Geita Gold Mine: Introduction to Datamine September 2003

Geita Gold Mine

Datamine Studio Introductory Course

September 2003.

By Simon Ingram

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 Geita Gold Mine: Introduction to Datamine September 2003

This documentation is confidential and may not be reproduced or shown to third parties without the written
permission of Datamine International or Datamine Australia

DATAMINE International May 2003

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 Geita Gold Mine: Introduction to Datamine September 2003

Topics:
Taining Schedule: Geita Gold Mine.: ........................................................................................ 4
Introduction: Getting to know Datamine ....................................................................................... 5
Modules: ............................................................................................................................... 5
Topic 1: Starting Datamine: ...................................................................................................... 6
Topic 2: Loading data, reviewing sections and plans. ............................................................ 20
Topic 3; String editing ............................................................................................................. 37
Topic 4: Additional String Functions ....................................................................................... 56
Topic 4: Importing data, desurveying drill holes. .................................................................... 68
Topic 5: Reviewing data files and basic statistics. ................................................................. 73
Topic 6: Data Manipulation: EXTRA ....................................................................................... 75
Topic 7: Basic Wireframing DTM Surfaces: .......................................................................... 78
Topic 8: Orebody Modeling, ................................................................................................... 86
Topic 9: Wireframe Editing and selection methods, ............................................................. 106
Topic 10: Block Models: ....................................................................................................... 120
Topic 11. Point data editing .................................................................................................. 132
Topic 12 Present for plotting of data .................................................................................... 143
Earthworks Present .................................................................................................................. 143

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Training Schedule: Geita Gold Mine.:

Date Course Participant(s)

04th September 2003 Arrive on site Simon Ingram (Dr.)
1. Sebastian Slyvester
2. Paul Masatu
1st to 5th September 2003 Introduction to Datamine 3. Raymond Tarimo
Ore Block Modelling 4. Bavon Mwaluko
5. Mwita Makenge
1. Justus Herman
2. Dalcon Uhemba
3. Felichismi Mwijage
6th September 2003 Follow up 4. Charles Mhango
5. Efraim Herman
1. Charles Chikulo
2. Gaudens Pius
Introduction to Datamine 3. Elias Samson
8th to 12th September 2003 Ore Block Modelling 4. Gerald Buluma
5.

13th September TBA

13th September 2003 Depart Simon Ingram (Dr.)

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Introduction: Getting to know Datamine

Use Tutorial in the Help option of Datamine to follow the introduction to Datamine.
What can Datamine do

Modules:
 3D StereoNet Viewer
 Geological Exploration Statistics
 Enhanced Geostatistics
 Orebody Modelling
 Wireframe Modelling
 Unfold
 Mine Surveying
 Open Pit Mine Design
 Production Scheduling
 Optimised Blending
 Short Term Open Pit Planning
 Stockpile Management System
 Underground Mine Planning
 Underground Ring Design
 Floating Stope Optimizer

Core System
interactive 3D design, data management, data processing and plotting tools.
Exploration
data entry, statistics, drillhole editing, reserve evaluation
Geological Modelling
geostatistics, block modelling, ore reserves
Rock Mechanics
mapping, stereography, rock mass modelling
Open Pit Planning
pit optimization, long term planning, pit and haulroad design
Underground Mine Planning
stope optimization and design, development design
Mine Production
survey, grade control, scheduling, ore blending
Mine Rehabilitation
environmental engineering, reclamation, rehabilitation and land use studies

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Datamine Tutorials:.
Topic 1: Starting Datamine:
 Start Datamine
 Browse files in the database
 View database files
 Edit database files
 Select and run commands
 View online help
 Exit Datamine

THE INTERFACE
The old interfaces of Guide and Datamine are now part of the same combined
windows interface, of which the main features are listed below:

Title Bar

The title bar displays the name of the application; the name of the currently
selected window and the Project Name in brackets e.g. Datamine Studio -
Design [tutorial].

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Menu Bar

The Menu bar gives you access to processing and design commands and essentially replaces
the Command Browser from Datamine 5.

The old style Command Browser is still available and can be found as part of the
Customisation Window. If you find this window is hidden, it can be displayed with
a right mouse click on the Datamine background. This will show the Select
ToolBars | Dockable Windows menu, from which you must check the
Customisation Window option.

Toolbars

The toolbars are grouped by function and provide quick access to frequently
used commands. Although a standard set of toolbars are displayed on the initial
installation of the software, a full list of available toolbars can be seen when you
select Tools | Customize | Toolbars from the menu bar. Checking any of the
boxes allows Toolbars to be displayed or hidden.

Dockable Toolbars

All toolbars can be moved, docked or floated as desired. When a toolbar is

moved (by clicking-and-draging the toolbar handle) it can be placed anywhere in
the window as a floating toolbar, or it can be ‘docked’ along any of the window
borders.

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Database Browser

This dialog is displayed by selecting the Browse Database button on the

toolbar or by choosing the browse button on any command dialog. The
database browser provides access to and information about the files stored in
the current project.

Output Window
Text output from commands and processes is displayed in the output window,
which has full scrolling functionality. Any text in this screen can be cut or copied
to the Windows clipboard, or sent to the printer. Although normally floating, this
window can be docked using the following steps:

1. Right click on the grey border around the output window to display the
menu (Allow Docking, Hide, Float in Main Window)
2. Uncheck the option Float in Main Window and check Allow Docking
3. Place the cursor over the title bar and holding down the left mouse
button, keep moving the window until it docks. You can dock the window
to any of the four sides - left, right, top or bottom.

4. To undock the window:

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5. Right click on the window border and uncheck "Allow Docking"

6. In order to prevent the output window permanently overlaying the design

window, you should keep the output window set to "Float in Main
Window".

Design Window

All your design work is carried out in the Design window. Please note that Design
window commands are only active if the Design window is in focus. Selecting the
Design window with the mouse can do this.

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Visualiser Window

The visualiser window allows all or selected portions of your data to be displayed
in a 3D rendered view. This view can then be rotated, panned and zoomed by
using the mouse. Please note that since the visualiser is now part of the
interface, the command Visualiser Open (vo) is obsolete.

Graphics Window

All graphics output e.g. display of plot files, is sent to the Graphics window.

Status Bar
The status bar is at the bottom of the main window frame. On line help messages
and other information about the current Datamine session, are displayed here.

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THE DATAMINE PROJECT FILE

Datamine Studio uses a "Project File" to organise your files. The Project File
frees Datamine Studio from the constraint of having to keep all your files in a
single directory.

When you start Datamine from the Datamine Studio icon, you will see the
following dialog:

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If you are starting a new project, select OK and fill in the details using the New
Project Wizard.

You can browse for the folder which contains the database you want to use and

then provide the project a name.

When you have completed the required sections, select Finish to start Datamine.
If you have a recent project that you wish to resume, on starting up Datamine,
select the Recent tab and choose the project from the list displayed.

Alternatively, check the Open Existing Project button and browse for the project
you require. All project files have the suffix .dmd.

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Browsing the Database

The files or tables in this database are stored in a binary format which saves disk
space and improves the speed of accessing and processing data. To view the
database, click the Browse Database button on the Toolbar or choose the
Browse Database command from the File menu.

To view the names of tables in the database

Database tables are organised by their file type, i.e. Block Model, Drillhole, Plot
etc. To view the tables of a particular type in this database, click the
expand icon next to the file type e.g. Downhole Sample, in the Files box,
or expand All to view all tables.

To view information about a table

Now click (just one click) one of the tables. Information about the selected table
is then displayed in the File Name box; the file Description and number of
records in the table are also displayed. Each entry in the File Name box
represents a Field in the table. Tables consist of Fields (like named columns in a
spreadsheet) and Records (like rows in a spreadsheet) where each Field is
described by:

NAME 1-8 characters

TYPE N for numeric, A for alphanumeric
STORED Y(es) indicates that values may be stored in every record.
N(o) indicates that the Field has a constant value and is only stored in the table
header as the Default value
DEFAULT Default value for this Field

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To view the contents of a table

Now double-click one of the tables in the Files box. The table header and records
are displayed page by page in the Output Panel. To display the next page,
choose Continue. To terminate, choose Cancel.

To edit the contents of a table

This time, right-click the table name and choose Edit. The table is displayed in
the database editor. Use the keyboard direction keys (up/down arrow, right/left
arrow, Pg Up, Pg Dn) to navigate down Fields and across Records, or click a
field entry with the mouse pointer. Type a new value or use the function buttons
to complete your edits. To save any changes you should choose the Exit button,
but since we don't wish to change this file, choose the Abort button and quit
without saving.

Selecting Commands

There are over 350 individual database commands in Datamine varying from
simple actions like listing and editing tables to more complex actions like kriging
grades into a block model. In addition to the database commands, there are
Design Window commands which are also accessed from the menus or toolbar
icons.

Using Menu and Toolbar commands

Many of the most frequently used commands have been placed on the main
menu and toolbars. To run a command from the menu or toolbar, just choose the
command or button with the pointer.

Using the Menu Bars

All commands can be accessed from the menu bar.

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Selecting a Command
Click the command category Applications on the menu bar and from the drop
down menu choose the Statistics | Compute Statistics command. The STATS
command dialog is displayed with four tabbed dialog pages - all command
dialogs take the same form so once you learn how to use one command you just
about know them all. The STATS command computes summary statistics of
numeric fields in a table.

On the Files tab, choose the browse button next to the IN box. The
Database Browser is displayed. Select the _holes table from the Drillhole file
type in the Files box and choose the Select button. Now choose OK to run the
command. The results are displayed in the Output window.

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Getting More Information

There are many sources of online help - designed to suit the way you work:

Datamine Help Contents

Choose the Contents command from the Help menu to display the contents page
for Datamine help.

Context Help
Choose the Help button on any command dialog to display help on use of the
displayed dialog.

Tool Tips
Pass the pointer over the toolbar buttons to display tool tips and one line help on
the status bar.

AutoHelp
Check this option on any command dialog to display the AutoHelp window.

Online User Guide

Comprehensive User Guides and Process Descriptions are provided on the
software distribution CD in PDF file format. A PDF file reader can be installed
from the CD.

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Using Tutorial Help

Prerequisites
To use this tutorial you will need the following components installed on your
computer:

 Datamine Studio Version 1.0 or later

 Tutorial database

To display which version of Datamine Studio is installed

From the Menu Bar choose Help | About Datamine Studio

Information about the installed product is displayed together with its version
number.

The tutorial database is installed with the software and is normally located in the
directory database\tutorial on the disk where you installed the software.

Licensed Modules
Depending on the modules licensed on your installation, you may not be able to
complete all the lessons in this tutorial. If you try and run a command for which
you are not licensed you will get a warning message.

You will still be able to proceed to later lessons by using the sample files
supplied in the database (see below).

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Navigating your way around

You may enter the tutorial at any lesson; however it is recommended that you
work your way through the lessons in sequence as the lessons are designed to
progressively build your knowledge and skills.

This symbol indicates the lesson uses the database functions of Datamine

This symbol indicates the lesson uses the Design Window commands

Choose the Contents tab to display the Contents page, and select a new
lesson.

Choose the Next button at the top or bottom of the page to display the next
page in the lesson.

Choose the Back button on the toolbar to display the previous page in the
lesson.

Lesson Choose this to view another lesson referenced in the current lesson

Sample Files
A complete set of sample files is included in the tutorial database. When asked to
enter the name of a user file created in another lesson, you can always use the
sample file name by just adding the underscore character "_" in front of the user
file name. For example when asked to enter the drillhole file name holes, you can
substitute the name _holes. A complete list of sample files is given in the File
Index including links to the corresponding lessons where they are created.

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Topic 2: Loading data, reviewing sections and plans.

Design Tools – File Management and View Control

Aim
To familiarise you with the file management and view control commands used in
the Design Window.

Topics

View, Format, Data

Method
Load the data files listed below into the Design Window and experiment with the
file and view management commands.
FILES:

Background Information

The commands for adjusting the view in the Design Window are listed in the
View menu. Commands for adjusting the view between the Visualiser and the
Design Window are located under the Format Menu. The options for loading any
data into the Design Window are located under the Data menu.

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A list of the key View Control commands is given below:

Command Quick Description

Comman
d
Edit | Clear Design Window cdw Resets the Design Window.
Format | Visualiser uv Update the Visualiser with the
Settings | Update Visualiser current Design Window display.
Format | Visualiser | Read rvv Reset the Design Window view
Visualiser View plane to match the settings in the
Visualiser.
View | Zoom | Zoom All Data za Resets the view plane to be
centred on all the currently loaded
data.
View | Zoom | Zoom Data In ze Resets the view plane to be
Plane centred on the currently loaded
data while preserving the view
plane’s location.
View | Zoom | Zoom In zx Zooms into a defined area.
View | Zoom | Zoom Out zz Restores the previous view.
View | Pan pa Shift the field of view within the
current view plane position.
View | Set View Plane | By 1 1 Change the view plane’s
point orientation to be a plan or
orthogonal section.
View | Set Clipping Limits scl Set clipping ranges.
View | Use Clipping Limits uc Toggle the use of clipping ranges.
View | Set View mpl Move the view plane a set
Plane | Move distance.
View | Set View Plane | 3D Vi Adjust and rotate the view plane.
View

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 Datamine Studio
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 Visualiser and the Design Window?
The Visualiser is a representation of the Design Window, which uses the 3D
capabilities of your graphics card to give a more realistic view of the data. The
Visualiser represents the current view plane in the Design Window as a white
rectangle along with a set of X, Y, and Z axes to indicate the orientation of the
grid. Whenever you change the orientation of the Design Window view plane, the

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white rectangle in the Visualiser is adjusted accordingly. The Visualiser is NOT

an editing tool, it can only be used to view your data.

With the exception of the white view plane outline, the data in the Visualiser are
only updated when you run the Update Visualiser Objects (uv) command.

What kinds of data can I view in the Visualiser 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 commands for loading these file types are all located in the Data pull down
menu and are also available by right clicking in the Design Window. The
common theme in the above file types is they all represent data which can be
displayed in a 3D environment. Other data types such as geology logs cannot be
loaded into the Design Window.
Why is the Redraw command necessary?
This is a question commonly asked by people new to Datamine Studio. Many
Design 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 your 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 Finish 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.

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What can I snap to: points, lines?

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.

A summary of the various snapping options are listed below:

Option Quick Description

Comman
d
Snap to Stop When the right-hand mouse button is pressed
Points 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 Stl When the right hand mouse button is pressed
Lines 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.
Grid Gs Allows you to define the origin and grid interval
Snapping used in X, Z and Z axes with the Snap to Grid
Control (stg) option. By default the origin is set to 0,0,0
with the X, Y and Z increments all set to 10.

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Exercise 1
Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command. This will remove any data from memory and reset the
view to the original plan view centred on 0,0,0.

IF YOU FIND THAT YOU CANNOT SELECT THE COMMAND FROM THE
PULLDOWN MENU, CLICK IN THE DESIGN WINDOW AND THEN RE TRY
THE COMMAND. CLICKING IN THE DESIGN WINDOW MAKES IT ACTIVE.

Exercise 2 – Loading Strings, Panning, and Changing the Field of View

Load the CONTOURS string file into the Design Window using the
Data | Load | Strings (ga) command. When prompted for a filter expression,
press the OK button. Although you have loaded the strings into memory they are
not visible because the default view is centered on 0,0,0. Reset the view to be
centered on your data using View | Zoom | Zoom All Data (za) .
CONTOURS File = TG_TPST

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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 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.
The Pan (pa) command allows you to move the display across the screen in any
direction. Select the View | Pan (pa) 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. Alternatively, the Pan command can
be invoked from the keyboard using the arrow keys.

Exercise 3 – Zooming In and Out

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.

Use the View | Zoom | Zoom Out (zz) command to restore the previous view.

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Exercise 4 –Loading Drillholes and Changing the View Plane

Load the DRILLHOLES drillhole file into the Design Window using the
Data | Load | Drillholes (gd) command. Press OK to the filters prompt and
answer YES to the following dialog box.
DRILLHOLES file= TG_HOLES

The reason that this question is asked is that the Design Window commands
include the option to calculate tonnes and grades from drillhole or model data.
You will be asked which fields you wish to evaluate against each time you load
one of these two file types into the Design Window. The evaluation commands
allow you to define the region of interest typically using strings or wireframes and
then to write the results to a file. This option allows you to exclude attribute fields
that you do not wish to report against.

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In addition to the drillhole information being displayed, a legend has also been
added to the Design Window. This default legend is based on the first attribute
field listed in the file and dividing the range of data values in that field into 8 bins.
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. The following dialogue will be displayed. Select North–
South then press the OK button.

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Run the Format | Visualiser | Visualiser Settings option and when the Design
Settings dialogue box is displayed, select the Update Visualiser (uv) command.
Press the OK button to close the dialogue box. Note that the white rectangle in
the Visualiser has been adjusted to reflect the changed view in the Design
Window. The Update Visualiser Objects (uv) option can also be run by clicking
the right hand mouse button in the Design Window and selecting the Update
Visualiser Objects (uv) option from the menu.
The Set Viewplane | By 2 Points (2) command allows you to define a horizontal
or vertical section by defining two end points.
The 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 plane.

Exercise 5 – Setting and Toggling Clipping Limits

The Set Clipping Limits (scl) command allows you to set a distance either side
of the view plane. All data that fall 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 you run this command you are required to enter a
“front” and “back” clipping distance. The “front” distance direction is defined as
the direction towards you. The “back” distance is defined as the direction away
from you.
Make sure the View | Use Clipping Limits (uc) toggle is on and then select the
View | Set Clipping Limits (scl) command.
Toggle off the infinite clipping options and set both the “front” and “back” clipping
limits to 25 (The section spacing of the drillholes is 50 metres.) The dialogue box
should look similar to the image below.

Press the OK button.

YOU WILL NEED TO UN-CHECK THE INFINITE CLIPPING OPTIONS

BEFORE YOU CAN ENTER YOUR CLIPPING LIMITS.

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

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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
Visualiser 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 Visualiser window with the left mouse button.
DO NOT LEAVE CONTINUOUS ROTATION ON WHILE YOU ARE DOING
OTHER WORK, IT WILL SLOW YOUR COMPUTER DOWN.

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Exercise 6 – Moving the View Plane

The View | Set Viewplane | Move (mpl) command allows you move the current
view plane by a specified distance. The distance can be negative or positive with
the movement sense being perpendicular to the view plane. 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.
Run the Set Viewplane | Move (mpl) command and set the distance to 50
metres (The drilling has been done on a 50 metre spacing). Step through two or
three sections using positive and negative values. You will notice that the easting
value listed in the Status Bar will increase and decrease accordingly.
YOU WILL NEED TO MOVE THE MOUSE POINTER TO REFRESH THE
STATUS BAR DISPLAY

Exercise 7– Moving and Rotating the Viewplane

Clear the Design Window of any data using the Edit | Clear Design Window
(cdw). This will remove any data from memory and reset the view to the original
plan view centred on 0,0,0.
The above command, along with all the erase commands such as Edit | Erase
| All Strings (eal) and Edit | Erase | All Drillholes (ead) will only delete data
from memory. These erase commands do NOT affect files. Changes made to
data in the Design Window only become permanent when you save your data to
disk.
Load the string file STRINGS_ORE into the Design Window using
Data | Load | Strings (ga). When prompted for a filter expression, select OK and
then reset the view using the using View | Zoom | Zoom All Data (za).
FILE STRINGS_ORE =TG_MINSTR
Run the Update Visualiser Objects (uv) command and view the string data in
the Visualiser. The strings represent digitised sections based on the drilling data
(DRILL HOLES). The mineralisation consists of two east-west striking veins
dipping about 60 degrees to the north. The southern most vein (Orange Lode) is
offset by a north south trending fault while the northern vein (Red Lode) pinches
out.
The View | Set Viewplane | 3D-View (vi) 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 Visualiser. This
facility is slow, but sometimes useful because the view is isometric whereas the
Visualiser has a perspective view.

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Run the View | Set Viewplane | 3D-View (vi) command and click in the Z field
button of the dialog box. Type in 300 and click on the Apply and OK buttons to
make the change.

REMEMBER TO PRESS THE OK BUTTON TO CLOSE THE COMMAND.

If you move the mouse pointer in the Design Window to refresh the Status
Panel you will notice that the Z value now reads 300.
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. Any of
these values can be changed using keyboard entry by clicking on the button next
to the relevant label.

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Run the Set Viewplane | 3D-View (vi) command a second time. Press the ALL
button and experiment with the following controls:

Mouse Button to hold Direction to move

down. mouse
Rotate Left Any Direction
Pan Right Direction you wish to pan
Zoom In Left and Right Push away from you
Zoom Out Left and Right Pull towards you

ONLY STRING DATA ARE DISPLAYED DURING ROTATION. THIS

COMMAND WAS DESIGNED AS A VIEW CONTROL TOOL, NOT AS A
VISUALISER.
If you do not press the All button you could still rotate the axes but no string data
would be visible. The One button allows you to select one or more strings that
you would like to see displayed during rotation. The Speed button controls the
speed at which the view is rotated. By default the Speed button is set to “Fast”
however this can be set to “Slow” for fine adjustments.

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Press the One button and select any 6 strings. A small white cross will appear on
the screen to indicate which strings have been chosen. Press the Apply button
and try rotating the data with the mouse. Only the 6 selected strings will remain
visible.
Press the Cancel button to close the Set Viewplane | 3D-View (vi) command
and abandon any changes.

Exercise 8– Setting Axis Exaggeration

Change the view plane to a north-south section centred on the 45300 easting.
Set the clipping to 25 metres in both directions and make sure the clipping is
toggled on. Use the View | Zoom | Zoom Data In Plane (ze) command to centre
the view on the data. Your screen should look similar to the following:

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Question: Why would use of the Zoom All Data (za) command in the
above situation not be suitable?
Answer:

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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.
Run the Set Exaggeration (sex) command and 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 and toggle off the clipping.

Exercise 9 – Synchronising the View between the Visualiser and the

Design Window.
The Format | Visualiser | Reset Visualiser View (vv) and Format | Visualiser |
Read Visualiser View (rvv) commands allow you to adjust the orientation of the
current view plane from either the Visualiser or the Design Window.

Rotate the view plane in the Visualiser and run the Format | Visualiser | Read
Visualiser View (rvv) command. The changed orientation in the Visualiser
should now be matched in the Design Window. Now in the Design Window use
the View | Set Viewplane | 3D-View (vi) command to change the dip and dip
direction of the view plane and then run the Format | Visualiser | Reset
Visualiser with Design View (vv) command. Again the view planes in the two
windows should now be synchronised.

The difference between the Reset Visualiser View (vv) and the Update
Visualiser Objects (uv) commands is that the former only resets the view while
the latter resets the view and reloads all the data into the Visualiser.

The advantage of the Update Visualiser View (vv) command is that it will be
much quicker to run when a lot of Data has been loaded into the Design
Window.

Create view sections, saving views to a file

Create section by using View | Set Viewplane or right hand vertical Tool bar

Save Views to a view file for later use.

Save view from menu or right click in design window.

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Topic 3; String editing

Design Tools – String Editing

Aim
To familiarise you with the string editing commands used in the Design Window.

Topics
Design, Edit, Data

Method
Work through the examples of how to use the main string editing commands.

Background Information
The commands for creating and editing strings in the Design Window are listed in
the Design menu. The commands for loading strings from files, saving them to
files, or erasing them from memory are under the Edit and Data menus.
Commands for modifying the display settings in the Design Window are located
under the Tools menu.

A subset of these commands is also available directly in the Design Window by

clicking the right hand mouse button.

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The main string editing commands are listed below:

Command Quick Description

Command
Design | New String ns Digitise new strings
Edit | Undo String Edit ule Undo the last string edit.
Design | String Tools | Combine com Create a union of two
strings.
Edit | Erase | All Strings eal Erase all strings in
memory.
Design | String Tools | Extend ext Extend an existing string.
Design | String Tools | Reverse rev Reverse the order of a
string.
Design | String Tools | Connect conn Connect two open strings.
Design | String Tools | Clip to ctp Terminate string points
Perimeter outside a selected
perimeter.
Design | Outlines | Generate ou Generate outline strings.
Outlines
Edit | Select | Select Perimeter spe Select a Perimeter.

Attribute Fields and Strings

Datamine Studio uses the following fields when writing string data to a file:
PVALUE
PTN
XP
YP
ZP
COLOUR
These fields are compulsory for all Datamine Studio string files and are used to
record the string and point numbers, the coordinates, and the colour information,
for each string. In addition to this, Datamine Studio will also support the following
three additional fields to allow for varying point symbols, line styles and shading.

Field Description Default

Numeric field set to values between 201 and
SYMBOL 201
267
Numeric field set to values between 1001 and
LSTYLE 1001
1008

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Numeric field set to values between:

a) 1 and 64 for solid fill in the selected
Datamine
colour
FILLCODE
b) 401 to 414 for various fill patterns.
c) 3001 to 3030 for various hatching patterns.
For FILLCODE values above 400, the
COLOUR field determines the colour.

THE FILLCODE VALUE WILL ONLY BE HONOURED IF THE STRING IS

CLOSED.
A list of valid SYMBOL, LSTYLE, and FILLCODE values along with a description
of all the main string file fields is available in Appendix A.
You can think of the above field names as “Standard Datamine Fields”, these are
field names that are reserved for Datamine 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 with the exception of the FILLCODE field, which is optional.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO REMEMBER THE STANDARD FIELD NAMES TO
WORK WITH STRINGS IN DATAMINE STUDIO.
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 calculated volumes and or tonnes plus weighted
grades.
In addition to the standard Datamine 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 and are also
added to the wireframes that are generated from them. 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.
In the Design Window, additional attribute fields are defined using the
Format | Add New Attribute (nat). command. Existing string attributes including
COLOUR can be changed using the Design | Edit Attributes (eat) command.
You can control which attributes (fields) are written to files by using
Format | Attribute Fields Output.

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.

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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.

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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 2 mm circle. The size can be modified using Tools | Design Window
Settings | Data Display | Set Symbol Sizes.

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Exercise 1
Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command. This will remove any data from memory and reset the
view to the original plan view centred on 0,0,0.

Exercise 2 – Creating New Strings and Editing Points

Select the Design | New String (ns) command. The following String Attributes
panel will appear at the bottom of the Design window in place of the Status
Panel.

The coloured boxes represent a palette of available Datamine colours. Each box
is numbered according to the numeric code that is used by Datamine when the
colour information is written to a file.
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.

