Documentation

Quickstart

This walkthrough takes you from a brand-new account to a logged drillhole exported as CSV. We’ll set up a fictional project — Golden Ridge — define a small schema, create one hole (DDH-001), log a handful of lithology and assay intervals, and export the result. About fifteen minutes start to finish.

If you only read one doc, read this one. Everything else fills in detail around the workflow described here.

1. Sign up

Open Blue Butterfly in your browser. You’ll land on the sign-in screen.

  1. Click the Sign Up tab.
  2. Enter your email and a password.
  3. Tick I agree to the End User License Agreement — the Sign Up button stays disabled until you do.
  4. Click Sign Up. You’ll be redirected to the Dashboard.

The EULA checkbox only appears during account creation. On subsequent sign-ins, just enter your email and password.

Blue Butterfly works as a Progressive Web App, which means you can install it like a native application — useful in the field, where you may want it pinned to your taskbar or home screen.

  • Desktop (Chrome / Edge): click the install icon (⊕) in the address bar.
  • iOS (Safari): Share → Add to Home Screen.
  • Android (Chrome): ⋮ menu → Install App.

See Install as an App for details. You can come back to this later — it isn’t required to follow the rest of the walkthrough.

3. Create the Golden Ridge project

You’ll land on the Dashboard with a prompt to create your first project.

  1. Click Create Blank Project.
  2. Enter the name: Golden Ridge.
  3. Click Create Project.

A blank project opens. The dashboard is empty — no drillholes yet, no schema yet. That’s the next step.

Tip. If a colleague has already shared a template JSON file from another project, you can use Import a Template instead and skip most of step 4. See Drillhole Template for how template sharing works.

4. Set up the schema

The schema has two parts: drillhole template (collar fields that apply to every hole) and data tables (the interval tables you’ll log into).

Click the settings gear (⚙) in the top-right and choose Templates.

Drillhole Template

This defines the collar-data fields that appear on every drillhole. Click the Drillhole Template tab. The name field is already there as a system field.

Add four more fields by clicking + Add Field for each:

NameTypeNotes
eastingnumberRequired
northingnumberRequired
elevationnumberRequired
geologisttext

Drag the ⠿ handle to reorder if needed. See Drillhole Template for the full list of field options (validation rules, default values, depth markers, etc.).

Data Tables

Click the Data Tables tab. We’ll create two tables: one for lithology, one for assays.

Click + Create Table and name it Lithology. Add these columns:

NameTypeMarker
depth_fromnumberDepth From
depth_tonumberDepth To
rock_typedropdown—
descriptiontextarea—

For rock_type, click into the column card and add dropdown options: Granite, Basalt, Schist, Sediment. Mark depth_from as Depth From and depth_to as Depth To in their column cards — this pins them to the left of the spreadsheet and enables depth-interval validation.

Now click + Create Table again and name it Assays. Add these columns:

NameTypeMarker
depth_fromnumberDepth From
depth_tonumberDepth To
sample_idtext—
au_g_tdecimal—
interval_mformula—

For interval_m, set the formula to depth_to - depth_from. This auto-calculates the interval thickness for every row. See Formula Columns for the full syntax.

You’re done with setup. Click out of Templates back to the Dashboard.

5. Create your first drillhole

From the Dashboard, click + New Drillhole. Fill in:

FieldValue
nameDDH-001
easting500123
northing6712450
elevation425
geologistyour name

Click Save. DDH-001 now appears on the Dashboard. Click the card to open it.

6. Log three lithology intervals

You’re now on the Drillhole Data page. The left sidebar lists Lithology and Assays. Click Lithology.

The spreadsheet is empty. Click + Add Row (or press Ctrl+Enter). Enter:

depth_fromdepth_torock_typedescription
012.5SedimentOverburden, weathered
12.545.0GraniteCoarse-grained, biotite-rich
45.078.2SchistFoliated, garnet porphyroblasts

Tab between cells. Press Enter to confirm and drop down a row. For rock_type, click the chevron to pick from the dropdown. See Keyboard Shortcuts for the full list.

7. Log two assay intervals

Click Assays in the sidebar. Add two rows:

depth_fromdepth_tosample_idau_g_tinterval_m
30.031.0GR-00011.42(auto)
31.032.0GR-00022.18(auto)

The interval_m column is greyed out — it’s a formula column and recalculates automatically. You can’t type into it directly.

8. Export to CSV

Click ← Back to Dashboard and then Export Data in the header. The 5-step wizard opens.

  1. Select Drillholes — tick DDH-001.
  2. Template Fields — tick all five collar fields.
  3. Tables & Columns — tick Lithology and Assays and all their columns.
  4. Configure Sheets — leave defaults.
  5. Preview & Export —
    • Format: XLSX
    • Output Mode: Standard
    • File Mode: Single File
    • Click Export.

You’ll get an .xlsx file with three sheets: collar data, lithology intervals, and assay intervals. Open it in Excel or your tool of choice.

If you’d like to deliver this same export weekly, tick Save Workflow before exporting and give it a name. See Export Workflows.

What’s next

You’ve now done the core loop: set up → log → export. From here: