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Mine2-4D Tutorial

For Short-Term Projects

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Mine2-4D Tutorial for Short-Term Projects - Jun03.doc of 171

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS..........................................................................................................................................2

TABLE OF FIGURES ..............................................................................................................................................4

TABLE OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION TO THE TUTORIAL MANUAL.........................................................................................10

MACRO TERMINOLOGY ..........................................................................................................................................11 Development ......................................................................................................................................................11 Outline................................................................................................................................................................12 Stope...................................................................................................................................................................13 Activity ...............................................................................................................................................................13 Linking ...............................................................................................................................................................15 Segment ..............................................................................................................................................................15 Activity Points....................................................................................................................................................16 Evaluation..........................................................................................................................................................16 Definition Databases .........................................................................................................................................16 Attributes............................................................................................................................................................16

THE DATA...............................................................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................................17 DATA ......................................................................................................................................................................17

INITIAL START-UP ..............................................................................................................................................20

PROJECT SETUP...................................................................................................................................................27

PROJECT SETUP – GENERAL MENU .............................................................................................................28

Project................................................................................................................................................................28 Options Menu.....................................................................................................................................................30

PROJECT SETUP – CONVENTIONS MENU..................................................................................................33

PROJECT SETUP – CONVENTIONS MENU - ATTRIBUTES .....................................................................34

PROJECT SETUP – CONVENTIONS MENU - PROPERTIES......................................................................39

PROJECT SETUP – CONVENTIONS MENU - NAMING CONVENTION .................................................41

PROJECT SETUP – GEOLOGY MENU ............................................................................................................44


PROJECT SETUP – GEOLOGY MENU - INTERROGATION ....................................................................45

PROJECT SETUP – GEOLOGY MENU - DEPLETION................................................................................50

PROJECT SETUP – GEOLOGY MENU - DENSITY......................................................................................52

PLANNING MENU................................................................................................................................................54

PLANNING - DESIGN MENU.............................................................................................................................56

PLANNING - DESIGN DEFINITION.................................................................................................................57

PLANNING - SEQUENCING MENU.................................................................................................................73

PLANNING - SEQUENCING MENU - PREPARATION TAB ....................................................................75

PLANNING - SEQUENCE MENU - SEQUENCE TAB................................................................................114

PLANNING - SCHEDULING MENU...............................................................................................................140