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.

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Using the Design | New String (ns) command, digitise a couple of lines in the
graphics window 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 Finish box to exit New String mode. The Status
Panel will replace the String Attribute Panel.

YOU MUST CLICK ON ‘FINISH’ WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED DIGITISING.

If you digitise 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 and the size of the symbols used to identify
individual points will be increased. If you hold the control key down you can
select/deselect multiple strings.
If you do not see any change in the symbol size when you select a string you
may need to adjust the symbol size using the Set Symbol Sizes (ssi) command.
This is located in the Tools | Design Window Settings dialogue box.

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Deselect any selected strings using Edit | Select | Deselect All Strings (das).
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 right hand corner of the Datamine Studio Window:

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:

With only the right hand string selected you will NOT be able to move any points
on the other two strings. Click Finish to close the Move Points (mpo) command.
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.
The Erase | Selected Points (dpo) command is located under the Edit menu.

Exercise 3 – Erasing and Saving Strings

The following commands are available for loading string data into the Design
Window and saving it to disk.

Command Quick Description

Comman
d
Data | Save | All Strings wa Write all strings to a Datamine file.
Data | Save | Single String ws Write a single string to a Datamine
file.
Edit | Erase | All Strings eal Erase all strings.
Edit | Erase | Selected ers Erase selected strings.
Strings
Write all the existing strings in memory to a file called XXTMP1 (click OK when
prompted for filtering). Erase all strings in memory (eal) and then load the strings
stored in the XXTMP1 file back into the Design Window using the Data | Load |
Strings (ga) command.
THE ERASE STRING COMMAND ONLY EFFECTS DATA IN MEMORY.
Question: Why would loading the same file twice in the same Datamine
Studio session sometimes cause problems?
Answer:
Hint: In the previous exercise this potential problem was avoided by
using the Erase | All Strings (eal) command.

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Exercise 4 – Open and Closed Strings

Use Edit | Erase | All Strings (eal) to remove all string data from memory.
Digitise a 4 point string as illustrated below and then position the mouse pointer
close to the first point.

Now close the string by clicking the right hand mouse button. Using the right
hand mouse with the new string command forces the new string point to be
‘snapped’ to the nearest existing data point. Click Finish to exit the New String
command.
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).

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Exercise 5 – Undo Last Edit, 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.
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 FINISH WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED DIGITISING
THE TWO STRINGS.

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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.

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).

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Exercise 6 – 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.
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.
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 ‘Z’.
THE START OF A STRING IS INDICATED BY A CIRCLE
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: If two strings with different colours are combined (com) or
connected (conn), what determines the colour of the resultant
string?
Answer:

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Exercise 7 – Clipping Strings to a Perimeter

Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command. Digitise a roughly circular closed string as illustrated
below. Make sure that the diameter of the circle is at least 60 metres.

Set the snap mode to grid using Edit | Snapping | Snap to Grid (stg). 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 next page.
DO NOT DIGITISE ANY POINTS INSIDE THE CIRCLE

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Save all the strings to a file called XXTMP2 and set snap mode back to points by
using Edit | Snapping | Snap to Points (stpo).
Deselect any selected strings and run the Design | String Tools | Clip to
Perimeter (ctp) command. Follow the prompts at the bottom right-hand corner
of the Datamine Studio screen. When asked to “Select perimeter to control
clipping”, snap a point onto the circle shaped string. 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.
Save the clipped strings to XXTMP2, overwriting the old string data. The clipped
strings will be used in the next exercise.

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Exercise 8 – Generation of Outlines, Select Perimeters

The Outlines options allow you to generate closed strings using any existing
open or closed strings to mark out the areas of interest. The Outlines option is
used when there is a need to gererate two or more tesselated 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.

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Open the Tools | Design Window Settings dialogue and make sure the
Generate all possible outlines radio button is toggled on as illustrated below.
Click OK to close the dialogue.

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!)
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. Run the
Edit | Select | 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 9 – Using Fill codes for strings

Turn on or off the honouring of the FILLCODE attribute for strings.
It is possible in Datamine to us a FILLCODE attribute to fill perimeters with
different patterns. FILLCODE values of 1 to 64 give a solid fill of that colour.
Values of 401 - 414 give various geological patterns. Values of 3001 - 3030 give
different hatching patterns.
If this toggle is on then when the Datamine screen is redrawn strings with a valid
FILLCODE value are shown with the corresponding fill. If the toggle is off strings
are displayed with no fill.
This command is useful if strings have pattern fills for display purposes but not
for design reasons. The honouring of FILLCODE values can be turned on only
when producing plots from Datamine.
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To create fill codes:

Define strings to fill. Strings do not have to be filled

Use design | Generate outline to fill area.

Edit FILLCODE attribute to create pattern EG FILLCODE=405, COLOUR field for

colour. If there is no FILLCODE attribute create a new attribute using Format |
Add New Attribute.

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A filter can be used to select only strings which have a fill code associated. E.g.
FILLCODE>400.

Multiple fills can be made to build up a geological section…Fill codes are listed in
the Studio help Contents | Fillcodes.

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Topic 4: Additional String Functions

Design Tools – Copying, Rotating, and Projecting Strings

Aim
To familiarise you with the tools used in the Design Window for copying and
translating strings.

Topics
Design

Method
Work through examples of how to use the main string translation and projection
commands.

Background Information
The commands for transforming and projecting strings in the Design Window are
included as options in the Design menu. A list of the key commands and their
corresponding quick commands is listed below:

Command Quick Description

Comman
d
Design | Move String mo Moves an existing string to a new
location based on a selected point
using the mouse.

Design | Copy String cps Copies an existing string to a new

location based on a selected point
using the mouse.

Design | Rotate String rst Allows you to rotate a string about

a selected point.

Design | String Tools | exp Allows you to expand a closed or

Expand open string a set distance.
Design | Translate String tra Moves a string a set distance by
entering distances in terms of
displacements in X, Y, and Z.
Design | Project | Project pro Projects a string a set distance
String based on a defined distance and
projection angle.

These commands allow you to adjust the position of existing strings and make
copies of these strings and change their location relative to the current view
plane and or string location.
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Exercise 1
Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command. Digitise a closed circle shaped string as illustrated
below:

Experiment with the Design | Move String (mo), the Design | Rotate String
(rst) and the Design | Copy String (cps) commands using the newly digitised
string. These 3 commands only allow you to make the changes within the
current View Plane. 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 right
hand corner to successfully use these commands.

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Exercise 2
Run the Edit | Erase | All Strings (eal) command to delete all string data in
memory and then re-digitise the closed, circle shaped string as per Exercise 1.
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 previous three commands in that
the newly created string does NOT have to be located in the current View Plane.
Run the Design | Translate String (tra) command and when prompted set the Z
displacement to 100 and press the OK button.

It will look in the Design Window as though no new string has been created. This
is only because the new string is directly 100 meters above the old string which
is not obvious in plan view. Run the Update Visualiser (uv) command and view
the 2 strings in the Visualiser Window.
Question: What command allows you to view and rotate string data in
the Design Window in a similar fashion to the Visualiser.
Answer:

Exercise 3
The Design | Project | Project String (pro) command allows you to make
copies of existing strings that are offset from the current View Plane. 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 (fan) 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.
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Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command. The View Plane will be set as a plan view centered
on 0 mE, 0 mN, and 0 RL. Leaving the orientation of the View Plane set to a
plan view, change the Z value of the view plane to be 100.

Digitise the closed, circle shaped string as per Exercise 1 and run the Design |
Project | Project String (pro) command. When prompted set the projection
method to U and set the target elevation to 125. You will next 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, the Design
Window should look similar to the image below. View the result in the
Visualiser.

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Making sure the original string is the only one selected and then run the Project
String (pro) 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 View plane to a North-South
section the 2 projected strings should have RL values of 125 and 225 (100 +125)
respectively.

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Exercise 4 Expanding Strings

Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command. Digitise a closed circle shaped string as illustrated
below:

The Design | String Tools | Expand (exp) command allows you to project a
string within the current view plane. Run the command and when prompted
digitise a point outside the circle. When prompted for an “Expansion Distance”
type in 10 and press the OK button. You should now see two circles in the
Design Window, if you view the result in the Visualiser you will notice that both
strings are in the same View Plane.

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Design Tools – Conditioning Strings

Aim
To familiarise you with the string conditioning commands used in the Design
Window.

Topics
Design

Method
Work through examples of how to use the main string editing commands.

Background Information
The commands for conditioning strings in the Design Window are listed in the
Design | Condition menu. 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.

A key string conditioning commands are listed below:

Command Quick Description

Comman
d
Design | Condition | Condition cond Repositions the points along a string.
String
Design | Condition | Trim tcr Resolves crossovers in strings.
Crossovers
Design | Condition | Trim trc Join string cords (erasing any
Corners segments in between).
Design | Condition | Smooth sms Inserts additional points into a string
String
Design | Condition | Reduce red Reduce the number of points on a
Points string.
Design | Condition | Insert at ii Insert string points where a selected
Intersection string crosses other strings

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Exercise 1
Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command.

Exercise 2 – Conditioning Strings

Digitise a closed circular shaped string similar to the one displayed below. Make
sure you include the “zig-zag” shaped string segments.

Select the string and run the Design | Condition | Condition String (cond)
option. You will be presented for the minimum and maximum chord lengths
along with 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 Finish button to
close the command.

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The “zig-zag” segments of the string should have been rounded out.

Exercise 3 - Trimming Crossovers and Corners

Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command. Digitise an open string with a similar shape to that
displayed in the image below.

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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. Now run the Design | Conditon | Trim Corners (trc) command and
snap onto the two string chords labeled “1” and “2”. The command will delete the
embayed portion of the string and join the 2 chords. 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 4 - Smoothing Strings and Reducing String Points.

Close the modified string from Exercise 3 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.

The Design | Condition | Smooth String (sms) command, this will smooth a
string by inserting points along its length.
The Design | Condition | Reduce Points (red) command will reduce the
number of points along a string. The command works by selecting co linear
points so that the impact on the shape of the string is minimised. To control the
amount of point reduction use Design | Condition | Percentage Reduction.
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Use the closed string in the Design Window to experiment with the smoothing
and reducing commands.

Question: In what circumstances might the Smooth String command be

inappropriate?
Answer:

Exercise 5 – Inserting Points at String Intersections

Erase all the string data in memory and digitise 4 open strings as illustrated
below. The east-west trending string should be a two point string which crosses
the three north-south trending strings. Do NOT snap the string points where the
strings cross.

Select the east-west trending string and run the Design | Condition | Insert at
Intersections (ii) command. Points will be inserted into the selected string
wherever it crosses the other strings.

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Topic 4: Importing data, desurveying drill holes.

Design Tools – Copying, Rotating, and Projecting Strings

Aim
To familiarise you with importing base drilling files (Collar, Survey Assay and
Lithology) . Then creating a desurveyed drill hole file

Topics
Drill hole Desurvey

Method
The Datamine Studio help section has a step by step guide to importing drill hole
base files and desurveying of the data. Open Datamine help and select the |
Drillhole Data Processing | menu from the contents page.

Background Information
A datamine drill hole is a file which contains the X, Y, Z coordinates of each
sample along with the dip and azimuth of the sample. Additional information held
within the drill hole file are sample lengths depths down the hole, and sample
grades or lithological information. Drill holes are made up of three basic files.
Collar, Survey and down hole information such as lithology or assay grades.
The three file types are listed below.
Drillhole Collars File

Field Description

BHID The Drillhole Identifier

XCOLLAR X Coordinate of collar location
YCOLLAR Y Coordinate of collar location
ZCOLLAR Z Coordinate of collar location

Downhole Survey File

Field Description

BHID The Drillhole Identifier

The distance down the hole to the survey
AT
measurement
The bearing of the survey measurement in degrees
BRG
measured clockwise from North
The dip of the survey measurement in degrees
DIP 90 degrees is vertically downwards.
-90 degrees is vertically upwards

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Downhole Sample File

Field Description
BHID The Drillhole Identifier
The distance down the hole to the top of the
FROM
sample
The distance down the hole to the bottom of the
TO
sample

Datamine has a superprocess called HOLES3D which will merge down hole
drilling information such as assay and lithological information and then desurvey
the samples using the collar and survey data.

THE LENGTH OF THE BHID FIELD IN THE 3 FILES MUST BE THE SAME. IN
THESE EXERCISES THEY WILL ALL BE SET TO 8 CHARACTERS IN
LENGTH.

The sample file will contain information from the geologist's drilling logs along
with any matching assay information. The collars file is used to record the mine
coordinates of the collar position for each hole as picked up by the surveyors.
Finally the surveys file is used to store any downhole information in terms of dip
and dip directions. Downhole survey information typically comes from
downhole camera photography or verticality probes.

Often the sample data will be stored as separate files. In other words there is a
separate geology file and a separate assay file. This is done because the FROM
and TO intervals in the assay and geology logs will usually not match. If more
than one sample file is specified when you run the HOLES3D process then the
sample files will be merged prior to creating a desurveyed drillhole file. The
process allows up to 5 sample files to be specified.

The minimum requirement for this process is a collar file and one sample file. If
no survey file is specified then HOLES3D assumes that all holes are vertical.
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 and Visualiser Windows.
Optionally, you may specify a survey file which contains downhole survey
measurements for specified drillholes. Up to 256 downhole measurements can
be listed for each hole. If there are more than 256 measurements for any
drillhole then the process will load the first 256 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. As such, if you have inclined
holes you will need a survey file with a minimum of 1 record for each inclined
hole.

