructions from both lists. Press Done when you are finished.

9.) Check Attribute Data in the Project Tree if it is not already checked. The Attribute Data
mode in the Project Tree works differently than the other items under the Views node. The
Attribute Data node toggles the display between viewing sources and receivers as colored by
the selected attribute value and viewing the sources and receivers as colored by their current
state.

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Zoom and scroll around your survey to verify that the attributes have been assigned properly.
The color scale should range from 0-3 with most of the sources and receivers showing an
attribute value of zero. Sources and receivers should have a value of one (light blue) in the rivers,
a value of two (green) in the nesting areas, and a value of three (red) in the archaeological areas.
If your attribute data are not assigned properly, repeat this step of the exercise. Save your
database again (same name).

10.) There are several methods for analyzing attribute data. We have already been looking at
attributes in map view. Another method is to use the attribute histograms. Select Histogram
Window from the Attribute/Filtering menu. The Geometry Histogram Settings dialog box will
appear. Select the Source Histogram radio button. Select Obstructions from the Attribute
drop down list.

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Press the OK button to plot the histogram.

From the plot, we can see that 7814 of our sources have a value of 0.0 (no obstruction). 164 of
the sources are in a river (obstruction value = 1), 167 of the sources are in a nesting area
(obstruction value = 2), and 39 of the sources are in an archaeological site obstruction value = 3).
Spend a moment examining the display options in this window. For example, press the Toggle
Percent Display button to change the display to a percentage histogram.

Press the Histogram Settings button and change the display to a histogram of receiver attribute
data.

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The percentages are similar for the receiver data.

Close the histogram window.


11.) Another method for looking at the distribution of attribute data is to use pie charts. Select
Pie Chart Window from the Attributes/Filtering menu. The Pie Chart Settings dialog box will
appear. You can make pie charts from source attribute data, receiver attribute data, or
bin/midpoint data. For this exercise, select the Source Attributes radio button. Select
Obstructions from the Attribute drop down list. Enter Obstructions in the Title edit box.

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By default, the pie chart window will automatically divide the data into ranges. For this exercise,
we will take control over the plot settings. Select the Detailed Chart radio button. Press the Add
button to define the first pie wedge in our chart. Fill out the Chart Details parameters as follows.
Since we are plotting integer data, set the value range from 0.00-0.99.

Press the Add button three more times to add three more pie wedge definitions. Fill in the
parameters as shown below.

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Press OK in the Pie Chart Settings dialog box to create your chart.

Close the Pie Chart Window.


12.) We are going to leave the topic of displaying attributes and discuss using attributes for
program functions. Toggle off Attribute Data in the Project Tree. Toggle off Sources. Toggle
off Shapefiles. Select Display Options Colors and Symbols from the View menu. Change
the Symbol Size to 1.0 mm.
Select Filtering Options from the Attributes/Filtering menu. The Attribute Filtering dialog box
will appear. This dialog allows us to define filters for showing or hiding data based on attribute
values. Data that are filtered are not deleted from the program. The data are just hidden from
program functions while the filter is applied.
Select the Receiver Filter tab sheet. We are going to define a filter to hide all of the receivers
that were not in an obstruction. Select Obstructions from the drop down list. Select Not Equal
To from the second drop down list. Enter a value of zero in the edit box. After you have set the
parameters as shown below, press the Add button.

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After you press the Add button, a filter will get added to the Filter List. When the filter is applied,
all receivers that have an Obstruction value greater than 0 will be visible. Press OK to close this
dialog box.
The filter has been defined, but it is not applied. To apply the filter, either select Enable Filtering
from the Attributes/Filtering menu, or press the Filter Options button on the Utilities toolbar.

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Only the receivers with an Obstruction value greater than zero are now active in the program.
(Note: This procedure could also have used the IsLive receiver attribute since all of the receivers
that have an Obstruction attribute greater than zero are inside exclusion zones and are currently
dead.)
13.) Press the Edit Receivers button on the Edit toolbar. We are going to repeat a procedure
introduced in Lesson 6 and repel the dead receiver out of the exclusion zones.
Press the Design Grid button. In the Design Grid dialog box, press the Auto Fit button and
change the Crossline Spacing to 110 (grid spacing should be 110 x 110). Press OK.
Press the Exclusion Repulsion Mode button. This will activate the Repelling Options
button.
Press the Repelling Options button. We are going to set up a rule for moving receivers
outside of the exclusion zone. We are going to allow receivers move up to 4 grid lines in the
crossline direction only (this corresponds to half the distance between receiver lines). Set the
parameters as shown below. Select the Crossline radio button. Set the Max Grid Points to 4
and 0 respectively. Select the Repel From Selected Layers radio button. In the list box, select
all of the exclusion layers except Boundary (we dont want to repel receivers from our boundary
polygon). Press OK.

