Design and development of 3D geological modeling and visualization system

3D geoscience modeling is the key technique issue to the visualization of 3D geological data using GIS. Based on MAPGIS-TDE, the software system 3D geological modeling and visualization is designed and established. MAPGIS-TDE, which is a powerful toolkit for 3D visualization, has a hierarchical structure composed of the kernel module of MAPGIS, the basal platform of MAPGIS-TDE, the construction platform of MAPGIS-TDE and the application system of MAPGIS-TDE. 3D geological modeling and visualization system has five functional modules as data management, 2D analysis, cross-sections processing, geometry modeling and property modeling. By integrating geographical database, areal geology database, engineering geology database, hydrological geology database, physical geology database, geochemistry database with 3D geological modeling, the system realize such functions as data management, 3D geological modeling and the visualization of 3D geological model. It is a visualization platform that assists the design and analysis for the geologists and the technologists.