PLANNING - SCHEDULING MENU - SOLID MODEL TAB ......................................................................141

PLANNING - SCHEDULING MENU - EVALUATION TAB........................................................................158

PLANNING - SCHEDULING MENU – SCHEDULING TAB .......................................................................168


TABLE OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1 - DEVELOPMENT DIAGRAMS.....................................................................................................................11 FIGURE 2 - OUTLINE EXAMPLE .................................................................................................................................12 FIGURE 3 - STOPE OUTLINE EXAMPLE.....................................................................................................................12 FIGURE 4 - 3D STOPE WIREFRAME EXAMPLE.........................................................................................................13 FIGURE 5 - ACTIVITY DEFINITIONS ...........................................................................................................................13 FIGURE 6 - ACTIVITY REPRESENTATION IN EARTHWORKS PRODUCTION SCHEDULER.........................................14 FIGURE 7 - SCHEDULER REPRESENTATION OF LINKS.............................................................................................15 FIGURE 8 - MINE2-4D REPRESENTATION OF LINKS.................................................................................................15 FIGURE 9 - DESIGN FIXED CROSS-SECTIONAL WIREFRAMES................................................................................17 FIGURE 10 – STOPE DESIGN STRINGS IN 3D VISUALIZER VIEW............................................................................19 FIGURE 11 – OUTLINE DESIGN STRINGS IN 3D VISUALIZER VIEW.........................................................................19 FIGURE 12 - MINE2-4D ICON....................................................................................................................................20 FIGURE 13 – PROJECTS DIALOG – NEW/EXISTING TAB .........................................................................................20 FIGURE 14 – NEW PROJECT WIZARD ......................................................................................................................21 FIGURE 15 – NEW PROJECT WIZARD PAGE 2.........................................................................................................22 FIGURE 16 – NEW PROJECT CONFIRMATION ..........................................................................................................23 FIGURE 17 – NO USER LIST FOUND ERROR ...........................................................................................................23 FIGURE 18 – USER MANAGER ..................................................................................................................................24 FIGURE 19 – ADMIN PASSWORD ..............................................................................................................................24 FIGURE 20 – NEW USERLIST CREATION .................................................................................................................24 FIGURE 21 - ADD/EDIT USER PRIVELEDGES ...........................................................................................................25 FIGURE 22 – MINE2-4D LOGON ...............................................................................................................................25 FIGURE 23 – TIP OF THE DAY ...................................................................................................................................26 FIGURE 24 – PROJECT SETUP DIALOG – DEFAULT VIEW.......................................................................................28 FIGURE 25 – PROJECT SETUP – OPTIONS DIALOG ................................................................................................30 FIGURE 26 - PROJECT OPTIONS...............................................................................................................................31 FIGURE 27 – PROGRAM OPTIONS – SCHEDULER TAB............................................................................................31 FIGURE 28 – PROGRAM OPTIONS - DISPLAY TAB ..................................................................................................32 FIGURE 29 - PROGRAM OPTIONS - GENERAL TAB ..................................................................................................32 FIGURE 30 – PROJECT SETUP – CONVENTIONS VERTICAL MENU.........................................................................33 FIGURE 31 - ACTIVATE ADDITIONAL ATTRIBUTES TOGGLE ....................................................................................34 FIGURE 32 - PROJECT SETUP - CONVENTIONS - ATTRIBUTES DIALOGUE.............................................................34 FIGURE 33 - ATTRIBUTES TABLE – LEVEL .............................................................................................................36 FIGURE 34 - ZGRID DESIGN FILE..............................................................................................................................37 FIGURE 35 – PROJECT SETUP – CONVENTIONS – ATTRIBUTES DIALOGUE .........................................................38 FIGURE 36 - PROJECT SETUP - CONVENTIONS - PROPERTIES DIALOGUE ...........................................................39 FIGURE 37 - USER-DEFINED PROPERTY EXAMPLE ................................................................................................40