As mentioned earlier, if you have inclined holes then you will need to use a
survey file with a minimum of one record per inclined hole. As an example, a
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survey file with three holes (DH10, DH11, and DH12) drilled grid north at an
angle of 60 degrees would at a minimum require the following survey file:

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 WILL BE NEGATIVE

If you are 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. So for a survey
file containing a single record per hole, the AT field MUST be set to zero for each
hole. If this criteria is not met then HOLES3D will correct the problem with a
warning message.

Exercise 1: Importing Drill hole data into Datamine.

1) Importing Drill holes: Use the tutorial Wizard to take you through the
process.
2) Import the following files:
File Type CSV file Datamine file name to use
Collar TG_COLLARS COLLAR
Survey TG_SURVEYS SURVEY
Assay TG_ASSAYS ASSAY
Lithology TG_LITHOLOGT LITHO

It is important to check that the correct Numeric or Alpanumeric field codes are
given to the drilling data during the import process.

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COLLARS

SURVEYS
HOLES3D
ASSAYR.D
Create a desurveyed
drillhole file
GEOLOGY

ASSAYS

Exercise 2: Desurvey of drilling Data

Run the superprocess HOLES3D. From the tool bar Drillholes | Validate and
desurvey. Enter the file names and ensure that the files are
defined for the Hole summary and errors.

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Once the process has run check the output window for any errors during the
processing
Load the drill hole file into the design window.

Exercise 3 Checking editing the drill hole file.

1) If there are any errors listed during the desurvey process you must check the
desurvey error and summary files. Use the advanced editor: | Edit | Edit file|
(AED)
2) Review errors listed in the desurvey error file. Errors such as wrong from and
to distances, missing survey collar or assay information may exist. Any errors
found should be fixed in the base file. You may have to go back to the
original paper files to check data recorded before making a change.
Commands which also can be used to review data files are:
LIST, file| Utilities | List|
OUTPUT, | Data | Transfer| Output file as datamine text.
What other errors might occur in the base drilling files which will not be
checked during the desurvey process? How can we check for these
errors?

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Topic 5: Reviewing data files and basic statistics.

Review Data – Basic Statistics of data

Aim
To familiarise you with the basic statistical functions available within Studio so
that you may review, check and validate data.

Topics
Review data and basic statistics

Method
Undertake the following exercises using the drill hole files.
Collars
Surveys
Assays
Geology
Desurveyed holes

Background Information
Datamine Studio has numerous statistical functions which can be used to review
data. These statistical functions can be used to validate data which is to be used.

Exercise 1: Statistics:
Use the command (STATS) or from the menu | Applications| Statistics | Compute
Statistics |
You can calculate the statistics on fields eg AU and also apply weightings such
as length weighting for drill hole samples. Key fields may also be used to
calculate the statistics of sub groups of data based on specific fields such are ore
type. The file must be sorted on the key fields for this option to be used.
Calculate the Statistics of the main metals in the drill hole file.
Calculate the maximum and minimum of the drill hole coordinates

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Exercise 2: COUNT Function
The Count function | Applications| Statistical Utilities | Count on Key field | Can
be used to count the number of records base on a specific key field. E.g. this can
be used to find out how many ore types there are in a drill hole.
Use count to find out the number of RC and DDH drill hole records there are in
the drilling file. Use keyfield DH_TYPE

Exercise 3: Histograms and model fitting using HISFIT

Use the (HISFIT) command to make a histogram of the gold grades (AU) in the
drill hole file.
| Applications| Statistics | Create histograms interactively |
Initially use a lower and upper cutoff of 0 and 30 and a bin width of 1 and 30
bins.
Experiment with changing the bin widths.
Create a probability plot and log probability plot by changing the graph type. |
System control | Histogram Type|

Exercise 4: QUANTILE Analysis

The QUANTILE command | Applications| Statistical Utilities | Calculate Quantiles
|. Can be used to determine the average value of a field (E.g. AU) when the data
is equally divided into proportions. E.g. Quartiles (quarters, 25%) or deciles
(tenths, 10%) etc. This is a good method of data analysis to check where most of
the gold occurs within the data set, and also help define top cut values.

Experiment using the drill hole file and AU field to calculate Quartiles and
Deciles. What is the effect of applying a top cut value?

Exercise 5: Copy with filters.

Files can be copied using the COPY command | File | Copy |. A filter can be
applied to ensure only records within the filter can be copied.
To copy all samples with an AU value greater than 5 ppm (g/t) can be copied by
adding the retrieval criteria to the retrieval dialog box: AU>5

To copy all records which RC samples and have a gold grade and above 1 ppm
the following can be used
AU>5, DH_TYPE = ‘RC’

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Check the output window after the file is created to make sure the correct filter
has been used.

Topic 6: Data Manipulation: EXTRA

Extra command to manipulate data.

Aim
Introduce the Extra command for data manipulation.

Topics
EXTRA command

Method
Undertake the following exercises

Background Information
The EXTRA command |Edit | Transform | General| can be used to manipulate
data. Use the help EXTRA notes as a detailed guide to this process.
Extra can be used to perform a large number of data manipulations, from basic
setting of values to complex nested If Then outcomes. It is well worth spending
time to get a good understanding of the process.

Exercise 1: Running Extra and setting a top cut.

The following logic is defined
A field called CUT_FLAG is set to ZERO (0)
A new gold field is created ( AU_CUT) which has the same values as the AU
field.
IF Statement, If the AU gold grade is above 10ppm the value in the record for the
AU_CUT field is set to 10. E.g. if AU=13.23 ppm the AU_CUT value is set to 10
ppm.
For every value that is cut the AU_FLAG field is changed from zero (0) to 1. This
was done so that it is easy to identify which values have been cut. You could
copy all of these values to a separate file using COPY with retrieval set to
AU_FLAG=1

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Exercise 2: Converting coordinates.

To convert a coordinate system to a new values.
OLD_X=XP
OLD_Y=YP
XP=XP-800000
YP=YP-890000

Exercise 3. Setting Absent values for gold grades.

The drill hole data has the AU field set to –9 when there is an absent value.
Datamine has a special character for absent data ‘-‘. The file can be converted to
reflect this. If statistics were run on the current file containing ‘-9’ AU grades the
real value of –9 would be used and give incorrect gold statistics. Values of –1
and zero are also used.
IF (AU==-9)
AU=special("-")
ELSEIF (AU==-1)
AU=special("-")
END
ELSEIF (AU==0)
AU=special("-")
END

Exercise 4. Converting negative dip to positive dip in a survey file..

Sometimes a negative dip value has been used to define a dip angle for
downward direction drill hole. Datamine uses the convension that appositive
value is down and a negative value is up.
DIP=DIP*-1

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Exercise 5. Setting ore codes based on mineralisation codes
A new ore code (ORE2) is created and set to zero (0) if the mineralisation codes
are equal to 502, 503, 504, 508 or 102. ORE2 is set to 1.

ORE2=0
IF (MINCODE==502 OR MINCODE==503 OR MINCODE==504 OR
MINCODE==508 OR MINCODE==102)
ORE2=1
END

You can create your own extra commands. It is useful to save the extra logic
commands as either text files or Macros.

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Topic 7: Basic Wireframing DTM Surfaces:

Design Tools – Introduction to Wireframing - DTM Surfaces

Aim
To introduce the topic of wireframing and discuss the DTM wireframing
commands used in the Design Window.

Topics
Edit, Data, Wireframing

Method
Work through examples of how to use the DTM wireframing commands and build
a topography wireframe from the CONTOURS string file.
Files: CONTOURS = TG_TPST

Background Information

What is a wireframe ?

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 strings 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 Wireframe

The commands for modelling surfaces such as topography and pit shells are
listed under the Wireframes | Interactive DTM Creation menu.

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The key DTM wireframing commands are listed below.

Command Quick Description

Comman
d
Wireframes | Interactive DTM md Makes a DTM wireframe surface.
Creation | Make DTM
Wireframes | Interactive DTM uld Deletes a DTM wireframe surface
Creation | Undo Last DTM from memory.
Wireframes | Interactive DTM sol Select a closed string to form an
Creation | Select Outer Limit outer boundary to constrain
wireframing.
Wireframes | Interactive DTM sil Select one or more closed strings
Creation | Select Inner Limit to form inner boundary(s) to
constrain wireframing.
Wireframes | Interactive DTM dli Remove the one Limit.
Creation | Deselect One Limit
Wireframes | Interactive DTM dal Remove all Limits.
Creation | Deselect All Limits

The commands for saving wireframe data to disk are listed under the Data |
Save menu.

Wireframe data is actually stored in pairs of files which typically end in “TR” and
“PT”. Examples of this file type you will see in this training course include
TOPOTR, TOPOPT and LODETR, LODEPT. The files ending in TR are the
triangle files and files ending in PT are the points files. When saving and loading
wireframe data you will be prompted for the triangle file first and then the point
file. A full listing of the Datamine Wireframe Field Names is given in Appendix
A.
What is a DTM surface ?
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 example
are wireframe surfaces defining topography built from contour strings.

Wireframe Tolerance Settings

Under the Wireframing | Interactive DTM Creation menu there are 3 settings
you can use to fine tune the results from the Make DTM (md) command.

Command Quick Description

Comman
d
Wireframing | Interactive DTM sto No triangles will be created with
Creation | Set Point Tolerance sides less than this value.
Wireframing | Interactive DTM mse No triangles will be created with
Creation | Maximum Separation sides greater than this value.
Wireframing | Interactive DTM nps Used to insert extra points along

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Creation | New Point Separation strings when building triangles.

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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 DTM coordinate switch. This switch
can be found in the DTM section of the Tools | Design Window Settings menu.

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Exercise 1 – Building a Surface DTM wireframe

Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command. Load the CONTOURS string data into memory
pressing the OK button when prompted for filtering. Reset the view with the
View | Zoom | Zoom All Data (za) command.

Select the Wireframes | Interactive DTM creation | Make DTM (md) option,
this command will toggle on the string attributes display and display a menu with
OK and Cancel buttons as illustrated below.

Select the green coloured box numbered 5 and press the OK button.

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View the DTM surface in the Visualiser. You will notice in the visualiser that
triangles have been created along the edges of the surface forming an “open
box” effect. In the image below these triangles are the ones that have been
created outside the rectangle shaped boundary string.

The reason for this affect is the command will attempt to link up all the string
points to form triangles where ever possible. The only restraint is the triangles
must not overlap and they must not cross the string lines.

Erase the wireframe surface with the Wireframing | Interactive DTM Creation |
Undo last DTM (uld).

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Exercise 2 – Using an Outer limit with the Make DTM command.

Select the Wireframes | Interactive DTM Creation | Select Outer Limit (sol)
and snap a point on the red string which bounds the green contour strings. If this
is done correctly the colour of the red string will be changed to a blue colour.
Rebuild the DTM surface using the same colour as Exercise 1.

If you view the result in the Visualiser you will notice that the wireframe surface
no longer has any “sides” along the outer most edge of the contours. The Outer
Limit has acted as a physical boundary. Triangles have been created using
points on the boundary string but no triangles have been created outside the
Outer Limit string.

Exercise 3 – Using an Outer limit and Inner Limit with the Make
DTM command.

Erase all the wireframes from memory. Select one of the contours at the base of
the main hill as an inner limit using the Wireframes | Interactive DTM Creation |
Select Inner Limit (sil) command. The cursor in the image below is centered on
the region of interest.

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Run the Wireframes | Interactive DTM Creation | Make DTM (md) command.
The region enclosed by the Inner Limit should contain no triangles. View the
result in the Visualiser. While you are restricted to a maximum of one Outer
Limit, you can select as many inner limits as you wish.

Exercise 4 – Saving Wireframe Data.

Erase all the wireframes from memory and deselect any wireframing limits with
the Wireframes | Interactive DTM Creation | Deselect All Limits (dal)
command. Select the Wireframes | Interactive DTM Creation | Select Outer
Limit (sol) and snap a point on the red string which bounds the orange contour
strings. Run the Wireframes | Interactive DTM Creation | Make DTM (md)
command, select the green coloured box numbered 5 and press the OK button.

Save the wireframe data with the Data | Save | Wireframes (ww) command and
when prompted use the following triangle and points file names.

Description File Name

Wireframe Triangle File TOPOTR
Wireframe Points File TOPOPT

You will notice that once you enter the Triangle File Name and press the Select
button, the default points file name will be listed for you. This default name
assumes you are using the TR/PT naming convention. This is standard for most
sites though you can use your own naming convention if you wish.

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Topic 8: Orebody Modeling,

Design Tools – Orebody Wireframing

Aim
To familiarise you with the wireframing commands used in the Design Window
for Orebody Modelling.

Topics
Edit, Data, Wireframing

Method
Work through examples of how to use the main wireframing commands and then
wireframe the section strings (LODESTR).

Background Information
The commands for modelling 3D volumes such as stope blocks and ore horizons
are listed under the Wireframes | Linking menu. The key wireframing
commands are listed below.

