Studio 3 Geology Training Manual

Setting up the oPen 2 Unified Business Layer

Studio 3

Introductory Geology Training Manual

This documentation is confidential and may not be reproduced or shown to third parties

without the written permission of Mineral Industries Computing Limited.

© Mineral Industries Computing Limited 2005

DMDSL-TMP-0001-1.00

This manual is designed for use by students attending a training course run

by one of the Datamine Group companies or an approved agent.

Contents 1 Introduction 1

1.1 Aim 1 1.2 Prerequisites 1 1.3 Acronyms and Abbreviations 1 1.4 More information 1

2 Datamine Software 3

2.1 Datamine’s Solution Footprint 3 2.2 Studio 3’s standard components 4 2.3 Benefits introduced with Studio 3 4 2.4 Studio 3’s new features include 4 2.5 Other Datamine Software 5

3 Getting Started 7

3.1 Project File 7 3.2 The Interface 8

4 Data Overview 11

4.1 Data Model 11 4.2 Data precision 11 4.3 Data Processing 12

5 Data importing 15

5.1 Introduction 15 5.2 Background 15 Exercise 1: Importing Text Data for Drillhole Collars 17 Exercise 2: Importing Text data for Drillhole Assays 21 Exercise 3: Importing Text Data for Drillhole Surveys 23 Exercise 4: Importing Spreadsheet Data (Drillhole Mineralized Zones)25 Exercise 5: Importing and Previewing CAD data 27 Exercise 6: Previewing and Re-Importing the Topography Contours File

29 Exercise 7: Importing Text Data for Lithology using INPFIL 30

6 Drillholes – Validation & Desurvey 33

6.1 Introduction and Aim 33 6.2 Prerequisites 33 6.3 Background 33 Exercise 1: Desurveying Static Drillholes 35 Exercise 2: Loading Static Drillholes 35 Exercise 3: Desurveying with Error Checking 35 Exercise 4: Loading Dynamic Drillholes 35

7 Drillholes – Compositing 35

7.1 Introduction 35 7.2 Background 35 Exercise 1: Compositing Down Drillholes 35 Exercise 2: Compositing Drillholes by Bench 35

8 Data Viewing – Design & Visualizer Windows 35

8.1 Introduction 35 8.2 Background 35 Exercise 1: Loading Strings, Zooming, Panning and Changing the Field of

View 35

Exercise 2: Loading Drillholes and Changing the Viewplane. 35 Exercise 3 – Setting and Toggling Clipping Limits 35 Exercise 4: Moving and Rotating the Viewplane 35 Exercise 5: Setting Axis Exaggeration 35 Exercise 9 – Synchronising the View between the Visualizer and the

Design Window. 35

9 Section Definition Files 35

9.1 Introduction 35 Exercise 1: Defining a Viewplane - Plan View 35 Exercise 2: Creating a Section Definition file and Saving the Plan

Viewplane 35 Exercise 3: Defining and Saving the first Section Viewplane 35 Exercise 4: Saving and Editing the Viewdefs table. 35 Exercise 5: Retrieving saved Viewplanes 35

10 String Tools 35

10.1 Introduction 35 10.2 Background 35 Exercise 1: Creating New Strings and Editing Points 35 Exercise 2: Saving Strings to a File and Erasing Strings 35 Exercise 3: Open and Closed Strings 35 Exercise 4: Undo Last Edit and Combining Strings 35 Exercise 5: Extending, Reversing and Connecting Strings 35 Exercise 6: Clipping Strings and Generating Outlines 35 Exercise 7: Copying, Moving, Expanding, Rotating and Mirroring Strings

35 Exercise 8: Translating Strings 35 Exercise 9: Projecting Strings 35 Exercise 10: Extending Strings 35 Exercise 11: Conditioning Strings 35 Exercise 12: Trimming Crossovers and Corners 35 Exercise 13 - Smoothing Strings and Reducing String Points 35 Exercise 14: Breaking Strings with Strings 35

11 String Modelling 35

11.1 Introduction 35 11.2 Background 35 Exercise 1: Setting Up the Design window for Digitising in Section 35 Exercise 2: Digitising Section Strings 35 Exercise 2: Creating Tag Strings 35

12 Wireframe Modelling – Surfaces 35

12.1 Introduction 35 12.2 Background 35 Exercise 1 – Defining the Data Display and DTM creation settings 35 Exercise 2: Creating the DTM without Limits 35 Exercise 3: Creating the DTM with limits 35 Exercise 4: Creating the final Topography DTM 35 Exercise 5: Saving the new Wireframe Object 35 Exercise 6: Displaying and Rendering Wireframes in the Design window

35

13 Wireframe Modelling - Closed Volumes 35

13.1 Introduction 35 13.2 Background 35 Exercise 1: Creating a Basic 3D Volume 35 Exercise 2: Linking a Perimeter to an Open String 35 Exercise 3: Creating a Wireframe with Multiple Splits 35

Exercise 4: Creating an Ore Body Wireframe using Tag Strings 35

14 Wireframe Modelling – Manipulation 35

14.1 Introduction 35 14.2 Background 35 Exercise 1: Verifying Wireframe Objects 35 Exercise 2: Calculating the Volume of a Wireframe Object 35 14.3 Introduction 35 14.4 Background 35 Exercise 1: Creating a legend of Value intervals 35 Exercise 2: Creating a Legend – Unique Values 35 Exercise 3: Editing the NLITH Legend 35 Exercise 4: Formatting Strings – Style, Colour and Symbols 35 Exercise 5: Applying Formatting Settings to other Windows 35 Exercise 6: Formatting Drillholes – Labels 35 Exercise 7: Formatting Drillholes – Trace Colour 35 Exercise 8: Formatting Drillholes – Downhole Graph 35

15 Data Filtering 35

15.1 Introduction 35 15.2 Background 35 Exercise 1: Filtering a Single Object in the Design Window 35 Exercise 2: Removing Filters 35 Exercise 3: Filtering Multiple Objects in the Design window. 35 Exercise 4: Filtering and Saving to a File 35

16 Attributes 35

16.1 Introduction 35 16.2 Prerequisites 35 16.3 Background 35 Exercise 1: Adding Attributes to 3D Objects in the Design Window 35

17 Data presentation – Plots Window 35

17.1 Introduction 35 17.2 Background 35 Exercise 1: Exploring the Context Sensitive Menus for Plots 35 Exercise 2: Creating, Renaming, Copying and Deleting Sheets 35 Exercise 3: Setting the Paper Size and Grid Settings 35 Exercise 3: Setting the Scale and View 35 Exercise 4: Inserting Plot Items 35 Exercise 5: Using a Section Definition file to Control the Section Views.35

18 Data Presentation – Logs Window 35

18.1 Introduction 35 18.2 Background 35 Exercise 1: Inserting a New Log Sheet and Setting View Parameters 35 Exercise 2: Setting the Hole extents Parameters 35 Exercise 3: Moving between Drillholes in the Log Sheet 35

19 Introduction to Macros 35

19.1 Introduction 35 19.2 Background 35 Exercise 1: Recording a Macro to Calculate Statistics on the AU Field35 Exercise 2: Editing and Replaying the Macro 35 Exercise 3: User Interaction with a Macro 35

20 Block Modelling 35

20.1 Introduction 35 20.2 Background 35

Exercise 1: Defining the Model Prototype 35 Exercise 2: Building the Ore Model 35 Exercise 3: Viewing the Model 35 Exercise 4: Creating a Waste Model 35 Exercise 5: Adding the 2 Models Together 35

21 Grade Estimation 35

21.1 Introduction 35 21.2 Prerequisites 35 21.3 Background 35 Exercise 1: Generating a Search Ellipse 35 Exercise 1: Estimating Gold Grade into the Model 35 Exercise 2: Estimating grades for Gold and Copper using Different

Estimation Methods. 35

22 Resource/Reserve Calculation 35

22.1 Introduction 35 22.2 Prerequisites 35 22.3 Background 35 Exercise 1: Model Preparation 35 Exercise 2: Evaluating the Model Inside a String 35 Exercise 3: Evaluating the Model using TONGRAD 35

A Related Documents 35

22.4 Associated Documentation 35

DMDSL-TMP-0001-1.00 Studio 3 Introductory Geology Training Manual 1

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Aim

This document is intended for use by students attending the Introductory Geology

Training course. The course is designed to teach the student the geological

capabilities available within Studio 3, including data importing, drillhole desurveying

and compositing, string manipulation, DTM and closed wireframe creation, block

modelling, grade estimation and reporting.

The course will demonstrate the ease of use and flexibility of the system for carrying

out standard geological functions, with the main emphasis being on the practical

application of the techniques using Studio 3.

1.2 Prerequisites

It is not essential to have prior experience with Datamine software. However it is expected

that the student will be familiar with standard geological practices and has experience

with computers under the Windows™ environment.

There is a specific set of data that accompanies this training and all exercises are based

on this data set. This data will be loaded onto your computer prior to the start of training.

1.3 Acronyms and Abbreviations

The following table includes acronyms and abbreviations used in this document.

Abbreviation Description

DTM Digital Terrain Model

VR Virtual Reality

DSD Data Source Drivers

CAD Computer Aided drawing

RL Reduced Level

.dm file A Datamine format file

1.4 More information

Studio 3 includes a wide range of online information available from the Help menu. In

particular the student will find it helpful to have followed the Introductory Tutorial

which is applicable to a wide range of users conducting geological modelling,

resource estimation, mine design, mine planning and other related tasks.

Further information on Datamine software and services can be obtained from the

web site at www.datamine.co.uk.


2 DATAMINE SOFTWARE

2.1 Datamine’s Solution Footprint

Datamine’s main area of expertise is the Mine Planning Cycle and it has provided

industry recognized solutions in this area for many years. Datamine resolves the Mine

Planning Cycle process into six sub-processes as shown in the Solution Footprint

diagram below – and each of these is an important and discrete step in the process

of turning a mineral resource into an operating mine, as well as enabling operating

mines to plan, execute and reconcile on a day-to-day basis.

Datamine has made a strategic commitment to provide solutions for each sub-

process of the Mine Planning Cycle with equal capability for clients in Open Pit,

Underground and Industrial Minerals environments. Datamine provides self-contained

solutions for each of the six sub-processes of the Mine Planning Cycle, and these can

be deployed together as an integrated whole or individually as part of a varied

environment which includes solutions developed by competitors or the client.

Datamine has a policy of ensuring its software is compatible with that of its main

competitors to provide clients with maximum operational flexibility.

Studio 3 forms an integral part of Datamine’s Solution Footprint and is the international

standard for interpretation of physical geology and mineralization so that a resource

can be analyzed, defined, visualized and quantified, and then, using the appropriate

mining parameters, turned into a reserve. It includes tools to analyze, visualize,

model, review and manipulate all types of geological data to provide the best

possible geological interpretation of a deposit regardless of its complexity.

The fourth generation of our flagship product, Studio 3 has all the traditional power

and functionality of its predecessors for geological, open pit, underground and

quarrying applications. But there is much more to Studio 3 than this. It has been re-designed to allow intimate connection with external data sources and other


mining applications. Studio 3 systems are built from a set of standard components

which can be configured to produce comprehensive solutions for any exploration or

mining activity.

2.2 Studio 3’s standard components

• Geological Exploration Statistics

• Enhanced Geostatistics

• Conditional Simulation

• Transforming Folded Orebodies

• Stereonet Viewer and Analyser

• Wireframe Surface Modelling

• Orebody Block (solid) Modelling

• Open Pit Mine Design

• Underground Mine Design

• Underground Blast Ring Design

• Mineable Reserves Optimizer

• Short Term Mine Planning including Blasthole Layout

2.3 Benefits introduced with Studio 3

• High Quality Plotting - fully integrated plotting means it is easier and quicker to

produce high quality plots.

• Shared Data - the ability to load, update and view data simultaneously in

multiple windows makes it easier to understand the data and identify

problems.

• Distributed Data – ensures that the latest version of the data is always

available.

• Data Objects – makes data manipulation easier and more flexible.

• Easy Customisation - the ability to configure Studio 3 easily makes customised

solutions fast to produce and affordable.

2.4 Studio 3’s new features include

• Data can be loaded into memory by drag-and-drop from the Project Browser

or Windows Explorer.

• Any of the windows can be print previewed and printed.

• The ESTIMA process has an improved interface.

• There is a new Table Editor for creating and modifying Datamine files. This is

external to Studio 3 so you can edit files without starting a Studio 3 session.

• The new scripting model includes Data Selection, Data Formatting and Data

Manipulation.


2.5 Other Datamine Software

As well as Studio 3 other software components of Datamine’s Solution Footprint

include:

• DHLogger

• DHLite

• Borehole Manager

• MineMapper

• Downhole Explorer

• Sample Station

• SSLite

• Fusion

• MineTrust

• Enterprise

• Raw Materials Scheduler

• Raw Materials Manager

• Ring Designer

• Ore Controller

• Operation Scheduler

• NPV Scheduler

• Multimine Scheduler

• Mining Power Pack

• Mine2-4D Open Pit and Underground

• In Touch

• Production Scheduler

For further information visit the web site at www.datamine.co.uk.


3 GETTING STARTED

3.1 Project File

The Studio 3 Project File stores all the settings that define and control the access, appearance, views and data relevant to your project. The file is created in the

project folder when you start a new project, and has the extension .dmproj. This

project file is totally compatible with the Studio 2 document file (*.dmd), and with

document files for other Datamine software. For example project files (or documents)

created in Downhole Explorer, Present, InTouch and Studio 2 can be opened in Studio

3. They all use the Microsoft Shared Document Format.

When you first load Studio 3 the Start Page is displayed which allows you to select an

existing project or the new project wizard. The Start Page is an html file that you are

able to customize.

Once you have selected a project you can go back to the Start Page or you can change projects from the File menu.


External data can be imported into Studio 3 and saved as Datamine (*.dm) files or

loaded directly into memory and displayed in the different windows. Whichever

method is used these links and their driver options are all stored in the Project File as is

the location of all .dm files associated with the project. This gives a lot of flexibility on

how the software is used.

All the Legend information and toggle settings are saved in the Project File, so to a

large extent there is no need for start-up scripts to do the initial set up. Multiple sets of

settings are able to be saved as profiles, so at any stage you can load one of these

profiles and restore the settings associated with it.

Studio 3 has the ability to create archive documents which contain all settings,

legends and data. At any stage you can create an archive document, which is

similar to the project file, except that it includes the actual loaded data rather than

just links to the data. This means that the archive document could get very large.

The big advantage is that it is just one single file that includes everything. You don’t

have to zip up several data files and a script in order to store it or send it to someone.

This is a powerful way for distributing information and taking temporal snapshots.

3.2 The Interface

Studio 3 contains a completely rewritten user interface which provides different views

of loaded data through its windows as summarised below:

Window Functions

Design Design environment for the display and manipulation of data

Visualizer 3D rendered views of data

VR (Virtual Reality) VR ‘immersion’ view of data with functionality of InTouch

including draping of aerial photos, simulations etc.

Plots Plot layout, as in Present and Downhole Explorer

Logs Drillhole log view, as in Downhole Explorer

Tables Table view, as in Downhole Explorer

Reports Report view (drillhole summary and validation) as in Downhole

Explorer


You can make the look and feel compatible with Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 or

Windows XP Theme (Tools | Options | Environment | Look and Feel). This defines the colours, the bevelling on the tabs, and similar attributes.

The menus and toolbars are standard Windows format. They are view sensitive so

that you only see the ones relevant to the current window ie the window in which you

are working. Data created or edited in one window may be viewed in other

windows too. The same objects may be formatted differently in each window.

The interface is highly customizable so it doesn’t have to look as cluttered as the

image above; it enables:

• Maximizing of space for visualizing data by auto-hiding.

• Docking and tabbing of windows and control bars.

• Saving and restoring of interface profiles.

• Rearrangement of tools to suit different ways of working.


As well as multiple main windows the user interface includes a wide range of

secondary windows, browsers, property bars and so on. We have given the generic

name of Control Bar to any of these items that are not one of the main windows.

These Control Bars can be docked or floated and optionally tabbed or auto-hidden.

Studio 3’s Configurable Control Bars include:

The Project Files Browser. This works in conjunction with the Project Explorer view and

allows the user to see the files contained within the project. Files can be opened in

the file editor or loaded from the Project Browser.

The Sheets Browser. This shows the currently loaded plot objects.

The Loaded Data Browser. This shows the currently loaded data.

The Holes Browser. This shows the dynamic drillholes currently loaded.

The Customization Window. This is an Internet Explorer type window and hosts scripts

or custom commands.

The Digitizer Bar. This shows the properties of currently selected items such as strings,

points and cells etc.

The Properties Bar. This gives access to the view and file properties.

Although this list may seem a little daunting it is important to recognize that the

visibility and location of these control bars is highly customizable.


4 DATA OVERVIEW

4.1 Data Model

Studio 3 deals with its data in the form of objects which is very different from earlier

versions. For example if multiple sets of strings are loaded into memory then they

remain separate objects and can be formatted, filtered and selected independently.

Separate legends can be created for each object. As well as being selected

independently, data objects are able to be merged and split on attribute fields or by

using a filter expression to either combine existing objects or create new objects.

The use of data objects gives a lot of power and flexibility in the way data is displayed

and formatted. It makes it easy to define data subsets and to manipulate the data.

Studio 3 also has the concept of “Current Objects”. These are the objects that are

currently being created or written to. For example, when linking strings, the triangles

will be added to the current object. The current object can be set from the Loaded

Data control bar or the Current Objects toolbar.

The concept of a data object is independent of the way in which we display the

object. Studio 3 gives us multiple windows so that a data object or more probably

data objects can be viewed in different ways depending on the window. As well as

viewing an object in a different way in each window, the same object can be

formatted differently in each window. Or alternatively it can be formatted the same

way in each window, where this makes sense.

4.2 Data precision

In Studio3, all .Datamine files (*.dm) are saved in Extended Precision (sometimes

referred to as Double Precision) with a maximum accuracy of 16 significant figures,

rather than 7 for Single Precision as is used in previous versions. The main

advantages for users are in the potential size of XYZ coordinates and in the number of

parent cells which can be stored in a block model.

Studio 3 will read single and extended precision files, but will only write extended

precision. The Table Editor offers the option of converting a file to single precision if

required.

In single precision the maximum index value (IJK) in a model is 9,999,999. This means

that, for example, you cannot have a model with more than 100x100x100 potential

parent cell positions. This is not the same as the number of cells and subcells in a

model which can be almost infinite if you have many subcells per parent cell. With

extended precision the maximum IJK value is now 2,147 million which means you can

now have a model with, for example, 1400x1400x1000 parent cells.

In addition, the maximum number of numeric fields (or columns) that can be stored in

a file is 256 for extended precision files whereas it was 64 for single precision. For

alphanumeric fields each group of four characters uses up one of the available fields.

There is no real limit to the number of records in a file. This is a function of the amount

of disk space available.


4.3 Data Processing

Studio 3 includes 7 distinct varieties of data. These data “types” are distinguished by their format, by their location, and how they relate to, and are used by, the program.

A Datamine file (.dm) Datamine files in the project.

B Distributed Datamine

file (.dm)

Datamine files in other locations.

C Imported by DSD

and cached as

Datamine file (.dm)

Datamine files created in the project from an external source

using the Data Source Drivers (DSD). Can be refreshed from

their original source.

D External Data,

automatically

imported

Data which is always loaded into memory, from an external

data source, when the project is opened. Uses DSD.

E Archived Data Data, stored in the Project file, which is loaded into memory

when the project is opened.

F Other Files All other file-based data relevant to the project such as .htm,

.mac, .xls, .doc , gvp replay files, .bmp , emf, etc.

G Memory Only Data Stored in memory but not saved to file. Will be lost when

project closes if it is not saved.

The first key distinction between data “types” relates to their use within Studio 3 and

leads to two different sorts of command – batch commands dealing with file

manipulation, and graphics commands, dealing with 3D data held in memory.

1. Batch Commands.

Batch commands work with Datamine binary format files, types A, B or C in

the above table. A batch command will usually input one or more files,

perform some manipulation on the data (eg copy, sort, etc), and then output

one or more files. If the data is not already in Datamine format, it must be

either saved as a Datamine file or added to the project after being imported

from the (other) data source.

Batch commands work on any Datamine binary files including general files

(eg section definitions or downhole survey data) and 3D data (eg points,

strings, drillholes, models, wireframes).

2. Graphics Commands.

In order to view 3D data in the main windows the data must be loaded into

memory and become a loaded data object. Any of the data types A-G,

excluding F, can be loaded and displayed if they are 3D data. There are then

two types of graphics commands; those that work with a data object or objects

(eg linking two strings into a wireframe) and those that alter the graphics

environment (eg defining a view) which does not need a data object.


In summary a batch command works with files, and a graphics command works with

loaded data objects, that may not originate from Datamine files, Different interfaces

are needed for these two categories of commands.

This table shows how the different types of data can be processed and displayed. By

display we mean the data will be loaded into memory and displayed in the relevant

windows. The first four rows all apply to Datamine .dm files, which may or may not be

part of the project.

Row 1: If the Datamine file is already part of the project (the top two rows) then display it

by loading the file into memory from the Data | Load | Data Type (Points, Strings,etc) menu. Alternatively, drag and drop the file, which is much easier than using the drop

down menus if you have the Project Files Control Bar displayed.

Row 2: If you want to use the .dm file for processing then issue the command.

Row 3: If the Datamine file is not currently part of the project then Data | Load | External Datamine File | Points, etc will both load the file into memory and add it to the project.

Row 4: For Processing, File | Add to Project | Existing Files will simply add it to the project

and not do anything with it.

Row 5 (and 7): To display a non Datamine file it doesn’t actually matter whether the non

Datamine file is already part of the project. In order to load it into memory and display it

use the Data Source Drivers from the Data | Load menu. There are also other options

from the Data | Load menu that you could use such as using ODBC Data Providers or

loading directly from a Century database.

Row 6 (and 8): To be able to use a non Datamine file with the batch processing

commands then cache it as a Datamine file, from the File | Add to Project | Imported from Data Source menu, which will give you the Data Source Drivers dialogs.

The first 4 rows all apply to both data types A and B – Datamine files which are in either the

local project folder (A) or in a distributed folder (B).

Rows 5 and 7 are for type D data – loaded directly into memory without creating a

.dm file. Rows 6 and 8 are for type C data which requires a .dm file to be created.


5 DATA IMPORTING

5.1 Introduction

In this section you will import files from other data formats. Importing of files into

Studio 3 can either be done via the Data Source Drivers which allows connectivity

between the Datamine product range and other software applications via a series of

dialog boxes or by using batch processes.

5.2 Background

When files are imported using the drivers, the mechanism (path, field mapping and

other information) of how the files were imported is stored in the Project File. This allows the imported data to be re-imported when required, from within the Project Files control bar. The data import process generates a new Datamine format file from

the external data source. This new Datamine file is automatically added to the

project.

The Data Source Drivers include the following Driver Categories:

CAD *.dwg, *.dgn, *.dxf

Generic Data Tables Data Provider, Datashed, ODBC (databases,

spreadsheets)

Exploration & Mining

Software

Earthworks, GDM, Medsystem, Micromine, Surpac, Vulcan,

Wavefront, Wescom

GIS ESRI

Text ASCII ( comma, tab and other delimited formats)

These driver categories allow the import and export of the following import data

types:

• General Data Tables

• Drillholes

• Points

• Block Models

• Strings

• Wireframe volumes and surfaces

The project file can be set to be automatically updated after project changes

have been made e.g. importing data. This is set in the Options dialog accessed using Tools | Options | Project |Automatic Updating, tick the "Automatically update project" option.


The commands relating to import/export of data are as follows:

Menu Command Description

Data |

Load

Data Source Driver

Database Imports Century, Acquire or Earthworks ODBC

Century Database Imports Century database

Wizard Runs generic wizard

Once a data file from another source has been imported into the current project, the

following commands are available:

Menu Command Description

Data Reload Refresh a selected object from the data source

using different import options

Unload Remove one or more selected objects from

memory

Refresh Refresh a selected object from the data source

Refresh All Refresh selected objects from the data source

Export Export an object to a different data format

How do I import a text file?

The INPFIL process (Applications | File Transfer Processes | Import DD and CSV Data) is used to firstly create an empty file (Data Definition with no records) and load data

into the file, from a comma delimited text file. Before you can use the process you

will need to know the following:

• Name of the text file containing the comma delimited data.

• The field names to use and the order in which they occur within the text file.

• For each field you will need to decide whether to store the data as numeric or

alphanumeric fields.

• If there are alphanumeric fields you will need to determine the number of

spaces required to store the data. Datamine stores alphanumeric fields in

lengths of multiples of 4 and will change any user defined lengths to satisfy this

criteria if necessary.

The INPFIL process will prompt you for a file description (optional) then allow you to

specify the individual fields one after the other. When you have finished entering the

necessary fields, type the “[” or “]” symbol at the FIELD NAME prompt to end the entry

of field names. INPFIL will finally prompt you for the name of the text file containing

the comma delimited data.

The INPFIL process is not as flexible or user friendly as the Data Source Drivers. However INPFIL is still widely used as it can be run using a macro.


Exercise 1: Importing Text Data for Drillhole Collars

In this exercise, you will import the drillhole collars file _vb_collars_tab.txt (ASCII space

delimited format) and generate the Studio 3 format (*.dm) Collars file dhcollar.dm.

As part of the data validation process, you will then check this imported file in the

Datamine Table Editor and then finally load this imported file into the Design window.

The collars file contains the following fields:

BHID* drillhole identifier

XCOLLAR* collar x coordinate

YCOLLAR* collar y coordinate

ZCOLLAR* collar z coordinate

ENDDEPTH drillhole final depth (m)

REFSYS coordinate system (in this case a Local grid)

REFMETH coordination method (obtained using differential GPS

methods)

ENDDATE date on which drilling was completed (date format

dd/mm/yy)

* Standard Datamine drillhole Collars file fields.

1. Start the Data Source Drivers using File | Add to Project | Imported from Data Source.

2. In the Data Import dialog, select the "Text" Driver Category and "Tables" Data Type and click the OK button.

3. In the Open Source File (Text) dialog, browse to the folder

"C:\Database\Studio3 Tutorial\Data\Text", select the file _vb_collars.tab.txt and click the Open button.

4. In the Text Wizard (1 of 3) dialog, define the settings (as shown below) and

click the Next button.

Text Wizard (1 of 3)

Data Type

Delimited �

Data Rows

Start at Line 2

Stop at Line �

Header Row � 1

Quotes for

Strings �

Comment String �


5. In the Text Wizard (2 of 3) dialog, define the settings (as shown below), view

the import data in the Preview dialog (the columns of data should be

separated by a vertical line) and then click the Next button.


Delimiters

Space �

Treat consecutive

delimiters as one. �

6. In the Text Wizard (3 of 3) dialog, select each data column in turn in the

preview dialog (use the slider bar to view the fields hidden to the right), define

the column format settings (as shown below) and click the Finish button.

Text Wizard (3 of 3) dialog Settings

Column Formats

Name Type Numeric Alpha

BHID Attribute � �

XCOLLAR Attribute � �

YCOLLAR Attribute � �

ZCOLLAR Attribute � �

ENDDEPTH Attribute � �

REFSYS Attribute � �

REFMETH Attribute � �

ENDDATE Attribute � �

Special Values

Absent Data �

Trace Data �


7. In the Import Files dialog, in the Files tab define the Base File Name as

dhcollar, review the other settings (as shown below) and then click the OK button.

Import Files

Files

Base File Name dhcollar

Save File Types

Table File � dhcollar

Generate Extended

precision files �

Location C:\Database\Studio3

Tutorial\Projects

Import Fields

BHID �

XCOLLAR �

YCOLLAR �

ZCOLLAR �

ENDDEPTH �

REFSYS �

REFMETH �

ENDDATE �

Datamine COLOR

field leave blank

Use Legends to

resolve Datamine

color values

�

Rename Fields

use default values

8. In the Project Files control bar, check to make sure that the newly imported

and created file dhcollar is listed under the Collars folder.

Imported filenames are coloured blue in the Project Files control bar and have a different icon from those existing files that were added to the project when it

was initially created.

9. In the Files window, check the imported file to ensure that the field Names,

Sizes and Types are correct, as shown in the diagram below.


10. Save the project file using File | Save. 11. In the project Files control bar, select the dhcollar file in the Collars folder and

right click Load. 12. The drillhole collars are displayed in the Design window as points, using

coloured circle symbols, as shown in the diagram below.


Exercise 2: Importing Text data for Drillhole Assays

In this lesson, you are going to import the drillhole assays file _vb_assays.txt (ASCII

comma delimited format) and generate the Datamine format (*.dm) Assays files

dhassay.dm. The drillhole assays file contains the following fields:


FROM* depth at which the sample interval starts

TO* depth at which the sample interval ends

AU sample assay field (gold g/t)

CU sample assay field (copper %)

DENSITY* rock density (t/m3)

* Standard Datamine drillhole Assays file fields.




"C:\Database\Studio3 Tutorial\Data\Text", select the file _vb_assays.txt and click the Open button.




Data Type

Delimited �

Data Rows

Start at Line 2

Stop at Line �

Header Row � 1

Quotes for Strings �

Comment String �


the import data in the Preview dialog (Note that the columns of data should

be separated by a vertical line in the display in the lower pane of the import

dialog) and click the Next button.


Delimiters

Comma �

Treat consecutive delimiters as one. �

6. Repeat the steps 6 to 9 in Exercise 1 above. BHID is the only Alpha field and

the file created is dhassay.


7. In the Files window, check the imported file to make sure the field Names,

Sizes and Types are correct, as shown below:

8. Check the imported file in the Datamine File Editor. Compare it to the original

source file.

9. Save the project file using File | Save.

At this point, this file is not available for loading and viewing in the Design window. It will be used in a later exercise to build a desurveyed drillhole file.


Exercise 3: Importing Text Data for Drillhole Surveys

In this exercise, you are going to import the drillhole surveys file _vb_surveys.txt (ASCII

comma delimited format) and generate the Datamine format (*.dm) Downhole

Surveys file dhsurvey.dm. The drillhole surveys file contains the following fields:


AT* depth at which the survey measurement was taken (m), starting at

Depth = 0.

BRG* survey bearing (measured in degrees, clockwise from North)

DIP* survey dip (measured in degrees from horizontal; default positive

down, negative up)

* Standard Datamine drillhole Downhole Surveys file fields.