FIGURE 38 – PROJECT SETUP – CONVENTIONS - NAMING CONVENTION DIALOG ...............................................42 FIGURE 39 - NAMING CONVENTION OPTIONS..........................................................................................................42 FIGURE 40 – PROJECT SETUP – GEOLOGY VERTICAL MENU ................................................................................44 FIGURE 41 – PROJECT SETUP – GEOLOGY – INTERROGATION DIALOGUE ...........................................................45 FIGURE 42 - MODEL INTERROGATION GRID ............................................................................................................47 FIGURE 43 – ZONE ATTRIBUTE VALUES ................................................................................................................48 FIGURE 44 – STOPES ENCOMPASSED BY OREBODY WITH ATTRIBUTE .................................................................49 FIGURE 45 – PROJECT SETUP – GEOLOGY – DEPLETION DIALOG........................................................................50 FIGURE 46 – DEPLETION GRID – COMPLETED............................................................................................................51 FIGURE 47 – PROJECT SETUP – GEOLOGY – DENSITY DIALOG ............................................................................52 FIGURE 48 - PLANNING MENU ..................................................................................................................................54 FIGURE 49 – PLANNING VERTICAL MENU - DESIGN TAB ........................................................................................56 FIGURE 50 – DESIGN DEFINITION – CLEAR DESIGN WINDOW DIALOG .................................................................57 FIGURE 51 – AUTOMATIC DESIGN DEFINITION CREATION - FXS...........................................................................57 FIGURE 52 - AUTOMATIC DESIGN DEFINITIONS CREATION – OUTLINES ...............................................................58 FIGURE 53 - AUTOMATIC DESIGN DEFINITIONS CREATION – CXS ........................................................................58 FIGURE 54 – FXS DESIGN DEFINITIONS – DEFAULT SETTINGS ............................................................................59 FIGURE 55 – OUTLINES DESIGN DEFINITIONS – DEFAULT SETTINGS ...................................................................59 FIGURE 56 – COMPLEX SOLIDS DESIGN DEFINITIONS – DEFAULT SETTINGS ......................................................59 FIGURE 57 – X-SECTION TOOL DIALOG – DEFAULT VIEW .....................................................................................61 FIGURE 58 – CROSS-SECTION SHAPE - 5X5ARCH .................................................................................................62 FIGURE 59 – CROSS-SECTION SHAPE – SELECT POINTS......................................................................................63 FIGURE 60 - DESIGN DEFINITIONS DIALOG – FIXED CROSS-SECTIONALS TAB ....................................................65 FIGURE 61 - DESIGN DEFINITIONS DIALOG – OUTLINES TAB .................................................................................68 FIGURE 62 - DESIGN DEFINITIONS DIALOG – COMPLEX SOLIDS TAB ....................................................................70 FIGURE 63 - SELECT DESIGN TYPES TO CONNECT DEFINITIONS ..........................................................................72 FIGURE 64 – PLANNING - SEQUENCING - PREPERATION TAB ................................................................................73 FIGURE 65 - APPLY VISUAL AND NON-VISUAL DESIGN ATTRIBUTES OPTIONS.....................................................75 FIGURE 66 - GENERATE WALLS AND POINTS OPTIONS..........................................................................................76 FIGURE 67 – FIXED CROSS-SECTIONAL PREPARATION DIALOG............................................................................77 FIGURE 68 – FIXED CROSS SECTIONAL WALLS AND POINTS.................................................................................79 FIGURE 69 – OUTLINE POINT GENERATION DIALOG...............................................................................................81 FIGURE 70 – AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED OUTLINE POINTS AND CENTRELINES ...............................................82 FIGURE 71 – EDIT OUTLINE CENTRELINES DIALOG ................................................................................................83 FIGURE 72 – ORE OUTLINE #1 - AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED CENTRELINE ....................................................84 FIGURE 73 – ORE OUTLINE #1 - MOVE CENTRELINE START POINT ....................................................................85 FIGURE 74 – ORE OUTLINE #1 – EDITING COMPLETE...........................................................................................86 FIGURE 75 – ORE OUTLINE #2 – EDITING COMPLETE............................................................................................86


