Research & Development

Development Funding & Multi-Client Sponsored Projects

We finance our software development with internal funding (from sales and maintenance fees) and via industry funded projects. The latter form of funding has the highest priority. This mode of financing ensures that we develop what our users want and that the system evolves in a user-driven way.

Industry funded projects come in two flavors: single-client funded and multi-client funded. Examples of single-client funded projects are the initial development of OpendTect with dip steering and neural network for Statoil, various general improvements in OpendTect for BG, other general improvements for GdF-Suez, the Gap-decon attribute for Addax and the development of CCB for Wintershall.

Examples of multi-client sponsored projects are the developments which led to the SSIS (Sequence Stratigraphic Interpretation System) plugin and VMB (Velocity Model Building) plugin.

In all industry funded developments, our clients accept that general functionalities, developed in the context of the funded project, end up in OpendTect : the Open Source interpretation system. Only unique capabilities are released as commercial (closed source) plugins. This means that in most funded projects the entire OpendTect community (Open Source as well as commercial) benefits from the development.

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Develop Your Own Plugins

Universities, E&P companies, 3rd party vendors and of course dGB use OpendTect to develop plugins for added functionality. These plugins can be open source, commercial or proprietary plugins.

Advantages of Developing in OpendTect

• R&D can focus on algorithms rather than ‘side topics’ like visualization, data handling and user interface issues
• OpendTect is an innovative and advanced open source environment
• OpendTect is an inexpensive and a constantly growing system
• OpendTect streamlines research at E&P companies, since it replaces a multitude of formats and separate programs, that are now hampering progress. OpendTect functions as an umbrella, bringing everything together, hence securing continuity
• 3rd party vendors use OpendTect since it is quickly becoming a standard at E&P companies, making niche products easier to sell
• Quick support and excellent training (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Programming

OpendTect is a software system written in C++. Internally, OpendTect exclusively uses open source tools and it is built using the GNU C/C++ compiler. For the standard user interface the Qt library is used. 3D graphics and manipulation are provided by the Open Inventor implementation OpenSceneGraph.

For more information go to the OpendTect Programmer's Manual.

The source code for the free version of OpendTect can be found on the OpendTect GitHub repository.