Command Quick Description

Comman
d
Edit | Erase | Wireframe Link uw Erases a single wireframe link.
Wireframes | Linking | Link ls Link two strings. The strings can
string be opened or closed.
Wireframes | Linking | Link lbo Links a bifurcating wireframe
Boundary
Wireframes | Linking | Link to ll Links a closed string to an open
Line string
Wireframes | Linking | End Link eli Wireframes a single closed string
Wireframes | Linking | End Link elb Wireframes an enclosed area on a
Boundary closed string
Wireframes | Linking | Undo Last ull Erases the last wireframe link.
Link
Wireframes | Linking | Create tgs Insert a tag string.
Tag String

The link strings commands can also be used to link open strings to form
wireframe surfaces. Examples of this include constructing fault planes or
modelling lithological contacts. Block models can be built using 3D solids and
surfaces where needed.

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Linking Methods

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 Make the
DTM (md) command, the methods used do not require the strings to be
orientated in a particular view or plane.

The Design Window allows you to use three separate methods when linking
strings together. The method names and a brief description are listed below.

Command Quick Description

Comman
d
Minimum Surface tma The system will create the triangulation which
Area 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 screen
capture shows a pair of strings linked using each of the above methods

Minimum Surface Equi-angular

Area Shape

Proportional Length
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.

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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.

YOU MUST USE THE Wireframes | Linking | Create Tag String

COMMAND TO CREATE TAG STRINGS. DO NOT USE THE Design |
New String COMMAND.
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.

Erasing Wireframes/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.

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Exercise 1
Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command and digitise a closed circle shaped string in plan view.

Use the Design | Translate String (tra) command to project copies of the string
vertically 50, 100, and 150 metres away from the current View Plane. Leave the
X and Y offsets set to zero and make sure the Z offsets are all positive.

Move the view plane 200 metres vertically and digitise a two point open directly
above the four strings created previously. When you have digitised the two point
string, rotate the view using the View | Set Viewplane | 3D View (vi) command
so you can clearly distinguish the five strings as illustrated below.

Before you proceed to the next exercise check the strings in the Visualiser. All
five strings should be on separate planes 50 metres apart.

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Exercise 2 – Create a Basic 3D Solid.

Run the Wireframes | Linking | Link String (ls) command. A message will
appear in the bottom right hand corner 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 too previously. The Design Window should look similar
to that in the image below.

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 finish button to close the Link Strings (ls) command.

Close the lowermost closed perimeter with the Wireframes | Linking | End Link
(eli) command.

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Press the Finish button and view the result in the Visualiser.

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
Visualiser.

Exercise 3 – 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 assumes both
strings are closed and so a different command is needed for this circumstance.

Use the Edit | Erase | Wireframe Link (uw) command to delete the link between
the two point string and the perimeter and then re-link the 2 strings with the
Wireframes | Linking | Link to Line (ll) command. View the wireframe in the
Visualiser, the hole should no longer be evident.

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Exercise 4 – Linking Methods

Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command and digitise a closed pear shaped string in plan view.

Use the Design | Translate String (tra) command to project a copy of the string
vertically 50 metres above the original string.

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Use the Design | Rotate String (rst) command to rotate one of the strings as
illustrated below. When prompted to Select anchor point on any string, click on a
point at the top of the pear shaped string as illustrated below.

Now drag the selected string through an arc of about 30 degrees in a clockwise
direction and then press the Finish button. The end product should look similar
to the image below.

Use the View | Set Viewplane | 3-D View (vi) option to rotate the view so that
both strings and their relative position can be clearly seen. Link the two strings

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with the Wireframes | Linking | Link String (ls) command and view the results
in the Visualiser.

You will notice that toward the bottom of the pear shaped string the wireframe
becomes twisted as indicated with an arrow in the above image. The default
method used to link strings works by joining the two closest points between
strings and assumes that this is the starting point for linking. This method is the
simplest and quickest way of generating a wireframe and is appropriate for
simple shapes. Where the shapes of the strings are complex or are far apart
then often using the default method alone will not yield suitable results.

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One way to improve the result is to use a different linking method. If you
open the Wireframes | Wireframe Settings dialogue, you will notice that
there are 3 Linking Methods available as illustrated below.

Try linking the pair of strings using the Minimum Surface Area and Proportional
Length methods. Each time you link the strings, make sure you erase any
existing links first.

LINKING PAIRS OF STRINGS MORE THAN ONCE WILL YIELD DUPLICATE

TRIANGLES. DUPLICATE TRIANGLES WILL CAUSE NUMEROUS
PROBLEMS WHEN YOU USE THE WIREFRAMES FOR BLOCK MODELLING
OR FOR VOLUME CALCULATIONS.

Question: Which method yielded the best result.

Answer:

DO NOT DELETE THE STRINGS, YOU WILL NEED THEM FOR THE NEXT
EXERCISE

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Exercise 5 – Using Tag Strings.

Erase any wireframes and set the Linking method back to the Equi-angular
Shape method. Use the Wireframes | Linking | Create Tag String (tgs) option
to insert two tag strings at either end of the pear shaped strings as illustrated
below.
You will need to re-select the Tag String command each time you wish to add a
new separate Tag String.

Link the 2 strings and view the result in the visualiser. When linking the strings
do not select any string points which contain Tag String points, the Link Strings
(ls) command will ignore these points. The result should be similar to that
achieved using the Proportional Length method.

As a general guide use both the different linking methods and Tag Strings to
achieve the required result.

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Exercise 6 – Creating a Wireframe with Multiple Splits

Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command.

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.
The strings should look similar to the ones below.

NOTE THAT THE ABOVE VIEW IS A “PLAN VIEW”. MAKE SURE THE 3
SMALLER CIRCLE SHAPED STRINGS ARE POSITIONED 50 METRES
DIRECTLY ABOVE THE ELLIPSE SHAPED STRING.

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Use the Design | New String (ns) command to 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.

THESE POINTS MUST BE SNAPPED

Rotate the view so you can clearly distinguish the two levels on which the strings
have been digitised. Run the Wireframes | Linking | Link Boundary (lbo)

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command snapping three times onto the pairs of points as marked out with
arrows in the above image and view the result in the Visualiser.
The wireframe should look similar to the one in the image 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 Wireframes | Linking | End Link
Boundary (elb) command. 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.

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Erase the central link and run the Wireframes | Linking | End Link Boundary
(elb) command and select the center 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
Visualiser. The view in the Design Window should look similar to the following.

Exercise 7 – Linking Strings to Define a Fault Plane

Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command. Load the FAULTSTR string file into the Design
Window and adjust the view so the strings are visible. The string file contains 2
strings defining the Fault plane with the uppermost string defining the intersection
of the fault plane with the topography.

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Use the Link String (ls) command wireframe the fault surface. Save the
wireframe data using the following file names:

File Name Description

FAULTTR Wireframe Triangle File.
FAULTPT Wireframe Points File.

Exercise 8 – Linking Strings to Define the Mineralisation

Erase all the string and wireframe data and load the LODESTR string file into the
Design Window. Adjust the view to a plan view making sure all the string data is
visable.

Fault

The red strings mark out the location of the northern most vein which pinches out
with depth. The orange strings mark out the location of the southern most vein
which is open at depth and offset by the north-south trending strike slip fault.
The approximate location of the fault is marked out in the above image using a
black line. Additional strings have been added on either side of the fault plane
for wireframing purposes.

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Change the linking method to Proportional Length and run tag strings along the
ends of the strings (both red and orange strings) as illustrated below. You will
need to use the zoom command in conjunction with the Tag String (tgs)
command to ensure you snap the Tag Strings on the correct points. Save your
work regularly writing all the strings to the LODESTR file.

DO NOT RUN TAG STRINGS BETWEEN THE TWO OFFSET PORTIONS OF

THE ORANGE STRINGS.

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Use the String linking commands to wireframe the 2 sets of strings making sure
you use the End Link (eli) command to close off the ends. The wireframed
strings should look similar to those in the image below.

Save the wireframe data using the following file names:

File Name Description

LODETR Wireframe Triangle File.
LODEPT Wireframe Points File.

REMEMBER TO SAVE YOUR STRINGS TO LODESTR

The attribute field LODEID and the colour field COLOUR will be passed from the
strings to the wireframes. This step is done automatically when you link the
strings to form wireframes.

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Exercise 9 – Creating Strings where Wireframes Cross

Load the fault plane wireframe files (FAULTTR and FAULTPT) into memory and
run the Wireframes | Tools | Strings from Intersections (sfi) command.

The Strings from Wireframes (sfi) command will create strings where ever
wireframes cross. In this case 2 white closed strings will be created where the
orange vein wireframe is crossed by the brown fault plane wireframe.

Erase the fault wireframe and the wireframe links that crossed the fault
wireframe.
The view in the Design Window should look similar to the following:

New Strings

Erase these two

Strings

Erase the 2 end perimeters as identified in the above image, they are no longer
needed. Delete any wireframes created using the End Link (eli) command on
the 2 strings you have just erased.

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Use the Design | Edit Attributes (eat) command to reset the COLOUR and
LODEID values of the two strings created from intersecting wireframes. Set the
COLOUR field value to orange (COLOUR=3) and the LODEID field to 2.

Run the Design | Condition | Condition String (cond) command on both

strings using Maximum Chord Length=100, Minimum Chord Length=0.1 and
Maximum Angle=0.

Adjust the Tag String points so the ends of the strings are snapped onto the two
new perimeters. End Link (eli) the two new strings and then link them to the
existing wireframe. Save the string data overwriting the LODESTR file.
Similarly save the wireframe data to the LODETR and LODEPT files. Your
completed wireframe should look similar to the one in the image below.
REMEMBER TO SAVE YOUR STRINGS AND WIREFRAME DATA

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Topic 9: Wireframe Editing and selection methods,

Design Tools – Selection and Editing of Wireframes

Aim
To demonstrate the key commands located under the Wireframes | Tools menu
and the options available for selecting wireframes.

Topics
Wireframes, Tools

Method
Work through examples of how to use the main wireframing tools.

Background Information
The commands for processing wireframes and wireframes attributes are located
under the Wireframes | Tools menu. The key wireframing commands are
listed below.

Command Quick Description

Comman
d
Wireframes | Tools | Slice slw Displays a slice through the
Wireframe wireframe at the current view
plane. The colour of the slice will
be the same colour as the
wireframe(s).
Wireframes | Tools | Convert csl Creates string(s) where wireframes
Slice to String intersect the current view plane.
The colour of the strings will match
the colour of the wireframe(s)
Wireframes | Tools | Calculate wvo Reports the volume of a selected
Volume wireframe.
Wireframes | Tools | Edit ewa Allows you to edit the values of one
Attributes or more attribute fields associated
with a selected wireframe.
Wireframes | Tools | Unlink uw Deletes a portion of a wireframe
Wireframe that was created with a single
wireframe link operation.
Wireframes | New Group nwg Increment the GROUP counter
Wireframes | New surface nws Increment the SURFACE counter
Wireframes | Verify wvf Verify a wireframe

Attribute Fields and Wireframes

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

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to build block models. All wireframe attribute fields are stored in the wireframe
triangle file.

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In addition to user defined attribute fields there are 4 standard Datamine

attribute fields added to every triangle file. These fields are described
below.

Field Name Description

User Defined These are user defined attribute fields which
Attribute Fields can be set to classify wireframes. These
fields can be added using the Format | Add
New Attribute command. If the attribute
fields exist on strings use to build wireframes
then they will be added automatically.
GROUP A GROUP can consist of one or more distinct
wireframes identified using a common
GROUP value.
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. You can control which sections
of any wireframe data have unique or common GROUP and SURFACE
values but there are no options to set the actual values manually. 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 GROUPs, SURFACEs, LINKs, and individual triangles.

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Selection Methods
The key to successfully using the commands under the Wireframes |
Tools menu is to fully understand the options for selecting the
wireframe or portion of wireframe that you wish to process. Under the
Wireframes | Selection 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 Quick Description

Command
By Attributes sba All wireframe data with COLOUR plus user
defined attributes which match those on the
selected triangle will be selected. The
GROUP and SURFACE values will be
ignored.
By Group sbg All wireframe data matching the selected
triangle's GROUP value will be selected.
By Surface sbs All wireframe data matching the selected
triangle's GROUP and SURFACE values will
be selected.
By Filters sbfl Wireframe data will be selected on the basis
of filter expressions. Filters can be applied to
either triangle attributes or point attributes
(XP, YP, ZP) or to both.
By Files sbfi Allows you to select wireframes by filename
rather than by attributes. This assumes that
you have stored each wireframe in a
separate file.

The above selection methods can also be set using the Wireframes |
Wireframe Settings menu.

Verifying 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 can be set using the Wireframes | Wireframe
Settings menu.

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You should run the Verify (wvf) command before carrying out any
merging or splitting of wireframes or calculating wireframe volumes.

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If the selected wireframes have already been verified then you will be
asked if you wish to re-assemble the adjacency data. In other words do
you wish to re-verify the wireframes. Generally it is best to respond Yes,
because you do not know whether the existing adjacency data are correct
or not. You should respond No if you have just done a Merge/Split
operation and wish to examine the shared edges (see table below).
The checks performed by the Verify (wvf) command are listed below.

