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3DSymSam's Acquisition Design Wizard (ADW) is meant as an assistant to the design of 3D seismic surveys. Originally, the ADW was developed by TNO-NITG (now TNO Built Environment and Geosciences), TNO, on basis of specifications written by Gijs Vermeer. This web version is to a large extent the same as the old one, with some improvements and modifications. Moreover, it is now available to anyone who is able to find it on this website. This new version was implemented by Saskia Vermeer-Ooms of WilPower.

The ADW provides the basic 6 parameters that are needed to specify regular orthogonal geometry. These parameters are: 1 and 2) station interval for both shots and receivers (these values are the same because of reciprocity), 3 and 4) the (integer) number of receiver stations between shot lines and number of shot stations between receiver lines (these integers determine the line intervals), and 5 and 6) inline fold and crossline fold (these integers determine maximum inline offset and maximum crossline offset). The ADW also computes some dependent parameters, assuming a one-line roll of the designed template that consists of a number of shots situated in the middle of a swath of receiver lines. This is the so-called nominal geometry; other implementations such as full-swath roll are always possible based on nominal geometry, provided the complete nominal geometry can be extracted from the acquired data (see for more details the book “3-D seismic survey design” available from the SEG Bookmart).

The design provided by the ADW is based on specific requirements for up to three targets (shallow, mid, and deep) and on a representative velocity distribution. It also needs the maximum NMO stretch factor the user is willing to accept for the longer offsets. The mute function is computed on basis of the velocity distribution and the maximum stretch factor. The mute function itself is used to determine the maximum useful offset for each target. In its turn this offset plays a role in the determination of fold for each target.

The user has to provide the velocity function in a text file (format specified in ADW help file) and (s)he may also provide a file “system.text” with suitable defaults for the various parameters. All other parameters are provided interactively.

The program consists of a number of tabs or pages that have to be stepped through in sequence. The last page “Design” provides a fully symmetric solution that satisfies most requirements and three other solutions that are small permutations on the symmetric solution. The user may change the station spacing for all four Designs; then new solutions are found for line intervals and for maximum offsets. The user may also change station interval and the four integers to generate her/his own design and to analyze the variations in dependent parameters because of that.

The help files will guide you through the program.

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