Boring Log Conversion: Handwritten, Scanned, CAD, Photos

A boring log carries the same data wherever it ends up: depth intervals, soil descriptions, USCS classifications, blow counts, sample depths, water levels. What changes is the container. Some logs sit in a PDF exported from CAD. Some are scanned reports from a subconsultant. Some are a phone photo of a page that was filled in on a tailgate. Some are still in the field book.

In every one of those containers the data is a picture until someone types it. LOGitEASY now converts all four into structured data, and that changes what you can do with a log you did not create in LOGitEASY. This article walks through what the conversion covers, what you can do with the result, and what still needs a professional's eyes.

Four containers, one problem

Each source gets stuck in a different way, and each has its own workaround that costs hours.

Source	Why the data is stuck	The usual workaround
Boring log PDF generated in CAD	The text is on the page, but nothing downstream can read it as depths and soil codes	Retype it, or redraw it
Scanned document	A flat image of a printed or signed log	Retype it
Phone photo	A skewed, shadowed image of a log or field page	Retype it, or request a rescan
Handwritten field log	Only one person can read it, and only the field book holds it	Retype it, usually weeks later

The workaround is the same in every row, and it is rarely budgeted. It happens at the end of a project, when the cross section is due and the logs have to exist in a form a figure can use.

It also produces a second problem. Retyped data is a new copy of the original, made by hand, and each retyped log is another place for a transposed depth or a dropped blow count. Nobody sees those errors until a figure looks wrong, and then someone has to compare the figure against the source to find them. Converting once, and then correcting only what does not match, replaces a chain of manual copies with edits you can check against the source.

What converting to structured data means

Structured data means each interval is a record: a top depth, a bottom depth, a soil description, a USCS classification. Blow counts, sample depths and water levels are values attached to depths, not words in a paragraph.

That is the difference between a log you can read and a log you can use. A cross section cannot draw from a paragraph. A 3D model cannot read a photo. Once the same information is a record, every tool downstream can take it without a person in the middle.

LOGitEASY's PDF boring log import already did this for PDF logs. The conversion now also takes handwritten field logs, photos, scanned documents and boring log PDFs generated in CAD, so the format a log arrived in no longer decides whether it can be reused. Conversion is powered by Geosetta's Boring Log Digitizer, a nonprofit project.

Why handwritten logs and photos matter most

CAD-generated PDFs and clean scans are the easy end of this problem. The text is printed, the layout is regular, and a person can read it quickly.

Handwritten field logs and phone photos are where the cost hides. A field log is often the only record of what the crew saw at the hole: the description as it was called, the blow counts as they were counted, the depth where water appeared. It is also the record most likely to wait. Notes sit in a field book until someone has time to type them, and by then the person who wrote them is on another site.

A photo is the same record caught on the way to somewhere else. Crews photograph logs and field pages because it is the quickest way to get them out of the field. The photo proves the page exists. It does not make the page usable.

Converting these sources matters because it moves the data out of the field book while the project is still active, and not at the end, when the figure is already late. The office stops waiting on a retyping queue, and the field book stops being the only copy that matters.

Reprint in one format

Logs in a single report often come from different hands: your own crew, a subconsultant, a previous owner's consultant, a driller. Layouts differ, symbols differ, and some of them are handwriting.

Once converted, a log can be reprinted in the LOGitEASY boring log format. A 2019 log from a CAD drawing and a log from this week's field work come out looking like the same document set. The reviewer reads one layout instead of five. Where an original soil name or USCS code does not match LOGitEASY's nomenclature, you edit it in eForm first, and the reprint reflects the edit.

That matters more than it sounds. A reviewer who has to learn a new layout for each log spends attention on the layout and not on the soil.

One cross section across every source

The reason to convert is rarely the reprint. It is the figure.

Say a site comes back for a supplemental investigation. The original program is in PDFs, a few older logs exist only as scans, and one was photographed from a binder. This week's borings are logged in the field. The client expects one cross section across all of it.

With converted logs, the old borings and the new ones sit in the same project dataset. LOGitEASY then builds the geologic cross section from that dataset, to scale from survey elevations or a Google elevation profile, with analytical results shown at depth.