FIGURE 76 – USER-EDITED OUTLINE POINTS AND CENTRELINES .........................................................................87 FIGURE 77 – AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED OUTLINE OFFSETS ............................................................................88 FIGURE 78 – EDIT OUTLINE OFFSETS DIALOG........................................................................................................89 FIGURE 79 – AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED SUB-OUTLINES..................................................................................90 FIGURE 80 – SUB-OUTLINE CHECKS DIALOG .........................................................................................................91 FIGURE 81 – GENERATE OUTLINE WALLS & POINTS – STILL UNSEQUENCED .....................................................92 FIGURE 82 – GENERATE OUTLINE WALLS & POINTS - COMPLETE ........................................................................93 FIGURE 83 – COMPLEX SOLID PREPARATION DIALOG ...........................................................................................94 FIGURE 84 – COMPLEX SOLIDS SEQUENCING DIALOG...........................................................................................95 FIGURE 85 – MULTI-STRING CXS PREPARATION ...................................................................................................95 FIGURE 86 – MULTI-STRING CXS INTERNAL SEQUENCING COMPLETED .............................................................97 FIGURE 87 - CXS WALLS AND POINTS COMPLETED ..............................................................................................97 FIGURE 88 – EFFECT OF STRINGS/SEGMENT ON GENERATING CXS WALLS & POINTS .....................................98 FIGURE 89 - APPLY ACTIVITY ATTRIBUTES AUTOMATICALLY OPTION ...................................................................99 FIGURE 90 – AUTOMATIC ATTRIBUTE APPLICATION DIALOG..................................................................................99 FIGURE 91 – COMPLEX SOLIDS ANNOTATED WITH OREBODY ATTRIBUTE ......................................................100 FIGURE 92 - CREATE DERIVED ACTIVITY DEFINITIONS OPTION...........................................................................101 FIGURE 93 – DERIVED ACTIVITY DEFINITIONS DIALOG.........................................................................................102 FIGURE 94 - BASE ACTIVITY FILTERS DIALOG.......................................................................................................103 FIGURE 95 - STOPES_ALL BASE ACTIVITY FILTER - COMPLETED .......................................................................104 FIGURE 96 - RATE BUILDER....................................................................................................................................105 FIGURE 97 - PROPERTY SELECTION DIALOG ........................................................................................................106 FIGURE 98 - DERIVED PROPERTY FORMULA CREATION AND EDITING TOOLS....................................................106 FIGURE 99 - CREATE DERIVED PROPERTY DIALOG – COMPLETED.....................................................................107 FIGURE 100 - FILLING DERIVED ACTIVITY DEFINITION – COMPLETED.................................................................107 FIGURE 101: DERIVED ACTIVITY PLACEMENT .......................................................................................................108 FIGURE 102 - GENERATE DERIVED ACTIVITY WALLS AND POINTS OPTION........................................................109 FIGURE 103 – DERIVED ACTIVITY PREPARATION DIALOG....................................................................................109 FIGURE 104 - DERIVED ACTIVITY CREATION REPORT .........................................................................................110 FIGURE 105 – DERIVED ACTIVITY DATA REPORTING ...........................................................................................111 FIGURE 106 - DUMMY EVALUATION DATA - STOPING/FILLING ACTIVITY EXAMPLE ............................................112 FIGURE 107 – BASE ACTIVITY AND DERIVED ACTIVITY WALLS AND POINTS ......................................................113 FIGURE 108 – PLANNING – SEQUENCING MENU – SEQUENCE TAB ....................................................................114 FIGURE 109 - AUTOMATIC AND MANUAL SEQUENCING OPTIONS ........................................................................115 FIGURE 110 – AUTOMATIC DEPENDANCY DEFINITIONS DIALOG..........................................................................115 FIGURE 111 - RAMP/CUBBY - AUTOMATIC DEPENDENCY DEFINITION - COMPLETE...........................................118 FIGURE 112 - GENERATE AUTOMATIC DEPENDENCY RULES DIALOG .................................................................119 FIGURE 113 - AUTO DEPENDENCY DEF’S GENERATED BY ‘END TO START SAME DESC’ RULES.....................120


