# ODBC — live database access

> Leapfrog, QGIS and friends read your drilling live — no export files, ever.

Source: https://geodb.io/guide/topic/odbc_access/ · Category: Sharing your data
ODBC gives desktop software a **live, read-only** connection to your
project's drilling data. Leapfrog Geo, QGIS, or anything that can talk to
a PostgreSQL-style database sees your collars, surveys, lithology and
assays as tables — straight from the database, not from an export that
was stale the day after it was made.

## What the connection serves

Collar, survey, lithology, alteration and sample tables, with assay
values already flattened into one column per element using your project's
merge settings — the same "which method wins" preference that drives your
exports and logs. Update a hole in geoDB and the next refresh in Leapfrog
sees it.

## Coordinates, your way

Different desktop tools want different grids. The **output coordinate
system** setting (in project settings) controls what the connection
serves: WGS84, your project's UTM zone, a local grid, or the original
imported values — change it once and every connected tool follows.

## Setting it up

The connection details live with your project settings; each user
connects with their own credentials, and access follows the same
permissions as the web app — a viewer connecting over ODBC still can't
write anything. It's read-only by design: the database of record stays
the database of record.