"C:\Database\Studio3 Tutorial\Data\Text", select the file _vb_surveys.txt and click the Open button.




Data Type

Delimited �

Data Rows

Start at Line 2

Stop at Line �

Header Row � 1

Quotes for Strings �

Comment String �


the import data in the Preview dialog (Note that the columns of data should

be separated by a vertical line in the display in the lower pane of the import

dialog) and click the Next button.


Delimiters

Comma �

Treat consecutive delimiters as one. �

6. Repeat steps 6 to 9 in Exercise 1 above. BHID is the only Alpha field and the

file created is dhsurvey.


7. In the Files window, check the imported file to ensure the Field Names, Sizes

and Types are correct, as shown below:

8. Check the imported file in the Datamine File Editor and compare it to the

original source file.



Exercise 4: Importing Spreadsheet Data (Drillhole Mineralized Zones)

In this exercise, you will import the drillhole mineralized zones sheet Zones, from the

drillhole data spreadsheet file _vb_drillhole_data.xls (Microsoft Excel format) and

generate the Datamine format (*.dm) file dhzones.dm. The drillhole mineralized zones

sheet contains the following fields:




ZONE numeric mineralized zone identifier



2. In the Data Import dialog, select the "ODBC v2 (pre-release)" Driver Category

and "Tables v2 (pre-release)" Data Type and click the OK button. 3. In the Select Data Source dialog, in the Machine Data Source tab, select

"Excel Files" data source and click the OK button. 4. In the Select Workbook dialog, browse to the folder "C:\Database\Studio3

Tutorial\Data\ODBC", select the Database Name _vb_drillhole_data.xls and

click the OK button. 5. In the Table Selection dialog, select the sheet Zones$ and click the OK button. 6. In the Base Dialog dialog, in the Data Fields group, select the BHID, FROM, TO

and ZONE Data Fields using the All button, and then click the OK button. 7. In the Import Files dialog, in the Files tab, define the Base File Name as

dhzones, review the other settings (as shown below) and then click the OK button.

Import Files

Files

Base File Name dhzones

Save File Types

Table File � dhzones

Generate Extended precision files �

Location C:\Database\Studio3

Tutorial\Data\ODBC

Import Fields

BHID �

FROM �

TO �

ZONE �

Datamine COLOR field leave blank

Use Legends to resolve Datamine color

values �

Rename Fields tab

use default values


8. Check the Files window to ensure that the new file's field Names, Size and

Types are correct, as shown in the diagram below.



Exercise 5: Importing and Previewing CAD data

The sections below will take you through the process of importing .dwg CAD format

data, previewing and then re-importing the imported file. The previewing of

Datamine format files (only 3D objects can be previewed) allows you to get a quick

view of the file before loading into the Design window. This option can be used to

assist you in finding the required file from the list of shown in the Project Files control bar. The exercises below make use of surface topography contour data to illustrate

the importing process and the creation of the resultant Datamine format (*.dm) file.

The CAD drawing file contains the following data characteristics:

Polylines: topography contours and a bounding perimeter

Contour interval: 10m

Elevation range: 60 - 250m

X-coordinate range: 5,610 - 6,780m

Y-coordinate range: 4,600 - 5,779m


2. In the Data Import dialog, select the CAD Driver Category and Advanced DXF/DWG Data Type and click the OK button.

3. In the Open Source File (CAD AutoCAD) dialog, browse to the folder

"C:\Database\Studio3 Tutorial\Data\CAD", select the file _vb_stopo.dwg and then click the Open button.

4. In the Read Drawing File dialog, tick the Load All Layers box and then click the OK button.


5. In the Import Files dialog, in the Files tab define the Base File Name as stopo

and the Strings File name as stopo and untick the Points File and Table File

generation tick-boxes, in the Import Fields tab define the Datamine color field

as Color, review the other settings (as shown below) and click the OK button.

Import Files dialog Settings

Files tab

Base File Name stopo

Save File Types

Points File �

Strings File � stopo

Table File �

Generate Extended

precision files �

Location C:\Database\Studio3 Tutorial\Data\CAD

Import Fields tab

COLOR �

THICKNESS �

ANGLE �

LAYERS �

LTYPE �

Datamine COLOR

field COLOR

Use Legends to

resolve Datamine

color values

�

Rename Fields tab

use default values

6. Check the Files window to make sure that the new file's field Names, Size and

Types are correct, as shown in the diagram below.



Exercise 6: Previewing and Re-Importing the Topography Contours File

In this lesson, you will preview the file imported in the previous exercise, then re-import

the topography contours data from the file _vb_stopo.dwg (AutoCAD DWG 2000

format) to regenerate the Datamine format (*.dm) String file stopo.dm. This feature

can be used to simply and quickly re-import a data file that has been updated with

new information e.g. a CAD topography drawing which is updated on a monthly

basis with the latest survey measurements.

1. In the Project Files control bar, select the Strings folder. 2. On the stopo file , Right-click|Preview, to display the contour data in the

Preview window, as shown in the diagram below.

Preview diagram – not working

3. Rotate the 3D view using the Left-mouse button. 4. Close the window when you have finished previewing the topography

contour data.

To reimport the topography contour data:

1. In the Project Files control bar, select the Strings folder. 2. On the stopo file , Right-click| Re-Import (The file is re-imported using the

import parameters that are stored in the project file. The progress of the

re-import process is indicated by the progress bar in a message dialog, as

shown in the diagram below).


Exercise 7: Importing Text Data for Lithology using INPFIL

In this exercise, you will import the drillhole lithology file _vb_lithology.txt (ASCII comma

delimited format) and generate the Datamine format (*.dm) drillhole lithology file

dhlith.dm using the batch process INPFIL. The drillhole lithology file contains the following fields:




LITH alpha lithology code (or short description)

NLITH numeric lithology code


1. Open the file _vb_lithology.txt in a text editor and note the names and types

of the fields.

2. Run the command Applications | File Transfer Processes | Import DD and CSV data (INPFIL) with the following settings:

Files: OUT(dhlith)

Other Settings: File description > leave blank

FIELDNAME > BHID A 8 Y -

FIELDNAME > FROM N Y -

FIELDNAME > TO N Y -

FIELDNAME > LITH A 12 Y -

FIELDNAME > NLITH N Y -

FIELDNAME > [

CONFIRM > Y

Ensure a blank character is inserted between each input for each field.


3. In the Select File dialog, select the _vb_lithology.txt file in C:\Database\Studio 3 Intro Tutorial\Data\Text and click on the Open button as shown below:

4. In the Files window, check the imported file to make sure the field Names,

Sizes and Types are correct, as shown below:


6 DRILLHOLES – VALIDATION & DESURVEY

6.1 Introduction and Aim

The exercises below involve creating and loading desurveyed drillhole files.

Desurveying is a standard processing technique for generating 3D drillhole traces

(coordinated sample intervals) from the base drillhole collars, downhole surveys and

downhole samples tables. The desurveyed drillhole file is called dholes.

6.2 Prerequisites

To do these exercises you have already completed:

Importing the collar, survey, assay, lithology and zones files – see Section 5, Exercises

1-4 and 7.

6.3 Background

Studio recognizes the following two types of drillholes, each with their own

characteristics:

6.3.1 Static Drillholes

• Data Type A.

• Generated by the HOLES3D, COMPDH or COMPBE processes. • Drillholes are refreshed by running the relevant HOLES3D and/or COMPDH

processes.

• The desurvey report is displayed in the Output pane of the Command control bar.

• Segment midpoints and lengths are precise.

6.3.2 Dynamic Drillholes

• Data Type D.

• Generated by loading the drillhole data tables.

• Drillholes are refreshed by reloading the Project File or by performing a Refresh

from the Loaded Data control bar. • The desurvey report is displayed in the Desurvey Report control bar. • Segment endpoints are spatially precise.

It is suggested that these two drillhole types are used for the following:

6.3.3 Static Drillholes

• Drillhole compositing using the COMPDH, COMPBE or COMPBR processes. • Grade estimation using the ESTIMATE process. • String modelling in the Design window drillhole segment midpoints as a

reference.

• Visualization in the Design, Visualizer and VR windows.


6.3.4 Dynamic Drillholes

• Advanced visualization and presentation in the Design, Visualizer and VR windows.

• Generation of drillhole Logs in the Logs window.

• String modelling in the Design window using drillhole segment endpoints as a

reference.

• Plotting from the Plots window.

How do I create static drillholes?

The command HOLES3D is used to create desurveyed drillhole files. The minimum

requirement for HOLES3D is a collar file and one sample file. If no survey file is

specified, HOLES3D assumes that all holes are drilled vertically down. The process

takes the data from these files and converts the downhole distances into a

desurveyed form where each sample is identified by its location and direction in

space. The output file from the HOLES3D process contains a standard set of fields which are required for later processing, for example grade estimation and

compositing. Similarly, desurveyed drillhole files can be viewed in the Design, Plots, Visualizer and VR windows.

Optionally, you may specify a survey file which contains downhole survey

measurements for specified drillholes. Up to 2000 downhole measurements can be

listed for each hole. If there are more than 2000 measurements for any drillhole then

the process will load the first 2000 records and ignore the rest with a warning

message. If there are drillholes with no survey data or if no survey file is used, then all

such drillholes are assumed vertical down. If you have inclined holes you will need a

survey file with a minimum of 1 record for each inclined hole.

As mentioned, if the holes are inclined it will be necessary to use a survey file with a

minimum of one record per inclined hole. As an example, a survey file with three

holes (DH10, DH11, and DH12) drilled grid north at an angle of 60 degrees would, at a

minimum, require a survey file with the following records:

BHID AT BRG DIP

DH10 0.0 0.0 60

DH11 0.0 0.0 60

DH12 0.0 0.0 60

Note that for upholes, the dip value in the survey file should be negative.

If using a survey file, an important point to remember is that each hole with records in

the survey file must have a record where AT=0. For a survey file containing a single

record per hole, the AT field MUST be set to zero for each hole. If this criterion is not

met then HOLES3D will correct the problem with a warning message.


Exercise 1: Desurveying Static Drillholes

In this exercise, you will use the command HOLES3D to desurvey the imported drillhole

data files listed below to create the 3D drillhole traces file dholes. The Studio 3 drillhole data files contain the following information:

• dhcollar - collar coordinate, coordinate system, coordination and drilled

date data

• dhsurvey - survey measurement depth, survey bearing and dip data

• dhassay - sample interval start and end depth, Au, Cu and Density assay

data

• dhlith - sample interval start and end depth, lithology data

• dhzones - sample interval start and end depth, mineralized zones data

The procedure for desurveying the drillhole data files is as follows:

1. Run the HOLES3D process using the Command control bar | browse for and

select the HOLES3D command | in the Find Command dialog click the Run button. Alternatively the command can be run from Drillholes | Validate and Desurvey. The following dialogue is displayed:

2. In the HOLES3D Command dialog, define the Files, Fields and Parameter

settings, as shown in the table below, and then click the OK button to execute the Command.


Use the Browse button in the Files tab to browse and select the required

input files and then type in the name of the output file. In the Fields tab, use the dropdown arrows to select the required field names.

HOLES3D Command dialog Settings

Files tab

Input Files

COLLAR dhcollar

SURVEY dhsurvey

SAMPLE1 dhlith

SAMPLE2 dhassay

SAMPLE3 dhzones

Output

Files

OUT dholes

Fields tab

BHID BHID

XCOLLAR XCOLLAR

YCOLLAR YCOLLAR

ZCOLLAR ZCOLLAR

FROM FROM

TO TO

AT AT

BRG BRG

DIP DIP

Parameters

tab

ENDPOINT 0


3. View the summary desurvey report in the Command control bar's Output panel (A successful desurveying run will show that the output file dholes

contains 732 records and that all checks were successful, as shown in the

diagram below).

4. Check the Project Files control bar to make sure that the new file dholes is

listed under the Drillholes folder, as shown in the diagram below.


5. Check the new file in the Files window to make sure that the field Names, Size

and Types are correct, as shown in the diagram below.


Exercise 2: Loading Static Drillholes

In this exercise, you will load the static drillhole file dholes (Data Type A). This file was

created during the previous exercise "Desurveying Drillhole Data".

The procedure for loading the desurveyed drillhole file is as follows:

1. Select Data | Load | Desurveyed Drillholes... 2. In the Project Files browser, Drillholes folder, select the file dholes and then

click the OK button. 3. Check that this dholes (drillholes) object is listed in the Loaded Data control

bar, as shown in the diagram below.

4. Check that these holes have been loaded into the Design, Plots and VR windows.

5. Select the Design window and whilst holding down the “<SHIFT>” key hold

down the left mouse button and move the mouse. The drillhole data will

rotate and spin based on movements of the mouse.

Further exercises which deal with viewing and display of data in the Design window

are covered in the next section.


Exercise 3: Desurveying with Error Checking

In this exercise you will rerun the HOLES3D process and check for errors in the drillhole database files. The process has optional additional output files, holesmry and errors,

which are used to validate the input data files. The holesmry file summarises the

number of records in each of the input files for each drillhole. The errors file reports

any sample overlaps or FROM/TO problems.

To check for errors in the input files into HOLES3D:

1. Run the HOLES3D process using the Command control bar. Browse for and

select the HOLES3D command in the Find Command dialog click the Run button. Alternatively the command can be run from Drillholes | Validate and Desurvey.

2. In the HOLES3D Command dialog, define the Files, Fields and Parameter

settings, as shown in the table below, and click the OK button to execute the command.

HOLES3D Command dialog Settings

Files tab

Input Files

COLLAR dhcollar

SURVEY dhsurvey

SAMPLE1 dhlith

SAMPLE2 dhassay

SAMPLE3 dhzones

Output Files

OUT dholes

HOLESMRY holesmry

ERRORS holerr

Fields tab

BHID BHID

XCOLLAR XCOLLAR

YCOLLAR YCOLLAR

ZCOLLAR ZCOLLAR

FROM FROM

TO TO

AT AT

BRG BRG

DIP DIP

Parameters tab

ENDPOINT 0


3. View the summary desurvey report in the Command control bar's Output panel.

4. The summary information in the Command control bar indicates there are errors with the input data files. Use the listing of errors in the holerr file to check

the input files and identify the source of the errors.

To check the contents of a file, double-click on the file in the Projects File control bar. This action will open the file in the Datamine Table Editor. Note that the double –click action from the Projects File control bar can be set to open the file under Tools | Options | Project | General.

5. Check the holesmry file in the Datamine Table Editor. 6. Which holes are not created in the desurveyed file?


Exercise 4: Loading Dynamic Drillholes

In this exercise, you are going to load the drillhole data tables stored in the

spreadsheet file _vb_drillhole_data.xls (Data Type D). These drillhole data tables

contain the same data as the files that were imported in the "Importing Text Data"

and "Importing Spreadsheet Data" exercises. Note that the drillhole traces are

automatically created when the last of the drillhole tables have been loaded.

The procedure for loading the drillhole data tables is as follows:

1. Select the Design window tab.

2. Select Data | Load | Database. 3. In the Data Providers dialog select the Earthworks ODBC Data Provider option

and then click the OK button. 4. In the Select Data Source dialog, Machine Data Source* tab, select the Excel

Files option from the list under Data Source Name and then click the OK button.

5. In the Select Workbook dialog, Directories pane, browse to the folder

C:\Database\Studio3 Tutorial\Data\ODBC, in the Database Name pane, select the _vb_drillhole_data.xls spreadsheet file from the list so that the name

appears in the top dialog box and then click the OK button. 6. In the Data Source - Select Tables dialog, select (tick) the Assays, Collars,

Lithology, Surveys and Zones TABLES and then click the OK button. 7. In the Select Table Type (... for Assays$ ...) dialog, select the Assays option

from the list and then click the OK button. 8. In the Define Drillhole Data Table dialog, Field Assignments group, assign the

table fields as shown in the table below and then click the OK button.

Define Drillhole Data Table dialog Settings

Assays Table

Assigned fields Table's fields

Hole Name BHID

Depth From FROM

Depth To TO

Grade 1 AU

Grade 2 CU

Grade 3 - 15 absent

Specific Gravity DENSITY

Assigning table fields is done by first selecting the system field name in the

Assigned Fields pane on the left and then selecting the corresponding Table field name in the Table's Fields pane on the right. Selected items are

highlighted in blue.

9. In the Select Table Type (... for Collars$ ...) dialog, select the Collars option from the list and click the OK button.


10. In the Define Drillhole Data Table dialog, assign the Table fields as shown in

the table below and click the OK button.


Collars Table


Hole Name BHID

Easting XCOLLAR

Northing YCOLLAR

Elevation ZCOLLAR

Length absent

Azimuth absent

Inclination absent

11. In the Select Table Type (... for Lithology$ ...) dialog, select the Lithology option from the list and click the OK button.




Lithology Table


Hole Name BHID

Depth From FROM

Depth To TO

Lithology NLITH

Description LITH

13. In the Select Table Type (... for Surveys$ ...) dialog, select the Surveys option from the list and click the OK button.




Surveys Table


Hole Name BHID

Depth At AT

Azimuth BRG

Inclination DIP

Positive Dip values point

Up �

Down �

Angular Values are:

Radians �

Degrees �

15. In the Select Table Type (... for Zones$ ...) dialog, select the Interval Log option from the list and click the OK button.


16. In the Define Drillhole Data Table dialog, tick the "Show all field assignments

box", assign the table fields as shown in the table below and click the OK button.


Interval Log Table


Hole Name BHID

Depth From FROM

Depth To TO

Grade 3 ZONE

17. Select the Design window tab, redraw the display using the Redraw button

and zoom out using the Zoom Extents button. These buttons are located in the View Control toolbar on the right side of the Studio 3 window.

18. Check that the drillhole traces have been loaded into the Design, Plots and VR (if displayed) windows, as shown in the diagram of the Design window

below.


7 DRILLHOLES – COMPOSITING

7.1 Introduction

Compositing is a standard processing technique for regularizing the length or vertical

height of desurveyed drillhole samples. Typically compositing is within fixed length

intervals, within a compositing “Zone” field. Two processes will be used to

demonstrate the compositing options – COMPDH and COMPBE. The range of parameter settings in both processes allows for the generation of composites to suit

different output scenarios e.g. short fixed length composites for statistical analysis and

grade estimation vs. single length composites per rocktype interval for interpretation

or string modelling purposes.

7.2 Background

The COMPDH process (Drillholes | Composite Down Drillholes) composites data down

each drillhole and at a minimum requires a standard desurveyed drillhole file. The

output file will have the same format as the input file and theoretically it is possible to

use the same input and output file names.

The use of identical IN and OUT file names is NOT RECOMMENDED aIt wills you

will lose your original data.

By default the process will create composites of the required lengths using length

weighted averages. This is done using the LENGTH field in the desurveyed file which

records the difference between subsequent FROM and TO values. If you have a

DENSITY field in your desurveyed file then the composites will be weighted by density.

The COMPDH process also includes optional parameters for recording core loss, and

core recovery.

Composite Length


The composite interval required and options for dealing with missing samples and

minimum composite lengths is dealt with using the following parameters:

INTERVAL MINGAP

MAXGAP MINCOMP

The MINGAP, MAXGAP and MINCOMP parameters are optional and if not set

by the user will be set to default values. It is recommended that you set

MINGAP=0.001 and MINCOMP=0.

The COMPBE process (Drillholes | Drillhole Processes | Composite Over Benches ) allows you to composite drillhole data over horizontal benches. The process includes

the same parameters as COMPDH except that START is replaced by ELEV and the MAXCOMP parameter has been added. You should set the ELEV parameter to a

valid bench RL and the INTERVAL parameter to the bench height.

INTERVAL


Exercise 1: Compositing Down Drillholes

In this exercise, you will use the COMPDH process to composite the drillholes down

their lengths into single rock type intervals defined by the rock type code field NLITH

(this field is selected as the compositing "Zone" field) and by setting the INTERVAL

parameter to 1000 (a distance greater than the longest continuous rocktype interval

as per the information in the lithology table dhlith). The compositing procedure is as

follows:

1. Select the Design window tab to display the Drillholes menu bar item if not

already displayed.

2. Run the COMPDH command using Drillholes | Drillhole Processes | Composite Down Drillholes.

3. In the COMPDH Command dialog, define the File, Field and Parameter

settings as shown in the table below and then click the Run button.

Use the Browse button in the Files tab to browse and select the required input

files and then type in the name of the output file. In the Fields tab, use the dropdown arrows to select the required field names. In the Parameters tab,

use the dropdown arrows to select the required parameters.

COMPDH Command dialog Settings

Files tab

Input Files

IN dholes

Output Files

OUT dholesc

Fields tab

BHID BHID

FROM FROM

TO TO

DENSITY DENSITY

CORELOSS leave blank

COREREC leave blank

ZONE NLITH

Parameters tab

INTERVAL 1000

MINGAP 0.05

MAXGAP 0

MINCOMP 0.001

LOSS 0

START 0

MODE 0

PRINT 0


4. View the progress of the command in the Command window, noting that the

output file should contain 129 records, as shown in the diagram below.

5. Check the Project Files Browser to make sure that the new file dholesc is listed

under the Drillholes folder, as shown in the diagram below.

6. Check the dholesc file in the Datamine Table Editor. For each drillhole there should be no more than one record for each value of NLITH.

The user defined fields ENDDATE, LITH, REFMETH and REFSYS are not in the new

file - alpha fields are not transferred in the compositing process.


Exercise 2: Compositing Drillholes by Bench

It may be necessary in some cases to generate drillhole composites which are

matched to bench height, e.g. grade control drilling in an open pit. In this exercise

you will use COMPBE to create composites based on a user-defined bench height, as

follows.

1. Select the Design window tab to display the Drillholes menu item if not

already displayed.

2. Run the COMPDH command using Drillholes | Drillhole Processes | Composite Down Drillholes.

3. In the COMPDH command dialog, define the File, Field and Parameter settings

as shown in the table below and then click the Run button.

COMPBE Command dialog Settings

Files tab

Input Files

IN dholes

Output Files

OUT dholesb

Fields tab

BHID BHID

FROM FROM

TO TO

DENSITY DENSITY

CORELOSS leave blank

COREREC leave blank

ZONE NLITH

Parameters tab

INTERVAL 1000

MINGAP 0.05

MAXGAP 0

ELEV 100

MINCOMP 0.001

MAXCOMP

LOSS 0

PRINT 0


4. View the progress of the command in the Command window, noting that the

output file should contain 155 records, as shown in the diagram below.


8 DATA VIEWING – DESIGN & VISUALIZER

WINDOWS

8.1 Introduction

Once data has loaded into the project, it is available for viewing, interpretation,

modelling and plotting in the following windows:

Design - interactive interpretation, modelling and design

Visualizer - visualizing the Design window data in a dynamic 3D environment

Plots - defining plots, their associated sheets, views, data content and formats

(see Section 17 Data presentation – Plots Window)

VR - visualizing data in a virtual view environment (see Section ?? Data

Presentation – VR Window)

This section deals with the tools available for managing the view in the Design and Visualizer windows, which is the main window used for string and wireframe modelling

and interpretation of drillhole data. The exercises below will take you through the

general procedures and features used to view the data you loaded in the previous

exercises.

8.2 Background

What is the Design Window?

The Design Window is the work area used for all string editing, wireframing, and mine

design. The window represents a plane whose orientation, dimensions, and location

can be easily changed to suit the current needs. When Studio 3 is started this window

is set to a horizontal (“XY”) plane centred on the origin (X, Y, Z = 0,0,0).

What is the relationship between the Visualizer and the Design window?

The Visualizer is a representation of the Design window, which uses the 3D capabilities

of the graphics card to give a more realistic view of the data. The Visualizer represents the current view plane in the Design window as a frame (coloured white if

the background colour of the Visualizer is black) along with X, Y, and Z axes to

indicate the orientation of the grid. Whenever the orientation of the Design Window

view plane is changed, the frame in the Visualizer is adjusted accordingly.

The Visualizer is NOT an editing tool; it can only be used to view your data.

What kinds of data can I view in the Visualizer and Design Windows?

Only the 5 file types listed below can be loaded and modified in the Design window.

POINTS

STRINGS

WIREFRAMES

DRILLHOLES

BLOCK MODELS


The common theme in the above file types is that they represent data which can be

displayed in a 3D environment. Other data types such as geology logs cannot be

loaded into the Design window; they can be loaded and viewed in the Logs window.

How do I control the orientation of the viewplane?

A viewplane is defined by a centre point and orientation parameters. The following

general types of viewplanes can be defined:

Plan - horizontal Section - vertical 3D View - inclined

Viewplanes can be defined and adjusted using the following Set Viewplane (using

View | Set Viewplane) functions:

Button Name Description Toolbar

By 1 Point Define plane about 1 point View Control

By 2 points Define plane by 2 points

By 3 Points Define plane by 3 points

Snap to ... Snap to plane

none Orthogonal Select orthogonal plane about a centre point

3D View Adjust view orientation with the mouse

Move Adjust view plane by specified distance

Move Forward Move plane forward

Move Backward Move plane backward

none Reverse Reverse the current view plane

Previous View Go to previous view

Pan Pan graphics


How do I control zooming and clipping?

The extents of a view can be controlled both in the plane of the view and perpendicular

to the viewplane using the following Zoom (View | Zoom) and Clipping (View | clipping function) functions.

Button Name Description Toolbar

Zoom In Zoom In View

Control

Zoom Out Zoom Out

Zoom All Data Zoom All Data

Zoom Extents Zoom Data in Plane

Set Clipping limits Set clipping either side of view

plane

Use Clipping

Limits Turn on or off use of clipping

Set Secondary

Clipping Set secondary clipping limits

Use Secondary

Clipping

Use specified secondary

clipping

Set Exaggeration Set scale exaggeration factor

none True Perspective Toggle between perspective

and isometric projections

Save View Save view to section definition

file

Get View Get view from section

definition file

Why is the redraw command necessary?

This is a question commonly asked by people new to Studio 3. Many commands do

not automatically refresh the screen after processing has been completed. The

reason for this is that refreshing the Design Window when there is a lot of data loaded

into memory can be time consuming. Even more to the point, it is often not

necessary. It is left up to you to choose the most appropriate time to refresh the

screen.

Note that many commands, such as erase string, do a partial redraw of the screen.

This can cause the screen display to be incomplete compared to the data stored in

memory. If you are in doubt about the screen display, you should always use Redraw

(rd).

When a redraw is in progress, you can interrupt it by clicking the Cancel button. This saves time if you do not need to see the completely redrawn screen before using

another command.

What is the difference between digitising and snapping?

When clicking with the mouse inside the Design window you can use the left or right mouse buttons. If you use the left mouse button you will be digitising, the coordinates that

will be read back or written out as data will be determined entirely by the position of the

mouse pointer. If you use the right hand mouse button you are choosing to select a

predefined point.


What can I snap to data objects?

What happens when you press the right hand mouse button is determined by the

snap mode. By default, the snap mode is set to points, but it can be changed to snap to lines or to defined grid locations. The toggle switches for changing the snap mode

are located under the Edit | Snapping menu or from the Snapping toolbar.

A summary of the various snapping options are listed below:

Option Quick Command

Description

Snap to Points stpo When the right-hand mouse button is pressed

the cursor location will be set at the X, Y and Z

coordinates of the point nearest the cursor.

POINTS available for snapping include points,

string and wireframe slice vertices, and drill hole

interval end points and centre points.

Snap to Lines stl When the right hand mouse button is pressed

the cursor location will be set at the X, Y and Z

coordinate of a point on a line that is nearest to

the cursor. LINES available for snapping include

strings and drill holes

Snap to Grid stg When the right hand mouse button is pressed

the cursor location the cursor will be set at the

X, Y and Z coordinate of the nearest location on the current snapping grid. See Grid Snapping

Control.


Exercise 1: Loading Strings, Zooming, Panning and Changing the Field of View

1. Select the Design window tab to display the Data menubar item.

2. Run the command Data | Load | Strings (ga) and select the stopo file. This command loads and automatically zooms all the data with the viewplane set

at the mid point of the data.

3. To reduce the size of the points on the strings, select Format | Display and click on the Symbols tab. Reduce the value under Size to 1mm.

4. Select the View | Zoom | Zoom In (zx) command and using the mouse click

near the centre of the topography with the left mouse key and while holding

the mouse button down drag it towards the top right hand corner as

illustrated below. When you release the mouse button the view will be reset to

the defined area.

5. Reset the view to be centred on your data using View | Zoom | Zoom All Data (za). The Zoom All Data (za) command works by adjusting the view to fit all

displayable data. The orientation of the view plane will not be changed;

however, the position of the plane will be set so that it passes through the

centre of all the available data. The co-ordinates of the mouse position are

shown at the bottom of the Design window:

Note if the viewplane is horizontal, when the mouse is moved within the Design window the X and Y values change whilst the Z value remains fixed


6. The Zoom Data In Plane (ze) command resets display limits to show all data in

the current view plane. This command will expand (or contract) the limits of

the current view, but it will not change the position or orientation of the view

plane.

To demonstrate this command select View | Set Viewplane | Move and type ‘50’ in the dialogue displayed and hit OK:

The value for the Z position of the view plane has now changed to 207.37.

Now use View | Zoom | Zoom In (zx) to zoom in to an area of the data. If you

use View | Zoom | Zoom All Data (za) to zoom-out, then you will return to a

horizontal plane where Z=157.37. To remain on the current viewplane (207.37) use Zoom Data In Plane (ze).

7. The Pan (pan) command allows you to move the display across the screen in

any direction. Select the View | Pan (pan) command and digitise a point near

the centre of the Design Window using the mouse. Digitise a second point a

few centimeters to the right of the original point.

You can also use the keyboard arrows to pan the data in the Design Window.

In this case, the distance the data is panned is fixed.


Exercise 2: Loading Drillholes and Changing the Viewplane.

1. Load the holes drillhole file into the Design window using the

Data | Load | Desurveyed Drillholes (gd) command.

To load files by drag/drop, select the Project Files control bar. Select the file and holding down the left-mouse button, drag the file from the control bar

and release the button when the cursor is over the Design window. It is also

possible to filter the file whilst loading by holding the <CTRL> key on the

keyboard and load files by multiple selection.

2. Run the View | Set View Plane | By 1 Point (1) command and snap a point

(right mouse button) on one of the drillholes at the centre of the deposit. Note

that the instructions for what you should do with the mouse are displayed at

the bottom of the screen on the left-hand side. Select North–South then press the OK button.