FIGURE 114 - AUTOMATIC DEPENDENCY DEFINITIONS COMPLETED...................................................................121 FIGURE 115 - AUTOMATIC DEPENDENCY CREATION REPORT .............................................................................122 FIGURE 116 - DEPENDENCY CHECKING DIALOG - DEFAULT VIEW ......................................................................123 FIGURE 117 - DEPENDENCY CHECKING DIALOG - ANIMATION TAB .....................................................................124 FIGURE 118 - DEPENDENCY CHECKING DIALOG - AUTO-DEPENDENCIES TAB...................................................126 FIGURE 119 – DEPENDENCY CHECKING DIALOG – FILTERS TAB ........................................................................128 FIGURE 120 – DEPENDENCY CHECKING DIALOG - AUTO DEPENDENCIES TAB ..................................................130 FIGURE 121 – DEPENDENCY CHECKING DIALOG – SEQUENCE TAB ...................................................................131 FIGURE 122 – DEPENDENCY CHECKING DIALOG..................................................................................................132 FIGURE 123 - SCHEDULE ITERATION - DUMMY SEQUENCE EXPORT OPTIONS...................................................134 FIGURE 124 – SEQUENCE EXPORT DIALOG ..........................................................................................................135 FIGURE 125 – SCHEDULER FILES ..........................................................................................................................135 FIGURE 126 – EPS INITIAL .....................................................................................................................................136 FIGURE 127 – SEQUENCE LINKS EXPORT DIALOG ...............................................................................................139 FIGURE 128 - PLANNING - SCHEDULING MENU .....................................................................................................140 FIGURE 129 - PLANNING - SCHEDULING - SOLID MODEL TAB..............................................................................141 FIGURE 130 - SOLID MODELLING - CREATE SOLID OPTIONS ...............................................................................141 FIGURE 131 – FIXED CROSS-SECTIONALS SOLID MODELLING DIALOG ..............................................................142 FIGURE 132 - SOLID WIREFRAMES SHOWING X-SECTIONAL SHAPES ................................................................142 FIGURE 133 - FIXED CROSS-SECTIONAL SOLID MODELLING – COMPLETE ........................................................143 FIGURE 134 - X-CUT - SLOT INTERSECTION - DESIGN WINDOW VS VISUALIZER VIEWS....................................143 FIGURE 135 - OUTLINES SOLID MODELLING DIALOG............................................................................................145 FIGURE 136 - OUTLINES SOLID MODELLING COMPLETE - DESIGN WINDOW VIEW ............................................146 FIGURE 137 – OUTLINES SOLID MODELLING COMPLETE - VISUALIZER VIEW.....................................................146 FIGURE 138 – COMPLEX MODELS SOLID MODELLING DIALOG............................................................................147 FIGURE 139 – STOPE WIREFRAMES - VISUALIZER VIEW......................................................................................148 FIGURE 140 – COMPLEX SOLIDS EQUI-ANGULAR SHAPE ....................................................................................149 FIGURE 141 – COMPLEX SOLIDS – DESIGN EQUI-ANGULAR SHAPE ...................................................................150 FIGURE 142 – COMPLEX SOLIDS – PROPORTIONAL LENGTH ..............................................................................151 FIGURE 143 – COMPLEX SOLIDS – INSERT TAG STRING .....................................................................................152 FIGURE 144 – STOPE 2 CORRECTLY WIREFRAMED .............................................................................................153 FIGURE 145 – STOPE 9 INCORRECTLY WIREFRAMED ..........................................................................................154 FIGURE 146 – STOPE 9 CORRECTLY WIREFRAMED .............................................................................................155 FIGURE 147 - SOLID MODELLING - COMPLETE......................................................................................................156 FIGURE 148 - SOLID MODELLING - EDIT SOLIDS OPTION.....................................................................................157 FIGURE 149 – EDIT SOLIDS DIALOG ......................................................................................................................157 FIGURE 150 - PLANNING – SCHEDULING MENU - EVALUATION TAB ....................................................................158 FIGURE 151 - EVALUATION DIALOG - EVALUATE VIEW .........................................................................................159


FIGURE 152 - EVALUATION DIALOG - CURRENT EVALUATION VIEW ....................................................................160 FIGURE 153 - CURRENT EVALUATION - STATUS INFORMATION ...........................................................................160 FIGURE 154 - CURRENT EVALUATION - TIME STATISTICS ....................................................................................161 FIGURE 155 – GEOLOGICAL EVALUATION DATA REPORTING GRID.....................................................................162 FIGURE 156 – CREATED DERIVED ACTIVITEIS DIALOGUE....................................................................................163 FIGURE 157 - DATA GRID FOR UPDATED DERIVED ACTIVITIES..............................................................................164 FIGURE 158 – MANUAL EVALUATION EDITING ......................................................................................................165 FIGURE 159 - MANUAL EVALUATION EDITING – EDIT EMPTY EVALUATION OPTION...........................................166 FIGURE 160 – EVALUATION MANUAL EDITING DIALOG.........................................................................................167 FIGURE 161 - PLANNING - SCHEDULING - SCHEDULING TAB ...............................................................................168 FIGURE 162 - SCHEDULING - SETUP CONSTRAINTS OPTION ...............................................................................168 FIGURE 163 – SCHEDULING CONSTRAINTS DIALOG .............................................................................................169 FIGURE 164 - SCHEDULE ITERATION - GEOLOGICAL SEQUENCE EXPORT OPTIONS..........................................170 FIGURE 165 – GEOLOGICAL SEQUENCE EXPORT DIALOG ...................................................................................171


