Free RockWorks Alternative: Logs, Sections and Maps Online
RockWorks by RockWare is excellent software with a price to match, and plenty of people need only a slice of what it does. This page is the honest comparison: what the free tools on this site cover, and where the commercial package still earns its keep.
What the free tools cover
- Boring logs and cross sections from your holes.
- Contour maps from XYZ data with export.
- Stereonets for structural data.
- 3D views of boreholes and well paths.
Everything runs in the browser with nothing installed and nothing uploaded: your data stays on your machine, results print to PDF, and every tool carries a Project bar that remembers your inputs and can assemble a report.
Where RockWorks still wins
RockWorks adds solid modeling, volumetrics from block models, fence diagrams from many holes, and a scripting database core. Data heavy modeling projects still belong to it.
The verdict
For the everyday outputs of geology work, the free browser suite covers the map, the log, the section, the stereonet, and the 3D view at zero cost. Start with the links above; if you outgrow them, you will know exactly what to buy and why.
Related Calculators and Reference
- Cross Section Maker for Boreholes, for the cross section half of the same workflow.
- 3D Well Path and Borehole Viewer, to see the boreholes in three dimensions rather than in section.
- LAS File Viewer for Well Log Tracks, when the logs arrive as LAS rather than as a spreadsheet.
- Contour Map Generator from XYZ Data, for the surface mapping side of the job.
- USGS National Geospatial Program, national mapping and elevation data you can build these surfaces from.