3. To turn off the hole identifiers, right-click in the Design window and in the

context-sensitive window, select Format Display. Select the dholes file under Overlay Objects, and then select the Drillholes tab. Click on the Format button and select the Labels tab. Toggle off the box adjacent to End-of-hole.

OK the form and Close the Format Display dialog. 4. Run the Format | Visualizer | Update Visualizer Objects (uv) command to

update the objects displayed in the Design window in the Visualizer window.

Rotate and spin the data in the Visualizer window by holding down the left

mouse button and moving the mouse.


5. The View | Set Viewplane | By 2 Points (2) command allows you to define a

horizontal or vertical section by defining two end points. Select the Design window and return to the plan view by using the command View | Previous View. Now use View| Set Viewplane | By 2 Points (2) and select 2 end points to define a vertical section.

6. The View | Set Viewplane | By 3 points (3) allows you to define three points

that will form a triangle on the new view plane. Usually you will snap to existing

data points while doing this. If you simply digitised three points you would end

up with the existing view plane.


Exercise 3 – Setting and Toggling Clipping Limits

The Set Clipping Limits (scl) command allows you to set a distance either side of the

viewplane. All data falling within the defined region will be displayed and all data

outside this region will be hidden. It is a useful tool for viewing a single section or

bench plan. When running this command a “front” and “back” clipping distance is

required. The “front” distance direction is defined as the direction towards you. The

“back” distance is defined as the direction away from you.

1. Return to a north-south section view. Make sure the View | Use Clipping Limits (uc) toggle is on and select the View | Set Clipping Limits (scl) command.

2. Toggle off the infinite clipping options and set both the “front” and “back”

clipping limits to 12.5 (The section spacing of the drillholes is 25 metres.) The

dialogue box should look similar to the image below.

You will need to un-check the infinite clipping options before you can enter

your clipping limits.


3. Turn the clipping on and off with the View | Use Clipping Limits (uc) command. This is an example of a “toggle” command. A toggle command is

used to turn a display setting on or off. In this case the Use Clipping (uc) command allows you to turn clipping on and off without having to reset the

clipping distances.

Typically the two clipping commands are used by setting the clipping limits

once and then toggling the clipping on and off as required.


4. Make sure the clipping is turned on and then run the Update Visualizer Objects (uv) command. Click the right hand mouse button in the Visualizer window and turn the clipping on as shown below.

5. Rotate the view about the centre point in the view plane by holding down the

left mouse button and moving the mouse pointer in various directions inside

the Visualizer window. As an alternative you can also use the arrow keys on

the keyboard to rotate the image continuously. To cancel continuous

rotation, click in the Visualizer window with the left mouse button.

Do not leave continuous rotation on while you are doing other work as it will

slow your computer down.


6. It is also possible to set and use a secondary clipping distance which allows

you to display data within additional windows on either side of the primary

clipping distance. Return to the Design window, select the Loaded Data control bar. Select the stopo.dm (strings) file, right –click, select Data | Unload and run View | Redraw. This unloads the contour string file from memory.

7. Check that a north-south viewplane is displayed and use-clipping (uc) is turned on. Toggle on View | Use Secondary Clipping then use View | Set Secondary Clipping and enter 30 for front and back distances. Redraw the

display - additional drillholes should be displayed for each neighbouring

section either side of the section the view plane is on. The additional drillholes

displayed are available for display purposes only – they cannot be formatted

nor selected and they cannot be viewed in the Visualizer window.


Exercise 4: Moving and Rotating the Viewplane

The View | Set Viewplane | Move (mpl) command allows you move the current

viewplane by a specified distance. The distance can be negative or positive with the

movement sense being perpendicular to the view plane. A positive value will move

the view plane towards the viewer. A typical use of this command would be to step

through a data set on a section by section or bench by bench basis. This command is

normally used in conjunction with clipping.

1. Toggle off the secondary clipping, then run the Set Viewplane | Move (mpl) command and set the distance to 25 metres (The drilling has been done on a

25 metre spacing). Step through two or three sections using positive and

negative values. You will notice that the easting value displayed in the Status bar at the bottom of the Design window will increase and decrease

accordingly.

2. Once the distance by which the view plane is moved is set, you can then use

the commands Set Viewplane | Move Forward (mpf) and Set Viewplane | Move Backward (mpb) to move the plane by the distance set, towards or

away from you.

3. Toggle off the clipping, then to rotate the data, hold down the <SHIFT> key on

the keyboard and the left-mouse button simultaneously and move the mouse.

The data will be rotated around the centre of the Viewplane and the 3

orthogonal axes are displayed. When the mouse button is released, the

Design window adopts the view plane which was shown at the time the

mouse button was released. This function is available for all data types, points,

strings, wireframes, drillholes and models, displayed in the Design window.

4. An alternative method for rotating data within the design window is the View | Set Viewplane | 3-D View (vi). This command serves two main purposes.

First, it allows you to adjust the position of the view plane by entering the

absolute coordinate value that you require. For example, in a plan view you

could change the current RL of the plane while in a north-south view you

could adjust the Easting value of the plane. The second purpose of this

command is to rotate and view strings in the design window in a similar

fashion to the Visualizer. This facility is slow, but sometimes useful because the

view is isometric whereas the Visualizer has a perspective view.


5. Return to a north-south view and ensure the clipping is turned on. To go to a

north-south section on 6060mE, run the command View | Set Viewplane | 3-D View (vi), type in the value 6060 in the box adjacent to X and hit <ENTER> on the keyboard. If you click on Apply, the new setting will be applied to the

display. Click on OK, the new settings will be applied and the form will be

closed. The command should look similar to the following:

The X, Y, and Z values represent the centre coordinates of the view plane. The

H and V values refer to the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the plane.

The DIP and AZI values refer to the dip and dip direction of the view plane. A

north-south view plane looking east, therefore has an AZI of 90 and a DIP of -90 (vertically down). Any of these values can be changed using keyboard

entry by clicking on the button next to the relevant label.


Exercise 5: Setting Axis Exaggeration

The View | Set Exaggeration (sex) command allows you to rescale one or more of the

three standard coordinate ranges. The usual use of this command is to apply vertical

exaggeration to data which has large extents in the X and Y directions but is very

narrow in the Z direction. Mineral sands and bauxite deposits are two common

examples where vertical exaggeration is routinely applied.

1. With the clipping on and the view plane on 6060mE use the View | Set Exaggeration (sex) command to experiment with applying scaling factors of

‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’ to the Z axis. Use the R option to reset scaling back to the

original settings.


Exercise 9 – Synchronising the View between the Visualizer and the Design Window.

The Format | Visualizer | Reset Visualizer View (vv) and Format | Visualizer | Read Visualizer View (rvv) commands allow you to adjust the orientation of the current

view plane from either the Visualizer or the Design window.

1. Rotate the view plane in the Visualizer window.

2. Select the Design window and run the Format | Visualizer | Read Visualizer View (rvv) command. The changed orientation in the Visualizer should now be

matched in the Design Window.

3. In the Design Window use the View | Set Viewplane | 3D-View (vi) command

to change the dip and dip direction of the view plane..

4. Run the Format | Visualizer | Reset Visualizer with Design View (vv) command.

Again the view planes in the two windows should now be synchronised.

The difference between the Update Visualizer View (vv) and the Update Visualizer Objects (uv) commands is that the former only resets the view while the latter resets

the view and reloads all the data into the Visualizer.

The advantage of the Update Visualizer View (vv) command is that it will be much

quicker to run when a lot of Data has been loaded into the Design window.


9 SECTION DEFINITION FILES

9.1 Introduction

The section definition file or view definition table is used to store multiple views or

section definitions for use in the Design window. Each definition contains parameters

for the view plane centre coordinate, orientation, extents, clipping and a description.

The viewing (and later interpretation and modelling) of data can be facilitated by

means of predefined views saved in such a definition file. These views can be saved

and retrieved when required and provide the ability to easily return to regularly used

view orientations.

The use of a Section Definition file is recommended for regularly used views; while the

once-off or general viewing of data is typically done without using this feature.

In this exercise, you will define nine clipped viewplanes (1 Plan and 8 Sections) and

save them to the automatically created ViewDefs table. These views will be used in

later modelling exercises. In the loaded data sets, the drillholes lie in North-South

sections and dip towards the South; the fault surfaces strike West-East and the

contours define a topography surface dipping gently towards the Southwest. This

section will demonstrate how to interactively define Plan and Section Viewplanes in

the Design window using the Set Viewplane, Zoom and Clipping functions and save

them to a Section Definition (Views) file.

The use of a View Definition file is recommended for regularly used views; the

once-off or general viewing of data is typically done using only the Set

Viewplane, Zoom, Pan and Clipping functions.

The exercise procedures for creating Plan and Vertical Section Viewplanes and

saving them to the ViewDefs table, are as follows:


Exercise 1: Defining a Viewplane - Plan View

1. Select the Design window.

2. Zoom the data to the extents of the window using the Zoom Extents button. 3. Click the Plane by One Point button on the View Control toolbar. 4. Snap (right-click) to the point (6174.63 , 5186.91, 195) on the 195m contour

string (this is approximately the centre point of the area defined by the extents

of the contour strings).

5. In the Select View Orientation dialog, select the option "Plan" and then click the OK button.

6. Click the Zoom In button in the View Control toolbar. 7. Define (left-click and hold) the top left corner of the Zoom area (just beyond

the top left corner of the area defined by the contour strings), drag the

"magnifying glass" cursor down and to the right to define the bottom right

corner of the Zoom area (just beyond the bottom right corner of the area

defined by the contour strings), release the left mouse button.

8. Observe the slightly reduced view area in the Design window and compare

to that shown in the diagram below.

9. Ensure that clipping is not on, ie. all data is displayed.


Exercise 2: Creating a Section Definition file and Saving the Plan Viewplane

1. Select View | Save View.

Note: This function can also be run using the Save View button in the View

Control toolbar.

2. In the Section Definition dialog, check the parameters, modify the parameters

to reflect the values shown in the diagram or table below and then click the

OK button.

3. Check that the Loaded Data control bar now contains a ViewDefs object, as shown in the diagram below.

The ViewDefs object is automatically created when you save a view for the

first time.


Exercise 3: Defining and Saving the first Section Viewplane

Each of these North-South sections are defined by snapping to the collar and end-of-

hole positions of one or more boreholes lying in each of the vertical sections. These

boreholes are listed in the Borehole column as shown in the table below. This first

section is the most Westerly lying section.

Borehole* Secn. Descrip. X

Centre

Y

Centre

Z

Centre Azi. Dip

Horz.

Dim.

Vert.

Dim.

Front

Clip

Back

Clip

VB4267

VB4266 2

N-S

SECN

5935

5935 5015 60 90 -90 450 350 10 10

1. In order to select the boreholes more easily in Plan view, use the Zoom In button to define a zoom area just covering the extents of the boreholes so

that both the northern and southern fault surfaces are also visible, as shown in

the diagram below.

2. Start defining your first Section Viewplane by clicking the Plane by Two Points button.

3. Snap (right-click) to the collar of the first drillhole VB4267.

The function, Design | Query | Points | Snap to a drillhole and viewing the

output in the Output control bar, can be used to check for the locations of the required drillholes.

4. Snap (right-click) to the end-of-hole of the second drillhole VB4266, as listed in

the table shown in the previous step.


5. In the Select View Orientation dialog, select the option "Vertical" and then click the OK button, to display a section as shown in the diagram below.

6. If not already done, turn "On" the use clipping toggle by clicking the Use Clipping button in the View Control toolbar.

7. Set the clipping parameters by clicking the Set Clipping button on the View Control toolbar; in the View Clipping Limits dialog, untick both the "Front Clipping Infinite" and "Back Clipping Infinite" options, set both the "Front" and

the "Back Clipping" to "10" and then click the OK button. 8. Using the Zoom In button, define a zoom area just covering the extents of the

boreholes so that both the northern and southern fault surfaces and the

borehole labels are also visible, as shown in the diagram below.


9. Check that the required drillholes i.e. VB4267 and VB4266 are displayed in the

section.

10. Select View | Save View.

11. In the Section Definition dialog, check the parameters, modify the parameters

to reflect the values shown in the diagram below and then click the OK button.

12. Turn "Off" the use clipping toggle by clicking the Use Clipping button. This will

allow you to view all drillholes and contours as this is required when selecting

the next section's drillholes. Your view should appear as shown in the diagram

below.

13. Return to Plan view using the Previous View button in the View Control toolbar.

The Previous View button toggles between the last two defined Viewplanes. If

you have defined your vertical section more than once, you will need to use

Plane by One Point button | Snap | "Plan" to return to a plan view.


14. The procedure for defining and saving the remaining Section Viewplanes is

the same as that shown in the previous procedure set. These Section

Viewplanes will be required for later modelling exercises and need to have

parameters as defined in the table below.

Borehole* Secn. Descrip. X

Centre

Y

Centre

Z

Centre Azi. Dip

Horz.

Dim.

Vert.

Dim.

Front

Clip

Back

Clip

VB4271

VB4269 3

N-S

Secn

5960

5960 5015 65 90 -90 450 350 10 10

VB2813

VB2812 4

N-S

Secn

5985

5985 5015 45 90 -90 450 350 10 10

VB4283

VB4282 5

N-S

Secn

6010

6010 5015 75 90 -90 450 350 10 10

VB4286

VB2737 6

N-S

Secn

6035

6035 5015 65 90 -90 450 350 10 10

VB4290

VB4289 7

N-S

Secn

6060

6060 5015 60 90 -90 450 350 10 10

VB2675

VB2675 8

N-S

Secn

6085

6085 5015 60 90 -90 450 350 10 10

VB4293

VB4293 9

N-S

Secn

6110

6110 5015 60 90 -90 450 350 10 10

15. To save these sections to the Viewdefs table, repeat steps 2 to 12 for each of

the remaining vertical sections shown in the table above. Alternatively you

can use the Datamine Table editor to edit the Viewdefs table as described

below.


Exercise 4: Saving and Editing the Viewdefs table.

1. Select the Viewdefs file in the Loaded Data control bar and right-click Data | Save As.

2. In the Save 3D Object dialog, click the Datamine (.dm) file button, as shown

below.

3. In the Save ViewDefs dialog, click the Save button, as shown below, to save

the new Studio 3 file ViewDefs to the local project directory.


4. Check the Project Files control bar to see that the file ViewDefs has been

added to the Section Definitions folder, as shown below.

5. Double-click on the ViewDefs file in the Project Files control bar to open the file in the Datamine Table Editor. The Datamine Table Editor is a powerful,

intuitive tool for viewing, creating and editing Studio 3 tables. Not only is it

much easier to edit existing Studio 3 tables than before but it is also much

simpler to create new ones.

6. Create 7 additional records by selecting the second record, then right-click

Add | Record. Alternatively type <F2> on the keyboard to add additional records.

7. Copy down the values for record 2 in the following fields: YCENTRE, SAZI, SDIP,

HSIZE, VSIZE, DPLUS, DMINUS and TEXT, by clicking and holding down on the

cell in the second record for each field then dragging the mouse to the

bottom of the column. Release the mouse button and right-click on the

selected area and select Add | Fill | Down or hit <CTRL-D> on the keyboard.


8. Complete the remainder of the table so that it matches the table below.

9. To save the table, select File | Save then File | Exit to close the Table Editor.


Exercise 5: Retrieving saved Viewplanes

In this exercise, you will restore the view in the Design window to a section view on

6035mE. You will do this by retrieving the N-S SECN 6035 viewplane (section number

6.) that was defined and saved in the previous exercise. This procedure is listed below:

1. Select the Design window.

2. Select View | Get View.

3. In the Command control bar, type "6.0" in the command line (area highlighted

yellow), as shown below and then press the <ENTER> key.

4. In the Design window, check the plan view to see that it is similar to that

shown in the diagram below.


10 STRING TOOLS

10.1 Introduction

This section will introduce the topic of strings(also referred to as lines, polylines in CAD

software programs), which are the building block of most of the subsequent sections

dealing with data modelling and interpretation. The exercises will involve creating

and editing simple string data to demonstrate most of the tools available for string

manipulation.

10.2 Background

Regardless of whether you are a Geologist, Engineer, or a Surveyor, the basic medium

used for recording orebody interpretation, mine planning, and mine development is

strings. Strings are used to define specific regions from which wireframes are

generated to calculate volumes and or tonnes plus weighted grades.

A string comprises one or more 3D points which are joined by a line. Each string has a

start and an end point – in the case of a single point string this is the same point. By

default the start of a string is denoted by a slightly larger symbol in the Design window. A string file may contain a single string or multiple strings.

Studio uses the following fields when writing string data to a file:

PVALUE – Unique identifier for each string

PTN – Integer for each point on a string, where first point on string is PTN=1

XP – Easting local grid coordinate

YP – Northing local grid coordinate

ZP – RL local grid coordinate

COLOUR – String colour

These numeric fields are compulsory for all Studio 3 string files and are used to record

the string and point numbers, the coordinates, and the colour information, for each

string.

If you load a string file into the Design window and the file does not contain a

COLOUR field, then the string will be displayed using the default colour of grey.

In addition to this, Studio 3 will also support the following two additional fields to allow

for varying point symbols and line styles.

Field Description Default

SYMBOL Numeric field set to values between 201 and 267 201

LSTYLE Numeric field set to values between 1001 and

1008 1001

A list of valid SYMBOL and LSTYLE values along with a description of all the main string

file fields is available in Appendix 1 Datamine Standard Field names.

You can think of the above field names as “Standard Fields”, these are field names

that are reserved for Studio 3 use. If you digitise some strings in the Design window

and write them out to a file, the file will contain all of the above fields.


In addition to the standard Studio 3 fields, it will usually be necessary to add one or

more fields to record information about the strings being generated. These additional

fields allow you to filter your data when required. The names you choose to give

these “User Defined” or “Attribute” fields are entirely up to you, the only requirement

being that they must not clash with any of the standard field names (see section on

Attributes for further information).

What is the difference between a string and a perimeter?

The term perimeter is used to describe strings that are “closed”. A string is closed if

the first and last points are identical. You will find that the terms “closed string” and

“perimeter” are used interchangeably.

Does it matter if strings are clockwise or anti-clockwise?

No, you can digitise strings in any direction.

Whilst the concept of string direction is generally meaningless, if you needed to

extend a string from the start point, you would firstly need to reverse the

direction of the string, then extend it and then reverse it back to it’s original

direction.

Does the string number field PVALUE have any reserved values or ranges?

No, the only purpose of the PVALUE field is to ensure that each string has a unique

identifier. The values themselves carry no significance in the Design Window.

What determines the start and end of a string?

The starting point of a string is denoted by an enlarged point symbol. By default this is

a circle whose diameter is twice the size of the other string points. The size can be

modified using Format | Display | Symbols | Size.


Exercise 1: Creating New Strings and Editing Points

1. Unload any data objects which are loaded into the Design window using the

command Data | Unload (ua). This command will remove any data objects

from memory and rest the view to a horizontal view plane centred on 0, 0, 0.

Click on the Select All button, then hit OK:

2. Select Design | New String. The following String Attributes panel will appear at

the bottom of the Design window.

The coloured boxes represent a palette of available colours numbered 1-64.

These represent the standard colour palette. Each box is numbered

according to the numeric code that is used when the colour information is

written to a file.

3. At the far left of the String Attributes panel are 4 options that can be used to select which string attributes you wish to modify.

4. Experiment with these four options by clicking on each in turn. The first (left

most) displays the colour palette. The second shows the symbols that are

available for display at point locations:

The third shows the available line styles:

The fourth option (ATT) allows you to edit the value of any other standard or

user defined attribute. Selecting ATT will have no affect if no additional


attribute fields have been defined. The topic of ATTRIBUTE fields will be

covered later in this training course.

5. Using the Design | New String (ns) command, digitise a couple of lines similar

to those illustrated below. (Remember to select New String or pick a colour from the palette between each new string). When you have finished, click on

the Cancel button to exit New String mode.

The New String command is referred to as a modal command. This means that

the command will remain active until the Cancel button is clicked in the top left of the Design window, the <ESC> key is selected on the keyboard or

another command is run. There are exceptions to commands which will

cancel modal commands, e.g. zooming, panning or moving the viewplane.

6. A new object called New Strings has now been created. This object is

currently held in memory and has not been saved to a physical file. Check

this in the Loaded Data control bar, which should appear as follows:

7. Change the size of the symbols displayed using the command Format | Display. Select New Strings under Overlay Objects, and click on the Symbols tab. Under Size change the value to 1mm. Hit Close to remove the form.

8. If you digitise (left mouse click) a point in the Design Window (Do not use the New String command), the closest string will become “Selected”. When a


string is selected its colour will be changed to yellow. If you hold the <CTRL>

key down you can select/deselect multiple strings with the left mouse button

held down.

9. Deselect any selected strings using Edit | Select on Click | Deselect All Strings (das). Alternatively, click the right mouse button in the Design window

and select Deselect All Strings. 10. The purpose of being able to select one or more strings is to be able to

selectively edit those strings without affecting unselected data. To illustrate

this, run the Deselect All Strings (das) command and then run the

Design | Move Points (mpo) command. You should see the following text

displayed at the bottom of the Design window:

11. Click Finish, then select the right hand string and run the Move Points (mpo) command a second time. The text at the bottom of the screen should now

read:

12. With only the right hand string selected you will NOT be able to move any

points on the other two strings. Click the Cancel button to close the Move Points (mpo) command.

13. The Design | Insert Points (ipo) command allows you to insert points into

existing strings using the mouse to indicate the location of the new points. Like

all string editing tools its effect is limited to selected strings if there are any.

Experiment with this command whilst strings are selected and then not

selected.


Exercise 2: Saving Strings to a File and Erasing Strings

1. To save the strings currently held in memory to a file, open the Loaded Data control bar, right click on the New Strings object and select Data | Save As:

2. In the Save 3D Object dialog click on Datamine (.dm) file:

3. In the Save New Strings dialog type xxtmp1 under Filename and hit Save:

4. Check that the file xxtmp1.dm (strings) has been created in the Loaded Data control bar.

5. To erase the strings held in memory, select Edit | Erase | All Strings (eal) or right click in the Design window select Erase | All Strings

An alternative method for erasing data involves selecting the displayed strings,

then selecting <DELETE> and <ENTER> on the keyboard.


Exercise 3: Open and Closed Strings

1. Digitise a 4 point string as illustrated below and then position the mouse

pointer close to the first point.

2. Now close the string by clicking the right hand mouse button. Using the right

hand mouse button with the new string command forces the new string point

to be ‘snapped’ to the nearest existing data point. Click Cancel to exit the New String command.

3. This string could be described as a “closed string” or a “perimeter” as the first

and last points in the string have exactly the same X, Y and Z coordinates.

Existing open strings can be closed using the

Design | Open/Close | Close (clo) command. The latter command can also

be used to close a new string as an alternative to snapping to the first point

(this is useful if there is any danger of snapping to the wrong point). There is no

difference between closing a string by snapping or closing it using

Design | Open/Close | Close (clo).


Exercise 4: Undo Last Edit and Combining Strings

The Edit | Undo String Edit (ule) command will undo the effect of the last string edit

carried out. Note that this command will not work for all commands particularly those

that involve the creation or removal of multiple strings. String editing commands that

cannot be undone using Undo String Edit (ule) include Edit | Erase | All Strings (eal). The Design | String Tools | Combine (com) command can be used to create a union

between two overlapping strings. The command works by prompting you to select a

segment on each of the two strings that you wish to combine. The strings being

processed with this command can be open or closed.

1. Use Erase | All Strings (eal) to remove all string data from memory and digitise

two overlapping closed strings as illustrated below.

Make sure you click Cancel when you have finished digitising the two strings.


2. Deselect all strings with the Edit | Select | Deselect All Strings (das) command

and experiment with Design | String Tools | Combine (com) by selecting the portions of the strings labeled 1 and 2 in the following examples. Use Undo String Edit (ule) to reverse each change so that you do not need to keep re-digitising the two original strings.

3. If you wish to preserve both the original strings and the combined string in

memory, then turn on the Design | String Tools | Keep Originals (ko) toggle before you use Design | String Tools | Combine (com).


Exercise 5: Extending, Reversing and Connecting Strings

The Design | String Tools | Extend (ext) command allows you to add additional points

to the end of a string. If you wish to add points to the start of a string then you will

need to reverse the direction of the string first using the Design | String Tools | Reverse (rev) command.

The Design | String Tools | Connect (conn) option allows you to join two existing

strings together. The product is a single string. Unlike extending a string, you can

connect two strings end to end, start to start or start to end depending on where you

make the selection.

1. Digitise two separate north-south trending strings that are roughly parallel to

each other. Start digitising at the top of the page and work down.

2. Practice with Design | String Tools | Extend (ext) by adding two or three points

to the lower end of each of the two strings. Use the Design | String Tools | Connect (conn) option to combine the two strings to form a ‘U’ shape.

Then undo (ule) and combine them again to form a ‘N’.

3. It is often easier to extend a string by first creating the new bit as a separate

string (ns), then connecting it to the original string (conn). This avoids the need to reverse the original string.

Question: How would you extend a string from it’s start point?

Answer:


Exercise 6: Clipping Strings and Generating Outlines

In this exercise you will use the Outlines options to generate closed strings using any existing open or closed strings to mark out areas of interest. The Outlines option is used

when there is a need to generate two or more tessellated closed strings (i.e. strings that share common segments). Examples of such strings include bench blast outlines

and orebody markup strings. In all these cases the strings are being used to delineate

closed regions, and there should not be any overlaps between the regions. The blast

markup designs below are a simple example.

Correct Incorrect

While the outline strings could be created individually (using snapping where

required), in practice this approach is slow and prone to error. It is preferable to

digitise “construction strings” as illustrated below, and then use the Outlines option to generate the closed regions.

Note that only one string (large rectangle) is actually closed – this is the outer

boundary of the area of interest. The strings defining the internal boundaries have

been defined using three open strings.

1. Clear any objects from memory by running Data | Unload (ua). Create a new

circular closed string by using one of the circle commands available from

Design | Arcs. Make sure the circle has a diameter of at least 60m.


There are also commands under Design | Rectangles for creating squares and rectangles interactively by corners, centres or edges.

2. Reduce the size of the points on the circle to 1mm, then set the snap mode to

grid using Edit | Snapping | Snap to Grid (stg). The default grid when using this

mode is 10 x 10 x 10 centred on 0, 0, 0.

3. Now digitise a series of strings crossing the circular string using the right-hand

mouse button. You can use one string or several strings; the main requirement

is that all the start and end points are outside the circle. The Design window

should end up looking similar to the image on the below.

4. Save the New strings object to a file called xxtmp2. 5. Set the snap mode back to points using Edit | Snapping | Snap mode set to

Points (stop). 6. Deselect any selected strings and run the Design | String Tools | Clip to

Perimeter (ctp) command.

7. Follow the prompts at the bottom left-hand corner of the Status Bar. When

asked to “Select perimeter to control clipping”, snap a point onto the circle

shaped string.

8. When asked to “Select a point inside or outside to indicate what to delete”,

digitise a point outside the perimeter.

All the string data outside the perimeter will be deleted and extra string points

inserted where the original string segments intersect the perimeter.

9. Save the clipped strings to xxtmp2, overwriting the old string data. The clipped

strings will be used in the next exercise.


9. Open the Project Settings form via File | Settings or right click in the Design window Settings and select Points and Strings on the left hand side of the form.

Toggle on the Generate all possible outlines button as illustrated below. Click

OK to close the form.

10. Select the Design | Outlines | Generate Outlines (ou) and when prompted

answer YES to the dialogue box warning that “Existing Strings will be

replaced.” The system will create all the possible closed strings. All the original

strings will be deleted (which is why you saved them to a file first!)

11. Try selecting the outline strings by digitising points inside the perimeters. You

will find that sometimes you select the closed string surrounding the digitised

point while other times you will select an adjacent string. The problem is that

because adjacent strings have identical segments, the select string

command selects one or other of the strings, but you cannot control which.

12. Run the Edit | Select on Click | Select Perimeter (spe) command and try

clicking within the closed strings as before. This command works by selecting

the closed string with the smallest area that encloses the digitised point.


Exercise 7: Copying, Moving, Expanding, Rotating and Mirroring Strings

The Copy, Move, Rotate and Mirror commands only allow you to make changes

within the current viewplane. These commands all work by asking you to select a

point on the string you wish to copy or modify and then select a second point to

implement the change. You will need to watch the prompts in the bottom left hand

corner of the Status Bar to successfully use these commands.

1. Unload all objects in the Design window and create a circular string.

Experiment with the Design | Move String (mo), Design | Move string | Move String Section (mss), Design | Copy String (cps) and the Design | String Tools | Expand (exp) commands using the newly digitised string.

2. Unload any objects created, digitise a single open string and deselect all

strings. The Design | Rotate String command has 4 options for rotating strings:

3. Experiment with the 3 rotation commands. Note that the Design | Rotate String | Rotate To Azimuth (rsa) command, firstly asks for a rotation point.

Once a point is selected, you will be prompted for the New Azimuth. The value entered will be applied to the azimuth of the segment following (ie.

towards the end of the string) the point you have selected.


4. The Mirror String command draws a mirror image of a single existing string,

reflected about a defined mirror plane. Using the string from the previous

step, run the command Design | Rotate String | Mirror String and select the string (if not already selected) then define the mirror plane with two mouse

clicks as prompted in the Status Bar. The selected string will then be mirrored

about the defined plane.

The mirror plane must extend beyond the limits of the string being mirrored and

the attributes of the original string will NOT be applied to the reflected string.


Exercise 8: Translating Strings

The Design | Translate String (tra) command allows you to make a copy of a selected

string and locate the new string in terms of one or more defined offsets in the X, Y,

and Z directions. It differs from the commands used in the previous exercise in that

the newly created string does NOT have to be located in the current viewplane.

1. Run the Edit | Erase | All Strings (eal) command to delete all string data in

memory and then re-digitise a closed, circle shaped string.

2. Run the Design | Translate String (tra) command and when prompted set the

Z Translation Distance to ‘100’ and press the OK button.

3. In the Design Window it will look as though no new string has been created.

This is only because the new string is directly 100 meters above the old string

and the view in the design window is, by default, isometric. Run the Format | Visualizer | Update Visualizer Objects (uv) command and view the 2 strings in

the Visualizer Window. In the Visualizer window the view is perspective – an

object which is, for instance 100m from the viewplane will appear smaller than

an object of the same size on the viewplane.


The view in the Design window can be changed to perspective view using the

command View | True Perspective (psp). In this mode the grid is not shown.