TABLE OF TABLES

TABLE 1 - FIXED CROSS SECTIONAL DESIGN VISUAL ATTRIBUTES .......................................................................18 TABLE 2 - FIXED CROSS SECTIONAL DESIGN PROPERTIES ...................................................................................18


INTRODUCTION TO THE TUTORIAL MANUAL

Since this is a windows based program there will often be instances when it is possible to use

the mouse. Over the course of this tutorial we will be using 5 different commands relating to use

of the mouse, namely; Click, Double-click, Click and drag (highlight), Click and move (box) and Right-click. The following are brief descriptions of what is meant by each of these terms:

Click: Place the mouse pointer over the item to be selected and quickly press the left button and

release.

Double click: Place the mouse pointer over the item to be selected and quickly press the left

button twice.

Click and Drag (highlight): Place the point of the mouse at the position, which you want to start

highlighting. Press the left mouse button; hold the button down while moving the pointer across

whatever needs to be highlighted. On reaching the end of what has to be highlighted, release

the mouse button.

Click and Move (box): This function only occurs within GUIDE (Graphical User Interface to the Mine2-4D Environment), and is used mainly when zooming into a selected area. Placing

the point of the mouse at the position that you want to box does this. Press the left mouse

button and release. Move the mouse over the area to be boxed. On reaching the end of the

area to be boxed, press the left mouse button and release.

Right click: This works the same as clicking, but uses the right mouse button.

Finally, there will be instances throughout this tutorial when important notes, technical tips,

warnings, and time-saving shortcuts will be emphasized to the user. Whenever you see one of

the following icons, be sure to take note of the implications.

Technical Tip

Warning

Remember

Time Saver

Note


Macro Terminology

Development Development is defined as an underground excavation, which is of a fixed cross-section (width,

height and shape) and set by the length of a design string. Any closed shape may be used as

the cross-section and the design string acts as a survey line that can be located at any point

within the development cross-sectional shape.

Figure 1 - Development Diagrams


Outline An outline is an abstract concept. It has been named outline because it does not fall into the

category of either development or stope. Each outline is a single closed string that is projected

a given distance vertically to create a 3D solid excavation.

In the case of a steeply dipping orebody, an outline could be a piece of development, which

follows a geological contact and is hence irregular in shape (as depicted below).

Figure 2 - Outline Example

In flat deposits, an outline could represent the outline of a “stope” (as depicted below).

Figure 3 - Stope Outline Example


Stope A stope is defined as a three-dimensional solid object, and by definition indicates a production

area of the mine.

Figure 4 - 3D Stope Wireframe Example

Activity An activity is defined as a record within the Scheduler environment and as a point in the

Mine2-4D environment.

Development Activity

Footprint Activity

Stope Activity

Figure 5 - Activity Definitions


An activity must have a NAME and SEGMENT. The combination of these two attributes must

be unique for each activity. The segment field is automatically maintained by the system.

Name, however, may be customised through the systems naming convention facilities.

An activity may be assigned a rate resulting in duration, or be of a fixed duration (rate driven and

duration driven activities). An activity can have a number of attributes. These can be grades,

tonnages, assigned resources, codes (whether the activity is an ore or waste activity, etc),

calendars (different calendars for different activities). There are also calculated attributes, such

as the scheduled start date and time etc.

The activities are set within Mine2-4D and are as follows:

1. For development: the segment of a string between two points.

2. For an outline: the area defined between two perpendicular centreline segments.

3. For a stope: the tonnage defined by a solid wireframe model.

Figure 6 - Activity Representation in Earthworks Production Scheduler


Linking Linking is the act of joining two activities in time. This is the basis of all scheduling. Under the

Scheduler environment, a link is represented between two activities by a line with an arrow at

the end.

Figure 7 - Scheduler Representation of Links

There are a number of different links, namely; Finish to Start, Finish to Finish, Start to Finish,

Start to Start and Percentage Overlap.

