How did I do that? Metadata and more...

The volumes and numbers of datasets that we work with are ever-increasing.  And in addition we are constantly pulled away from one project and onto another, and then back again, so keeping track of what was done to a dataset in processing, or where that dataset came from, can be challenging. 

There are a few spots that you can look at for the answers though:

1. Database channels that are created using a function like Copy Channel or a filter such as Low-Pass have a “maker”.  This resides at the bottom of the context menu that pops up when you right click on the channel.  If you open it, you’ll see the parameters that were used to create that channel.

2. The Geosoft Project File (*.GPF) contains a log of all the non-interactive tasks that have been run in that workspace.  This is accessed through the GX menu under Log > View Log.  Viewing the log creates a file in the working folder called ViewProcessing.log that you can use.  The recording looks very similar to a script.

3.  You have probably noticed that all Geosoft document files have an accompanying XML file.  This metadata file stores ISO 19139 standard metadata including information about who (the logged in user) and when (from the computer date and time) a file was created.  It also contains lineage about how that file was created.  A Geosoft Database (*.GDB) may have been subset from another larger database, while a grid (*.GRD) may have been created with minimum curvature gridding and some modified gridding parameters.  This kind of information is recorded in the metadata.

In the upcoming 2010 release of version 7.2, some changes have been made to what metadata is recorded to improve the relevance of the lineage and performance of these metadata files.  There will also an option to turn off the creation of metadata files during scripting since the script already contains the information about how that dataset was generated.