Exercise 9: Projecting Strings

The Design | Project | Project String (pro) command allows you to make copies of

existing strings that are offset from the current viewplane. It differs from the Translate String (tra) command in that the offset is measured perpendicular to the current string

at a set angle. This projection angle is set using the Design | Project | Set Projection Angle (fng) option which by default has a value of 60. The command allows you 4

projection methods as listed below:

Method Description

Up The projection distance is the required elevation

above the selected string.

Down The projection distance is the required elevation

below the selected string.

Both Strings will be projected up or down such that the

Projection Distance is the required elevation.

Relative Strings will be projected the specified projection

distance.

The Project String (pro) command is used extensively in Open Pit and Underground

Design and to a lesser degree in Orebody Modelling.

1. Unload any objects form the Design window. The viewplane will be set as a

plan view centered on 0 mE, 0 mN, and 0 RL. Leaving the orientation of the

viewplane set to a plan view, change the Z value of the view plane to be 100.

2. Check the default projection angle by running the command Design | Project | Set Projection Angle (fng).

3. Digitise a closed, circle shaped string and run the Design | Project | Project String (pro) command. When prompted in the Command control bar below

the Design window, set the projection method to U and set the target elevation to 125.

4. On the left-hand side of the Status Bar, you will be asked to:

The “high side” is the side of the selected string you wish to project the string

to. Answer the question by digitising a point outside the perimeter. By

digitising outside the perimeter the new projected string will be located 125m

above the existing string, projected outwards at an angle of 60 degrees. The

Design window should look similar to the image below. View the result in the

Visualizer.


5. Making sure the original string is the only one selected, run the Project String a second time setting the Projection method to R and the Projection Distance to 125 (should be the default as this was the last value used). When prompted,

digitise a point outside the string to define the high side and run the Zoom All Data (za) command. If you change the viewplane to a North-South section

the 2 projected strings should have RL values of 125 and 225 (100 +125)

respectively.


Exercise 10: Extending Strings

1. Erase all the string data in memory and digitise 2 open strings as illustrated

below and deselect all strings.

2. Run the Design | String Tools | Extend to String (ess) command. When prompted to Indicate end point TO EXTEND FROM snap a point in the area

marked point A in the above image and then a point on the second string.

This command extends a string from its end point, using the bearing and dip of

the final segment, to a point where it meets another selected string. This is not

necessarily an intersection as the strings may be on different planes.

3. Experiment with Edit | Snapping | Snap to Segment Centre (stms) and Edit | Snapping | Snap Perpendicular (stpe). These commands are used in

conjunction with Edit | Snapping | Snap Mode Set to Points (stpo) and Edit | Snapping | Snap Mode Set to Lines (stl) and the Design | String Tools | Extend (ext) command.

For example, to extend one string to another so that the intersection of the

extension is perpendicular, ensure Edit | Snapping | Snap Mode Set to Lines (stl) is toggled on. Select Edit | Snapping | Snap Perpendicular (stpe), then run the command Design | String Tools | Extend (ext). Select the string you wish to extend, and then right click on the string you wish to extend to.


Exercise 11: Conditioning Strings

A number of commands are available for conditioning strings in the design window

under Design | Condition. These commands are used to both correct and modify

existing strings. Examples of the correction commands include tools for resolving

duplicate points and correcting crossovers.

Equivalent processes for checking and conditioning data held in files are

CHECKIT and PROPER (Applications | Utility Processes | Process Strings).

1. Unload any objects from the Design window and digitise a closed circular

shaped string similar to the one displayed below. Make sure you include the

zig-zag shaped string segments.

2. Select the string and run the Design | Condition | Condition String (cond) option. You will be prompted for the minimum and maximum chord lengths

and the minimum angle. The minimum and maximum chord length options

allow you to adjust the spacing of the points along the string. Points will be

inserted and or deleted to satisfy these settings. The minimum angle setting

can be used to delete adjacent string chords where the angle between them

is less than the defined value. Change the settings in the dialogue box to

match those on the next page and press the OK button. Press the Cancel button to close the command.


The zig-zag segments of the string should have been rounded out.


Exercise 12: Trimming Crossovers and Corners

1. Unload any objects displayed and digitise an open string with a similar shape

to that displayed in the image below.

2. Make sure the string is selected and run the Design | Condition | Trim Crossovers (tcr) command. The crossed portion of the string should have

been deleted.

3. Now run the Design | Condition | Trim Corners (trc) command and snap onto

the two string chords labelled “1” and “2” in the diagram above. The

command will delete the embayed portion of the string and join the 2 chords.

When you use Trim Corners, depending on the projection of the 2 chords selected, the resultant string may not give the expected result. In this case,

consider other commands, such as delete points.

The main reason for using these commands is to remove sections from string

data which will be difficult to wireframe and or are not practical for mining

purposes. The modified string should look similar to the one in the image

below.


Exercise 13 - Smoothing Strings and Reducing String Points

1. Close the modified string from Exercise 12 using the Design | Open/Close | Close (clo) command. If you have erased the string from the previous

exercise then digitise a closed square shaped string.

2. Run the Design | Condition | Smooth String (sms) command which will smooth

a string by inserting additional point between each pair of points.

This is a modal command and remains active until you click the Cancel button or run another command, and each mouse click will insert additional points.

3. Reduction of points on a string(s) is controlled by Design | Condition Percentage Reduction (pre). The default for this command is [-] or [absent], a

setting which will remove the maximum number of points possible from the

string without destroying its overall shape. If this is reset to ‘50’ then 50% of the

points on the selected strings will be removed when Design | Condition | Reduce Points (red) is run.

4. Use the closed string in the Design window to experiment with the smoothing

and reducing commands.


Exercise 14: Breaking Strings with Strings

1. Unload any strings in memory and digitise 2 open strings as illustrated below:

2. Deselect all strings and run the Design | String Tools | Break | With String (bks) command.

3. When prompted to Indicate the Control String in the Status Bar select the straight east-west trending string. When prompted to Indicate String to Break

using the First String select the ”S” shaped string. The first selected string will

cut the second at all points of intersection.

Command fails here, causes crash – reported bug

4. Experiment with the other commands under Design | String Tools | Break.


11 STRING MODELLING

11.1 Introduction

In this section you will put into practice some of the string tools covered in the

previous section and create an ore body string model by digitising, editing and

conditioning strings in the Design window.

11.2 Background

These ore body strings will represent the interpreted limits of the gold-copper

mineralization associated with the Siltstone and Breccia lithology units displayed in the

drillholes, limited by the fault surfaces in the North and South. Strings will be digitized

in North-South sections, using the drillhole geological contacts as a guideline, to

create perimeters for both the upper and lower mineralization zones. Tag Strings will

also be created along the Northern and Southern edges of the sections.

The ore body strings created in the exercises below will be used as the basis or

framework for the ore body wireframe modelling in a later exercise.

What are tag strings?

Tag strings allow you greater control over the linking procedures by defining the

points to be linked using the Link String (ls) command. When used in conjunction with

the various linking methods they are particularly useful when wireframing complex

shapes. A tag string can contain any number of points; however, each point of a tag

string must be on a different perimeter. You can also link a single point with a number

of different points on the second perimeter as shown below.


Tag strings by default are coloured red (COLOUR=2). This colour can be changed if

necessary using the Wireframes | Linking | Set Tag String Colour (taco) command.

You must use the Wireframes | Linking | Create Tag String command to create

tag strings. DO NOT use the Design | New String command.


Exercise 1: Setting Up the Design window for Digitising in Section

In this exercise, you are going to set up the Design window prior to digitizing the ore

body section strings. This will include setting the following:

• Snap Mode and Snap To Data options

• Displaying the fault wireframes as slices.

Setting snapping and select data options


2. Click on the toolbar icons in the Snapping toolbar to turn on snapping to and

selection of point, string, drillhole and wireframe data as shown below (toggle

buttons that are toggled “on” are shown highlighted orange):

By holding the cursor over the toolbar icons a toolbar tip is displayed.

Setting the fault wireframe display style to “Intersection”

1. Select the Sheets control bar. 2. Expand the Design menu tree option, select the _vb_faulttr/_vb_faultpt

(wireframe) object, Right-click and select the Format... menu item.

3. In the Format Display dialog, Overlay Format group, Style tab, Display As group, select the option "Intersection", click the Apply button and then the Close button.


Exercise 2: Digitising Section Strings

In this exercise, you are going to digitize the ore body section strings in vertical planes,

for both the upper (color Green 5) and lower (color Cyan 6) mineralized zones. Each

section will contain two closed perimeter strings, one for each mineralized zone. This

will be done using the 8 North-South section views defined in the exercise Creating and Saving Viewplanes as well as for an additional 2 sections, one 25m to the West of

N-S Secn 5935 and the other 25m to the East of N-S Secn 6110.

Digitising the upper zone string for “N-S Secn 5935”

1. If not already selected, select the Design window tab.

2. Retrieve the N-S Secn 5935 section view using Get View button.

3. In the Command control bar at the Command line type "3" and select the <Enter> key.

4. Compare your start view to that shown below.

The new upper and lower mineralized zone perimeter strings will be limited by

both the North and South fault wireframes and will enclose the mineralized

zone bars displayed to the left of the drillholes. The upper mineralized zone is

colored green, the lower mineralized zone is colored cyan.

5. Start digitizing the upper mineralized zone by clicking the New String button. 6. Select the colour green (5) from the Design window color palette.


7. Zoom into an area using the Zoom In button, so that the North fault and the bottom of the drillhole VB4267 are displayed in the view, as shown below.

The new-string command remains active when the zoom and pan commands

are used.

8. Start the top of the upper mineralized zone, using Left-click (no snap required) to digitize point 1 on the North fault (at approx. -19m elevation - use the cursor

coordinates displayed in the Status Bar as a guideline).

Use the Undo String Edit button to undo any incorrectly digitized points. Use the Move Point button to move digitized points using either Left-click (no snap) or Right-click (snap) to place points.

9. Use Right-click (snap) to digitize point 2 at the top of the zone in drillhole VB4267.

10. Use the Left Arrow and Down Arrow keys to pan across to drillhole VB4266.

11. Use Right-click (snap) to digitize point 3 at the top of the zone in drillhole VB4266.

12. Continue the string in a clockwise direction, observing the following guidelines:

• Snap (right-click) to drillholes which are “on section”.

• Digitise (left-click) to drillholes “off section” and points on the fault

wireframe surface.

• When digitizing points on the fault wireframe surface, position the

points at an elevation which follows the dip of the previous segment

on the string.

• Use zooming and panning to move within the section.

• Use Undo String Edit button to undo any incorrectly digitized points. • If you need to move or delete points on the string, use the Move Point

and Delete Point buttons. • Close the string by snapping to the first string point.

• Check your work regularly in the Visualizer window.


12. Stop the string creation process by clicking the Cancel button in the top left of the Design window.

13. In the Design window, compare your digitized upper mineralized zone

perimeter string to that shown below.

Smoothing the upper zone string for “N-S Secn 5935”

1. In the Design window select the newly digitized string by using Left-click on or close to a String point or String segment.

2. Click the Smooth String button to smooth the string as shown below. The

smoothing action has added extra points between each pair of string points.


3. Delete the 2 extra points at the north and south ends of the string by clicking

the Delete Point button, select the point in the North using Left-click, select the point in the South using Left-click, click the Redraw button and then click the

Cancel button. 4. In the Design window, Right-click and select the Deselect All Strings menu

option.

5. In the Design window, compare your smoothed upper mineralized zone string

to that shown below.

Digitising, smoothing and editing the lower zone string for “N-S Secn 5935”

1. In Design window, the view should still be the N-S Secn 5935 section view as

used for digitizing the upper zone string .

2. Start digitizing the lower mineralized zone by clicking the New String button. 3. Select the color cyan (6) from the Design window color palette.

4. Using steps 6 to 12 listed in the exercise procedure Digitizing the upper zone string for "N-S Secn 5935", digitize the 10 points and close the string for the lower zone to create the string as shown below.

Ensure that points on the top of the lower zone string are snapped to the

corresponding points on the lower contact of the upper zone string.

5. Digitize the string points on the faults at the following elevations:

String Point Elevations: N-S Secn 5935

Mineralization

Zone

Point

Number Location Elevation

Lower 6 South Fault 80m

Lower 10 North Fault -44m


6. The upper contact of the lower zone will overlap the lower contact of the

upper zone at a number of places at this stage as shown below:

7. Using steps 1 to 5 listed in the exercise procedure Smoothing the upper zone string for "N-S Secn 5935", smooth and delete the extra points for the lower

zone.

8. Check that the bottom of the upper zone and the top of the lower zone string

points coincide correctly and that the strings do not overlap.


9. For incorrectly placed points, use the Move Points button | Left-click on point to move | Right-click on new location, to move "top of lower zone" string

points to their correct positions, to produce upper and lower zone.

Creating the mineralization zone strings for the remaining sections.

1. Create the upper and lower mineralized zone strings for the remaining

sections, using the steps listed in the exercise procedures Digitizing the upper zone string for "N-S Secn 5935", Smoothing the upper zone string for "N-S Secn 5935" and Digitizing, Smoothing and Editing the lower zone string for "N-S Secn 5935".

2. Use elevations for the string points located on the fault intersections, which are

suitable for the orientation of the string at these locations.

Creating the mineralization zone strings for the eastern end.

1. The view should still be the N-S Secn 6010 section view, the last section

digitised.

2. Select the N-S Secn 6010 upper and lower zone strings using a selection

window.


3. Copy these selected strings 25m to the East by clicking the Translate String button, setting the X Translation distance to "25" m and then clicking the OK button.

4. Deselect all strings in the Design window using Right-click | Deselect All Strings.

5. Move the view plane by 25m to the East by clicking the Move Plane button, in the Move Plane dialog set the Distance option to "-25" m and then click the

OK button. 6. Select the upper mineralization zone string using Left-click close to a string

point or segment.

7. Shorten the Northern extents of this zone string by deleting the Northern 2

columns of points, using the Delete Points button to delete these 5 points and then click the Cancel button in the Design window to stop the deletion.

In this deletion process, both the string start and end points (both have the

same coordinates for a closed string) are deleted, resulting in an open string.

8. Refresh the display using the Redraw button.

9. Shorten the southern extents of this zone string by deleting the southernmost

column of points, using the Delete Points button to delete these 2 points and then click the Cancel button in the Design window to stop the deletion.

10. Select the Close String button to re-close the string. 11. Refresh the display using the Redraw button.

12. Select the lower mineralization zone string using Left-click close to a string point or segment.

13. Shorten the northern extents of this zone string by deleting the Northern 2

columns of points, using the Delete Points button to delete these 5 points and then click the Cancel button in the Design window to stop the deletion.

Refresh the display using the Redraw button.

14. Shorten the southern extents of this zone string by deleting the southernmost

column of points, using the Delete Points button to delete these 2 points and then click the Cancel button in the Design window to stop the deletion.

15. Select the Close String button to re-close this string. 16. Refresh the display using the Redraw button.


17. Check that your East end section strings look similar to those shown below.

Creating the mineralization zone strings for the western end.

1. Retrieve the N-S Secn 5935 section In the Command control bar at the Command line by typing "3" and select the <Enter> key.

2. Select the N-S Secn 5935 upper and lower zone strings using a selection

window.

3. Copy these selected strings 25m to the West by clicking the Translate String button, setting the X Translation distance to "-25" m and then clicking the OK button.

4. Deselect all strings by using Right-click in the Design window | Deselect All Strings.

5. Move the view plane by 25m to the West by clicking the Move Plane button, in the Move Plane dialog set the Distance option to "25" m and then click the

OK button. 6. Select the upper mineralization zone string using Left-click close to a string

point or segment.

7. Repeat steps 7-16 in the section Creating the mineralization zone strings for the eastern end.


8. Check that your West end section strings look similar to those shown below.

9. Retrieve the PLAN 195m plan view using the Get View button. In the

Command control bar at the Command line type "1" and select the Enter key. 10. Compare your sections strings to those shown below.


The sections strings have some string segments lying within each section plane

and others lying within in the section clipping. This is the result of using the Left

(no snap) and Right (snap) mouse buttons when defining the string points. The

unsnapped points should lie within the section plane and the snapped points

should lie on drillhole segment endpoints. The resultant section strings are not

co-planar but can still be used for wireframe modelling.

11. Update the Visualizer window view by using Right-click in the Design window

| Update Visualizer Objects.

12. View your section strings from various directions by using the rotation, panning

and zooming tools.

13. Format the fault wireframes and return the display Style to Faces.


Exercise 2: Creating Tag Strings

In this exercise, you will create Tag Strings that will link the Northern and Southern

upper and lower mineralized zones sections. These will be digitized from West to East

and will be coloured red. There will be 6 separate strings for each of the top and

bottom edges, 3 to the north and 3 to the south.

Tag Strings are special types of strings that are used to allow advanced control

options in the String Linking wireframing command. This will be used in the later

wireframe modelling exercises.

1. Turn off all objects in the Sheets control bar except for the mineralised zone

strings.

2. Rotate the string data object in the Design window by holding down the

<Shift> key on the keyboard and rotating the display whilst holding down the

left mouse button.

3. Set the Tag String color using the Set Tag String Colour button in the Wireframe Linking toolbar.

4. In the Tag String Colour dialog, set the colour option to "2" and then click the OK button.

5. In the Design window, zoom into an area using the Zoom In button, so that the Southern edges of the 5910E, 5935E, 5960E and 5985E section strings are visible,

as shown below.

6. Click the Create Tag String button and using Right-click (snap), digitize the Tag String for the top of the upper mineralized zone (green 5), starting in the

West, moving towards the East, by snapping to the existing section strings

points.

7. Click the Cancel button in the Design window to stop digitizing and then click

Redraw button to refresh the display.


8. Compare your "top Southern edge of the upper mineralized zone" Tag String

to that shown below.

9. Update the Visualizer window view by using Right-click in the Design window

| Update Visualizer Objects.

10. In the Visualizer window, check your tag string from various directions by using

the rotation, panning and zooming tools.

11. In the Design window, if required, select the Tag String and move any

misplaced points to their correct positions by using the Move Points button and the Right-click (snap) cursor button. Click the Design window Cancel button to stop editing the string.


12. Repeat this procedure for the other 5 strings. The final strings should look like

the diagram below:

13. Save the final strings to a Datamine file.


12 WIREFRAME MODELLING – SURFACES

12.1 Introduction

In this set of exercises you will be introduced to the topic of wireframing. Wireframes

(also referred to as surfaces or solids in CAD or other modelling software programs)

are 3D objects that can be generated by one of the following methods:

• using Digital Terrain Modelling (DTM) wireframing techniques on 3D string

and/or point objects

• using String Linking techniques on 3D strings • using Wireframing Manipulation techniques on existing wireframe objects

Wireframes are either "closed" volumes or "open" surfaces and can be used to

represent a wide range of general, geological and mining related features, for

example:

• topography or infrastructure surfaces

• geological field mapping e.g. geological structure planes

• interpreted or modeled geological features e.g. fault surfaces, lithology

boundary surfaces, ore body volumes

• underground and open pit designed or planned mining surfaces or volumes

• underground and open pit surveyed or actual mining surfaces or volumes

In this section you will learn how to use the commands relating to DTM’s in the Design window and construct a wireframe to represent the topography of the area.

12.2 Background

A wireframe is a surface or 3D volume formed by linking points together to form

triangles. These triangles are linked together to form a continuous surface from which

block models can be built and volumes calculated. The raw input for building

wireframes are string or point data types whose points are used to define the

triangles. The example below is a display of a subset of topography strings and the

matching surface wireframe generated from it.

Topography Strings Topography Wireframes


In the example above, note that triangles have been created where each vertice is

a point on a string. Also, there is no triangle which crosses a string; each string acts as

a break-line. The wireframe forms a continuous surface, in this case with an open

edge which defines the boundary of the wireframe surface.

What is a DTM surface and when is it applicable?

A DTM surface is a sub horizontal surface style wireframe. It can be distinguished from

other styles of wireframes in that any point projected vertically through the surface will

only cross the surface once. The most common examples are:

• surface topography

• geological features (fault surfaces, lithology or mineralization surfaces)

• open pit designs

• open pit survey measurements

Can I use the Make DTM (md) command on strings which sit in a vertical plane?

Yes you can, but you must toggle off the ‘World coordinates-Off for view coords’

switch. This switch can be found in the DTM section of the File | Settings menu.

How are wireframe objects saved to a file?

Wireframe data can be displayed in the Design, Visualizer and VR windows whilst

held in memory and when the data is written to a file it is stored in 2 files which

typically end in “TR” and “PT”. Examples of this file type you will see in this training

course include mintr, ,minpt and stopotr, stopopt. The files ending in TR are the

triangle files which store data for each wireframe vertice and files ending in PT which

store the coordinate data for each wireframe vertice. The standard fields stored in

triangle and points files are listed in Appendix 1.

By default, wireframes are loaded or saved in a single action, that is, Studio 3 does not prompt for the wireframe points file. Once you enter the name of wireframe

triangle file, the points file name is determined using the TR/PT convention. This means

that when you load or save wireframe data, you will only be prompted for the

triangle file name.

If you wish to change this setting and be prompted for the points file name, select the

Tools | Options |Project | General option from the pull down menus and toggle on

the Confirm wireframe point filename in browser option.


The key DTM wireframing commands availble from the DTM Creation toolbar are listed below:

Button Command Quick Key Description

Create DTM md Makes a DTM wireframe surface.

Select Inner Limit sil Select one or more closed strings

to form inner boundary(s) to

constrain wireframing.

Select Outer Limit sol Select a closed string to form an

outer boundary to constrain

wireframing.

Use Limits for new DTM tli Toggles on/off any limits previously

set.

Remove all DTM Limits dal Remove all Limits.

Remove DTM Limit dli Remove the one Limit.

DTM Coordinate

System

tcs Toggles on/off world coordinates

for view coordiantes.

DTM Point Checking tpc Checks for duplicate points.

In addition to the commands above which are used to make, undo and control the

limits of the wireframe, there are 3 settings you can use to fine tune the results from

the Make DTM command.

Button Command Quick Key

Description

Wireframes | Interactive

DTM Creation | Set Point

Tolerance

sto No triangles will be created with sides

less than this value.


DTM Creation |

Maximum Separation

mse No triangles will be created with sides

greater than this value.


DTM Creation | New

Point Separation

nps Used to insert extra points along strings

when building triangles.


In the next 3 exercises, you are going to use the Interactive DTM Creation functions in the Design window to create a wireframe model of the topography surface. This will

be done using the topography contour strings stopo.dm (strings) object as a

framework for the wireframe.

Exercise 1 – Defining the Data Display and DTM creation settings

1. Select the Sheets control bar and fully expand the Design tree menu item.

2. Turn off the display of all Overlays objects (untick the boxes to the left of each

item) except the stopo.dm (strings) object. 3. Select the Design window tab and retrieve the PLAN 195m view using the Get

View button. Enter ‘1’ at the command prompt in the Command control bar. The view will be displayed as shown below.

If the viewdefs file is not open, use Data | Load | Other Types | Section Definition Table to load the file.

4. In the DTM Creation toolbar, toggle off the Use Limits for New DTM button. 5. Toggle on the DTM Coordinate System button. 6. Toggle on the DTM Point Checking button.


7. Select the DTM New Point Separation button, in the dialog set the distance to "0" and then click the OK button.

8. Toggle off the Wireframe Point Checking button.


Exercise 2: Creating the DTM without Limits

1. Select the Create DTM button. 2. In the Make DTM dialog, Output pane, select the "New Object" option and set

the name to "stopo".

3. In the Objects pane, tick the stopo.dm (strings) object and then click the OK button.

4. In the Design window color palette, select the color Green 5 button and then click the OK button.

5. Check the Output control bar to make sure that no errors were generated

during the creation of the wireframe.

6. In the Design window, check the topography surface wireframe, as shown

below.

7. In the Visualizer window, check that the wireframe triangles correctly

represent the surface as defined by the different segments on the contour

strings.

Generally, if a wireframe does not sufficiently honour the contour strings, you

need to Unload the newly created wireframe object from within the Loaded

Data control bar, check and correct the objects (strings and/or points) that

were used to create the wireframe, save changes made to modified string

and point objects and then recreate the wireframe.

8. Check that the new stopo wireframe object is listed in the Loaded data

control bar and the Sheets control bar under the Overlays category.


9. In the Loaded Data control bar, select the stopo object and use the Data Object Manager to check that the wireframe contains 10194 points and

edges and 3398 faces.

10. Select the stopo object | Right-click | Data | Unload. In the message dialog

click the Yes button and then redraw the display.


Exercise 3: Creating the DTM with limits

1. Toggle on the Use Limits for New DTM button.

2. Select the Remove All DTM Limits button (to remove any accidentally selected

limits).

3. Select the Select Outer Limit button and then select (left-click) the outer boundary string surrounding the contour strings. The colour of the selected

string will be displayed as cyan.

4. Select the Select Inner Limit button and then select (left-click) the closed string in the north-east of the area. The colour of the selected string will be

displayed as green.

5. Select the Create DTM button.

6. In the Make DTM dialog, Output pane, select the "New Object" option and set



8. In the Design window color palette, select the color Green 5 button and then

click the OK button. 9. Check the Output control bar to make sure that no errors were generated

during the creation of the wireframe.

10. Update the visualizer and check the wireframe. It should appear as below:


Exercise 4: Creating the final Topography DTM

1. Erase any wireframes from memory and deselect any wireframing limits using

the Remove All DTM Limits button. 2. Select the Select Outer Limit button and then select (left-click) the outer

boundary string surrounding the contour strings. The colour of the selected

string will be displayed as cyan.

3. Select the Create DTM button.

4. In the Make DTM dialog, Output pane, select the "New Object" option and set



6. In the Design window color palette, select the color Green 5 button and then

click the OK button. 7. Check that the stopo wireframe object is listed in the Sheets control bar and

the Loaded Data control bar.


Exercise 5: Saving the new Wireframe Object

In this exercise, you are going to save the new topography wireframe object stopo to a file. The wireframe triangle file will be named stopotr and the wireframe points file

will be named stopopt.


2. In the Current Objects toolbar, select the "Wireframes" option from the Object

Types dropdown and then the "stopo" object from the Wireframe Objects list.

3. Click the Save Object button in the Current Objects toolbar. 4. In the Save 3D Object dialog, click the Datamine (.dm) File button. 5. In the Save stopo dialog, define the file name as "stopotr" and then click the

Save button.

This dialog is prompting for the name of the wireframe triangle file (use the

standard *tr naming convention). The process of saving the wireframes will

automatically create the wireframe points file as well, with the name stopopt

i.e. the "tr" suffix is replaced with "pt".

6. Select the Sheets control bar and check that the new stopotr/stopopt (wireframe) object is listed under the Overlays category.


7. Select the Project Files control bar and check that the new stopopt and

stopotr wireframe files are listed under the Wireframe Points and Wireframe

Triangles folders respectively.

8. Select the Loaded Data control bar and check that the new stopotr/stopopt (wireframe) object is displayed in the list.


Exercise 6: Displaying and Rendering Wireframes in the Design window

In this exercise you are going to examine different ways of displaying wireframes in

the Design window.

1. In the Sheets control bar toggle off any Overlays other than the

stopotr/stopopt (wireframe) overlay.

2. Change the view plane to a north-south view centred on the wireframe, as

below.

3. Select Format | Display and select the stopotr/stopopt (wireframe) object from the Overlay Objects pane.

4. In the Overlay Format pane, under the Style tab, experiment with the

wireframe display by selecting the buttons for Points, Faces and Intersection.

Each time you make a button selection, hit the Apply button; the changes will

be applied and the dialog will remain open. To close the dialog, hit the OK

button; the dialog will close and any changes made will be applied.

5. To display 3D Rendering of wireframes in the Design window, reopen the

Format Display dialog and toggle on 3D Rendering. Experiment with the

toggles under the Shading and Draw Mode panes.


6. You can see the result of the changes you make if you hit the Apply button. 7. To view the full effects of rendering in the Design window, hit the Close button

in the Format Display dialog, then hold down the <SHIFT> key on the keyboard

and rotate the display by holding down the left mouse button and move the

mouse.


13 WIREFRAME MODELLING - CLOSED

VOLUMES

13.1 Introduction

In this section you will create a wireframe model for the ore body. The mineralization

strings created in the previous exercises "XYZ" and "XYZ" will be used together with

string linking wireframe techniques to generate the ore body wireframe volume. This

will be done using two different methods i.e. without and with tag Strings. This ore

body wireframe model will then be used in later block modelling and presentation

exercises.

13.2 Background

The Wireframe Linking techniques can be used to link open and closed strings to form

wireframe solids and surfaces. Typically these techniques are used to create closed

volumes for the following:

• geological features (lithology or mineralization volumes)

• underground designs

• underground survey measurements

The wireframe linking commands can only be used with string data.

String linking to build wireframes involves linking the points on 2 or more separate

strings to build a surface made up of triangles. Unlike the Create DTM (md) command, the methods used do not require the strings to be orientated in a

particular view or plane.

Can I select the manner in which strings are linked?

Three separate linking methods are available for linking strings together. The linking

method can be changed at any time and as such it is possible to change the linking

method for each link in the wireframe if this gives the desired result.

If you find that the particular linking method is not giving the desired result,

then change the method under File | Setting | Wireframing | Linking Method.

The method names and a brief description are listed below:

Command Quick Command

Description

Minimum Surface Area tma The system will create the triangulation which

have the smallest wireframe surface area.

Equi-angular Shape tea The system will create equi-angular triangles

(i.e. equilateral or isosceles triangles

Proportional Length tpr This option will create triangles which best

maintain their proportional position along the

string. The starting edge for triangulation is

determined either by user defined tag strings

or, if selected by the system, the closest pair of


points on the two strings. This option works best

where the shape of the two strings is similar.

The default method is the Equi-angular Shape method. The following diagram shows

a pair of strings linked using each of the above methods:

What are tag strings?

Tag strings allow you greater control over the linking procedures by defining the

points to be linked using the Link String (ls) command. When used in conjunction with

the various linking methods they are particularly useful when wireframing complex

shapes. A tag string can contain any number of points; however, each point of a tag

string must be on a different perimeter. You can also link a single point with a number

of different points on the second perimeter as shown below.

Tag strings by default are coloured red (COLOUR=2). This colour can be changed if

necessary using the Wireframes | Linking | Set Tag String Colour (taco) command.

