Using orthopanels

An orthopanel is an orthographic projection of the outcrop: perspective and the apparent effects of dip are removed, so what you see is closer to a scaled section than to a photograph. Geometry that is hard to read on the curved face of a cliff often becomes obvious on the panel.

Insert one from the Annotations ribbon tab. A panel is defined either from points you pick on the model or from the current view, so the usual approach is to frame the face you want square-on and then create the panel from that view.

Orthopanels are interactive rather than a static image — you can interpret directly on one, which is how an interpretation gets extended away from the rock face into the section between exposures.

They pick in front of the rock

An orthopanel sits inside the outcrop, and VRGS picks the panel rather than the surface behind it, so clicking on one does what you expect.

See Basic Interpretation for interpreting on a panel, and the Annotations tab in the ribbon reference for the insert commands.