Zoom in on a few of the exclusion zones. In areas where a receiver could be moved according to
our movement rule, you will see those receivers are no longer in an exclusion zone. If a receiver
could not be moved according to the rule, it will be in its original position and colored green.
Press the Edit Receivers button to exit receiver editing mode. Press the Filter Options button
to turn off the filter. You should see all of the receivers again. Press the Edit Exclusions button
and press Recalculate Effects to turn on all the receivers that were moved out of exclusion
zones. Press the Edit Exclusions button again to exit edit exclusions mode.
Save your project.

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14.) Press the Shoot Survey button. Create a 16 line x 128 receiver template. Select
Automatic Template Centering. Shoot the survey as shown below.

Sources which are not live do not get assigned a template during the shooting process. We will
now use the filtering methods to edit and shoot the remaining source points.
15.) Select Filtering Options from the Attributes/Filtering menu. The Attribute Filtering dialog
box will appear. Select the Receiver Filters tab sheet. Uncheck the Obstructions != 0 filter in
the list box. This will remove the effect of the receiver without deleting the filter from the list (in
case we wish to use it again later).
Select the Source Filters tab sheet. Select Fired from the first drop down list. Select FALSE
from the second drop down list. Press the Add button. We have created a source filter that will
hide all sources that currently have a template assignment.

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To apply the filter, either select Enable Filtering from the Attributes/Filtering menu, or press the
Filter Options button on the Utilities toolbar.

16.) Press the Edit Sources button on the Edit toolbar. We are going to repeat the exclusion
repelling procedure with the sources. When you set up the Design Grid for the sources,
remember that the grid size should be 110 x 110 and the Inline Bearing should be 90 degrees.
Set up the repelling options as show below. In this case, also check Do Not Allow Moves Into
Selected Exclusions. This will keep sources from moving out of one exclusion zone into
another exclusion zone. Press OK when you are finished.

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Most of the source points moved outside of the exclusion zones during this process, however
there are a few sources still in their original locations. If we relax the rules for moving sources
slightly, we can move a few more. Change the Crossline Max Grid Points to 5 and the Inline
Max Grid Points to 2. MESA will try to move a source point +/- 5 grid cells in the crossline
direction. If that fails to get the source out of the exclusion zone, MESA will move the source +/1 grid cell in the inline direction and then search +/- 5 grid cells in the crossline direction from that
location. Press OK when you have the parameters set as shown below.

The only sources remaining in any exclusion zone are those still in the large nesting area
polygonal exclusion zone on the eastern side of the project. Zoom in on this area. Press the
Filter Options button on the Utilities toolbar to turn off the filter and display all of the sources.

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We will use some of the graphical editing tools to move the remaining source points.
Press the Snap Options button. This will open the Snap Options dialog box. This dialog
allows us to snap manually moved points to the Design Grid. Select the Snap to BOTH inline
and crossline grid lines radio button. Select the Snap to grid after moves checkbox. Press
OK.

Press the Group Selection Mode button. Select Move from the function list.

When we are in group selection mode, we draw a polygon around the sources we wish to move.
As with other polygon definition modes in MESA, click the left mouse at each vertex and doubleclick the left mouse to close the polygon. Define a polygon around a group of sources in the
polygon as shown below.

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You will now drag the polygon to a new location. Click and hold the left mouse button on the
leftmost source in the polygon. Drag the polygon to the new location and double-click to move all
the sources in the polygon.

Repeat the process for the remaining sources inside the exclusion zone as shown below.

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Press the Edit Exclusions button and press Recalculate Effects to turn on all the sources that
were moved out of exclusion zones. Press the Edit Exclusions button again to exit edit
exclusions mode.
17.) Now that all of the sources are moved out of exclusion zones, the last step of the exercise is
to assign templates to these sources. We still have a source filter (Fired = False) defined, so
apply the filter by pressing the Filter Options button on the Utilities toolbar.

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Shoot these sources with automatic template centering using the 16 x 128 template used for the
rest of the project. Turn off the source filter and you should see that every source in your project
is fired.
18.) Define a 55 x55 foot bin grid and perform a fold calculation. Depending upon differences in
editing the source locations, your answer may differ slightly from the diagram below.

Save your project and exit MESA.

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Lesson #14 Utility Tools


Objective: MESA contains many utilities are not necessarily part of every project workflow but
may be useful in certain situations. This lesson will review several of these tools.
1.) Start MESA. Open project yampa13. The first utility tool we are going to utilize is the land
survey statistics tool.
Press the Land Survey Statistics button on the Utilities toolbar or select Land Survey
Statistics from the Utilities menu. You will get prompted to calculate new statistics or to view
the existing statistics. If you have made recent edits, press the Calc New button. You can press
the Existing button in this case. The Land Survey Statistics dialog box will appear.