You must use the Wireframes | Linking | Create Tag String command to create

tag strings. DO NOT use the Design | New String command.

How do I erase wireframe links?

The last wireframe link created can be deleted using the Wireframes | Linking | Undo Last Link (ull) command. To select the link you wish to delete select the Wireframes | Tools | Unlink Wireframe (uw) option. Commands for erasing wireframes are also

available under the Edit | Erase pull down Menu.

The following Design window wireframing tools are commonly used in the process of

creating closed wireframe volumes.

Table of linking commands

Equi-angular Shape

Minimum Surface Area

Proportional Length


Exercise 1: Creating a Basic 3D Volume

In this exercise you will create a 3D solid using the linking techniques.

1. Unload any objects in the Design window and create a closed circular string

in plan view on 0RL.

2. Use the Design | Translate String (tra) command to project copies of the string

vertically 50, 100, and 150 metres away from the current viewplane. Leave the

X and Y offsets set to zero and make sure the Z offsets are all positive.

3. Move the view plane 200 metres vertically and digitise a two point open string

directly above the four strings created previously. When you have digitised

the two point string, rotate the view by holding down the <SHIFT> and the left

mouse button. Run the command View | Zoom | Zoom All so you can clearly distinguish the five strings.

4. Ensure you can see the Wireframe Linking toolbar (View | Customization | Toolbars | Wireframe Linking) as shown below


5. Close the lowermost closed perimeter with the End Link button. 6. Select the Link Strings button. A message will appear in the bottom left hand

corner of the Status Bar asking you to “Indicate the first string”, snap a point on the lowermost closed string. You will now be asked to “Indicate next string to

link to this string”, snap a point onto the perimeter directly above the string

you snapped to previously. The Design Window should look similar to that in

the image below.

7. Continue snapping points on the remaining three strings making sure you work

from the lower most closed unlinked string to the top (including the two point

string). Press the Cancel button to close the Link Strings (ls) command.

Linking pairs of strings more than once will result in duplicate triangles. The

latter will cause numerous problems when you use the wireframes for block

modelling or for volume calculations.

8. Update the Visualizer to view the results.


You will find that the wireframe forms a complete skin around the strings with

the exception of a “hole” near the 2 point string. This problem is not apparent

in the Design window. This is a good reason to always check your wireframing

in the Visualizer.


Exercise 2: Linking a Perimeter to an Open String

The reason for the hole in the wireframe was the wrong command was used to link

the open and closed strings. The Link Strings (ls) command will link 2 open strings or 2

closed strings and so a different command is needed for this circumstance.

1. Use the Undo Last link button on the Wireframe Linking toolbar to remove the

link to the open string (assuming this was the last link you created!)

2. Re-link the 2 strings with the Link to Line button on the Wireframe Linking toolbar.

3. View the wireframe in the Visualizer, the hole should no longer be evident.


Exercise 3: Creating a Wireframe with Multiple Splits

In this exercise you will create a wireframe by linking to portions of a string controlled

by boundary strings.

1. Unload any objects in the Design window and create a set of perimeters

which are made up of a single perimeter on one plane and three smaller

perimeters on second plane 50 metres above the first plane.

2. Digitise two, two point open strings with the end points snapped to points on

the ellipse shaped perimeter as illustrated below. You may need to insert

additional points onto the perimeter.

3. Rotate the view in the Design window so that the completed strings should

appear as below:

THESE POINTS MUST BE SNAPPED


4. Select the Link Boundary button snapping three times onto the pairs of points

as marked out with arrows in the above image and view the result in the

Visualizer. The wireframe should look similar to the one below:

The Link Boundary (lbo) command assumes you will select two closed strings

one of which will be crossed by 1 or more open strings. The ends of the open

string MUST be snapped onto a point on the perimeter. These open strings are

treated as boundary strings by the Link Boundary (lbo) command.

If you tried to link the stings with the Link String (ls) command, the boundary

strings would have been ignored.

To close off one or more of the regions defined by the perimeter and the

boundary strings, you will need to use the End Link Boundary (elb) button. This command assumes you select a perimeter crossed by one or more boundary

strings unlike the Wireframes | Linking | End Link (eli) command which ignores

boundary strings.

5. Erase the central link using Erase Wireframe Link (uw) from the toolbar. Use the

the End Link Boundary button to remove the centre section between the 2

boundary strings.

Make sure you snap onto a point in the perimeter between the two boundary

strings, do NOT snap onto a boundary string itself. View the result in the

Visualizer. The view in the Design Window should look similar to the following.


Exercise 4: Creating an Ore Body Wireframe using Tag Strings

In this exercise, you are going to use the Wireframe Linking functions in the Design window to create a wireframe model of the ore body. This will be done using the

example ore body mineralization strings _vb_minst.dm (strings) object as a framework

for the wireframe. You will be performing the following tasks in this exercise:

• Loading strings, defining data display and wireframe linking settings

• Defining string display filters

• Creating the Upper mineralized zone wireframe without using Tag Strings

• Erasing the incorrectly formed Upper mineralized zone wireframe

• Creating the Upper mineralized zone wireframe using Tag Strings

• Creating the Lower mineralized zone wireframe using Tag Strings

Loading strings, defining data display and wireframe linking settings

1. In the Design window, turn on the display of the Current Objects toolbar. 2. In this toolbar, select the “Wireframe” option from the Object Types dropdown

and then click the Create Object button. A new object New Wireframe should now be displayed in the Wireframe Objects list in the Current Objects toolbar

3. Check that the New Wireframe object has been added to the Design window

Overlays list and the Loaded Data control bar. 4. Use drag-and drop to load the string file _vb_minst from the Project Files

control bar into the Design window.

5. Select the Sheets control bar, fully expand the Design tree menu item and turn

off the display of all Overlay objects (untick the box to the left of each item)

except the _vd_minst.dm (strings) object.

6. Format the _vb_minst.dm (strings) object to display a symbol size of 0.5mm.

7. In the Design window, hold down the <SHIFT> key and the left mouse button,

and move the mouse to rotate the display.


8. In the Wireframe Linking toolbar, toggle on the Use Tags button.


Creating the upper mineralized zone wireframe using tag strings

1. Use a global filter to display only the Tag strings (Red 2) and the upper

mineralized zone strings (Green 5) using Format | Filter All Objects | Strings and the parameters shown in the dialog below.

2. Check that the Design window is displaying only the tag strings (red colour 2)

and the upper mineralized zone strings (green colour 5)


2. Select the End Link button and close the ends of the ore body volume by

selecting the far western section string and the far eastern section string. Click

the Cancel button in the Design window to complete the end links.

3. Update the Visualizer and check that the wireframes have been created for

the two end sections.

4. Return to the Design window, select the Link Strings button and starting at the far western section string select each of the 10 section strings in turn. Click the

Cancel button to stop the linking function.

Watch the Status Bar at the bottom of the Studio 3 window for messages

during the string linking procedure.

5. In the Design window check that your wireframe for the upper mineralized

zone is as shown below.


6. In the Visualizer window check that the wireframe triangles correctly represent

the surface as defined by the section strings. The wireframe is a closed

volume containing both wireframe surfaces at each end and between each

section string. There should not be any gaps nor holes in the wireframe.

Creating the lower mineralised zone wireframe using automatic linking.

This part of the exercise uses a different procedure to generate the wireframe i.e. it

uses Link Multiple by Attribute in place of Link Strings and End Link. This procedure is faster but relies on a numeric Attribute field to guide the automatic string linking

order. In this case the Attribute SECTION is used; the section strings are numbered 1 to

10 starting with the far western section.

1. Use Format | Filter All Objects | Strings (fs) to display only the tag strings ( red colour 2) and the lower mineralised zone strings (cyan colour 6) with a filter as

follows:

COLOUR=2 OR COLOUR=6

2. Apply a filter in the same way to hide the existing upper mineralised zone

(green colour 5) using Format | Filter All Objects | Wireframe Triangles (fwt). 3. Check the Design window is displaying the tag strings and the lower

mineralised zone strings.


4. Select Wireframe | Linking and toggle on the Endlink when Multiple Linking

option.

5. In the design window use a selection window to highlight all 10 cyan strings,

then select Wireframes | Linking | Link Multiple by Attribute button.

6. In the Auto linking dialog, type in ‘SECTION’ as the Attribute to define

sequence option and then click the OK button.

7. In the Number of strings per block dialog, type in ‘10’ as the Number of Strings

option and then click the OK button.

8. In the Design window, check that your wireframe for the lower mineralized

zone is as shown below.


14 WIREFRAME MODELLING –

MANIPULATION

14.1 Introduction

In this section of the training you will be introduced to the various techniques

available for the manipulation and editing of wireframes and then you will use a

manipulation technique to verify your previously generated surface topography and

ore body wireframe objects, stopotr/stopopt (wireframe) and mintr/minpt (wireframe) respectively.

14.2 Background

When should I use wireframe manipulation?

Wireframe Manipulation techniques are typically used to generate new:

• Wireframe objects from the interaction of two loaded wireframe objects i.e. to

create a new combination or subset of interacting surfaces

• Wireframe or string objects from the interaction of a wireframe object and a

defined plane(s) i.e. to create wireframe slices or strings.

These manipulation techniques are grouped according to the following categories:

• Boolean Operations - two wireframe objects: generate extraction, union,

intersection, difference, hull or update wireframes; intersection strings

• Plane Operations - one wireframe object and defined plane: split,

multiple split and DTM projection wireframes; section, multiple section and hull

strings

• Other Commands - verify, decimate (optimize) and calculate wireframe

volumes

Wireframe manipulation techniques require the wireframe objects to be

loaded so that they can be selected for processing.

How do I select wireframes for manipulation or editing?

The key to successfully using the manipulation and editing commands is to fully

understand the options for selecting the wireframe or portion of wireframe that you

wish to process. Under File | Settings | Wireframing menu there are five methods for

selecting wireframes as shown in the table below. Each of these options is defined

using a toggle switch. The chosen selection method will govern all the Design window

based commands used to modify and evaluate wireframe data.


Selection Method Description

By Object Controls the selection of wireframe data by object names.

This will cause selection of wireframe data by prompting

for wireframe point and triangle filenames.

By Group Controls the selection of wireframe data by picked

wireframe group. Select wireframe data matching the

wireframe group of a triangle selected with the cursor.

By Surface Controls the selection of wireframe data by picked

wireframe surface. Select wireframe data matching the

wireframe group and surface numbers of a triangle

selected with the cursor.

By Attribute Controls the selection of wireframe data by user attributes.

Select wireframe data by the user defined attributes

associated with a triangle selected with the cursor. The

wireframe group and surface numbers are ignored on

input, and new group and surface numbers will be

generated on output.

Custom Controls the selection of wireframe data by user defined

filters. Select wireframe data by user defined point and

triangle file filters. The fields available in the point file are

GROUP, PID, XP, YP and ZP. The fields available in the

triangle files are GROUP, SURFACE, LINK, TRE1ADJ, TRE2ADJ,

TCOLOUR, COLOUR, NORMAL-X, NORMAL-Y, NORMAL-Z

and any other user-defined attributes. The wireframe

group and surface numbers are ignored on input, and new

group and surface numbers will be generated on output.

Attribute fields identifying separate wireframes in terms of rock or zone type are a key

component of wireframe files. They allow individual wireframes to be identified in the

Design Window and are also passed onto model cells when used to build block

models. All wireframe attribute fields are stored in the wireframe triangle file.

In addition to user defined attribute fields there are 4 standard Datamine attribute

fields added to every triangle file. These fields are described below:

• GROUP - In addition to user defined attribute fields there are 4 standard

Datamine attribute fields added to every triangle file. These fields are

described below.

• SURFACE - A wireframe with a unique GROUP value can consist of one or

more individual surfaces identified using the SURFACE attribute.

• LINK - Each wireframe consists of one or more individual links with each link

being assigned a unique number. This field is only used for internal processing.

• COLOUR - This field is set to numbers from 1 to 64 and is used to record the

colour value for each triangle. These numbers and colours match those

displayed when you use the Make DTM (md) or New String (ns) commands.

The actual GROUP, SURFACE, and LINK values assigned to wireframe data are

controlled by Datamine Studio. If you want to assign specific values to wireframe

attributes, then you should create user-defined attributes for this purpose.


Do not rely on GROUP, SURFACE and LINK values to identify subsets of

wireframe data. Use different colours and at least one other attribute field.

The classification of wireframes using the GROUP and SURFACE fields provides a

means by which wireframes can be identified for operations such as combining and

verifying wireframes, which will be described later. It also provides greater control

when erasing wireframes. You can erase wireframes by GROUP, SURFACE or LINK and

individual triangles.

Why do I need to verify my wireframes?

The Wireframes | Verify (wvf) command can be used to perform a number of

validation checks. These include:

• Identification of discontinuities (holes or bifurcations) within a wireframe

surface.

• Identification of intersection lines after wireframes have been merged.

• Identification of self-intersection or crossovers within a wireframe.

• Checking for duplicate points

• Re-assign wireframe GROUP and SURFACE values.

The actions of the VERIFY command are controlled by a number of toggle switches

which are set when the command is run.

You should run the VERIFY command before carrying out any merging or

splitting of wireframes or calculating wireframe volumes..


The checks performed by the wireframe verify command are listed below:

Check Description

Store surface

number

Identifies separated surfaces based on face

connectivity, assigns a separate index to

each surface, then stores that index in the

field specified.

Check for open

edges

Searches for edges which not shared

between 2 faces. Where found, a new

object is created containing strings made

up from the open edges.

Check for shared

edges

Checks for edges shared by more than 2

faces. If found a new object is created

containing strings made up from the shared

edges.

Check for crossovers Checks for faces that intersect, but are not

adjoining. Where found, a new object is

created containing strings made up from

the edges formed by the intersections.

Remove duplicate

vertices

Removes multiple instances of vertices

which occur in the same location, and

combines them into a single reference.

Remove duplicate

faces

Removes multiple instances of faces which

share the vertex coordinates.

Remove empty

faces

Removes any faces which have zero

surface area.


Exercise 1: Verifying Wireframe Objects

In this exercise, you will verify the newly created surface topography and ore body

wireframe objects, stopotr/stopopt (wireframe) and mintr/minpt (wireframe)

respectively.

1. Select Wireframes | Verify. 2. In the Verify Wireframe dialog, Name group, select the stopotr/stopopt

(wireframe) object.

3. Tick and select the options as shown in the dialog below:

4. In the Verify Results Summary dialog, check that your results are as shown in

the dialog below:

5. Select the Loaded Data control bar. 6. On the mintr/minpt (wireframe) object | Right-Click | Verify.


7. In the Verify Wireframe dialog, tick and select the options as shown in the

dialog below:

8. In the Verify Results Summary dialog, check that your results are as shown in

the dialog below:

The 52 Shared Edges indicate the shared edges between the upper and lower

mineralized zone wireframes. The 2 Intersection indicates that two wireframe

triangle faces intersect.

9. In the Sheets control bar, Design tree item, display the following overlays:

mintr/minpt (wireframe) - (Verified Shared Edges)

mintr/minpt (wireframe) - (Verified Crossovers)

These overlays (and associated objects) are generated when Shared Edges

and Crossovers/Intersections are detected during wireframe verification.

These objects can be used to indicate areas in the source string objects that

may need editing.


10. In the Design window, check that your Shared Edges (Cyan 6) and

Crossovers/Intersections (Green 5) string objects are as shown below.

The Shared Edges around the outside edge indicate the intersection of the upper

and lower mineralization zone wireframes - this is correct. The Shared Edges on the

inside of this outside edge indicate possible gaps between the upper and lower

mineralization zone wireframes - this is not ideal and the section strings would typically

be edited to correct these gaps. In this case, this is the result of small gaps between

the upper and lower mineralization zone strings in section 6.

The Crossovers/Intersections indicate an overlap between the upper and lower

mineralization zone wireframes - this is also not ideal and would typically be corrected

before using the wireframe for further volume calculations or block modelling

commands. In this example, these detected "errors" can be ignored as they have little

impact on following exercises.


Exercise 2: Calculating the Volume of a Wireframe Object

In this exercise, you are going to calculate the volume for the ore body as defined by

the closed volume wireframe object mintr/minpt (wireframe).


2. Select Wireframes | Calculate Volume. 3. In the Calculate Volume dialog, define the settings as shown below and then

click the OK button.

The Verify option is not selected as this wireframe object was verified in the

previous exercise.

Volumes can also be calculated for open wireframe surfaces (DTMs) using this

technique.

Volumes for closed volume and open surface wireframes can also be

calculated using Wireframes | Wireframing Processes | Calculate Wireframe Volume (TRIVOL)


4. In the Summary of Wireframe Properties dialog, check that your results are as shown below and then click the OK button.


DATA FORMATTING

14.3 Introduction

Having created some data objects, this section deals with the presentation of those

objects across the various windows. Loaded data can be formatted so as to

facilitate or enhance working with data in the viewing, interpretation, modelling and

plotting processes. Formatting typically involves setting the following formatting

settings:

• colors

• symbol styles

• line styles

• labels (annotation)

• attributes

• other display settings The following can be formatted:

• grids

• 3D data objects

• drillhole logs

• plot specific objects

• general table data

•

The following formatting functions are available:

Grid - define X, Y and Z grid spacings, linestyles and annotation formats

Filters - filter objects by their attributes Legends - define legends for formatting table data and data objects

Attributes - add and edit numeric and alphanumeric object attributes

Display - format drillhole traces, drillhole columns, grids and objects using format

settings

14.4 Background

A legend is a convenient way of assigning a consistent but unique appearance to a

predefined value or range of values. By creating and using legends, the

representation of data may be made both distinctive and consistent between

documents. The systematic use of legends can make the interpretation of data much

more intuitive.

Legends provide the tools for both editing existing legends and creating new

legends. Filters, ranges, colors and display styles can all be set to facilitate the

interpretation and presentation of drillhole and other data.

Creation and editing of legends is controlled by the Legend Manager dialog which is

available from Format | Legends.


Four types of legends are available:

System Are necessary for the software to work properly. They cannot be edited

or deleted, but they can, however, be copied and pasted to the other

legend categories where the copies may be edited.

Are not saved with the document; they are saved in the Legends folder

(under ...Program Files/Common Files/Earthworks/Legends).

Not displayed by default - Display enables by a checkbox in the Legends

Manager.

User Are frequently used legends which are saved independently from the

document. This category is to enable users to group commonly used

legends together for easier selection and consistency of application.

These can be edited and will be saved, as "User.elg" in the

"C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application

Data\Datamine\Legends" folder.

Note: If a document is sent to another user, any user legends, used by the

document, will not be available to the new user.

Project Are saved as part of the project. If a project is sent to another user, its

project legends are available to that user.

These can be edited easily.

Driver Created automatically when data is imported to the host program using

Data Source Drivers.

Not displayed by default - Display enabled by checking a box in the

Legends Manager. Driver legends are listed as PROJECT legends but

contain a prefix identifying the driver used to import the data.

How are different data types displayed using legends?

Many different types of alphanumeric and numeric data can be displayed

distinctively using legends. A "value" is a specific numeric or string value to which a

particular appearance (colour, linestyle, fill, symbol etc.) can be assigned. Values are

often used to apply legends to coded data such as rock types, structure types and

intensity groupings.

Ranges are defined by an upper and a lower limit, and an appearance is assigned to

the values that fall within the range. Ranges are typically used with geochemistry

data to emphasize grade variability and to highlight significant results. If a value falls

on the upper limit on one range and the lower limit of the next, it will be displayed

with the settings of the first range. For example, if ranges of 0-1, 1-2 and 2-3 were

defined, a value of 2 would use the display settings for the 1-2 range.

Filters are used to handle more complicated situations where simple values or ranges

will not work. Filters are logical statements which define the conditions under which a

specific legend appearance applies. Complex filters can be developed to map the

variation of more than one variable.

Once defined, a legend is available to all relevant data in all windows. Any changes

made to a legend are applied to any data object which is using that legend.


In the following exercises you will create and edit new User and Project legends which

will be used in later exercises.

Exercise 1: Creating a legend of Value intervals

1. Select the Format Legends button or Format | Legends.

2. In the Legends Manager dialog, click the New Legend button. 3. In the New Legend dialog, select the "External User Legend File" option and

then click the Legend Wizard button.

Legends saved to the External User Legend file are available for use in other

Studio 3 projects. These legends can also be saved to the Project by selecting the legend item and using Right-click | Copy to Project.


4. In the New Legend: Data Column Wizard dialog, select the tree item

Assays$_vb_assays, expand the tree and then select the data column "AU".

5. In the Legend Properties group, define the legend Name as "Aulegend", select the Data Type as "Numeric" and then click the Next button.

6. In the New Legend: Data Wizard dialog, Legend Type group, select the the "Numeric Data" option, in the Number and Range of Items group, define the Number of Items option as "10", the Minimum Value option as "0", the

Maximum Value option as "30" and then click the Next button. 7. In the New Legend: Distribution Wizard dialog, Legend Distribution group,

define the distribution as "Linear", select the "Equal Width" option and then

click the Next>> button. 8. In the New Legend: Filter Wizard dialog, Filter Expressions group, select (tick)

the "Generate Filter Expressions" option, select the Column Name "AU" and

then select the Next button. 9. In the Coloring Wizard, select the "Rainbow blue->red" Coloring option and

then click the Preview Legend button. 10. Change the color palette using the Color Spin button and then preview the

legend again. Repeat these steps until the legend is as shown in the diagram

below.

11. Close the Legend preview dialog and click the Done button in the Coloring Wizard dialog.


12. In the Legends Manager dialog, check that the new legend Aulegend is listed under the USER Legends group, as shown below.

13. Click on the Show Details button. The Legend Manager dialog is expanded and shows the properties for the selected legend item. Select a few of the

legend items on the left-hand side of the dialog and note the changes to the

properties on the right.


Exercise 2: Creating a Legend – Unique Values

1. Select the Format Legends button or Format | Legends.

2. In the Legends Manager dialog, click the New Legend... button. 3. In the New Legend dialog, select the "Current Project File" option and then

click the Legend Wizard... button.

Legends saved to the Project file are stored in the current project and are

not available for use in other Studio 3 projects. These legends can also be saved to the User Legends by selecting the legend item and using Right-click | Copy to User Legends. These User Legends are then not available for use in other Studio 3 projects.

4. In the New Legend: Data Column Wizard dialog, select the tree item

Lithology$_vb_lithology, expand the tree and then select the data column

"NLITH".

5. In the Legend Properties group, define the legend Name as Lithlegend, select the Data Type as "Numeric" and then click the Next button.

6. In the New Legend: Data Wizard dialog, Legend Type group, select the the "Unique Values" option and then click the Next button.

7. In the New Legend: Filter Wizard dialog click the Next button. 8. In the Coloring Wizard, select the "Rainbow blue->red" Coloring option and

then click the Done button. 9. In the Legends Manager dialog, check that the new legend Lithlegend is listed

under the PROJECT Legends group, as shown below.


Exercise 3: Editing the NLITH Legend

1. In the Legends Manager dialog, under the PROJECT Legends group, select the legend Lithlegend and expand the item list using the "+" symbol next to the

legend name.

2. Select the legend value "0" and then Right-click | Edit -or- Double-click the legend item.

3. In the Legend Item Properties dialog, Item Description group, untick the

"Automatically generate description" option and define the Description as

"Soil", in the Item Format group, set the Fill Color and the Line Color options to "Yellow" using the dropdown and then click the OK button.

4. Back in the Legends Manager dialog, select the legend value "1" and then Right-click | Edit, set the Description to "Sandstone" and the Fill Color and the Line Color options to "Red" and then click the OK button.

5. Back in the Legends Manager dialog, select the legend value "2" and then Right-click | Edit, set the Description to "Siltstone" and the Fill Color and the Line Color options to "Bright Green" and then click the OK button.

6. Back in the Legends Manager dialog, select the legend value "3" and then Right-click | Edit, set the Description to "Breccia" and the Fill Color and the Line Color options to "Pink" and then click the OK button.

7. Back in the Legends Manager dialog, select the legend value "4" and then Right-click | Edit, set the Description to "Basalt" and the Fill Color and the Line Color options to "Blue" and then click the OK button.

8. In the Legends Manager dialog, click the Apply.


3D Objects (points, strings, drillholes, wireframes, block models) can be formatted in

the Design, Visualizer, Plots and VR windows. The following formatting properties can

be defined:

• Style - define Display As (points, labels, lines, faces, blocks, arrows,

drillholes), Shading and Draw Mode settings

• Color - color using Fixed Color or Legend, define Coloring by edge

and Filled settings

• Symbols - define Symbol style and color, Size and Rotation settings

• Labels - define labels for 3d objects using object attributes

Exercise 4: Formatting Strings – Style, Colour and Symbols

In this exercise, you will define Style, Color and Symbols formatting settings for the

topography contour strings in the Design window and apply these settings to the Plots windows.

The tools and general procedures covered in this exercise are applicable to

all 3D Objects, both in the Design and Plots windows. The tabs in the Format Display dialog may vary slightly i.e. they are context sensitive, depending

on the type of 3D Object being formatted.


2. If not already in a plan view, define a plan view by using Plane By One Point button | Right-click snap to any contour string point | click the OK button.

3. View all data by clicking the Zoom All Data button. 4. Turn any view clipping off using View | Use Clipping Limits. 5. Select the Format Display button or Format | Display. 6. In the Format Display dialog, select the Overlays tab, as shown in the diagram

below.


7. In the Overlay Objects group, select the stopo.dm (strings) object. 8. In the Overlay Format group, select the Style tab. 9. In the Style tab, tick the "Visible" option and in the Display As group, select the

"Lines" option, as in the diagram below.

10. In the Color tab, select the "Fixed Color" option and then select the color "Bright Green" from the color palette, as shown in the diagram below.

11. In the Symbols tab, Symbol group, select the "Fixed" option and a "Circle" from

the symbol palette, as shown in the diagram below.

12. In the Symbols tab, Size group, select the "Fixed" option and set the size to "0.5" mm.


13. In the Symbol tab, Rotation group, select the "Fixed" option and set the angle to "0" degrees.

14. Back in the Overlays tab, select the Apply button and then the Close button. 15. View the results in the Design window.

16. Compare your results to those shown in the diagram below.

The contour strings should be coloured bright green and have a small circle

symbols representing string points. These Format Display settings are only applied to the Design window at this stage and not other windows.


Exercise 5: Applying Formatting Settings to other Windows


2. Select the Format Display button -or- Format | Display. 3. In the Format Display dialog, select the Overlays tab. 4. In the Overlay Objects group, select the stopo.dm (strings) object. 5. In the Overlay Format group, tick the option "Apply to all overlays displaying

stopo.dm (strings)".

6. In the Overlays tab, select the Close button. 7. View the results in the various Plots window sheets.

All contour strings should be coloured bright green and have small circle

symbols representing string points. This "Apply to all ..." action cannot be

undone.


In the following exercises, you will change the format properties, listed below, of the

static drillholes dholes (drillholes) object, in the Design window only. In this exercise,

the Format Display dialog will be accessed via the static drillholes dholes (drillholes)

object listed in the Sheets control bar.

• Labels (Hole Identifier) - turn off end-of-hole labels, turn on collar

labels, rotate labels perpendicular to holes

• Drillhole Traces color - color the traces using the Project legend

"S3Tutorial_vb_Lithology: NLITH"

• Downhole Graphs - ZONE data field on left and AU data field on

right

Exercise 6: Formatting Drillholes – Labels


2. Select the Sheets control bar, fully expand the tree for the Design window tree

item by clicking on the "+" sign symbols to the left of each tree item.

3. Select the dholes (drillholes) object as shown below, and then Right-click | Format

4. In the Format Display dialog, select the Overlays tab.


5. In the Overlay Objects group, select the dholes (drillholes) object, the Drillholes tab and then the Format button, as shown below.

6. In the Traces as Holes dialog, select the Labels tab, as shown below.

7. In the Labels tab, End-of-hole group, untick the "End-of-hole" option. 8. In the Labels tab, tick the "Collar" option and then click the Configure button.


9. In the Label dialog, Rotation group, select the "Angle" option and set the angle to "45" degrees, in the Position group, set the Parallel Offset option to "-

3.5" mm and then select the OK button, as shown below.

10. Back in the Labels tab, click the Font button (located at the bottom of the

tab).

11. In the Font dialog, set the Size option to "8" and then click the OK button. 12. Back in the in the Traces as Holes dialog, click the Apply button only.


Exercise 7: Formatting Drillholes – Trace Colour

1. In the Traces as Holes dialog, select the Color tab. 2. Color tab, On Section group, select the "Color using legend" option. 3. In the Color tab, Legend group set the Column option to "dholes

(drillholes).NLITH" using the dropdown list.

4. Back in the Color tab, Legend group set the Legend option to Lithlegend.

The selected legend can be previewed by using Right-click | Preview Legend in the Legend option box after the legend has been selected from

the dropdown list.

5. In the Color tab, compare your settings to those shown below, click the Apply button and then the OK button.


6. Back in the In the Format Display dialog, click the Apply button and then the Close button.

7. Check your formatted drillholes in the Design window and compare them to

those shown in the diagram below.


Exercise 8: Formatting Drillholes – Downhole Graph


2. Retrieve the N-S SECN 5935 view using the Get View button. In the Command control bar at the Command line type "2" and select the Enter key.

3. Toggle ON the view clipping by clicking the Use Clipping Limits button.

4. Select the Sheets control bar, fully expand the tree for the Design window tree

item by clicking on the "+" sign symbols to the left of each tree item.

5. Select the dholes (drillholes) object and then Right-click | Format. 6. In the Format Display dialog, select the Overlays tab.


7. In the Overlay Objects group, select the dholes (drillholes) object, the Drillholes tab and then the Insert button, as shown below.

8. In the Select Column dialog, select the ZONE data column from the list and

then click the OK button. 9. Back in the Overlays tab, Overlay Format group, Drillholes tab, select the

ZONE column from the list in the Downhole Columns pane and then click the

Format button as shown below.

10. In the Overlay Format group, Drillholes tab, Display Downhole Columns pane, select AU (if not already selected) and then click the Format button.


11. In the Format for AU dialog, Style Templates tab, select the "Filled Histogram"

style option from the gallery, as shown below.

12. In the Format for AU dialog, Graph/Color tab, Scale group, untick the "Auto Fit" option, set the scale option to "2".

13. In the Color group, select the "Color using legend" option, select the Column

option "dholes (drillholes).AU" using the dropdown list, select the Aulegend

Legend option, tick the "Filled" option, as shown below.