Check Quick Description

Command
Display open edges twvb This toggle allows open edges, or
boundaries of a wireframe to be displayed
during wireframe verify.
Display shared twvm This toggle can only be used effectively on
edges wireframe data that have been merged or
intersected using the MERGE/SPLIT
command This toggle causes the shared, or
merge lines to be displayed during
wireframe verify. In this case, you should
respond No to any prompt to re-assemble
the adjacency data.
Display crossovers twvl The VERIFY (wvf) command can be used
to check for wireframe surfaces that contain
crossovers, and/or intersect other surfaces.
This toggle controls whether these lines of
intersection are displayed.
Convert to strings twcl This toggle controls whether the boundary
lines, merge lines and lines identifying
cross-overs are converted to strings during
the wireframe Verify (wvf) command
Renumber surfaces twn This toggle will allow the renumbering of
surfaces during verification. It is extremely
useful for re-grouping wireframes.
Check for duplicate twcd This toggle checks for duplicate points and
points removes them.

IF THE RENUMBER SURFACES TOGGLE IS ON DURING

VERIFICATION, A CONSTANT GROUP NUMBER WILL BE ASSIGNED
TO THE ENTIRE SELECTED WIREFRAME.

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Exercise 1 – Selecting Wireframes by Group

Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command. Digitise four sets of closed perimeters in plan view on
two planes 50 metres apart. Make sure the colours of the strings match those
listed in the image below.

COLOUR=5 COLOUR=5

COLOUR=9 COLOUR=8

Make sure that the Wireframe attributes from strings (tsa ) toggle is on. This
toggle can be viewed by selecting the Wireframes | Wireframe Settings menu.

Use the Link Strings (ls) command to link the two top sets of perimeters
(COLOUR=5)

Next select the Wireframes | New Group (nwg) command and then link the pair
of red strings (COLOUR=9).

Select the Wireframes | New Surface (nws) command and then link the pair of
purple strings (COLOUR=8).

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The following screen capture illustrates the wireframe GROUP and SURFACE
numbers that will have been assigned, and which will control that way that
wireframe data are selected

GROUP=1, SURFACE=1 GROUP=1, SURFACE=1

GROUP=2, GROUP=2,
SURFACE=2 SURFACE=3

You can query the attribute field values by using the Tools | Query | Triangle
(qt) command.

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Select the Wireframes | Wireframe Settings menu and make sure the selection
method is set to “By picked wireframe GROUP”. Run the Wireframes | Tools |
Edit Attributes (ewa) command and click on one of the green wireframes.

The green wireframes share the same GROUP number and so both will be
selected. The selected wireframes will be identified using dashed lines. Click on
the COLOUR=6 box and press the OK button. When asked “Do you wish to
update the selected wireframe ?”, press the YES button. Press the Finish button.

DO NOT DELETE ANY OF THE STRING OR WIREFRAME DATA, YOU WILL

NEED IT FOR THE NEXT EXERCISE.

Exercise 2 – Selecting Wireframes by Surface

Select the Wireframes | Wireframe Settings menu and make sure the selection
method is set to “By picked wireframe SURFACE”. This will ensure that the
selected wireframes have the same GROUP and SURFACE numbers

Experiment with the Wireframes | Tools | Edit Attributes (ewa) command: try
selecting each of the four wireframes. You will only need to run the command
once and then press Cancel button after selecting a wireframe to keep the
command active. You will find that you can select the red and purple wireframes
individually but you will be unable to distinguish between the blue wireframes.

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Exercise 3 – Selecting Wireframes by Attributes

Select the Wireframes | Wireframe Settings menu and make sure the selection
method is set to “By Attributes”. This will ensure that the selected wireframes
have the same COLOUR (there being no user defined attributes).

Run the Wireframes | Tools | Edit Attributes (ewa) command and select the
red wireframe. Set the colour to blue (COLOUR=6) and press the ok button.
When asked “Do you wish to update the selected wireframe ?”, press the YES
button. Now select one of the blue wireframes, the Design Window should look
similar to the image below.

All wireframes which have matching attributes will be selected. In this case the
three blue wireframes will be selected while the purple wireframe will remain
unselected. This selection method ignores the GROUP and SURFACE number
which explains why in the example illustrated above, wireframes from different
GROUPs have been selected.

Press the Cancel and Finish buttons.

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Exercise 4 – Selecting Wireframes by Filter

Select the Wireframes | Wireframe Settings menu and make sure the selection
method is set to “By user defined filters”. Run the Wireframes | Tools | Edit
Attributes (ewa) command. You will be prompted to “filter” type in the following
expression and press the OK button twice.

When prompted for a points filter, press the OK button. This tells Datamine
Studio you do not wish to use a points filter. The Design Window should look
similar to the image below.

The purple wireframe was selected as it was the only wireframe where the
COLOUR field was set to 8. Press the Cancel and Finish buttons.

Exercise 5 – Renumber Surfaces using the Verify Command

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Clear the Design Window of any data by running the Edit | Clear Design
Window (cdw) command. Digitise two closed circular perimeters (COLOUR=5)
in plan view on parallel planes 50 metres apart.

Use the link Strings (ls) command to link the two perimeters together and then
press the Finish button.

Run the Wireframes | New Group (nwg) command and then use the End Link
(eli) command to close off the wireframes. The Design Window should look
similar to the image below.

GROUP=2
SURFACE=2

GROUP=1
SURFACE=1

The triangles making up the side of the cylinder will have GROUP and
SURFACE values of 1 while the two ends of the cylinder will have the GROUP
and SURFACE values set to 2

Assume that you want to change the colour of this wireframe. Make sure that
either the By picked wireframe GROUP (sbg) or By picked wireframe
SURFACE (sbs) selection toggle is on. Select the Wireframes | Tools | Edit
Attributes (ewa) command and select one of the wireframe triangles and
confirm that you wish to change the attributes.

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You will find that not all of the wireframe has been selected. This is due to the
fact that the wireframe is actually made up of two different groups.

In order to be able to select the entire wireframe using the GROUP field requires
the GROUP values to be renumbered so they are the same for all triangles. Try
the following steps, which use the Verify (wvf) option to reassign the GROUP
values.

Turn the By attributes (sba) selection toggle switch on. As the wireframes
groups are the same colour selecting this toggle will ensure that all the wireframe
data required are selected. (Note that the Filters toggle switch could also be
used).

Make sure the Renumber Surfaces (twn) toggle is on and then process the
wireframe with the Verify (wvf) command . The resultant wireframe will have a
single GROUP number. Try setting the selection toggles back to By picked
wireframe GROUP (sbg) and change the colour of the wireframe using the
Wireframes | Tools | Edit Attributes (ewa) command.

DO NOT ERASE THE WIREFRAME, YOU WILL NEED IT FOR THE NEXT
EXERCISE.

Exercise 5 – Calculating Volumes of Wireframes

Select the Wireframes | Tools | Calculate Volumes (wvo) command

and when prompted click on the cylinder shaped wireframe. Answer YES
when asked “Do you wish to proceed?” and answer YES to the question
asking if the wireframe is closed. The volume of the wireframe solid
along with other summary statistics calculated from the wireframe data
will be displayed in the Output Window.

The following is an example of the results obtained using this command.

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Topic 10: Block Models:

Design Tools – Resource/Reserve Calculation

Aim
To familiarise you with the tools for calculating tonnes and grade figures in the
Design Window.

Topics
Edit, Format, Models

Method
Work through the examples of how to use the evaluation commands available
inside the Design Window.

Background Information
The commands for evaluating models using strings and wireframes in the Design
Window are located under the Models | Evaluate menu.

These commands allow you to evaluate mining shapes against a geological

model.

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The main evaluation and legend commands are listed below:

Command Quick Description

Comman
d
Models | Evaluate | Inside ev1 Calculate tonnes and grade
String within a single string.
Models | Evaluate | Between ev2 Calculate tonnes and grade
Two Strings between two strings.
Models | Evaluate | All Strings eva Calculate tonnes and grade
inside a series of closed strings.
Models | Evaluate | Wireframe evw Calculate tonnes and grade
inside a wireframe or
above/below a DTM surface.
Format | Legend | Assign Fill afc Builds a legend using colours,
Codes category names and category
definitions that you define.
Format | Legend | Automatic aul Builds an 8 bin legend using a
Legend nominated attribute field.

What is the role of the legend when calculating tonnes and grade results?
When strings, points, and wireframes, are loaded into the Design Window, the
data objects are coloured according to the values in the COLOUR field. Drillhole
or model data on the other hand are coloured using a legend based on one or
more attribute fields in the file. The default, eight colour legend is built by
dividing the total range of values of the first numeric attribute field in the file into
equal subdivisions. This legend is displayed in the bottom right hand corner of
the Design Window. The legend provides a list of categories to report against
when reporting tonnes and grade figures.
What is the simplest way to quickly reset the legend using a new field and
8 percentiles?
Use the Format | Legend | Automatic Legend (aul) command.
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 Datamine Studio projects the selected string the set distances and
builds a wireframe solid. This solid is used to calculate the results.

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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 (eas) 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).
Why am I asked for a default DENSITY value when I load model or drillhole
data into the Design Window?
The default density value is used if no DENSITY field is set in the original model
file or for individual model cells if their DENSITY value is set to absent data.
What is the advantage of only loading selected attribute fields into the
Design Window?
When the tonnes and grade figures are calculated against the defined legend, 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.

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Exercise 1 – Model Preparation

Restart Datamine Studio. This will remove any attribute fields defined in the
previous exercise from memory.

Run the EXTRA command by selecting Edit | Transform | General and set the
file names to match those given below and select OK. In the wizard dialogue,
enter the commands (Other Settings:) listed below. Then select Test to check
your entries, and OK to run the process.

File Names: IN(MODEL)

OUT(RESMODEL)

Other Settings: DENSITY=2.73

Commands:
IF (LODEID>=1)

DENSITY=2.8

END

IF(AU==ABSENT())

AU=0

END

This will add a DENSITY field to the model and reset any AU values set to
absent data to zero.
BE CAREFUL ABOUT RESETTING ABSENT GRADE DATA TO ZERO. THIS
STEP SHOULD ONLY BE APPLIED TO A COPY OF THE RESOURCE
MODEL. IN SOME INSTANCES RESETTING ABSENT VALUES TO ZERO
MAY BE INAPPROPRIATE AND COULD ARTIFICALLY DOWNGRADE THE
RESOURCE.

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Exercise 2 – Loading the Block Model (RESMODEL)

Select the Data | Load | Block Model (om) command and when prompted
select the RESMODEL file. When prompted accept the default density value and
answer YES to the next prompt asking Do you wish to use all fields?
Run the View | Zoom | Zoom All Data (za) command, the Design Window
should look similar to the image below.

By default, a legend has been set up using the first attribute field listed in the
RESMODEL file. The LODEID field has values 0, 1, and 2, which identify waste
material and two ore zones respectively. All evaluations done inside the Design
Window will be reported using the current legend to categorise the results. The
default legend will usually need to be changed before you can start to use the
evaluation commands to get sensible results.

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Exercise 3 – Setting a legend

Select the command Format | Legend | Assign Fill Codes (afc) and select YES
in the following dialogue box.

YOU MUST USE FILTERS WHEN GENERATING A LEGEND FOR

RESOURCE/RESERVE WORK.
The following panel will appear in the Design Window and you will be prompted
to Select fill code with cursor?

Click on a blue coloured box. You will now be prompted for a category name.

Set the category name to WASTE and select OK. When prompted for Filter
Expression, type in the expression displayed in the image below and select OK.

MAKE SURE THERE IS A SPACE ON EITHER SIDE OF THE WORD “AND”.

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The following legend will be displayed in the bottom right hand corner of the
Design Window. You will be prompted to select another fill code with the cursor.

In order to build up a legend, repeat the three steps of selecting a fill code,
entering a category name, and entering a filter expression for each entry in the
legend. For this exercise, define another four categories using the following
settings:

Colour (Fillcode) Category Name Filter Expression

GREEN STKPILE1 AU>=1 AND AU<2
PURPLE LOW AU>=2 AND AU<4.5
RED ROM AU>=4.5 AND AU<10
ORANGE HG AU>=10
After defining the fifth category, select the OK button on the right hand side of the
colour palette. The legend in the bottom right hand corner of the Design Window
should look similar to the following:

If you click on any of the coloured boxes, the matching filter expression will be
displayed.

You can store legend ranges as part of a command language file (cl file) which
will save you time later on.

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Exercise 4 – Evaluating inside a single string

Digitise a single closed string similar to the one in the image below.

Select the string and run the Models | Evaluate | Inside String (ev1)
command. You will be prompted for the name of a mining blocks file. This
file contains a copy of the string to be evaluated with an extra attribute,
BLOCKID, which is the value of the Mining block identifier associated
with the string. Just give it the name XXTMPBLK for now.

USUALLY THE MINING BLOCKS FILE IS NOT USED FOR FURTHER

PROCESSING AND SO IT IS TYPICALLY ASSIGNED A TEMPORARY
FILE NAME. THE SAME FILE WILL BE USED FOR ALL
EVALUATIONS IN THE CURRENT DATAMINE STUDIO SESSION

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Next you will asked to enter Mining Block Identifier, the prompt will
contain a default value of 1.01. The Mining Block Identifier is a numeric
code that is assigned to the selected string, and will also appear in the
results file under the field BLOCKID.

Accept the default value by selecting OK. You will now be prompted for
near and far projection distances and a default density value.

The evaluation volume will be defined by projecting the string using the
NEAR and FAR distance either side of the string. Accept the above
default values by selecting OK.

Datamine Studio 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.

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Press the YES button to accept the results. When prompted for a file to store the
results in, type in XXTMPRES.