Two details matter to practitioners here:

• LOGitEASY does not interpolate automatically between boreholes. You decide how layers correlate, and where they pinch out or end, so the section shows your interpretation and not a smoothed guess.
  
• Sample data can sit on the section: blow counts, recovery and RQD, water elevation, contamination data. Converted logs join that, because they are the same kind of record.
  

An archive is a decision you have not made yet

Many firms carry archives of completed projects that exist only as PDFs, scans and binders. Nobody decided to lose that data. It just was never worth a retyping project, so it stayed where it was.

Conversion changes the economics of that decision. When the cost of making an old log usable is checking it and not retyping it, a site with useful history becomes worth reopening. Historical boreholes also inform planning: LOGitEASY shows them on a map, which helps you anticipate the likely local geology before you mobilize a rig. Logs that are only images cannot appear on that map.

The same goes for work you inherit. A new client hands you the previous consultant's logs as PDFs, and the project continues from there. Whether those logs take a day of attention or a week of typing depends on the format they arrive in and what you can do with it.

Firms that switch logging software face the same question. Logs from the old system exported to PDF are one of the four containers above. If they convert, the project history continues in the new tool and nobody lives in two systems.

Export for modeling and logging tools

A 3D model needs depths, soil codes and coordinates. It does not need the original document.

Converted logs can be exported as data for use in other software. For 3D subsurface modeling, two examples are Leapfrog (Seequent, a Bentley company) and C Tech's Earth Volumetric Studio (EVS). Both are separate products. The exported data can also be used in other software, including Trimble, gINT, OpenGround, Strater, LogPlot and RockWorks.

For EVS, the export carries geology layers, USCS codes, depths and coordinates. It does not carry soil color or description text, so plan the model on those fields. Check what the tool you are exporting to needs before you build on the export.

The practical gain is that an archive stored as PDFs, scans and photos can feed a model without anyone rekeying the borings into a second tool.

What still needs your eyes

Conversion moves the data from an image into records. It does not make the original more reliable.

• There is no review step during import and conversion. The converted log arrives as is. Check it against the source the way you would check a drafter's first pass, and give handwriting and photos the closest look.
  
• Expect some editing. Soil names and USCS codes in the original PDF or field notes often do not match LOGitEASY's nomenclature and data scheme. After conversion, all the data can be edited in LOGitEASY eForm. Correcting a soil name or a code is much easier and quicker than retyping a full soil description.
  
• Locations and elevations. A cross section needs to know where each boring is and what the ground elevation is. Confirm both for old logs before you trust the figure. If a log has none, you can enter coordinates and ground surface elevations manually in eForm, upload them from a CSV file under the site (project), or select borehole locations on an aerial map background in the LOGitEASY workspace.
  
• Classification authority. A USCS call on an old log is whatever the original author called it. Laboratory classification under ASTM D2487 is the authority, and a field call under ASTM D2488 stays a field call.
  
• Version of record. LOGitEASY keeps the latest record for a log. Keep the original document in the project file as the source.
  

What it costs

The trial includes three free boring logs, either entered by you or imported and converted from PDF boring logs or handwritten field notes. After that, import is sold in bundles priced per imported log, with no license, support or upgrade fees. Geologic Cross Sections created from the imported logs are FREE:

Bundle	Price (one-time, per bundle)	Imported logs included	Duration	Works out to
First	$150	20	2 months	$7.50 per imported log
Second	$200	40	3 months	$5.00 per imported log

The per-log figures are the bundle price divided by the logs included. For larger volumes, contact LOGitEASY about enterprise pricing. A firm that converts a handful of logs a year pays for the logs it converts and nothing else.

Where to start

Pick the site where the data is worst: the one with logs in four formats and a figure due. Convert those logs, reprint them in one format, and build the cross section. The time you would have spent retyping goes to checking and editing.

Not ready to convert a whole archive? Send us your field notes or PDF boring logs and we will return a geologic cross section, free. It is the quickest way to see what your old logs can do.

2026-11-13