14. In the Position tab, Position of Trace group, untick the "Automatic" option. In

the Position of trace relative to column 1: group, select the "Right of the column" option, set the offset to "1" mm, as shown below.

15. In the Width/Margins tab, Column Width group, set the Width Excluding

Margins option to "10", in the Left Margin group, set the Width option "1" mm, in

the Right Margin group, set the Width option "0" mm, click the Apply button and then the OK button, as shown below.


16. Back in the Format Display dialog; click the Apply button and then the Close button.

17. In the Design window, compare your results to those shown in the diagram

below.

18. Toggle OFF the view clipping by clicking the Use Clipping Limits button. 19. Return the Design window view to a Plan view, showing the extents of all the

data, by clicking the Previous View button.


15 DATA FILTERING

15.1 Introduction

Data objects can be filtered so as to facilitate or enhance working with data in the

viewing, interpretation, modelling and plotting processes. Filtering allows you to view

or display only the required subset of data from a loaded data object.

Filters can be set in the following ways:

• On Loading or Reloading a data object • In Legends • Using the Data Object Manager • Using the Filter All Objects function in the Design window

• In the Tables and Reports windows

• The PICREC command

15.2 Background

All of the above methods make use of Filter Expressions to define the required data filter. These filter expressions can either be typed in using the correct syntax or can be

constructed using the Expression Builder dialog shown below.


This Expression Builder interface includes the following functionality:

• Expression pane - displays the filter expressions as it is being constructed

• Check Expression Validity button - click this button to check the validity of your filter expression

• Variable Selection pane - select variables (Fields) present in the select data object

• Operators group - select the required operator from the set of

Comparison, Logical Operators and Expressions operators

• Wildcard button - insert a wildcard character in your expression

• Regular Expression button - insert a regular expression syntax element in your expression

• Data Selection group - select either Column Data or Constant

Data values to construct your expression

• Column Data button - click this button to display a list of values for the variable (Field) selected in the Variable Selection pane

How do I filter data and create a new file in a single process?

The PICREC process allows you to select records from a file based on a set of user

defined expressions. The user defined expression is applied to the input file on a

record by record basis. The result of applying an expression is either TRUE or FALSE. If

the result is TRUE then the record is copied to the output file, if it is FALSE then the

record is ignored and processing skips to the next record in the input file. An

expression may be a relational expression or a pattern matching expression.

The process prompts you for an input and output file name and optionally allows you

to select which fields to copy to the output file. Once all the files, fields, and

parameters have been entered, the process presents you with a prompt to enter your

criteria. The prompt you will see on the screen is “TEST>“. When you have finished

typing in your expressions, you must enter the keyword “END” after which PICREC will

start processing the input file.

The PICREC process uses the same syntax and has the same functionality as

filter expressions used by any of the other methods.

How do I filter based on alphanumeric data?

Filtering of alphanumeric data is based on pattern matching. The syntax of a pattern

matching expression is : < fieldname > MATCHES < pattern >

There must be a space either side of the “MATCHES” term


A “pattern” may consist of a set of characters to be matched such as a BHID value,

or it may be a mixture of text characters and one or more of the following elements:

Element Meaning ? Any single character.

* A group of zero or more characters.

[...] Any one of the characters enclosed in the square

brackets.

[^...] Any character except one of these.

The following expression will copy records from the input file to the output file where

the first 4 characters of the BHID field are set to “DH28”.

TEST> BHID MATCHES DH28* END

When testing alphanumeric values with leading or trailing blanks, you will need to

enclose the value with single quotes.

Two or more expressions can be joined using the “AND” or “OR” operators.

The expression listed below would only copy records where the BHID field contains the

value ‘DH2675’ and the corresponding AU field contains a value greater or equal to

1.

TEST>BHID=DH2675 AND AU >= 1 END

The use of the “NOT” operator inverts the meaning of the expression. The following

expression copies all records from the input file to the output file except where the

COLOUR field is set to the value of 2.

TEST>NOT COLOUR = 2 END

There must be a space between the operator and any fields, patterns or values. If

the above example was typed in with no spaces i.e. NOTCOLOUR=2END , then the

PICREC process would fail with an error. In this case the command would be unable

to distinguish the operator from the field name.


Exercise 1: Filtering a Single Object in the Design Window

In this exercise, you will use the Data Object Manager to filter the New Strings object in the Design window based on the COLOUR attribute.


2. Retrieve the N-S SECN 5935 section view using the Get View button. In the Command control bar at the Command line type "2" and select the <Enter> key.

3. Check that all the mineralized zone strings (upper - green 5, lower - cyan 6

and tag strings - red 2) are displayed, as shown below.

4. Select the Loaded Data control bar and then select the _vb_minst.dm (strings) object.

5. On the New Strings object, Right-click and select the menu option Data Object Manager. In the Data Object Manager dialog, Loaded Data Objects pane, select the _vb_minst.dm (strings) object.


6. In the Data Object tab, Object Attributes group, Filter subgroup, click the Expression Builder button.

7. In the Expression Builder dialog, Variable Selection pane, select the variable "COLOUR" from the list and then click the Select Variable button.

8. In the Operators group, click the [=] button. 9. In the Data Selection group, click the Column Data button. 10. In the Column Data dialog, select the Page Down button if required, select the

value "5" from the list and then click the OK button. 11. Check that your Expression is the same as that shown below.

12. Click the Check Expression Validity button and then click the OK button in the message dialog. The following dialog should be displayed.

13. Back in the Expression Builder dialog, click the OK button. 14. Back in the Data Object Manager dialog, the Data Object tab, Object

Attributes group, check that the Filter has been set to "COLOUR =5".


15. In the Data Table tab, using the Page Down and Page Up buttons, check that the COLOUR column in the table contains only the value "5", as shown below.

16. Click the OK button to close the Data Object Manager dialog. 17. Select the Design window tab and refresh the view by clicking the Redraw

button.


18. Check that only the upper zone strings (green 5) are displayed, as shown

below.


Exercise 2: Removing Filters

1. Select the Loaded Data control bar and then select the New Strings object. 2. On the New Strings object, Right-click and select the menu option Data

Object Manager. 3. In the Data Object Manager dialog, Loaded Data Objects pane, select the

New Strings object. 4. In the Data Object tab, Object Attributes group, clear the Filter setting


button.

7. Check that all the mineralized zone strings (upper - Green 5, lower - Cyan 6

and tag strings - Red 2) are displayed, as shown below.


Exercise 3: Filtering Multiple Objects in the Design window.

In this exercise, you will use the Filter All Objects function to filter all string objects in the Design window based on the COLOUR attribute.

1. Select the Sheets control bar. 2. Fully Expand the Design tree menu item.

3. Turn on the display of all Overlays objects by ticking the box to the left of each item


5. Retrieve the PLAN 195m plan view using the Get View button. In the Command control bar at the Command line type "1" and select the <Enter> key.

6. Use the Zoom In button to zoom into the area containing the ore body strings,

as shown below.

7. Check that, in addition to the drillholes and fault wireframes, the mineralized

zone strings (upper - green 5, lower - cyan 6 and tag strings - red 2) and

topography contours (green) are displayed.

8. Select Format | Filter All Objects | Strings.


9. In the Expression Builder dialog, Expression Text pane, type in the filter expression "COLOUR = 6" and then click the OK button.

10. Select the Design window tab and refresh the view by clicking the Redraw

button.

11. Check that only the lower mineralization zone strings (Cyan 6) are displayed,

as shown below.


12. To remove the filter, select Format | Filter All Objects | Erase All Filters.

13. Select the Design window tab and refresh the view by clicking the Redraw

button.

14. Check that, in addition to the drillholes and fault wireframes, the mineralized

zone strings (upper - green 5, lower - cyan 6 and tag strings - red 2) and

topography contours (green) are displayed, as at the start of the exercise.


Exercise 4: Filtering and Saving to a File

In the previous exercises data objects have been filtered and the filtered data has

been held in memory for display purposes. In this exercise you will use the command

PICREC to set a filter in an existing file and create a new file of the filtered data.

1. Run the PICREC command (Applications | File Manipulation Processes | Copy with Filtering) with the following settings. The field and parameter tab prompts

are optional and will not be used. Hit the OK button to start the process.

File Names: IN(dholes)

OUT(xxtmp1)

2. At the TEST> prompt at the bottom of the Command control bar enter the following:

3. In the Project files control bar, locate the file xxtmp1 and double-click on it to

open the file in the Datamine Table Editor. Check the file to ensure that all records are for hole VB4266 as shown below.


4. Rerun the PICREC command and set a filter to extract all intervals where

AU>10 and CU>10. Use the same output filename (xxtmp1)

5. Open this file in the Datamine File Editor and check the correct records have been extracted.

6. Unload any existing drillhole files from the Design window and load the xxtmp1

file.


16 ATTRIBUTES

16.1 Introduction

It will usually be necessary to add one or more fields to record information about data

objects being generated. These additional fields allow you to filter your data when

required and are also added to the wireframes that are generated from string

objects. The names you choose to give these “User Defined” or “Attribute” fields are

entirely up to you, the only requirement being that they must not clash with any of the

standard Datamine Field names.

Typical examples of attribute fields used by Geologists would be rock code fields

used to identify different rock and/or ore types. Similarly Engineers would add fields

to strings to distinguish different stope and blast outlines.

16.2 Prerequisites

16.3 Background

User defined Attributes can be added to existing data objects in the form of extra

Fields (also known as Columns) whose Type is either Numeric or Alphanumeric.

Numeric fields are used to store numeric values while Alphanumeric fields are

typically used to store character or text data. These attributes can be used to

facilitate working with objects in the formatting, viewing, interpretation, modelling

and plotting processes.

These user defined Attributes can be used for the following:

• Formatting and Filtering data objects in the various windows

• Selecting 3D objects in the Design window

• Selecting records from Datamine Tables that are being used as input

into Datamine Processes • Controlling parameters in Datamine Processes •

Attributes can be added to 3D objects and Datamine Tables in the following ways:

• 3D objects - interactively in the Design window

• Datamine Tables - using Datamine Processes • Datamine Tables - using the Datamine Table Editor • Datamine Tables - using the Data Object Manager

Attribute Fields have the following characteristics:

• The Attribute (or Field/Column) name is restricted to 8 characters in

length

• Attribute field names cannot use restricted Datamine Field Names

(refer to Appendix 2)

• Attribute fields are either Numeric or Alphanumeric in Type.


Exercise 1: Adding Attributes to 3D Objects in the Design Window

In this exercise, you are going to add a numeric attribute ZONE to the ore body strings

object minst (strings) that you created in the exercises on the previous pages "String

Modelling - Ore Body Interpretation" and "3D Data Object Management". This will be

done interactively in the Design window. The adding and editing of attributes will be

assisted by the filtering of your string data using the Data Object Manager. This exercise will include the following tasks:

• Setting data display and view parameters

• Adding a new Numeric Attribute ZONE to the minst (strings) object

(default value "-")

• Setting the ZONE Attribute for the upper zone strings to "1"

• Setting the ZONE Attribute for the lower zone strings to "2"

Setting data display and view parameters


2. If not already in the standard plan view, retrieve the PLAN 195m plan view

using the Get View button. In the Command control bar at the Command line type "1" and select the <Enter> key.

3. Select the Sheets control bar. 4. Fully Expand the Design tree menu item.

5. Turn ON the display of only the following Overlays object except the minst.dm

(strings) object (your ore body strings), by un-ticking the box to the left of each item.

6. Whilst holding down the <Shift>key on the keyboard, rotate the data with the

left mouse button until the strings for the upper and lower mineralization are

clearly displayed, as shown below:


Adding the Attribute ZONE to the ore body strings

1. Select the Loaded Data control bar and right click on the minst.dm (strings) object.

2. Select the item Add Column from the list and enter the field ZONE in the Name item in the following dialog:

3. Select the Loaded Data control bar and then expand the minst.dm (strings) object item and then check that the new field ZONE has been added to the

object.

Filtering the upper zone strings

1. Select the Loaded Data control bar and then select the minst.dm (strings) object.

2. On the minst.dm (strings) object, Right-click | Data Object Manager 3. In the Data Object Manager dialog, Loaded Data Objects pane, select the

minst.dm (strings) object.

4. In the Data Object tab, Object Attributes group, set the Filter setting to "COLOUR =5".


button.


7. Check that only the upper zone strings (green 5) are displayed, as shown

below.

Setting the upper zone strings ZONE attribute to “1”.

1. If not still selected, select the Design window tab.

2. Select all the upper zone strings using Right-click | Select All Strings. 3. Click the Edit Attributes button in the Point and String Editing toolbar. 4. Left-click (no snap) on a string point in the Design window as instructed by the

message in the Status Bar, as shown below.

5. In the Attribute-Color toolbar, click the AT(TRIBUTE) button.

6. In the Attribute toolbar, select the ZONE attribute using the Up and Down

arrow keys.

7. Click in the Attribute Value box, type the value to "1" and then press the <Enter> key.

8. Stop the Attribute Editing process by click the Cancel button in the top left of the Design window.

9. Deselect all the lower zone strings using Right-click | Deselect All Strings. 10. Click the Redraw Display button.


Filtering and setting the ZONE attribute for the lower zone strings.

1. Repeat the steps above under the headings Filtering the upper zone strings and Setting the upper zone strings ZONE attribute to “1” for the lower zone

strings. 2. Ensure that for the strings where COLOUR=6, ZONE=2.

Removing the filters.


2. On the minst.dm (strings) object, Right-click | Data Object Manager.

3. In the Data Object Manager dialog, Loaded Data Objects pane, select the minst.dm (strings) object.

4. In the Data Object tab, Object Attributes group, clear the Filter setting.


button.

7. Check that all the mineralized zone strings (upper - green 5, lower - cyan 6)

and tag strings (red 2) are displayed, as shown below.


Saving and checking the modified minst.dm (strings object.


2. On the minst.dm (strings) object, Right-click | Data | Save. 3. In the Data Table tab, using the Page Down and Page Up buttons, check that

the ZONE column in the table contains only values "-" (tag strings have no

ZONE value set),"1" (upper zone - green 5) or "2" (lower zone - cyan 6), as

shown below.

4. Select the Project Files control bar, expand the Strings folder and then double-click on the minst.dm file.

5. In the Datamine Table Editor, check that the Datamine file has been updated

after saving by checking that the ZONE column in the table now contains

values "-" (tag strings - red 2, have no ZONE value set),"1" (upper zone - green

5) or "2" (lower zone - cyan 6), as shown below


17 DATA PRESENTATION – PLOTS WINDOW

17.1 Introduction

Once data have been loaded into the project, they are available for viewing and

plotting in the Plots window. The Plots window allows you to create any view or

section orientation and send those views/sections to a plotter/printer using the

Windows printer drivers.

17.2 Background

By default, four different views of loaded data are created in the Plots window as

tabs. These views are:

• Plan view

• North-south section view (including a plan window)

• West-east section

• 3D view

Each plot sheet (each tab in the Plots window is a plot sheet) by default contains the

following items or settings:

Sheet - a sheet item

Section - a section item which contains section orientation and other parameters

(one or more items per Sheet)

View - view orientation parameters (one set of parameters per Section item.

Note: this is not a listed item)

Some of the features available in the plots window are as follows:

• Graphically interrogate the drillhole data in section or 3D views. All

views are dynamically linked so that samples selected in any one view

are selected in all linked views.

• Plot drillhole traces and indexed sample data values in plan, section or

any three dimensional view desired. A complete family of sections can

be defined from a single section definition using a single dialog.

• View the same section in multiple views controlled by a section master.

• Insert plot items like text boxes, coordinate grids, scale bars, tables and title blocks which automatically adjust as you change the position,

orientation and scale of plot sheets.

• Insert parameter profiles that dynamically re-intersect the surface

model as the section is rotated or re-positioned.

• Select different paper sheet sizes, orientations, margins and scales for

each view type, all within the same document.

• Use Page Layout mode to display and interactively edit page borders, sheet margins, plot frames, coordinate grids, plot items and parameter

profiles.


The Sheets control bar can be used to view or modify the Plot window sheets and

properties of the sheet Sections/Views (Projections), Plot Items (e.g. North Arrow,

Legend and Text boxes, etc.) and Overlays objects. The diagram below shows the

standard Plots sheets that were automatically generated for the training data.

The diagram above shows two section sheets, Section 6195.00 E and Section 5185.00 N. Your sections may be named differently if you have loaded data in

a different order, as this automatic sheet naming depends on the order in

which 3D data objects were loaded into the Plots window.

Right-clicking on a sheet will give you a context sensitive menu; selecting either sheet

Properties or Wizard, provides you with a menu in which to modify the relevant

settings. Right-clicking on Projection and Overlays items will also initiate context

sensitive menus.

The relationship between the items in the Plan sheet can be seen in the diagram

below. Here, the Plan Sheet (Plan item in the tree list) contains one Section/View and

its associated parameters (Plan Projection item in the tree list). This in turn contains

representations of loaded data objects (items listed under the Overlays item in the

tree list) and plot items (e.g. North arrow).


A single data object can be added to a sheet multiple times as separate

Overlays, each with its own display and formatting parameters.

These items can be inserted, deleted or modified using the Menubar, Toolbar or

"Right-click" context sensitive menus.


Exercise 1: Exploring the Context Sensitive Menus for Plots

In this exercise, you are going to view the various context sensitive menus available

for setting Plot sheet related parameters. You will be viewing the context sensitive

menus for both the Sheets control bar and Plots window items.

1. Select the Sheets control bar. 2. Expand the Tutorial Project and Plots tree menu items.

3. In the Plots tree, fully expand the Plan sheet tree by clicking on all the "+" boxes listed below the Plan sheet tree item, as shown in the diagram below.

4. Right-click on the various Plan Sheet items listed in the tree and view the

available menu options for each item (it is not necessary to select or execute

any of the menu items).

5. Select the North Arrow plot item and note that the North Arrow item is

highlighted with a dashed border in the Plots window, Plan sheet. 6. Select the Plan item and note that not all toolbar buttons are active.

7. Select the Plan Projection item, note that additional toolbar buttons are active

and that the Plan Projection item is highlighted with a dashed border in the

Plots window, Plan sheet.


Exercise 2: Creating, Renaming, Copying and Deleting Sheets

A Sheet in the Plots window consists of at least one defined Section and associated data, plot items and formats. In this exercise, you are going to define a new 3D

Sheet, rename it from to 3D-Above, copy this sheet and then delete the copy.

1. Select Insert | Sheet | Plot | Custom

2. In the Plot Item Library dialog, select the option "Projection Wizard" and then

click the OK button. 3. In the Projection Wizard (1) dialog, select the option "3D View" and then click

the Next> button. 4. In the Projection Wizard (2) dialog, define the View Direction Azimuth as "45"

and then click the Next> button. 5. In the Projection Wizard (3) dialog, define the View Direction Dip as "-60" and

then click the Finish button. 6. Compare your new 3D View sheet to that shown in the diagram below.

7. Right-click on the newly inserted 3D sheet tab | Rename.... 8. In the Rename Sheet dialog, rename the sheet to "3D-Above" and then click

the OK button. 9. To copy the sheet, select the 3D-Above sheet tab and select Edit | Copy

Sheet. 10. To delete a sheet, right-click on the copy og the 3D-Above sheet tab |

Delete.


The creation of a new Plot window Sheet automatically includes the definition of at

least one Section. The following types of sections can be defined:

• Horizontal - horizontal or plan section • Vertical - typically NS, SN, EW, WE, custom Vertical

• Inclined - section is inclined or dipping

Horizontal, vertical and inclined sections can be quickly defined using the section

wizard to define the section type, section azimuth, section width and the center point

coordinate (as shown in the exercise "Creating, Renaming, Copying and Deleting

Sheets"). A complete family of sections is defined by this single section definition. For

example, if the drilling data extends between eastings 5908E and 6134E, by defining a

single NS section at 6021E and a section width of 25 meters, the program will auto-

range the extents of the data and create 9 NS sections. This is shown in the tutorial

data by the second Plots window sheet Section 6021.27 E. Although the entire family

of sections is contained in a single section, only one of these sections is displayed in

the given sheet at any one time. Multiple sheets could also be used to contain

individual sections from this family of sections.

Having created the section, plan or 3D view, the section definition, page size and

view settings can then be modified as required. Changes made to the section

definition can be displayed dynamically to give the user immediate feedback on the

effect of changing one or more settings. The section in an existing sheet may also be

redefined or repositioned interactively by reselecting the center point or end points

for the section, or snapping to a particular hole collar, sample or other data object.

Sections can be managed individually using the Section Tools, or as a set using the Section Management Tools. Individual Section centre point, orientation, extents and width can be modified using the following Section (menu option Section) functions:

Button Button Name Toolbar Description

Orientation - North South * Section Change section orientation to NS

Orientation - East West * " Change section orientation to EW

Orientation - Horizontal * " Change the section orientation to

horizontal

Orientation - Custom * " Change to a custom section

orientation

Pick by Center Point * " Reset section orientation about a

single point

Pick by End Points * " Reset section orientation using 2

points

Move to Include Point * " Move section orientation to

include a point

Move to New Center Point * " Move section orientation to new

center point

Next * " Move to the next parallel section

line

Previous * " Move to the previous parallel

section line

Wider * " Increase the section clipping

Narrower * " Decrease the section clipping

Set Width * " Select or set section clipping

Apply Clipping * " Turn on/off section clipping


In the following exercises you will learn how to configure the setup of one of the Plots window sheets and insert various plot items.

Exercise 3: Setting the Paper Size and Grid Settings

1. Select the 6195.00 E sheet in the Plots window.

2. Select the File | Page Setup option from the main menu and change the

settings to match those in the image below.

3. Press the OK button to continue and answer Yes to the prompt asking if you

want to rescale all plot items.


4. Right-click in the Plot window and select Format Display. Change the grid annotation to that shown below:

5. In the Grid menu click on the Change button under the Font group. In the Font menu leave the Font: and Font style: settings set to the default values and change the Size: value to 16. Press the OK button to close the dialog and Close to close the Format Display dialog.


Exercise 3: Setting the Scale and View

1. Change the scale to 1:1000 using the pull down menu option in the Scale View toolbar as illustrated below.

2. Press the padlock symbol next to the scale menu to fix the scale at 1:1000 for

all north-south section sheets.

3. In the Sheets control bar, select and expand the tree for the Section 6021.27 E sheet item.

Your sections may be named differently if you have loaded data in a different

order, as this automatic sheet naming depends on the order in which 3D data

objects were loaded into the Plots window.

4. Select the North South Projection Section 6095.00 E projection item.

5. Select Section | Orientation | Custom.

6. In the View Settings dialog, select the Section Definition tab, as shown below.

7. Set the Width to “25”, select the Apply button and the OK button.


8. Compare your section to that shown in the diagram below.

9. Use the Next or Previous buttons to step through the different parallel sections. 10. As you step through each section, note that the section name should change

on the Sheet tab and also on the sheet and projection items listed in the

Sheets control bar. 11. Experiment with the zooming and panning commands which are available

from the View menu or from the Zoom and Pan View toolbars:


Exercise 4: Inserting Plot Items

1. Select the Insert | Plot Item | Title Box option from the pulldown menu.

2. In the Title Box dialog click on the Frame Properties tab and set the Height and Width to “100” and “145”.

3. Leave the Frame Properties tab selected and click on the Font tab. Change the Min Size and Max Size settings to match those in the image below.

4. Press the OK button and click on the Contents tab in the Title Box dialog. The Contents menu allows you to add and remove cells and to adjust the cell

contents.


5. Set the Row and Cell fields to 1 and press Insert button next to the Cell field.

6. When asked to select an item from the Plot Item Library select the Clip Art option and when prompted select the minelogo.bmp file.

7. Press the OK button when asked to set the clip art properties. If you click on

the Frame Properties tab you will see a preview of the change.


8. Click on the Contents tab and make sure the Row and Cell values are both set to 1.

9. Press the Contents… button and change the settings to suit those used in the

image below.

10. Press the OK button for the Cell Contents and the Title Box dialogs. 11. By default the Title Box is located in the top-left corner of the Sheet. To move

the Title Box, select by clicking on it, then move the mouse until the 4-arrowed

pointer is displayed. Move the Title Box by holding down the left mouse

button and dragging the box to the desired location, then releasing the

mouse button.

The Title Box should look similar to the one below.

12. You will have noticed some lines of text are hard coded while others as set as

“Fields” such as the section number. By using fields some of the title box text

will change as each new section is displayed. Try stepping through a few

sections.


13. Click outside the title box with the mouse to make sure it is not selected. Use

the Insert | Plot Item | Legend Box to add the Lithlegend legend to the plot.

14. Select the Font button and set the Minimum and maximum font size to 10 and 16 respectively and press the OK button.

15. Adjust the size and position of the Legend Box.

This fails – cannot select Legends when creating – bug reported.


Exercise 5: Using a Section Definition file to Control the Section Views.

In this exercise you will modify the Viewdefs section definition file and use it to control

the sections displayed for the north-south sheet.

1. In the Project Files control bar open the Viewdefs file in the Datamine Table Editor by double-clicking on it.

2. Delete the first record, which represents a plan view, by selecting it then right-

click Delete Record 1. 8 records should be left in the file

3. Use file | Save As to save the file. Give the file the name secdefs.dm

4. Close the Datamine Table Editor 5. Check in the Loaded Data control bar that the file viewdefs is not loaded. If it

is loaded, unload it.

6. Select the Plots window and select the Section 6100.00 E tab (or similar – it

should be the second tab from the left).

7. Select Section | Use Table and when the following dialog is displayed click on

“Yes”:

8. In the Data Import dialog, select Datamine under Driver category and Tables under Data Types, then hit OK.

9. Select the section definition file secdefs, which you created earlier in this

exercise.


10. In the Datamine Tables dialog hit the OK button and OK the following dialog.

11. Now use the Next and Previous buttons on the Section toolbar to move the

section view based on the values in the section definition file.

The advantage of using a section definition file to scroll through sections, is

that sections can be defined for specific sections containing drillholes, in this

case. Without a section definition file, scrolling would allow you to display

sections to the limits of all data objects.


18 DATA PRESENTATION – LOGS WINDOW

18.1 Introduction

A default drillhole Log sheet is created in the Logs window when drillhole data tables

are loaded to create dynamic drillholes. The Log sheets can be independently

modified for both data content and formatting.

18.2 Background

The default log sheet created includes header and footer information and scaled

columns representing data in the drillhole data tables. Fields may be duplicated,

displayed as text or graphs, and fields from more than one table source can be

viewed in the same log view including composited and system fields.

Many formatting options are available for changing the layout and content of log

sheet header, columns and footer. Log plots may be enhanced by the addition of

smart plot items which have in-built intelligence and will adjust automatically to

relevant changes to the project. These plot items available include text boxes,

legend boxes, tables and clip art images.

Most of the setup options available to plots, including sheet size and orientation,

printer margins and plotting scale, are available to logs too.


Exercise 1: Inserting a New Log Sheet and Setting View Parameters

In this exercise, you are going to insert a new Log Sheet, modify the Zoom and Scale

parameters and then set the log sheet to display only the mineralized portion of the

drillhole extents.

1. If you do not have the dynamic drillholes loaded, load the database file

_vb_drillhole_data.xls using Data | Load| Database.

2. Select the Logs window.

3. Insert a new log sheet using Insert | Sheet | Log. 4. Check the Logs window to see that a new Log sheet has been created for

VB2675 - there should be two tabs for VB2675, as shown below.

5. Use the Zoom Fit button in the Zoom toolbar to increase the size of the

displayed log sheet. The log sheet currently spans multiple pages.

6. Use the Pan Up and Pan Down buttons in the Pan View toolbar to view the

different log sheet pages.


7. Select (Left-click) inside the header area of the Hole Log Frame (the frame

should now appear dashed) and then right click and select the Plot Item Properties option from the context menu, as shown below.

8. In the Log View Properties dialog, select the Hole tab. 9. In the Scale group, select the "Custom" option, set the scale option 1: to "2000"

and select the "Locked" option.

10. In the Initial Extents when hole changes group, select the "Same as previous

hole" option.

11. Click the Apply button and then the OK button.


Exercise 2: Setting the Hole extents Parameters

1. The Hole Log Frame should still be selected i.e. the frame should still appear

dashed. The log sheet will be restrict to displaying only the mineralized portion

of the drillhole.

2. Right-click and select the "Plot Item Properties" option from the context menu.

3. In the Log View Properties dialog, select the Hole tab. 4. In the Extents group, select the "Custom" option, set From to "140" and To To

"300".

5. Click the Apply and then the OK button. 6. View your modified log sheet view and compare it to that shown in the

diagram below.


Exercise 3: Moving between Drillholes in the Log Sheet

Moving between Drillholes - Method 1

1. If not selected, select the new VB2675 Log Sheet tab. 2. If not selected, select (click) inside the header area of the Hole Log Frame

(the frame should now appear dashed) and then right-click and select the

Plot Item Properties option in the context menu.

3. In the Log View Properties dialog, select the Hole tab. 4. In the Current Hole group, set (select from dropdown) the Name to "VB4280".

5. Click the Apply button and then the OK button. 6. Use the Zoom In button to check the details of the log sheet and the Hole

Name in the log sheet header.

7. Return the log sheet to a view of the hole VB2675.

8. View the current extents of the log sheet by clicking the Zoom Extents button.

Moving between Drillholes - Method 2

1. If not selected, select the new VB2675 Log Sheet tab. 2. If not selected, select (click) inside the header area of the Hole Log Frame

(the frame should now appear dashed) and then right-click and select the

"Plot Item Properties" option. 3. Select Log | Next or Log | Previous to move between drillholes.

4. Return the log sheet to a view of the hole VB2675.

5. View the current extents of the log sheet by clicking the Zoom Extents button.


19 INTRODUCTION TO MACROS

19.1 Introduction

In this section you will learn some of the fundamental tools used by the macro

language. A macro gives you the ability to record a sequence of processes in a form

that can be stored and run at a later date and is a vital tool in most mining software

packages. It allows you to automate repetitive tasks while also providing an audit

trail for tasks requiring documentation such as resource estimation.

The exercises involve calculating statistics on the AU field grades for the values in the

NLITH field and recording the required steps in a macro.

19.2 Background

In Studio 3 there are 2 suites of tools available for recording and replaying commands

that are described briefly below:

The Macro Language cannot be used to record commands used in the

Design window.

This course will only cover an introduction to the Macro Language; it is the principal

tool used at most mine sites.

