Reporting Convention

In Dips, numerical listings of orientation pairs can correspond to either the orientation of Poles (or the Planes that they represent). The Reporting Convention option in the Edit menu toggles the format of the orientation coordinates displayed in the Status Bar as follows.

• If the Convention is Trend / Plunge then the coordinates represent the cursor (pole) location directly. This can be referred to as Pole Vector format.
• If the Convention is Dip / Dip Direction, Strike (Right) / Dip or Strike (Left) / Dip then the coordinates represent the plane corresponding to the cursor (pole) location. This can be referred to as Plane Vector format.

NOTE: Do not confuse the Convention option with the Global Orientation Format, see below for details.

The change the Convention:

• Select Edit > Reporting Convention,
• Click on the Convention listing in the Status Bar to the left of the coordinate display at the bottom-right of the screen, OR
• Click on the Convention dropdown in applicable input dialogs (e.g., Add User Plane, Add Set Window, Measure Angle).

The Convention affects the format of the following data listings in Dips:

• Plane listings in the Major Planes Legend.
• Plane listings in the Edit User Planes and Edit Sets dialogs.

And the Convention affects the format of orientation data input for the following options:

• Coordinate entry in the Add User Plane dialog.
• Coordinate entry in the Add Set Window dialog.
• Coordinate entry in the Measure Angle dialog.

The Convention does not affect data input for all options. For example, when using the Add Cone option, the cone axis is always entered in Trend / Plunge format, regardless of the current Convention. The Plane Vector Convention is only used where it is applicable. The Convention applies to ALL views in a document. It cannot be changed on a per view basis.

Reporting Convention vs. Global Orientation Format

Do not confuse the Convention option with the Global Orientation Format of your Dips data file. The Global Orientation Format determines how Dips interprets and processes your raw orientation data; the Convention option does not.

In Dips, poles are always plotted using the Trend / Plunge of the pole vector with respect to the reference sphere. The Convention option does not affect the plotting of data, ot the values in the Grid Data view in any way.

Saving the Convention

The Reporting Convention is saved on a per file basis. The most recently saved Convention will automatically become the default for all new Dips files (i.e., the Convention in effect the last time you saved a file, will determine the initial default convention for all new files).