This dialog box will report basic information about your project. This information can be printed
from this dialog box directly, or it can be printed by selecting Land Statistics/Cost from the
Export menu. The fields in this dialog box are edit boxes. Since some users print the
information in this dialog box, the edit boxes allow you to round off or adjust numbers as you see
fit. Editing the values in this dialog does not change the project in any way. Press OK to close
this dialog box.
2.) The next utility is the point count tool, which gives us a graphical method for counting the
number of live and dead points in an area or on a specific line.
Press the Point Count button on the Edit toolbar or select Point Count from the Utilities
menu. The Point Count dialog box will appear. You have the option of counting points on a line
or in an area. Select Count Points Per Line and press OK.

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Zoom in on an area in which some of the receivers are dead. Click the left mouse button on a
dead receiver and all the receivers on that line will be highlighted in green. At the bottom of the
Design Window, the message strip will report the number of live and dead receivers on that line.
You can continue to click on receiver and source lines to report the point count for additional lines.

Press the Point Count button a second time to exit this mode of operation. Re-enter point count
mode and try the Count Points In User-Defined Region option. As with all other polygon
definition modes in MESA, click out the polygon vertices and double-click to close the polygon.
Count the points in a few polygons and exit this mode of operation.
3.) Zoom in on the large, polygonal exclusion zone in the eastern part of the project. Sometimes
it is useful to annotate features in your project.
Press the Annotations button on the Edit toolbar or select Edit Annotations from the Edit
menu. The annotation toolbar will be added to the bottom of the Design Window.

The options on the toolbar are reasonably self-explanatory. You can make text, polyline, polygon,
or circular annotations. You can change line thickness, line style, and color.

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Press the Create Text Annotation button. Click the left mouse in the window at the center point
of your text and type in your annotation. Press the <enter> key when you are finished.
Experiment for a moment with the other annotation types.

Press the Annotations button on the Edit toolbar or select Edit Annotations from the Edit menu
to exit this mode of operation. The display of annotations is controlled by checking and
unchecking Annotations in the Project Tree.
4.) MESA can be used for functions beyond traditional survey design. It can be used as a
repository for auxiliary information related to the project. Lets say you are using MESA to keep
track of information gathered while scouting the project area. As we have seen, there are some
archaeological sites in this area. Zoom in on a particular polygonal archaeological exclusion zone
(yellow) in the northern region of the project.

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Suppose this site is so sensitive that you need to provide special instructions that not only is
equipment not allowed, foot and vehicle traffic from the crew is also prohibited. You can use the
project note feature to keep track of these restrictions.
Press the Edit Note button on the Edit toolbar or select Edit Note from the Edit menu.
Notes are tied to map locations. Click the left mouse button inside of the yellow polygon
exclusion zone representing the archaeological site. The Note dialog box will appear. Notes
need to have a unique Topic and unique text for the note. You also need to provide a Category
for the note (used for searching).

Select <New Category> from the Category drop down list. You will be prompted for a category
name. Enter Anasazi. Press OK.

Fill in a Topic and additional text for the note. The following diagram shows an example of the
type of information you might store. For this exercise, it is not necessary to enter all of the note
text (but you need to enter something). Do not press OK yet.

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Along with the text for the note, you can also attach external files to the notes. Press the
Attachments button. The Manage Attachments dialog box will appear. Press the Add button.
In the Add Attachment dialog box that appears, press the Add File button. Open the file
yampa_arch_site.jpg. For the Attachment Description, enter photo of sunrise house.

Press OK to close the Add Attachment dialog box. The attached file will now be listed in the
Manage Attachments list box. Press Done to close the Manage Attachments dialog box. Press
OK to close the note.
A default symbol (triangle) will now appear on the map. You are still in Create Note mode, so
press the Edit Note button on the Edit toolbar or unselect Edit Note from the Edit menu to exit
this mode of operation.
The visibility of note symbols is controlled by checking and unchecking Notes in the Project Tree.
Right-click on Notes in the Project Tree and select Note Display Options from the menu. Check
Show Note Topics in the Note Settings dialog box to label the notes in the Design Window.
Press OK.

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You should now the label Sunrise House Dwelling attached to the note.
To recall the contents of a note, select Notes from the drop down menu of the Find button.
Press the Find button to enter this mode of operation.

Click the left mouse on the triangular symbol representing the note. The note will appear. Press
the Attachments button to open the Manage Attachments dialog box.