A macro is a text file which is used to run a series of processes using the user defined

files, fields and parameters. This facility allows you define a particular set of processes

and then re-run those processes as required without having to run each process

manually. The macro can either be created within Studio 3, as you will do, or with

further experience, can be created in a text editor, e.g. Notepad ®.

The following processes available from Tools | Macro are used for recording, stopping and replaying macros:

Process Description

MACST Starts macro recording

MACEND Stops macro recording

XRUN Replays macro

The macro recorder is started with the MACST process which like any other process

can be typed in at the command prompt in the Command control bar or selected from the pull down menus (Tools | Macro | Start Recording).

Automation Tools Description

Macro Language This suite of tools allows you record and

then run sequences of processes.

Scripting Language This language allows you to use Website

tools such as Javascript and HTML to

automate and build menus to drive

Studio 3. Unlike the previous language

it is not restricted in which Studio 3

commands it can access.


When you run the MACST process you will be prompted for two entries:

MACRO NAME >

File name:

The name entered at the MACRO NAME prompt is written to the first line of the text

file after a !START statement. Every macro you examine will start with !START “Macro

Name” statement. A common title is BEGIN ie !START BEGIN

The file name specified at the ‘File name:’ prompt is used to name the text file which

will be used to store the macro. The convention is that all macro file names are kept

lower case and end in a .mac extension eg test.mac. On your computer it is the file

name you would see if you listed the contents of a directory using the Windows

Explorer® browser.

In order to stop the macro recorder you will need to use the MACEND process (Tools | Macro | Stop Recording). This process adds a !END command to the end of

the text file and saves it to the user defined File name.

How does Studio 3 distinguish the process name from the various File Field and

Parameter Settings ?

In the macro text file Studio 3 uses 4 key symbols to identify the key values of each

command.

Symbol Description

! Studio 3 batch process. All Studio 3 batch processes start

with a shriek symbol, are up to 6 characters long, and end

in a space.

& All File names are distinguished with the “and” symbol.

Note that there is always a space between the process

name and the first file name.

* All fields are distinguished using an asterisk symbol.

@ All parameters are identified using an “at” symbol.

For any given process all file, field, and parameter settings are separated by commas.

The process name and the first file settings are separated by one or more spaces.

Editing Macros

It is possible to edit and modify your macros in text editors such as Notepad. When

doing this there are 4 main points to watch.

• Keep individual macro lines less than 80 columns wide.

• When adding extra file, field, and or parameter values make sure the use of

commas is consistent. Each new value for a specific process is separated by

a comma with no trailing comma for the last value.

e.g. !MGSORT &IN(HOLES),&OUT(XXTMP1),*KEY1(LODEID)

• Avoid the use of <TAB> key strokes in your macros.

• Ensure that all standard fieldnames use CAPITALS.

Every macro you examine will always begin with a “!START ....“ statement

and finish with a “!END“ statement.

The following diagram illustrates the use of the MACST and MACEND processes and how

the answers to the various prompts are used to name the macro and the text file.


In order to run/play a macro you use the XRUN process (Tools | Macro | Run Macro). The prompts for XRUN are the same as those for MACST except the system file name is

prompted for first. If there is only one !START statement in the text file then Studio 3

will run the macro automatically without prompting you for the macro name.

How do I calculate statistics on values in a file?

The STATS process as the name suggests allows you to calculate univariate statistics

on numeric fields. It is available on the pull down menus by selecting the

Applications | Statistics | Compute Statistics option. This process includes a number

of options such as writing the results to a file and calculating statistics on subsets of

data based on keyfields. The following statistics are calculated for each set/subset of

data:

Total number of records

Total number of samples (excluding absent data)

The minimum, maximum and range of values

The sum and mean value

Variance, standard deviation, and standard error

Skewness and kurtosis

Geometric mean and the log estimate of mean

The sum and means of natural logs.

How do I output a Datamine file to a text file?

The OUTPUT process ( Applications | File Transfer Processes | Output File as Datamine Text ) allows you to output a Studio 3 binary file into a text file. If you set the CSV

parameter to the default of ‘0’ then the specified fields will be written out as column

delimited data. If on the other hand you set the CSV parameter to 1 then the data

will be written out as a comma delimited text file. This facility can be very useful for

exporting files so they can be read by other mining packages or loaded into

spreadsheets like Excel ®.

ECHO

MACRO NAME > begin

File name: test.mac

MACEND

!START begin

!END

Command Control Bar Text File called “test.mac”


The ECHO process allows you to print messages (text) to the Command window.


Exercise 1: Recording a Macro to Calculate Statistics on the AU Field.

In this exercise you will record a macro to capture the steps required to calculate the

AU grades for each value of NLITH.

1. Run the MACST process (Tools | Macros | Start Recording) and answer the first

prompt as follows:

2. Give the macro a filename, test1, as follows:

3. Run the MGSORT process (Applications | File manipulation Processes | Sort) with the following file and field settings:

Files: IN(dholes)

OUT(xxtmp1)

Fields: KEY1(NLITH)

4. Check the file is correctly sorted by opening the file in the Datamine Table Editor.

5. With the output file from MGSORT sorted on NLITH, run the STATS process (Applications | Statistical Processes | Compute Statistics) with the following

settings:

Files: IN(xxtmp1)

OUT(xxtmp2)

Fields: F1(AU)


KEY1(NLITH)

Hit the OK button to run the process. You will need to press return 4 times as

the STATS process will display summary statistics for each rock zone in the

Command control bar. Examine the XXTMP2 file in the File Editor; it will contain 4 records for each of

the four NLITH values (1, 2, 3 and 4). To run the STATS process with a keyfield

requires the input file to be sorted on the necessary keyfield.

6. Run the OUTPUT process (Applications | File Transfer processes | Output File as Datamine Text) to output the XXTMP2 file into a text file. Use the following

settings:

Files: IN(XXTMP2)

Fields: F1(NLITH)

F2(FIELD)

F3(MEAN)

F4(MINIMUM)

F5(MAXIMUM)

Parameters: CSV = 1

7. In the Select File dialog enter the filename results.txt:

8. To terminate the macro recording run the process MACEND (Tools | Macro | Stop Recording).

9. View the results.txt file in a text editor such as Notepad.


Note that the header information has also been included in the text file. Close

the results.txt text file before moving onto the next exercise.

To add an application which can be opened from Studio 3, select Tools | Customize | Tools and add the application to Menu contents and insert the

name of the executable under the Command heading.


Exercise 2: Editing and Replaying the Macro

In this exercise you will edit the macro created in the previous exercise to report the

VARIANCE values for each of the NLITH rock codes, using a text editor and replay the

macro in Studio 3. Your macro (text) file should look similar to the following:

!START aucalc

!MGSORT &IN(dholes),&OUT(xxtmp1),*KEY1(NLITH),@ORDER=1.0

!STATS &IN(xxtmp1),&OUT(xxtmp2),*F1(AU),*KEY1(NLITH)

!OUTPUT &IN(xxtmp2),*F1(NLITH),*F2(FIELD),*F3(MEAN),*F4(MINIMUM),

*F5(MAXIMUM),@CSV=1.0,@NODD=0.0

results.txt

!END

Not only have all the process names been recorded but all your specified answers to

the prompts have also been included. Each process, file, field, and parameter

setting is preceded by a specific symbol. The !, &, *, and @ convention allows Studio 3 to distinguish between the different prompt types.

Q: Why are there 4 blank lines following the STATS process?


1. Open the test1.mac file in a text editor. To open a text editor from Studio 3, select the Project Files control bar, open the Macros folder and double-click on the file test1.

2. Now edit the test1.mac text file and add the text marked in bold in the text

below. You must always be very careful when editing macros and avoid

syntax errors as such errors will cause the macro to stop with an error message.

In particular, note that each file, field, and parameter statement is separated

by a comma and that there is no comma after the last parameter (or field in

the case of STATS).

!START aucalc

# Calculate statistics on the AU field and write the # results to a file.

!MGSORT &IN(dholes),&OUT(xxtmp1),*KEY1(NLITH),@ORDER=1.0



*F5(MAXIMUM),*F6(VARIANCE),@CSV=1.0,@NODD=0.0

results.txt

# Delete the temporary files !DELETE &IN(XXTMP1) !DELETE &IN(XXTMP2) !ECHO The mean and variance of the AU field has !ECHO been written to the results.txt file.

!END

Stray commas are the most common source of error messages resulting from

editing macros.

In addition to adding the DELETE and ECHO processes you have also added

some comments. These comments are all preceded with a hash and a

space. This ensures they will be ignored by Studio 3. Instead of the “#“ statement you can also use !REM to precede comments. It is strongly

recommended you put comments in your macros describing what the macro

does and documenting any subsequent changes.

3. Save the macro, test1.mac, and close the text file. Use the XRUN process (Tools | Macros | Run Macro) to run the test1.mac macro and check that the

VARIANCE field is created and the temporary files are deleted.

Q: How would you add the standard deviation statistic to the results.txt file. You will

need to list help on the STATS process and determine the field name which STATS uses

for standard deviation.


Exercise 3: User Interaction with a Macro.

In the previous exercises, you have learnt how to record and replay a macro. In the

example used all of the files, fields, parameter (and retrieval criteria) settings have

been fixed. In other words, the user of the macro has no ability to interact with the

macro in order to change any of the inputs or outputs used in the macro.

This exercise deals with the use of substitution variables which allow you to assign a

value to a variable within a macro. Substitution variables are used in macros rather

than fixed values where it is necessary for a macro to process a particular file, field or

parameter setting and these settings are likely to change. As an example you may

wish to calculate the mean and variance of attribute fields in various database files.

The database files will all have different names and the attribute fields you are

calculating statistics on are also likely to change.

PROMPT

The PROMPT process allows you to display text on the screen and prompt for input

from the user. Values typed in at the PROMPT process are assigned to substitution variables. This process allows menu screens to be built up and substitution variables

defined and redefined as required.

Each line after the PROMPT process starts with a 0 or 1. Text following a 0 is simply

printed in the Command window, while lines started with 1 are used when defining a

prompt statement requiring user input. A variable name is identified by starting each

name with a dollar sign and ending the name with a hash symbol. The length of the

variable, including the # and $, is 16 characters.

In the example below, the macro prompts for a filename and then uses the COPY process to copy the specified file to a new file.

!start begin

!PROMPT

0

0 Enter a filename

0

1 Filename > ‘$file#’,a,8

!COPY &in($file#),&out(xxtmp1)

!END

All prompt lines (lines starting with 1) end with a variable name, and an “a” or a “n” to define alphanumeric or numeric variables. There are also optional entries to further

define what are valid and non valid responses. In the above example the a,8 indicates the variable is alphanumeric and up to 8 characters long. Default values

can be specified in square brackets.

The following example macro uses a PROMPT process to enter a single numeric value

and assign the value to $num#, the default is 1.

!START begin

!PROMPT

0

1 Enter a number [1] > ‘$num#’,n

!ECHO $num#

!END


1. Open the test1.mac macro in the editor and make the following changes,

marked in bold text:

!START aucalc

# Calculate statistics on the AU field and write the

# results to a file.

!PROMPT 0 0 Enter the name of the file for processing 0 1 FILENAME [dholes] > '$FILEN#',a,8

!MGSORT &IN($FILEN#),&OUT(xxtmp1),*KEY1(NLITH),@ORDER=1.0



*F5(MAXIMUM),*F6(VARIANCE),@CSV=1.0,@NODD=0.0

results1.txt

# Delete the temporary files

!DELETE &IN(XXTMP1)

!DELETE &IN(XXTMP2)

!ECHO The mean and variance of the AU field in the $FILEN# file has !ECHO been written to the results.txt file.

!END

2. Test the changes in the macro by running it in Studio 3. Enter the filename,

dholesc, when prompted in the Command window. This file was created

earlier by the compositing process COMPDH.

If the filename you enter does not exist in the project folder, the macro will

abort.

3. Compare the results in the 2 results files, results.txt and results1.txt, in the text

editor.


20 BLOCK MODELLING

20.1 Introduction

In this section you will construct a block model based on the wireframes and drillhole

files created in the previous exercises and view the resultant model in the Design and Visualizer windows. The model will have an upper constraint defined by the

topography and use the ore body volume wireframe to control the internal

constraints between ore and waste. The resultant model will be used in the following

section which deals with estimation of grade into the model cells.

20.2 Background

All block models are built and processed using batch processes. The Design, Plots and Visualizer windows can be used to view and evaluate the block model but only

limited editing functions are available from within the Design Window. This section

deals with the concepts behind Studio 3 block models and common batch processes

used in block modelling:

PROTOM – Defines a 3D matrix in which blocks will be built.

TRIFIL – Fills wireframes with cells

ADDMOD – Adds 2 models together

Other commonly used batch processes rae:

SLIMOD – resets a model prototype, recalculates the IJK field and slices cells

accordingly. PROMOD – Optimises the use of subcells in a model REGMOD – produces a regular cell model

For further information refer to the Geological Modelling User Guide which is included

within this manual.

How is the size of cells controlled?

A block model is composed of rectangular blocks or cells, each of which has

attributes such as grades, rock types, oxidation codes, etc. A parent cell is the largest

cell allowed in the model. The size of these cells is defined by the user and should be

based on several factors such as the drillhole spacing, mining method, and the

geological structures hosting the ore. The concept of a "parent cell" is largely a descriptive term. The only visible product

you will see based on the parent cell dimensions is the restriction on the maximum cell

size and the fact that cells will never cross the parent cell boundaries.

What is subcelling and why is it necessary?

Block modelling is all about approximating the volumes below surfaces such as

topography or within specified 3D regions such as mineralised zones. In both cases

the surfaces and 3D volumes are usually defined using wireframes. Cells are used in

preference to the wireframes when it comes to resource modelling because the

attributes being modelled will vary within each wireframe zone. As an example the

grade of a gold bearing quartz vein will vary with location.


Subcelling allows you to subdivide the parent cells into smaller cells to better fit the

dimensions of the wireframes. The more subcell splitting you allow for, the closer the

fit. The trick is to set the level of subcelling to get a reasonable fit without exceeding

what is practical. Remember geological boundaries are at best approximations.

Each cell in a model is a record in the file. Excessive use of subcelling is

unlikely to improve the final result.

How do I start creating a model?

The creation of a block model in Studio 3 always starts with the use of the PROTOM

(Models | Create Model | Define Prototype) command to define the model

prototype. This process creates an empty file with standard model field names (see

Appendix ?). Included in these standard fields are 6 implicit fields (fields whose value

are constant) which are used to store the origin of the model and the number of cells

in the 3 orthogonal directions. Effectively PROTOM defines a 3 dimensional area using

your local grid in which a block model is to be built.

The model origin takes the value of the coordinates of the bottom left corner

of the cell in the south-western corner of the model and NOT it’s centroid.

The standard fields in a Studio 3 block model are listed as follows:

Field Name

Explicit or Implicit Description

XMORIG Implicit Easting coordinate of the model origin

YMORIG Implicit Northing coordinate of the model origin

ZMORIG Implicit RL coordinate of the model origin

NX Implicit Number of parent cells in the X direction

NY Implicit Number of parent cells in the Y direction

NZ Implicit Number of parent cells in the Z direction

XINC Explicit or Implicit X axis cell dimension

YINC Explicit or Implicit Y axis cell dimension

ZINC Explicit or Implicit Z axis cell dimension

XC Explicit X coordinate of the cell centre

YC Explicit Y coordinate of the cell centre

ZC Explicit Z coordinate of the cell centre

IJK Explicit Integer which is unique for each parent

cell and used to index subcells


These fields are represented graphically below:

If you define a rotated block model then a further 9 implicit fields will be added to the

model file to define the two grids and the rotation factors. If you wish to use rotated

block models then you should read the “Rotated Block Models User Guide”, which is

available at www.datamine.com.au.

It is not necessary for each parent cell location in the 3D region defined by

PROTOM to contain actual cells. As an example, the final block model will

usually have no cells above the current topography surface.

I have wireframes that define my ore zones. How do I fill them with model cells?

The TRIFIL (Models | Create Model | Fill Wireframe with Cells) command creates a

block model from either a digital terrain model (DTM) or a solid wireframe model. The

process works by forming a matrix of possible locations of cell centroids, around

which cells are created if they lie within/outside/above/below etc. the wireframe

used.

The process requires a minimum of a model prototype file and a set of wireframe files.

The type of wireframe file being used is defined by setting the MODLTYPE parameter:

MODLTYPE Value Option

MODLTYPE=1 Solid 3D interior to be filled with cells.

MODLTYPE=2 Solid 3D exterior to be filled with cells.

MODLTYPE=3 DTM surface to be filled below with cells.

MODLTYPE=4 DTM surface to be filled above with cells

MODLTYPE=5 Create cells between 2 DTM surfaces

MODLTYPE=6 Two surfaces. Cells are to be filled above

the upper surface and below the lower

surface.


The other significant parameter settings in TRIFIL are as follows:

Parameter Description Values

SPLITS Controls cell splitting and use of

X/Y/ZSUBCELL parameters

0, 1, 2, 3

PLANE Sets the plane perpendicular to the

seam filling plane

‘XY’, ‘XZ’, ‘YZ’

XSUBCELLL Sets the amount of subcelling in the X

direction

1-100

YSUBCELL Sets the amount of subcelling in the Y

direction

1-100

ZSUBCELL Sets the amount of subcelling in the Z

direction

1-100

RESOL Sets the amount of subcelling in the

seam filling direction

0-100

The diagram below shows the same ore body outline filled with cells using varying

degrees of subcell splitting. In this case the 3 separate models had the XSUBCELL and YSUBCELL parameters set to 1, 2, and 3 respectively. Note how the overall fit is

improved with the increase in the subcell splitting. Not also how the number of cells

used rapidly increases with each increment of the 2 parameters, 2 cells in the first

model and 16 in the third.

XSUBCELL=1

YSUBCELL=1

XSUBCELL=2

YSUBCELL=2

XSUBCELL=3

YSUBCELL=3

What is seam filling?

Seam filling is a special type of subcelling which can be applied in ONE DIRECTION only. In the direction of seam filling the cell dimension is set automatically to fit the

wireframe boundary. The choice of the seam filling direction is determined by setting

the PLANE parameter to 'XY', 'XZ' or 'YZ'. The PLANE parameter defines the plane

perpendicular to the direction of seam filling.

As an example, if the PLANE parameter was set to 'XY', seam filling would apply in the

Z direction. In the X and Y directions normal subcell splitting would apply. In the

example below the same vein has been modelled 3 times using the 3 available

PLANE parameter settings. Subcell splitting in the remaining 2 directions has been set

to 3.

X

Y


PLANE='YZ'

YSUBCELL=3

ZSUBCELL=3

RESOL=3

PLANE='XZ'

XSUBCELL=3

ZSUBCELL=3

RESOL=3

PLANE='XY'

XSUBCELL=3

YSUBCELL=3

RESOL=3

Set the seam filling direction to the orientation in which you require the best fit.

What does the RESOL parameter do?

The RESOL parameter is used to control the length of cells created using seam filling.

When applied, it rounds the cell size to a set fraction of the parent cell length in the

seam filling direction. In the above diagram the RESOL parameter has been set to 3.

This means cells in the seam filling direction will be rounded to the nearest 3rd of the

parent cell length in that direction. By default the RESOL parameter is set to 0 which

means no rounding is applied, ie. cell lengths in the seam filling direction will give a

best fit to the wireframe geometry. The diagram below shows the same models as

above except the RESOL parameter has been set to 0.

Note that you get a better fit but the cells have widely varying lengths in the seam

filling direction.

Setting RESOL to a value reduces the amount of cells created when you add

models using ADDMOD. This is because it forces the cell sizes to be one of several fixed lengths.

X

Y

X

Y


How do I go about combining models?

The ADDMOD (Models | Manipulate Model | Add Two Models Together ) command

allows you to combine two models into one by superimposing one model onto

another. The resulting output model contains all the fields from both input models.

ADDMOD requires both models to have the same model prototype as defind in

PROTOM. If this is not the case then you will need to reset the prototype of one of the

models with the SLIMOD (Models | Manipulation Processes | Put Model onto New Prototype) command.

A typical use of the ADDMOD command is to add a grade model onto a waste

model. The key to using ADDMOD is the order in which the two input models are

specified. If both models contain one or more identical attribute fields with different

values, then the second model (IN2) will overwrite the attribute field values in the first

model where cells overlap or coincide.

ADDMOD requires both input models are sorted on the IJK field.

The diagram below shows 2 parent cell outlines in 2 separate models and the end

product when the 2 models are combined using ADDMOD. The centre of the two

parent cell outlines match, that is, they are both in the same geographic location. In

this case model 2 has been added onto model 1.

Parent Cell Outline1 (1 cell Model 1)

Combined model (4 cells)

Parent Cell Outline2 (2 cells Model 2)


In the following exercises you will build 2 block models, one inside the ore wireframe

and the other below the topography wireframe, and add them together to generate

a single block model which will be used for grade estimation in the following section.

The steps will be recorded in a macro, so that if any mistakes are made, the macro

can be edited and replayed. You will also learn how to display the model data in the

Design and Visualizer windows.

Something here depicting a flow diagram to show the stages involved

Exercise 1: Defining the Model Prototype

1. Start the batch command macro recorder (MACST command) by selecting

Tools | Macro | Start Recording from the pull down menus. When prompted

use the following macro and text file names:

MACRO NAME > begin File Name > lode.mac

2. Once the macro recorder has been started, run the PROTOM command

(Models | Create Model | Define Prototype) and enter the following values:

Files: OUT(MPROTYPE)

Parameters: ROTMOD = 0

Other Settings: Is a mined out field required? n

Are subcells to be used? y

Please supply Coordinates of the Model Origin

X > 5800

Y > 4600

Z > -200

Please Supply the Cell Dimensions

X > 10

Y > 10

Z > 5

Number of Cells in Each Direction

X > 40

Y > 80

Z > 100

3. When PROTOM is complete, open the file mprotype in the Datamine Table Editor and view the fields. Note that there are zero records in the file.


Exercise 2: Building the Ore Model

In this exercise you will build a block model inside the ore wireframe, mintr/pt. This will

involve using the process TRIFIL to fill the wireframe with cells. If the wireframe file

contains 2 or more zones for modelling then the triangle file must be sorted on the

Rock/Ore zone field before you run TRIFIL. In this case, the mintr file contains 2 separate wireframes which are each identified by the ZONE field. This field is stored in

the triangle file and is set to 1 (upper mineralised zone) or 2 (lower mineralised zone).

1. Run the MGSORT process with the following settings:

Files: IN(MINTR)

OUT(XXTR)

Fields: KEY1(LODEID)

2. Having created an empty model prototype, the next step is to build an ore

model based on the xxtr and minpt wireframe files.

Run the TRIFIL process (Models | Create Model | Fill Wireframe with Cells) with

the following responses.

Files: PROTO(MPROTYPE)

WIRETR(XXTR)

WIREPT(LODEPT)

MODEL(XXOREMOD)

Fields: ZONE(LODEID)

Parameters: MODLTYPE = 1

SPLITS = 0

PLANE = ’XZ’

XSUBCELL = 4

ZSUBCELL = 4

RESOL = 5

All field names are UPPER CASE.

3. The model will require sorting before it can be loaded into the Design window.

Run MGSORT and write the results to a file called oremod.


Files: IN(XXOREMOD)

OUT(OREMOD)

Fields: KEY1(IJK)

4. Stop the batch command macro recorder with the MACEND command (Tools | Macro | Stop Recording). If you believe you have made a mistake, open

the macro in an editor and check the syntax. Make any necessary changes

and replay the macro.

5. Check that the oremod file is listed in the Project Files control bar under Block Models and it contains 77224 records.


Exercise 3: Viewing the Model

1. Unload any objects currently displayed in the Design window and load the

block model, oremod. The Design window does not display the entire block

model. Instead it only shows the model cell outlines which cross the current

viewplane. The Visualizer by default, displays the same view but options exist

to also display the model cells as rendered rectangles or alternatively as

coloured dots.

The model will be displayed as a horizontal slice at an elevation of 50m RL. This

is a slice which is midway between the vertical extents of the model (-200 to

300m RL).

2. Load in the mintr/pt wireframe and set the display to wireframe intersection so

that you can see the relationship between the wireframe boundary and

subcells in the block model.

3. Use the procedure described on page ??? to set a 2 category legend called

ZONELEG for the ZONE field in the model.

4. Apply the legend to the model using Format | Display. Select the mintr/pt

(wireframe) object under Overlay Objects, then select the Color tab and under Legend: select the legend you have created. Select the Close button to remove the dialog.

5. Use the move viewplane icons on the View toolbar to move through the

model in both plan and section views. A north-south view on 6035m E should

look similar to the image below:


6. Select the Format | Visualizer | Visualizer Settings option. Toggle on the Model point cloud (tvupc) toggle and press the Update Visualizer button.

7. Close the Project Settings dialog and view the result in the Visualizer. Each model cell which does not cross the current viewplane is displayed as a

coloured dot. The dot is coloured according to the current legend in the

Design window and is positioned using the centre coordinates of each cell.

8. Select the Format | Visualizer | Visualizer Settings option a second time. Turn

ON the Model cells (tvumc) option and press the Update Visualizer button. Close the Project Settings dialogue and if you view the result in the Visualizer, you will see that each model cell will be displayed as a rendered rectangle.

9. You will notice the Visualizer rotates far more freely using the Model point cloud (tvupc) option relative to the . Model cells (tvumc ) option. This is because displaying rendered shapes requires far more graphics resources

compared to displaying coloured cell centroids.


10. Once the Model Cell and Point Cloud information have been loaded into the

Visualizer, the display of the points and cells can be turned off from within the

Visualizer itself. If you click the right hand button with the cursor in the

Visualizer window, additional menu options will allow you to control the

display of the model data.

11. Unload the model file from the Design window.

If a model file is held in memory in the Design window, then the file cannot be

written to using batch processes. The file will have to be unloaded from the

Design window before processing.


Exercise 4: Creating a Waste Model

1. Restart the macro recording using Tools | Macro | Start Recording and enter the following when prompted:

MACRO NAME > begin File Name > lode.mac As the same file name is being used as with Exercise 1, the new macro will be

appended to the bottom of the previous macro.

2. Run the TRIFIL command to create a waste model below the topography

wireframe, stopotr/pt, using the following settings:

Files: PROTO(mprotype)

WIRETR(stopotr)

WIREPT(stopopt)

MODEL(topomod)

Fields: ZONE(ZONE)

Parameters: MODLTYPE = 3

SPLITS = 0

ZONE = 0

PLANE = ’XY’

XSUBCELL = 4

YSUBCELL = 4

RESOL = 5

Creating a model with no existing zone field in the wireframe triangle file and

in the ‘XY’ plane results in the output model being sorted on IJK. The default

@PLANE value used by TRIFIL when not specified by the user is ‘XY’.


Exercise 5: Adding the 2 Models Together

1. Use the ADDMOD command (Models | Manipulation Processes | Add Two block Models) to create the final model by adding the ore model (oremod)

onto the topography model (topomod) and writing the result to a file called

lmodel.

Files: IN1(topomod)

IN2(oremod)

OUT(lmodel)

Parameters: Accept the default values.

2. Stop the macro recording with the Tools | Macro | Stop Recording command

and load the lode.mac macro into a text editor. When you stop and restart

the macro recorder using the same filename the new commands are

appended to the bottom of the existing macro.

3. Close the text editor and load the lmodel file into the Design window. Review

the extents of the model and zoom in to check the subcelling below the

topography and at the edges of the ore wireframe.

The model extents should be as follows:

X = 5800 – 6200 Y = 4600 – 5400 Z = -200 – 300


21 GRADE ESTIMATION

21.1 Introduction

Having created a block model to represent ore and waste volumes, we can now

look at estimation of grade into the model. In the following exercises you will create a

new model and estimate grades for AU and CU using both the nearest neighbour

and the inverse distance interpolation methods.

This training course will not attempt to cover any of the kriging methods which are

available. These methods are covered in more detail in the Grade Estimation User

Guide which is available from www.datamine.co.uk and on other training courses.

21.2 Prerequisites

This section requires a basic understanding of the inverse distance estimation method

and the following files which have been created in previous exercises:

Dholes – section

Lmodel – section

21.3 Background

The ESTIMA command ( Model | Interpolate Grade | Interpolate Grades into Model ) allows you to estimate values using one or more of the following estimation methods:

• Nearest Neighbour

• Inverse Distance

• Ordinary Kriging

• Simple Kriging

• Sichels T Estimator

ESTIMA is a very comprehensive command which can require a fair amount of input

and prove a bit daunting to new users. For this reason a user friendly menu called

ESTIMATE ( Model | Interpolate Grade | Interpolate Grades from Menu ) is provided as an alternative for running the ESTIMA process.

ESTIMATE

The ESTIMATE menu creates all the necessary reference files and provides a series of

dialogs which allow you to enter all the necessary criteria. The dialogs also provide

additional options such as a provision for Indicator Kriging, which is not available from

the ESTIMA command. The menu can be run by selecting it from the pulldown menus

or by typing ESTIMATE at the command prompt.


The standard files needed to run the process are listed below:

File Type Compulsory Description

Sample File Yes This is usually a desurveyed drillhole file which

includes one or more grade fields. As an

alternative this file can consist of the grade

fields plus three coordinate fields defining the

centre of each sample in the local mine grid.

Model Prototype Yes Block model file. This file will usually contain

cells plus one or more ZONE fields.

Search Volume File Yes Standard ESTIMA search parameter file

There must be a minimum of one defined

search ellipse (1 record).

Estimation Parameter File Yes Standard ESTIMA estimation parameter file.

There must be a minimum of one set of

estimation settings (1 Record).

Variogram File No Used to store the variogram model settings.

The variogram parameter file is only compulsory

if you plan to use any of the Kriging methods.

Sample Output File No Outputs the X, Y and Z locations of each

sample used to interpolate grade for each cell.

Can be a very large file.

Output Model File Yes Name to be given to the output model

Search Volume File

The ESTIMATE dialog requires you to define a three dimensional search volume

defined using 3 orthogonal axes. This volume is defined by setting the lengths of the

three X, Y, and Z axes along with the search volume shape (cuboid or ellipsoid). The

three axes can be rotated to reflect the local geology and statistics of the sample

data. The Search Volume file includes all of these values along with other settings

which can be used to control the selection of samples used to calculate weighted

grades.