Press the Finish button and view the XXTMPRES file in AED (Edit | Edit File).
You will notice that all of the information has been written to the file along with
the BLOCKID field and value. 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.
Inside the AED window press the Show DD button. You will notice that for each
attribute field the corresponding TONNESx field is identified by a matching
positive default value. The name of the model file used to generate the tonnes
and grade results is stored in an implicit alphanumeric 8 character field called
MODEL.
Existing results files can be opened in the Design Window using the Data |
Open/Close | Results File (ore). Like model files, results file remain open so
results can be continually stored in the file without having to reopen the file each
time a result is calculated.

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Exercise 5 – Evaluating between 2 strings

Select the string you used in the last exercise and use the Design |
Translate String (tra) create a copy of it 10m above its current location
(ie Z=10). Press the Finish button and use the View | Set Viewplane |
3D-View (vi) to rotate the view so both strings are visible.

Select the Models | Evaluate | Between Two Strings (ev2) command,

you will be prompted to Select the first string for evaluation. Use the
mouse to click on one of the strings. You will now be asked to select the
second string for evaluation. Select the second string and when prompted
accept the default Mining Block Identifier. Datamine Studio will now
calculate the tonnes and grade figures for all cells inside the two strings
and display the results on the screen using the same format as the
previous exercise. Press the NO button to close the results screen
without saving the results.

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Exercise 6 – Evaluating Wireframes

Erase all the strings in memory using the Edit | Erase | All Strings (eal)
command. Once the strings have been erased, load the orebody
wireframes (LODETR/LODEPT) into memory using the Data | Load |
Wireframes (gw) command.

Select the Models | Evaluate | Wireframe (evw) command and select

the orange wireframe with the mouse. When asked if you wish to
proceed press the YES button.

When asked if the wireframe is closed or a DTM, press the YES button.

Accept the default Mining Block Identifier and press the OK button. You
will be presented with a set of results with the same layout as the
previous two exercises. In this case, the results reflect the contained
tonnes and average grade inside the orange lode wireframe. Answer NO
to close the results display.

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Topic 11. Point data editing

Design Tools – Point Editing

Aim
To familiarise you with the point editing commands used in the Design Window.

Topics
Design, Edit, Data, Format

Method
Work through the examples of how to use the main point editing commands.

Background Information
The commands for creating and editing point data in the Design Window are
listed in the Design menu. The commands for loading points from files, saving
them to files, or erasing them from memory are under the Edit and Data menus.
Commands for modifying the display settings in the Design Window are located
under the Format menu.

A subset of these commands is also available directly in the Design Window by

clicking the right hand mouse button.
POINT DATA IS A COMPLETELY SEPARATE DATA TYPE AND SHOULD
NOT BE CONFUSED WITH STRING POINTS.

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The main point editing commands are listed below:

Command Quick Description

Command
Design | New Points npo Digitise new points
Edit | Erase | All Points eap Erase all points in memory.
Design | Move Points mpo Moves an existing point.
Design | Edit Attributes eat Edits point attribute fields.

Attribute Fields and Points

Datamine Studio uses the following 5 numeric fields when writing point data to a
file:
XPT
YPT
ZPT
COLOUR
SYMBOL
These fields are compulsory for all Datamine Studio point files. The XPT, YPT,
and ZPT fields are used to record the coordinates of each point. The COLOUR
field stores the colour of +-each point using the standard Datamine 64 colour
range. The SYMBOL field uses a 3 digit number to identify the symbol shape
used for each point. A list of available symbols is given in Appendix A.
Datamine Studio will also support the following three additional fields to allow for
orientated symbols and symbols of varying size.

Field Description Default

DIPDIRN Dip direction. -
SDIP Dip (Positive is down) -
SYMSIZE Symbol Size in mm (1-10) 2

The above eight field names are “Standard Datamine Fields”, which Datamine
Studio uses with all point data. If you digitise some points in the Design Window
and then write them out to a file, the file will contain all of the above fields with
the exception of the DIPDIRN, SDIP and SYMSIZE fields, which are optional.
Point data is the standard data type used by the Stereonet Module.

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In addition to the standard Datamine Fields, it will usually be necessary to add
one or more fields to record information about the points being generated. These
additional fields allow you to filter your data when required and can also be
displayed on the screen in the form of point annotation. 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 listed in Appendix A.
An example of attribute fields used by Geologists would be the use of the SDIP
and DIPDIRN fields to record strike and dip measurements. Underground
Planning Engineers on the other hand often use point data to annotate planned
development.
In the Design Window, additional attribute fields are defined using the
Format | Add New Attribute (nat) command. Existing string attributes including
COLOUR can be changed using the Design | Edit Attributes (eat) command.
You can control which attributes (fields) are written to files by using
Format | Attribute Fields Output.

Control of Attribute Fields written to Files

The attribute fields that are written out to strings, wireframes, and points files can
be controlled using the Format | Attribute Fields Output command. When this
command is run a menu similar to the image below is displayed.
You can change the check boxes to select which attribute fields currently defined
in memory you want written to disk. You can also use this menu to define which
file types should contain which attribute fields.

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Exercise 1 - Creating and Editing Point Data

Restart Datamine Studio. This will remove any attribute fields defined in previous
exercises from memory.
Select the Design | New Points (npo) command. The following Attributes panel
will appear at the bottom of the Design window in place of the Status Panel. You
will notice that the panel used to edit point data is exactly the same as that used
to edit string attribute fields.

The coloured boxes represent a palette of available Datamine colours. Each box
is numbered according to the numeric code that is used by Datamine when the
colour information is written to a file.
At the far left of the Points Attributes panel are 3 options that can be used to
select which point attributes you wish to modify.

THE LINE STYLES OPTION (THIRD BUTTON FROM THE LEFT) IS ONLY
APPLICABLE TO STRINGS.
The first (left most) button displays the colour palette. The second shows the
symbols that are available for display at point locations. The third button shows
the available line styles while the fourth option (ATT) allows you to edit the value
of any user defined attribute fields. Selecting ATT will have no affect at this stage
as no attribute fields have been defined.
Select the Design | New Points (npo) command. Set the colour to 5 (Green)
and select the “tree” shaped symbol as illustrated below.

Digitise about ten points inside the Design Window and then click on the Finish
box to exit New Points mode. The Status Panel will replace the Attribute Panel.
Point data represent spot values not strings and so will not be joined by lines.
YOU MUST CLICK ON ‘FINISH’ WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED DIGITISING.
If you digitise a point in the Design Window (Do not use the New Points
command), the closest point will become “Selected”. When a point is selected its
colour will be changed to yellow. If you hold the control key down you can
select/deselect multiple points. Alternatively to select multiple points, hold down
the left mouse button and drag a box to enclose the points you wish to select.

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Deselect any selected points using Edit | Select | Deselect All Points (dap).
The purpose of being able to select one or more points is to be able to edit the
attribute values of a group of points instead of changing their values one at a
time. To illustrate this, run the Deselect All Points (dap) command and then
select 4 points. Run the Move Points (mpo) command and try moving one of
the selected points and one of the unselected points. If you move one of the
selected points all the other selected points will be moved the same distance in
the same direction. If you move an unselected point only the location of the
chosen point will be changed.

Exercise 2 – Erasing and Saving Points

The following commands are available for loading point data into the Design
Window and saving it to disk.

Command Quick Description

Comman
d
Data | Save | Points wp Write all points to a Datamine file.
Edit | Erase | All Points eap Erase all points.

Write all the existing points in memory to a file called XXTMP5 (click OK when
prompted for filtering). Erase all points in memory Edit | Erase | All Points (eap)
and then load the points stored in the XXTMP5 file back into the Design Window
using the Data | Load | Points (gp) command.
THE ERASE POINTS COMMAND ONLY AFFECTS DATA IN MEMORY.

Exercise 3 – Adding and Editing Attributes

Use Edit | Erase | All Points (eap) command to remove all point data from
memory. Select the Format | Add New Attribute (nat) command and set the
values in the Extra Attribute dialog box to match those in the image below.

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REMEMBER, ALL FIELD NAMES ARE UPPER CASE

Run the Design | New Points (npo). In the Attributes Fields dialog box click on
the ATT button and select the SYMSIZE field and enter the value 10. The dialog
box should look similar to the following image.

Digitise ten points on the screen. You will notice the “tree” shaped symbols have
been enlarged to 10 millimetres.

If the SYMSIZE field is not defined the size of the individual points is determined
by the symbol size set in the Format | Show Data | Display Settings menu. By
default this is set to 2 millimetres.
Erase all the points in memory with the Edit | Erase | All Points (eap)
command.

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Run the Design | New Points (npo) command again and click on the ATT
button. Select the SYMSIZE field and change the SYMSIZE PROMPT to YES.
The SYMSIZE PROMPT dialog box should look similar to the following image.

With the SYMSIZE PROMPT set to YES, each time you digitise a point you will
be prompted for a value to set to the SYMSIZE FIELD. Leaving the colour and
symbol shape unchanged digitise 5 points using SYMSIZE values of 2, 4, 6, 8,
and 10. The Design Window should look similar to that displayed in the image
below.

Write out the 5 points to a file called XXTMP5 and view the file in AED (Edit |
Edit File ). You will notice the SYMSIZE field has been added to the file and the
values you entered stored on a record by record basis. Each record defines an
individual point. Close the AED session.
DO NOT DELETE THE POINT DATA, YOU WILL USE IT IN THE NEXT
EXERCISE.

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Exercise 4 – Creating Rotated Symbols

It is possible to produce rotated symbols by adding the numeric attribute fields
SDIP and DIPDIRN. The point to bear in mind is most map type symbols only
make sense in plan view.
Run the Format | Add New Attribute (nat) command and set the values in the
Extra Attribute dialog box to match those in the image below.

REMEMBER ALL FIELD NAMES ARE UPPER CASE

Run the Format | Add New Attribute (nat) command a second time and set the
values in the Extra Attribute dialog box to match those in the image below.

Experiment with the Design | Edit Attributes (eat) command and change the
DIPDIRN and SDIP field values of one or more of the 5 digitised points. The
symbols will be rotated to reflect the values in these two fields.

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Exercise 5 – Point Annotation

Use the Format | Add New Attribute (nat) command to define a new
alphanumeric attribute field called TREE which is 8 characters wide.

Use the Design | Edit Attributes (eat) command to assign one of the following
tree types to each of the five existing points.
JARRAH
KARRI
TINGLE
Select the Format | Annotate | Points | Set Point Annotation (spa) command.
You will be prompted for the Annotation Field and the Origin Number. Enter the
values in the image below and press the OK button.

When you press the OK button you will be prompted for the annotation settings
in a second dialogue box. Accept all the defaults and press the OK button.

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AJARRAH
ATINGLE AKARRI

TKARRI AJARRAH

The number defines the position of the annotation relative to the point to be
annotated. Valid answers are numbers 1 through to 9 as illustrated below. By
selecting number 8, the annotation will be directly to the right of each point.

3 6 9
2 5 8
1 4 7

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To remove the annotation select the Format | Annotate | Points | Set Point
Annotation (spa) command. Select the annotation position you wish to remove
and leave the Annotation Field: prompt blank, press the OK button to apply
the setting.

Point annotation can be toggled on and off using the Format | Annotate | Points
| Show Point Annotation (tpo) toggle command.

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Topic 12 Present for plotting of data

Earthworks Present - Plotting

Aim
Generate a series of section plots using Earthworks Present.
Topics
Earthworks Present
Method
Start the Earthworks Present software and load the drillhole database
along with the wireframe, and block model files created in earlier
exercises. Define a series of sections to provide a series of plots
through the deposit.
Background Information
What is Earthworks ?
The Earthworks name covers a range of third party software
published, sold and distributed by Datamine. All the Earthworks
products are specifically written to run under the Microsoft® Windows
98, NT, and Windows 2000 operating systems. Products in the
Earthworks Catalogue range from Contouring and Visualisation tools
to Pit Optimisation and Mine Scheduling packages. You can
download demonstration copies of all Earthworks products from the
web site at: www.earthworks.com.au

What is Earthworks Present ?

Earthworks Present is a tool for plotting geological and mining data.

The software is based on Earthworks Downhole Explorer. The
software gives you access to many of the more powerful features of its
parent product which enable you to:

 Import drillhole data files of various types, and from various

different sources, including text files, SQL/ODBC database
tables, spreadsheets, other third party formats and
Datamine files.

 Verify, combine and process the imported data to create drillhole traces.

 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.

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 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.

 Import and format other 3D objects from CAD drawings

and other 3D data sources using the Earthworks Data
Source Drivers.

 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.

Flexible data model

A single Present document contains all section, plan, and 3D plots for
each project simplifying the task of project document management.
The document records the links to all the imported data tables,
parameter surface models and 3D objects without actually copying the
original data. This means whenever the document is opened or
refreshed, any changes made to the source data are automatically
shown in every section and plan plot. The unique data model
employed by Present and its sister product, Downhole Explorer, offers
many important benefits:

 Saves on disk storage because the source data is never

duplicated.

 Ensures that Present can be used with any user selected

database management system, spreadsheet program or
text tables.

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 Ensures that all plots accurately reflect the master data

files because plots are dynamically linked to the source
data files.

 Saves you time in managing project documents and

updating project plots when project data is added or edited.