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Double-click on the attachment (yampa_arch_site,jpg) in the list box. If you have file associations
for JPEG files set up on your computer, the picture will automatically load in the assigned
application.

You may load any type of attachments into the note database. If you store spreadsheets or text
documents, those files will also auto-load if you have the file associations defined.
Close all of the note-related dialog boxes and press the Find button to exit this mode of operation
before continuing with the exercise.
5.) MESA has a simple modeling tool to help calculate the migration aperture necessary to image
a dipping plane in the subsurface.

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Press the Aperture Modeling Tool button or select Aperture Modeling from the Utilities
menu. The aperture modeling toolbar will be added to the bottom of the Design Window.
Aperture modeling works by defining a target in the subsurface. To define a target, you need to
specify a location, a depth, and a velocity function down to the target. At the target location, you
then define a segment, which represents a dipping plane at that depth.
Press the Add Target button. You are now in a mouse mode for graphically defining the
location of the target. Click the left mouse in the center of the project. This will define the
location of the target and open the Target Parameters dialog box. There are several options for
defining a velocity function. For this example, select the Linear Increase with Depth radio
button. Enter a Surface/Constant Velocity of 5000 ft/sec. Enter a K factor per Unit Depth of
1.0. This defines a velocity function that increases 1.0 ft/sec per foot in depth.

Press OK to close this dialog box. You should now see a red square at the target location.
Check Aperture Models in the Project Tree if it is not already checked.

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The next step is to add the segment which represents the dipping plane.
Press the Add Segment button. We are now going to define the dip direction of the
dipping plane relative to the target location. Click the left mouse button to the northeast of the
target location as shown below. The Segment Parameters dialog box will appear.

Enter a Depth of 8000 feet and a Dip of 35 degrees. Press OK to exit the dialog box. Zoom in
on the target symbol as shown below.

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A normal-incidence ray is shot from the target location to the surface. The small circle at the end
of the line segment indicates where that ray would emerge at the surface relative to the target
location. Use the Range/Bearing Tool to measure this distance. In the example below, the
distance is roughly 3517 feet. This means that to have the proper aperture for migration, you will
need offsets of at least 3517 feet to image a plane dipping at 35 degrees, 8000 feet below the
surface.

Aperture models can have multiple targets and multiple segments per target. Lets say that our
current model isnt just a dipping plane, but it is the top of a dome feature with different dips in
different directions. Exit range/bearing mode if you havent done so already. Press the Add
Segment button and define another segment to the northwest of the target. Keep the Depth at
8000 feet but increase the Dip to 45 degrees.

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Define a third segment to the southwest of the target. Keep the Depth at 8000 feet but change
the Dip to 30 degrees. Define a fourth segment to the southeast of the target. Keep the Depth
at 8000 feet but change the Dip to 40 degrees.

Every time you add a target or a segment to the aperture model, MESA recalculates a convex
hull around all of the raypath emergence points. The area inside of this hull represents the full
fold area necessary to image the target we have defined. One practical application of this feature
is to write out the hull of our aperture model as an exclusion zone. Using the unit template
feature, we can fill the exclusion zone with our project and clip the full fold area to the bounds of
the exclusion zone.

Press the Aperture Modeling Tool button or select Aperture Modeling from the Utilities menu
to exit this mode of operation.

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6.) Some acquisition systems record data at the receiver locations. These systems can be
dependent on available memory or battery life. MESA has a simple utility for modeling these
situations.
Press the Power Management button on the Utilities toolbar or select Power
Management from the Utilities menu. The Power Management Modeling dialog box will appear.
The parameters in this dialog box allow you to create a simple power consumption model for
dynamite or vibroseis shooting. Included are some parameters for defining the capacity of the
batteries.
Fill out the parameters as shown below. In this example, we are going to model a cold weather
situation in which our batteries arent performing at full efficiency. Enter an Efficiency of 80%.
Press OK.

The results of the power modeling are put into receiver and source attributes. Select Edit
Attributes/Display Options from the Attributes/Filtering menu. Many attributes (primarily
receiver attributes) get calculated, such as the number of batteries required at each receiver
location, the amount of memory required to record the traces at each receiver location, the
remaining power in each battery, and several more. For this example, select Batteries from the
receiver drop down list and select None from the source drop down list.

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Press the Done button when you are finished. In the Project Tree, toggle off everything except
Receivers and Attribute Data. You should see a map of battery requirements as shown below.
Notice that in the center of the project, up to 1.19 batteries will be required to record the traces.
This means that for our current design, batteries will have to be replaced at some time during the
shooting. This can have enormous logistical consequences and may cause you to rethink the
design in a way that utilizes the available equipment differently.

Save your project and exit MESA.

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