One or more search volumes are defined using the Search Volume file

(SRCPARM). Each record in the file defines a separate search volume and each

search volume has a unique Search Volume Reference Number (field SREFNUM). This

means that a search volume may be unique to an individual grade or can be shared

by two or more grades.

The search volume method is either a three dimensional rectangle or an ellipsoid. The

only difference is that the rectangular method will select samples in the ‘corners’ of

the search volume. The default value for SMETHOD is 2 (ellipsoid).

One, two or three rotations may then be defined. For each rotation, it is necessary to

define both the rotation angle and the axis about which the rotation is applied. For

this purpose, the X-axis is denoted as axis 1, the Y-axis as axis 2, and the Z-axis as axis

3.

The rotation angle is measured in a clockwise direction when viewed along the

positive axis towards the origin. A negative rotation angle means an anticlockwise

rotation.

For example if the first rotation is through A degrees around axis 3 (Z) then the search

ellipse is oriented as shown in the diagram below.


If the search ellipsoid is then rotated through B degrees around the new XI axis the

result is:

This example illustrates a conventional rotation of azimuth and dip. However, any

rotation method can be used by defining both the angles and axes for up to three

rotations.

It can sometimes be helpful to use the fingers of your left hand to simulate the

rotations. Point your index finger straight out in front of you, your thumb up in the air,

and your second finger to the right across your body. Write the number 1 on your

second finger, 2 on your index finger and 3 on your thumb. Your second finger is the

X-axis, pointing East, your index finger is the Y-axis pointing North and your thumb is

the Z-axis pointing up.


To simulate the two rotations in the previous example first hold your left thumb with

your right hand and rotate the other two fingers clockwise. Then hold your second

finger and rotate your index finger and thumb clockwise in a vertical plane. Your

fingers are now pointing along the axes of your rotated search ellipsoid.

Estimation Parameter File

It is possible to select different grades to estimate, using different methods and

different parameters all in a single run of ESTIMA. The different combinations of

grades/methods/parameters etc are each defined by a record in the Estimation

Parameter file (&ESTPARM).

The estimation method is defined by field IMETHOD. This can take the following values:

• Nearest Neighbour (NN)

• Inverse Power of Distance (IPD)

• Ordinary Kriging (OK)

• Simple Kriging (SK)

• Sichel's T Estimator (ST)

The VALUE_IN field is used to define the grades to be estimated, which must exist in

the sample data file. There is also an optional VALUE_OU field (alphanumeric - 8

characters) which allows you to specify a name for the field in the Output Model file.

If you do not specify a VALUE_OU field, (i.e. it is left blank) then the name of the field

in the Output Model file is the same as the name of the VALUE_IN field. In the previous

example, there is no VALUE_OU field and so fields AU and AG would be created in

the Output Model file.

The VALUE_OU field is particularly useful if you want to estimate the same grade by

different methods or by the same method but using different parameters. For

example if you want to estimate AU by both Inverse Power Distance and Ordinary

Kriging, then the VALUE_OU field could be AU-IPD and AU-OK. In both cases, the

VALUE_IN field would be AU.

How does the process match estimation runs with the relevant search ellipse?

Both the Search and Estimation Parameter files contains a field called SREFNUM. This

field is set to one or more unique values which can be matched in both files. For

example the following Estimation and Search Parameter files indicate 2 runs of Inverse

Distance estimation for the fields CU and AU. Each run is using a separate set of

search volume settings.

Search Parameter File

Record SREFNUM SDIST1 SDIST2 SDIST3

1 1 65 65 70

2 2 100 50 20

Estimation Parameter File

Record SREFNUM VALUE_IN IMETHOD POWER

1 1 AU 2 2

2 2 CU 2 2

This is only a small subset of the fields normally found in these 2 files. All the

available fields for the search and estimation parameter files are in Appendix

1.


The SDIST fields record the length of the Search Ellipse axes in the X, Y, and Z

directions. The VALUE_IN field records the field to be estimated while the IMETHOD

field lists the estimation method to use. IMETHOD=2 indicates Inverse Distance

Estimation is to be used with the power value stored in the POWER field. If another

estimation method was used such as Nearest Neighbour (IMETHOD=1), then the

POWER field would be ignored.

How is the grade estimation done?

Each cell is selected in turn from the input model file and samples lying within the

search volume are identified. Each grade field which is specified in the Estimation

Parameter file is estimated using the selected samples and written to the output

model file.

How do I ensure certain samples are only used to estimate grades in cells?

Typically you will need to control which samples are used to estimate which model

cells in terms of rock type, mineralised domain or oxidation state. This is referred to as

Zone Control.

As an example, the image below shows a vertical section through a lead/silver

sulphide deposit. The mineralisation is capped by a supergene zone which has been

enriched in silver. The supergene zone is marked out using horizontal lines while the

sulphide zone is marked out using diagonal lines. The annotated drillhole values are

silver grades expressed in grams per tonne.


The ellipsoidal outline represents the outline of a search ellipse centred on a model

cell labelled A. If the grade for cell A was estimated using all the samples found

within the search ellipse not only would the estimate include waste samples, but

primary sulphide samples as well. Clearly a grade calculated using all the samples

found within the search ellipse would be incorrect and unrepresentative. An estimate

of cell A should only use samples taken within the supergene zone which are also

located within the search ellipse.

Estimating grades using one or more fields to distinguish different rock and or ore

types is called Zone Control. In this case a field called ROCK was built into the model

and assigned the values of 0, 1, and 2 to distinguish waste, supergene and sulphide

cells. The drillhole file included a field called ROCK which was logged as 0, 1 or 2 to

distinguish the same 3 rock types. When the grades were estimated this field was

used to match the model cell rock codes with the matching drilling information.


Exercise 1: Generating a Search Ellipse

In this exercise you will use the ELLIPSE command to create a wireframe of a search

ellipse. ELLIPSE allows you to create the search ellipse prior to using it in grade

estimation, so that you can view it in the Design and Visualizer windows to ensure it

correctly represents the search you wish to use.

Imagine you are dealing with an ore body which has a strike orientation of 50

degrees and dips to the south-east at 70 degrees. Prior to rotation to generate the

ellipse in the correct orientation the lengths of the axes are X=25, Y=100 and Z=50.

1. Run the ELLIPSE command from Models | Interpolation Processes | Create Wireframe Ellipse with the following settings:

Files: WIRETR(eltr)

WIREPT(elpt)

Parameters: SANGLE1 = 50

SANGLE2 = 20

SANGLE3 = 0

SAXIS1 = 3

SAXIS2 = 2

SAXIS3 = 3

SDIST1 = 25

SDIST1 = 100

SDIST1 = 50

2. When the process is complete, load the wireframe into the Design window

and rotate it.

The wireframe consists of 3 components which are identified in the wireframe

triangle file, eltr by the field ZONE. This field has the following values:

1 – the surface of the ellipsoid

2 – the three planes orthogonal to the axes of the ellipsoid

3 – a set of wireframe axes for the world coordinate system

Each octant of the ellipsoid is displayed in a different colour (1 to 8) and the

axes are COLOUR=13.

3. Experiment with filter expressions (Format | Filter All Objects | Wireframe Triangles) to show/hide the display of each value of the ZONE field.


4. Update the Visualizer window. The wireframe ellipse should look similar to the

image below:


Exercise 1: Estimating Gold Grade into the Model

In this exercise you will use the ESTIMATE command to estimate gold grade using the

inverse distance estimation method and applying zone control.

1. Run the ESTIMATE command from Models | Interpolation Processes | Interpolate Grades from Menu. The following dialog is displayed:

2. Enter the following under the Input and Output tabs:

Input Files: Input Model lmodel

Sample File dholes

Zone control Fields

– Zone 1

ZONE

Output files: Grade Model model

Sample Output File (not required)

3. In the Output tab ensure that the Use Defaults toggle is ticked under Parameter Files (Input and Output). The default names of the Parameter files

are shown in the boxes below this toggle.

4. Select the Search Volumes tab and select the Index pane. Click on the Add button to add a record to the search volume file.

5. In the Shape tab, ensure that under Shape and axis lengths pane the Ellipsoidal is on and the lengths of the axes are as shown below:


6. To change the number of samples used to interpolate grades into cells, select

the Category tab. In this case, we will not change the default settings which

use a minimum of 1 sample and a maximum of 20.

7. Check the Summary tab for the following settings:

Fields: Value:

SREFNUM 1

SMETHOD 2

SDIST1 50

SDIST2 50

SDIST3 10

8. Skip the Variogram Models tab as we will not be using a kriging method.

9. Select the Estimation Types tab and select the Index pane. Click on the Add button to add a record to the estimation parameter file.

10. On the Attributes tab in the Method pane select the Inverse Power of Distance button.

11. In the Data Fields pane under Sample Grade use the drop-down arrow to

select the AU field. Ensure that the Same as Sample box is ticked – the output field in the model file will also be AU.

12. In the Search and Variogram Definition pane, ensure that 1:Search Volume 1 is

selected.

13. In the Zone Field Values pane select ‘1’ using the drop-down list. The final

dialog should look like the following:


14. In the Index pane click on the Add button to add a second record to the estimation parameter file.

15. Follow the same steps as 10-13 above, except in the Zone Field Values pane select ‘2’ from the drop down list. This ensures each value of ZONE in the

sample and model files have a corresponding record in the estimation file.

Fields: Record 1 Record 2

SREFNUM 1 1

VALUE_IN AU AU

VALUE_OU AU AU

ZONE 1 2

IMETHOD 2 2

16. Select the Controls tab and increase the number of discretisation points used

for each cell with the following:

Number of points in X 2

Number of points in Y 2

Number of points in Z 2


17. Select the Preview tab and check all settings against that shown below:

18. Run the estimation by selecting the Run button. 19. On completion of the processing, close down the Grade Estimation (ESTIMA)

dialog and load the model into the Design window.

20. Load the mineralised wireframe mintr and the drillhole file dholes.

21. Use a legend for AU for the drillhole file.


22. Format the model using the AULEG legend previously created. View the

model in the Design window and compare the model grades with those

grades in the drillhole file. A view of detail of the model on section 6085m E is

shown below:


Exercise 2: Estimating grades for Gold and Copper using Different Estimation Methods.

1. Modify the settings from the previous exercise to calculate CU grades based

on nearest neighbour estimation and AU grades using inverse distance

estimation. Output the results to fields AU_ID and CU_NN.

2. Load the model when created into the Design window and display both the

AU and CU grades.


22 RESOURCE/RESERVE CALCULATION

22.1 Introduction

In this section you will calculate tonnes and grade from the model created in the

previous section. Studio 3 allows you to evaluate models or drillholes interactively by

the selection of strings or wireframes in the Design window. Alternatively, you may

wish to evaluate a model using batch processes which can be run from a macro.

Both options are covered in this section.

22.2 Prerequisites

To complete this section you will require the following files:

model – created in section ??

mintr/pt – created in Section ??

auleg – legend file created in section ??

22.3 Background

Evaluation in the Design Window

The commands for evaluating block models or drillholes in the Design window are

available from the Models menu item:

The Evaluation Settings dialog allows you select the following:

• Drive linking – these settings relate to underground evaluations and will not be

considered in this section.

• Model or drillhole evaluation.

• Fast evaluation – the wireframe is not verified before evaluation.

• Full cell evaluation – the default evaluation is partial cell. This means that any

portion of a parent or subcell which is inside the volume being evaluated will

be reported. If full cell evaluation is applied, then only those cells which have

>50% of their volume inside the volume being evaluated will be reported.


• Use Display Legend – By default, evaluations will report each category in the

legend currently being displayed in the Design window to report against. If

you require a different legend select it from the drop-down list available in the

dialog.

How is it possible to evaluate a model/drillhole against one string?

It is meaningless to evaluate a planar string because the string by itself will yield an

area, but not a volume. Tonnage figures can only be calculated using a three

dimensional volume. When you use the Models | Evaluate | Inside String (ev1) command you will be prompted to select a closed string and to specify a NEAR and

FAR distance. The distances are expressed in metres and are perpendicular to the

current view plane. The NEAR direction is OUT OF the monitor screen (i.e. towards

you). The FAR distance is in the opposite direction, INTO the screen (away from you).

When results are calculated using this command the selected string is projected the

set distances and a wireframe solid is built. This solid is used to calculate the results.

A typical use of the Models | Evaluate | Inside String (ev1) command is in an open pit

environment. The strings are digitised on the crests of benches/flitches and then

evaluated. In this case the NEAR distance is set to zero and the FAR distance to the

bench/flitch height (assuming that you are in a plan view).

The Models | Evaluate | All Strings (eva) command allows you to process a series of

single strings using the same NEAR and FAR distances. It can be used as an

alternative to Models | Evaluate | Inside String (ev1).

How do the evaluation commands account for absent values in attribute fields?

On completion of the evaluation, a dialog is displayed which asks if you wish to

accept the results. If you answer ‘Yes’, the results are saved to a table held in

memory. In this table an additional tonnes field is calculated for each attribute field.

This is to account for the case where there are multiple grade fields and where some

results include absent data. These additional tonnes fields are named TONNESA,

TONNESB, TONNESC, etc. Excluding unnecessary fields when you first load the data

into the Design Window, means that these fields will not be reported against and

unnecessary information will not be written to the results file.


Evaluation by Batch Process

As an alternative to interactive evaluation in the Design window, commands are

available for interrogation of models using batch processes:

• TONGRAD – calculates the volume, tonnage and grade for up to 10 specified

grade fields. • MODRES – evaluates an ore body model through one or more sets of

perimeters and outputs volume, tonnage and grade. • TABRES - Produces reserve tabulations from a results file produced by other

processes such as MODRES. • TRIVAL – Evaluates a block model against a wireframe. • DTMMOD – Updates a block model based on a DTM and evaluates cut and fill

volumes. • DTMCUT – Evaluates cut and fill volumes based on an original and updated

DTM.

In this section you will run an example of TONGRAD (Models | Reserves | Calculate Model Tonnes and Grade) to generate tonnes and grade by bench RL. This process calculates the tonnage and grade of up to 10 specified grade fields and the results

may be classified by up to 3 levels of keyfield. For instance, if you have a model

which has an attribute for a rock code and another attribute for weathering, you

could use both of these fields as keyfields and separate records would be output for

each value within the selected fields.

TONGRAD also allows you to report by COLUMN (X), ROW (Y) or BENCH (Z). These

parameters relate to the increment of the parent cells in the model in each of the

orthogonal directions. In an open pit situation, if you wanted to report tonnes and

grade by RL, set BENCH=1.


Exercise 1: Model Preparation

In this exercise you will use the EXTRA process to reset any absent values in the AU field and add a DENSITY field, whose values will be dependent on the value in the

ZONE field. You will then load the new model and set a view orientation for the

evaluation.

Be very careful about resetting absent grade data to zero. In some instances this may be inappropriate and could artificially downgrade the resource.

1. Run the command EXTRA from Edit | Transform | General and use the following files:

Files: IN(model)

OUT(resmodel)

2. In the Expression translator dialog, type in the following:

3. Click on the Test button to check the syntax is correct – an ‘OK’ should be

returned in the Status panel. If you have an error, fix it, and press the Execute button to run the command.

4. In the Project Files control bar, check that the file, resmodel, has been created.


5. Open the file in the Datamine Table Editor and check that the new field

DENSITY has been created and the values in it are assigned correctly.

6. Unload any objects in the Design window and load the new model file,

resmodel and the ore wireframe, mintr/pt.

7. Use the legend, auleg, created previously to colour the model on gold

grades.

8. Move to a north-south viewplane on 6035mE. One means of doing this is to

double-click on the coordinates displayed in the Status Bar. This displays the following dialog:

9. Toggle on the Locked tick box for the X coordinate, set X to ‘6035’ and close the dialog.

10. Run the command plane-by-1-point (1) and select north-south in the Select View Orientation dialog.

11. Set a filter (Format | Filter All Objects) to only display those model cells within

the ore wireframe. The view should look like:


Exercise 2: Evaluating the Model Inside a String

In this exercise you will evaluate the block model inside a string on 6035m E.

1. In File | Settings | Mine Design ensure that under Evaluation Control ‘Evaluate Block Model is on and Use Display Legend is toggled on.

2. Create a new string object and digitise a string which encompasses all of the

model cells.

3. Select the string and run the command Models | Evaluate | Inside string

(ev1). 4. You will be prompted to enter a Mining Block Identifier with a default value of

1.01. The Mining Block Identifier is a num1eric code that is assigned to the

selected string and will also appear in the results file under the field BLOCKID.

Accept the default by selecting OK.


5. In the Evaluation Settings dialog, enter ‘5’ for the NEAR and FAR projection distances. The evaluation volume will be defined by projecting the string

using the near and far distances either side of the string. The Default Density

value is the average value of the DENSITY field in the model file.

Studio 3 will now display an evaluation report. The report will consist of a set of

tonnage results for each of the defined categories, along with a weighted

grade for each numeric attribute (field) within the model. The average

DENSITY values will be calculated using a volume weighted average.

6. Select the Yes button to accept the results and when prompted enter the

name, xxres1, in the Filename box in the Select Results File dialog. 7. Click on the Cancel button in the top left of the Design window to cancel the

evaluation command.

8. In the Loaded Data control bar you have created a new object, called

XXRES1, which contains results from the evaluation process.


ua

9. Save this object to a file, and open the file in the Datamine Table Editor. The file contains fields for DENSITY, VOLUME, TONNES and AU for each category

(CATEGORY field) in the legend used to display the model. You will also find

two additional fields TONNESA and TONNESB. A tonnes field is generated for

each numeric field to account for instances where there are model cells with

grade values set to absent data. The fact that the various TONNES fields have

matching values indicates that there are no absent values in the numeric

attribute fields in the resmodel file.


Exercise 3: Evaluating the Model using TONGRAD

In this exercise, you will evaluate the volume, tonnage and average grades

contained within the grade block model resmodel, using the Datamine Process

TONGRAD. This will be done by zone (i.e. key field ZONE) which will generate a

summary evaluation for the entire block model for each of the three zones (ZONE = 0

waste, ZONE = 1 upper mineralized zone, ZONE = 2 lower mineralized zone). The results

will be saved to the results table res1.

1. Select the Command control bar. 2. Click the Find Command button. 3. In the Find Command dialog, browse for select TONGRAD and click the Run

button.

4. In the TONGRAD dialog, define the Files, Fields and Parameter settings, as

shown in the table below, and then click the OK button.

TONGRAD dialog Settings

Files tab

Input Files

IN * resmodel

Output Files

OUT * res1

CSVOUT leave blank

Fields tab

F1 AU

F2 CU

F3 - F10 leave blank

KEY1 ZONE

KEY2 - KEY5 leave blank

OREFRAC leave blank

DENSITY DENSITY

Parameters tab

FACTOR 1

DENSITY 1

COLUMN 0

ROW 0

BENCH 1

COGSTEP 0

CSVOUT – additional (optional) output *.csv results file.

DENSITY parameter – used to define a default density if the model does not

contain a DENSITY field.

COGSTEP – increment for defining cut-off grade intervals

5. In the Command control bar, view the message in the Output pane to check the status of the TONGRAD Process


APPENDIX 1 Datamine File Structure

All data files used by Datamine are binary and have the same format. Whether the

file stores point data, drill hole data, block models or anything else, the same structure

is used. Each file can be considered to be a flat table made up of two parts as

illustrated below.

Header (Data Definition)

Data Records

The Header is used to store details of the number of records in the file along with

details on each of the fields used. The Header section is followed by the actual data.

The file does not contain any specific description of the purpose for which it was

created. In other words, there is no "file type" parameter that says that "this is a drill

hole file" or "this is a model file". Instead, each file type uses a unique set of field

names which allows Datamine to identify string files, drillholes files, point files etc

simply by examining the Header. As an example, every string file contains the fields

PVALUE, PTN, XP, YP, ZP, and COLOUR.

In addition to the standard Datamine fields there will usually be additional “Attribute”

fields. Attribute fields are used to store site and or job type information such as rock

codes, density values, grade fields and so on.


The header is used to store the following four pieces information for each field.

FIELD PARAMETER DESCRIPTION

NAME

Each field is named using a maximum of 8 characters.

Field names are case sensitive and so to avoid

confusion it is suggested you keep all field names upper

case.

TYPE

Datamine supports numeric and alphanumeric fields.

Numeric fields (e.g. TONNES) are used to store numbers

while alphanumeric fields (e.g. BHID) can store mixtures

of numbers and letters.

Alphanumeric fields have a length component which is

set to a multiple of 4. In other words alphanumeric fields

can be 4 or 8 or 12 or 16 … characters wide. This width

parameter is set to accommodate the maximum width

of the values to be stored in the field.

EXPLICIT/IMPLICIT

(STORED/NOT STORED)

Explicit fields are also known as “Stored” fields and refer

to fields with a reference in the Header and a column of

values in the records section. Implicit fields are only

listed in the header and are used to store fields with

fixed (constant) values.

DEFAULT VALUE

Each field must have a default value. For Implicit fields

the default value is the actual field value. In the case of

Explicit (stored) fields, the default value is used when

new records are added to a file.


APPENDIX 2 Studio Field Names

DRILLHOLE FILES

Desurveyed static drillhole files have each sample of a drillhole identified

independently by its location and direction in space. Every drillhole file contains

eleven compulsory fields, regardless of whether it is “raw” (as drilled) samples, or

composited.

The standard fields are:

FIELD TYPE STORED COMMENTS

BHID A/N Y The hole number or identifier for the hole. BHID is

usually an ALPHA field, but may be numeric

FROM N Y The downhole depth to the start of the sample.

TO N Y The downhole depth to the end of the sample.

LENGTH N Y The length of the sample.

X N Y The X coordinate at the centre of the sample.

Y N Y The Y coordinate at the centre of the sample.

Z N Y The Z coordinate at the centre of the sample.

A0 N Y/N The bearing or direction of the sample, looking

along the hole from the collar. This is expressed in

degrees and is in the range 0 to 360. A0 is normally

a stored (explicit) field, but if all the holes in the file

have the same bearing, it may be implicit. This

could occur where, for example, all the holes are

vertical and have a bearing of zero.

B0 N Y/N The dip of the sample, looking along the hole from

the collar, B0 is in the range –90 to 90, with positive

dips down, so a dip of 90 means the sample is

oriented vertically downward. Like the A0 field, B0 is

normally explicit but can be implicit.

C0 N Y/N Not used

RADIUS N N Not used.

In addition to these fields, drillholes can have additional fields which contain data

recorded for the sample, such as an assay value or a lithology value. These

additional fields may be numeric or alphanumeric. Some typical examples are:


AU N Y Gold assay values.

ROCK A Y Lithology codes.


STRING FILES

String files contain a minimum of five fields which describe the point on the string and

the string it belongs to. A perimeter is simply a closed string; i.e. the first and last point

of the string is the same so that it forms an enclosed area.



PVALUE N Y The number of the string in the field. This is simply a

numeric identifier, and has a constant value for the

entire string. PVALUE does not have to be sequential

from one string to the next. In general, PVALUE is of

no concern to the user, as the software will select

and use an appropriate value.

PTN N Y The point number on the string. This number is

sequential from point to point, and must start at one.

Thus the starting point of the string has PTN=1, the

next point has PTN=2 and so on.

XP N Y The X coordinate value of the point.

YP N Y The Y coordinate value of the point.

ZP N Y The Z coordinate value of the point.

COLOUR N Y The Datamine colour value to be used when

displaying or plotting the string.

In addition to these fields, strings can have additional attribute fields which describe

some property associated with the string, such as a rock type or material destination

code. Attribute fields may be numeric or alphanumeric and are typically constant for

the entire string. Some typical examples off string attributes are:


ROCK N Y Numeric rock type codes.

DEST A Y

Destination codes for the material enclosed by the

string. Typical values might be WASTE, S/PILE or

CRUSHER.


POINT FILES

Point files contain a minimum of five fields which define the X, Y and Z coordinates of

each point, the symbol shape and the colour of the symbol.



XPT N Y The X coordinate value of the point.

YPT N Y The Y coordinate value of the point.

ZPT N Y The Z coordinate value of the point.


displaying or plotting the string.

SYMBOL N Y The Datamine symbol type to be used when

displaying or plotting the point.

Point files can optionally contain the following additional fields:


SDIP N Y Dip

DIPDIRN N Y Dip Direction

SYMSIZE N Y Symbol Size in millimetres

In addition to these fields, points can have additional attribute fields which describe

some property associated with the point such as a sample identification number or

project area code. Some examples off point attributes are:


SAMPID N Y Sample identification number for a soil or a stream

sample.

AREA A Y The name of the project area from which the sample

was taken.


WIREFRAME FILES

Two files are required to define a wireframe, a triangle file and a point file. The

triangle file defines each triangle by the three points at the vertices, whilst the point

file contains the coordinates of each point. Two files are used primarily to reduce the

storage space required.

The wireframe triangle file has five standard fields:


TRIANGLE N Y A number for the triangle, used simply as an

identifier.

PID1 N Y Identification number for the first point of the

triangle. This is cross-referenced to the point file.

PID2 N Y Identification number for the second point of the

triangle.

PID3 N Y Identification number for the third point of the

triangle


displaying or plotting the wireframe.

In addition to these fields, any user defined attribute fields associated with the

wireframe data are stored in this file. Some typical examples off wireframe attributes

included:


ROCK N Y Numeric rock type codes.

PIT A Y Codes to identify different open pit wireframes.

Typical values might be EAST or MAIN.

The wireframe points file has four standard fields:


PID N Y A numeric identifier for the point. This corresponds

to PID1, PID2 and PID3 of the triangle file.

XP N Y The X coordinate of the point.

YP N Y The Y coordinate of the point.

ZP N Y The Z coordinate of the point.


MODEL FILES

Every record in a model file defines the size and location of a rectangular block or

cell. There are 13 standard fields.



XC N Y The X coordinate at the centre of the cell.

YC N Y The Y coordinate at the centre of the cell.

ZC N Y The Z coordinate at the centre of the cell.

XINC N Y/N

The X dimension of the cell. If the model contains

subcells, then XINC is stored (explicit), as the

dimensions can very from block to block. If there are

no subcells then every block is the same size and the

XINC value may be implicit.

YINC N Y/N The Y dimension of the cell.

ZINC N Y/N The Z dimension of the cell.

XMORIG N N The minimum X coordinate of the model.

YMORIG N N The minimum Y coordinate of the model.

ZMORIG N N The minimum Z coordinate of the model.

NX N N The number of parent cells in the X direction. With the

XINC value this determines the maximum X

coordinate of the model; i.e. XMORIG +(XINC * NX)

NY N N The number of parent cells in the Y direction.

NZ N N The number of parent cells in the Z direction.

IJK N Y A code which is generated and used by Studio 3 to

identify each parent cell in the model. Subcells have

the same IJK value as their parent. IJK is calculated

as a function of the position of the cell in the model,

and has a minimum value of zero. In general, the IJK

value is of no importance to the user, except that

model files should be sorted by IJK.

In addition to these fields, models can have additional fields such as grade values or

lithology codes. These additional fields may be numeric or alphanumeric. Some

typical examples are:


AU N Y Gold assay values.

ROCK N Y Stratigraphy codes.

DENSITY N Y Density value.

In practice the XINC, YINC, and ZINC fields are set as explicit (stored) fields. This is

necessary if the model is to be later changed using the SLIMOD process.


Appendix 3 Reserved Field Names

The following fields are reserved for Studio 3 use. When creating new fields ensure

that they are not one of the following:

A-E

A0 PTN YMAX

AT RDFLAG YMIN

B0 S1 ZCENTRE

BHID PVALUE ZCOLLAR

BLOCKID RADIUS YMORIG

BRG S2 YP

C0 SAZI YPT

CHARSIZE SDIP YRT

CODE SURFACE YSCALE

COLOUR SYMBOL Z

DENSITY SYMSIZE ZC

DIP TAG ZINC

DIPDIRN TO ZMORIG

F-J TONNES ZP

FACE TONNESA ZPT

FILLODE TONNESB ZCENTRE

FILENAM TONNESC to TONNESZ

FROM TRIANGLE

GROUP U-Z

HSIZE VSIZE

IJK X

K-O XC

LAYER XCENTRE

LENGTH XCOLLAR

LINK XINC

LSTYLE XMAX

NORMAL-X XMIN

NORMAL-Y XMORIG

NORMAL-Z XP

NX XPT

NY XRT

NZ XSCALE

P-T Y

PID YC

PID1 YCENTRE

PID2 YCOLLAR

PID3 YINC


Appendix 4 Colour Codes

Value Colour Value Colour

1 default 33 Yellow 5

2 red 34 Yellow 6

3 orange 35 Green 1

4 yellow 36 Green 2

5 green 37 Green 3

6 cyan 38 Green 4

7 blue 39 Green 5

8 magenta 40 Green 6

9 Bright red 41 Cyan 1

10 Bright green 42 Cyan 2

11 Bright Blue 43 Cyan 3

12 white 44 Cyan 4

13 Light grey 45 Cyan 5

14 Dark Grey 46 Cyan 6

15 black 47 Blue 1

16 Dull Green 48 Blue 2

17 Red 1 49 Blue 3

18 Red 2 50 Blue 4

19 Red 3 51 Blue 5

20 Red 4 52 Blue 6

21 Red 5 53 Magenta 1

22 Red 6 54 Magenta 2

23 Orange 1 55 Magenta 3




27 Orange 5 59 Custom 1

28 Orange 6 60 Custom 2

29 Yellow 1 61 Custom 3



32 Yellow 4


GLOSSARY

Attribute

Bench

Block Model

Button

Cell

Centroid

Chord

Closed volume

Collar

Composite

Decimate

Desurvey

Digital Terrain Model

Digitise

Dynamic

Field

Loaded File

Log

Object

Origin

Overlay

Perimeter

Project

Projection

Prototype

Retrieval Criteria

Segment

Sheet

Snap

String

Surface

Table

Toggle

Toolbar

Tooltip

Verify

Vertice

View


A RELATED DOCUMENTS

22.4 Associated Documentation

Add references (and if possible, links) to any related documentation to this section, as

bullet points

• Document 1.doc (Reference DMDSL-xxx-x-x.xx) description of document 1

• Document 2.doc (Reference DMDSL-xxx-x-x.xx) description of document 2

Datamine Software Ltd.

2 St. Cuthberts St.

Wells, Somerset, U.K BA5 2AW

Tel: +44 1749 679299

Fax: +44 1749 670290

www.datamine.co.uk

Studio 3 Geology Training Manual

Documents

Transcript of Studio 3 Geology Training Manual