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Document Wizard

Probably the simplest and easiest way to start using Earthworks

Present is to use the Document Wizard. The Document Wizard steps
you through the initial stages of building a new project including:

 Importing drillhole data such as collar coordinates, surveys,

assays, and other downhole logs and then use the data to
create desurveyed drillhole traces.

 Importing other data including points, strings/polylines,

wireframes, and block models.

 Checking the imported data for possible errors and

displaying the results in the report view.

 Create a complete set of plan, EW and NS section plots.

There are two ways to start the Document Wizard:

1. When Earthworks Present starts, the Startup dialog

gives you the opportunity to check the Document
Wizard radio button.

2. The document wizard starts automatically whenever

you select the New command from the File menu.

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Exercise 1 – Data Import (COLLARS)

Start Earthworks Present by selecting the Tools | Interactive Plotting

| Present option from the pull down menus. Toggle on the option to
start the Document Wizard and press the OK button to continue.

The next menu you see will be a welcome page, press the Next >
button to start loading the data.

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Set the prompts in the Import Data Types menu to match those in the
image below and press the Next > button to continue.

The next menu will be titled Import hole Collar Coordinate Table.
Press the Add… button and when prompted set the Driver Category
and Data type settings to match those in the image below and then
press the OK button.

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When prompted with the Open Source File (Datamine Database

Table) menu, select the collars.dm file and press the Open button.

Next you will be asked to select which fields you wish to load. Make
sure all 4 standard Datamine collars fields are selected as illustrated
below and press the OK button.

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Finally you will be asked to set the field assignments. Accept the
default values by pressing the OK button.

Ignore any warnings in the Report Window about “zero lengths”.

Present checks to see if a LENGTH field is in the collars file. In some
data sets the LENGTH field is used to record the depth of the hole.
This is an optional setting and one which is not used by Datamine.

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Exercise 2 – Data Import (SURVEYS)

After loading the COLLARS file the menu should look similar to the
following.

Press the Next > button to continue.

Now repeat the steps used to load the COLLARS file to load the
SURVEYS data. Answer the prompts for each of the menus using the
settings in the table below:
Menu Action
Import Survey (Azimuth and Dip) Press the Add.. button
Tables
Driver Category/Data Type Set the Driver Category to Datamine
and the Data type to Tables. Press the
OK button.
Open Source File Select the surveys.dm file.
Database File Description Select all 4 fields ie BHID, AT, BRG, and
DIP and press the OK button.
Define Drillhole Data Table Accept the default field assignments by
Field Assignments pressing the OK button
Import Survey (Azimuth and Dip) Press the Next > button to finish.

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Tables

The Document Wizard Menu should now be titled Import Assay

Tables.

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Exercise 3 – Data Import (ASSAYS)

Load the ASSAYS table by answering the Wizard prompts as listed

below:

Menu Action
Import Assay Tables Press the Add.. button
Driver Category/Data Type Set the Category to Datamine and the
Data type to Tables and press the OK
button.
Open Source File Select the assays.dm file.
DO NOT SELECT ASSAYR.D
Database File Description Select all 4 fields ie BHID, FROM, TO,
and AU and press the OK button.
Define Drillhole Data Table Accept the default field assignments by
Field Assignments pressing the OK button
Import Assay Tables Press the Next > button to finish.

The Document Wizard Menu should now be titled Import Lithology

(Geology Log) Tables.

Exercise 4 – Data Import (GEOLOGY)

Load the GEOLOGY table by answering the Wizard prompts as listed

below:

Menu Action
Import Lithology (Geology Log) Tables Press the Add.. button
Driver Category/Data Type Set the Driver Category to Datamine
and the Data type to Tables. Press the
OK button to close the menu.
Open Source File Select the geology.dm file.
Database File Description Select all 5 fields ie BHID, FROM, TO,
LODEID and QUARTZ%. Press the OK
button.
Define Drillhole Data Table Accept the default field assignments and
Field Assignments press the OK button to continue.
Import Lithology (Geology Log) Press the Next > button to finish.
Tables

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Exercise 5 – Data Import (TOPOTR/TOPOPT,

LODETR/LODEPT)

Load the two sets of wireframe files by answering the Wizard prompts
as listed below:

Menu Action
Import Wireframe/Surface Tables Press the Add.. button
Driver Category/Data Type Set the Driver Category to Datamine
and the Data Type to Wireframes and
press the OK button.
Open Source File (Datamine Select the topotr.dm file.
Wireframe Triangles)
Open Source File (Datamine Points) Select the topopt.dm file.
Datamine Wireframes In the Data Fields box tick the COLOUR
field and press the OK button.
Import Wireframe/Surface Tables Press the Add.. button
Driver Category/Data Type Set the Category to Datamine and the
Data type to Wireframes, this should be
the default. Press the OK button to
continue.
Open Source File (Datamine Select the lodetr.dm file.
Wireframe Triangles)
Open Source File (Datamine Points) Select the lodept.dm file.
Datamine Wireframes In the Data Fields box tick the COLOUR
and LODEID fields and press the OK
button.
Import Wireframe/Surface Tables Press the Next > button to finish.

Exercise 6– Data Import (Block Model Tables)

Finally load the resource block model by answering the Document
Wizard prompts as listed below:

Menu Action
Import Block Model Tables Press the Add.. button
Driver Category/Data Type Set the Driver Category to Datamine
and the Data Type to Block Models.
Press the OK button to close the menu.
Open Source File Select the model.dm file.
Datamine Block Models Select the LODEID, AU, and DENSITY
fields and press the OK button.
Import Block Model Tables Press the Next > button to finish.

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Exercise 7 – Building Desurveyed Drillhole data and

Finishing the Import

The Document Wizard menu should now look similar to the image
below.

Press the Finish button to complete the import.

Save your project using the File | Save command in the main
Present menu. When prompted set the document name to
training.epr. Make sure you save the document in the training
directory. ( c:\database\training ).

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NOTE THAT THESE STEPS ARE ONLY DONE ONCE. ONCE THE
LINKS ARE SET UP AND THE PROJECT HAS BEEN SAVED
YOUR SECTIONS WILL AUTOMATICALLY REFLECT THE
CONTENT OF YOUR CURRENT MINING DATABASE.

Exercise 8 – Setting the Paper Size and Grid Settings

Select the tab titled Section 45300 E North South View . You must
have the required plot orientation selected when changing plot settings
as these are assigned to each plot type( section, plan, or 3D View)
independently. This means for example a project can have a series of
plans at 1:500 scale while the sections are defined using a scale of
1:1000.

Select the File | Page Setup option from the main menu and change
the settings to match those in the image below.

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Press the OK button to continue and answer Yes to the prompt asking
if you want to rescale all plot items.
Select the Format | Grid option from the pulldown menus. Change
the grid annotation to that displayed in the image below.

In the Grid menu click on the Font button below the text settings. 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
buttons to close the two menus.

Exercise 9 – Setting Scales and Clipping

Change the scale to 1:500 using the pull down menu option in the
bottom menu as illustrated below.

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Press the padlock symbol next to the scale menu to fix the scale at
1:500 for all north-south section views.

To set the clipping to 25 metres using the pull down clipping menu in
the top left hand corner. Remember the drilling has been done on 50
metre sections.

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Your north south trending sections should look similar to the image
below.

Save your changes to the training.epr document (File | Save).

Exercise 10 – Zooming, Panning, and Stepping through Sections

The commands for zooming and panning are available under the View
pull down menu. However the simplest way to use these commands
is via the icons in the bottom left hand corner.

ZZoom Pan Commands

Commands

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Try using these commands to understand how they work. Help on

what each command does is available by placing the mouse cursor
over the relevant icon or using the F1 key.

To step through the sections try using the 2 arrow icons in the top rack
of icons.

MAKE SURE THE SECTION IS SET TO 45300 mE BEFORE

STARTING THE NEXT EXERCISE.

Exercise 11 – Formatting the Wireframes Display

Select the Format | 3D Objects menu. In the Section View Format

menu select the TOPOTR / TOPOPT (wireframe). Toggle on the
Intersection with Section check box and set the display to Hidden
as illustrated below.

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Repeat these steps for the LODEPT / LODETR wireframe, these

changes will improve the appearance of your section plots.
If you click on the Color tab you will notice each of the 3 files is being
coloured on an attribute field and a default legend.

Press the OK button and move on to the next exercise.

Exercise 12 – Formatting the Drillhole Display – Field Definition

Select the Format | Columns option from the pulldown menu. There
should only be the AU and LODEID fields in the list. If a field called
Zone is also included in the list then delete it by selecting it with the
mouse and pushing the Delete button, it will not be needed in today’s
exercises.

By default the Earthworks Present only displays a single geology

field (when specified). To add the QUARTZ% field press the Add…
button as illustrated below.

Answer the remaining prompts as follows:

Menu Action
Column Wizard Toggle on the Data Column option and
Type of column(s) to add: press the Next >> button.

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Column Wizard Select the geology.dm table and press

Select the table for columns: the Next >> button.
Column Wizard Select the QUARTZ% field and press the
Select the fields to add: Next >> button.
Column Wizard Select the Filled Histogram option and
Select the style for the new press the END button.
column(s):

Adjust the position of the 3 fields in the Columns in View section to

match the order in the image below. This is important as the order of
the fields controls the position of the annotation relative to each other
and the drillhole trace.

The order of the fields can be changed by selecting a field and then
pushing the Up or Down button.

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Click on the LODEID field and make sure the style in the next window
is set to Text as illustrated in the image above. Once this is done click
on the
Border / Colour tab and make sure all the borders are unchecked as
illustrated below.

Apply the style and border changes described in the previous

paragraph to the AU field. Press OK to apply the changes.
DO NOT CLOSE THE SECTION VIEW FORMAT WINDOW, YOU
WILL BE USING IT IN THE NEXT EXERCISE.

Exercise 13 – Formatting the Drillhole Display – Field Annotation

Make sure the Downhole Columns tab is selected in the Section

View Format menu.

Select the LODEID field in the Columns in view and click on the text
tab. Set the Number Format to Integer as illustrated below. You may
need to toggle on the Show Text option first.

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Next click on the AU field in the Columns in View section and set the
Number Format to 2 decimal places.

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Select the QUARTZ% field and click on the Graph/Colour tab. Make
sure
The Minimum is set to 0 and the Maximum is set to 100.

Press the OK button to apply the changes.

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If you zoom into one of the drilling intersections the annotation/graphs

should look similar to the image below.

Select the Format | Columns option. Adjust the margin on the AU

field by selecting the AU field and then selecting the Width/Margins
tab. Set the Left margin to 0.5 mm and press the Apply button.

Press the OK button to close the Section View Format menu. Save
your work using the File | Save command.

Exercise 14 – Formatting the Drillhole Display – Defining a

Legend

Select the Format | Legends… option from the pull down menus. In
the Legends menu press the Wizard … and set the legend name to
Au Cutoff.

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Set the number of intervals and minimum and maximum values to

match those in the image below and press the OK button to close the
Legend Wizard.

Click on the plus symbol next to the newly defined legend, AU Cutoff.

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Now click on each of the ranges followed by the Edit … button and
adjust the LINE AND FILL COLOUR, FROM, TO and DESCRIPTION
values using those listed below.

INTERVAL LINE AND FILL COLOUR FROM TO Description

1 ( 0.00 6.00 ) Black 0.00 0.50 Waste
2 ( 6.00 12.00 Blue 0.50 2.50 Leach Grade
) Stockpile
3( 12.00 18.00 Yellow 2.50 4.50 Low Grade
)
4( 18.00 24.00 Red 4.50 9.00 ROM
)
5(24.00 30.00 Orange Yellow 9.00 30.00 High Grade
)

To change the COLOUR value click on the interval below the legend
name and then change the Line and Fill Colour setting.

To apply the legend select the Format | Columns option from the pull
down menu. Select the AU field and click on the Text tab. Change
the Colour option
to Colour using legend and change the Legend setting to AU
Cutoff.

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Use the Format | 3D Objects to colour the model cells using the
Au Cutoff legend. Toggle off the Filled option before closing the
menu.

Exercise 15 – Adding a title box

Select the View menu and make sure the Page Layout option is
turned on and change the view so it is centered on the bottom right
hand corner of the plot.

Select the Insert | Title Box option from the pulldown menu. Drag the
title box
down to the bottom right hand corner by clicking on the box and
holding down the left mouse key. You can enlarge the box by clicking
on the top left hand corner and while holding down the left mouse
button dragging the cursor outward and to the left.

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Click in the cell containing the text training.epr using the right mouse
button and select the Insert Row option. Adjust the cell heights and
position of the title box to match the image below.

Remove the training.epr text from the second cell and add the text
“Wanabe Mining NL” to the uppermost cell. These edits can be made
by right clicking in each cell and selecting the Cell Contents option..

Use the Insert | Scale Bar to add a scale bar to the cell below the
main title. Similarly use the Insert | Clip Art option to add the company
logo to the right of the title. The logo is stored in a file called
minelogo.bmp.

Your title box should look similar to the following. You will need to
modify both the cell sizes and font sizes to get a result similar to the
image below.

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You will have noticed some lines of text are hard coded while others
as set as “Fields” such as the section easting. By using fields some of
the title box text will change as each new section is displayed. Try
stepping through a few sections.
Exercise 15 – Adding a Legend

Use the Insert | Legend Box to add the Au Cutoff legend to the plot.
Again after positioning the legend you will need to resize the box and
adjust the font used in the legend annotation.

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