The various types of links represent the relationship of the link from its Predecessor Activity to

its Successor Activity. One may also apply delays and different calendars to the links.

In Mine2-4D, the dependencies are displayed in a more graphical format than in the Scheduler. They are represented as a 3-dimensional string connecting the associated activity.

Links / Dependancies

Segments

Activity Points

Figure 8 - Mine2-4D representation of links

Segment A segment is a name referring to a small section of development and outline design. As shown

in previous diagrams a development activity is defined as the distance between two points in a

design survey string. A segment, in this case, is the outline or wireframe between these two

points. A tool is supplied for automatically creating these items. The normal use for segments is

as a visual aid in the linking of development and outlines, as well as, providing a physical model

onto which the completed schedule can be connected.


Activity Points Activity points are created in Mine2-4D at the same time as the segments. Activity points

provide a three-dimensional point, representing each activity, and are used for linking purposes.

These points also store other data, which the user can view (such as segment names etc)

during the linking process and during plotting.

Evaluation Evaluation is the term used for comparing the design against the geological block model for the

purpose of extracting grade and tonnage information. In Mine2-4D, this function is extended to

calculating extra information such as slashing (also known as slyping) volumes and the like.

Definition Databases There are numerous definition databases used within Mine2-4D to store information input by the

user to define what a string represents, or how to treat that string in the various processes.

Definition Databases are individually explained under the appropriate section later in the

manual

Attributes Attributes are used to add greater definition and information to a design that will in turn

increase the functionality of the final schedule and reporting. They may take the form of mine

level information or orebody and geological zones definitions within the design and are limited

only to your imagination and the information you require from the design at the end of

scheduling.

The base attribute that must be assigned to the design is the description of each development,

outline or stope type. Attributes are applied to the design using a number of tools that will be

described later.


THE DATA

Introduction For this tutorial we are going to take a mine design through to a schedule. We will be using a

number of different techniques that you will then be able to apply to your own Mine Designs at a

later stage. You are going to be provided with three Mine2-4D string files, containing

development, stopes and outline data. The files are called design.dm, stopes.dm and

outline.dm. The following document contains all the information that you will require to create a

schedule with the data provided. Carefully read through the next few pages and then you will be

able to begin the tutorial. The aim of this manual is to take you from the initial design phases to

a final schedule, using most of the features that are presently available in Mine2-4D.

Data The Fixed Cross-Sectional file (design.dm) contains 12 different development types for this

tutorial.The development types in this file are differentiated by their unique combination of

COLOUR, LSTYLE and SYMBOL. The following figure is a three dimensional view of the Fixed

Cross-Sectional design file with Descriptions added to introduce the different development types

in the file.

Figure 9 - Design Fixed Cross-Sectional Wireframes

We are going to take these design strings and using their unique COLOUR, LSTYLE and

SYMBOL, apply the development type characteristics including; description, mining dimensions,


X-sectional shapes, mining type, etc to each design string. A summary of the attributes that we

are going to assign to each development type is shown in the following 2 figures:

Table 1 - Fixed Cross Sectional Design Visual Attributes

Table 2 - Fixed Cross Sectional Design Properties

When creating unique combinations of COLOUR, LSTYLE and SYMBOL to

differentiate between development types, keep in mind changes of COLOUR and

LSTYLE are easier to recognize than changes in symbols.

The Complex Solids file (stopes.dm) contains the string boundaries for ten different stopes.

These 9 stopes are differentiated by unique combinations of their visual attributes, namely

COLOUR, LSTYLE and SYMBOL. As can be seen in the following figure, there are nine

different stopes that we are going to be using in this tutorial.

The user may make use of the same combinations of COLOUR, LINESTYLE

and SYMBOL as used in the Fixed Cross Sectional or Outline files for the Complex

Solids file. This is due to the fact that the Fixed Cross Sectional, Outline and Complex

Solids files are dealt with separately in the Mine2-4D processes.


Figure 10 – Stope Design Strings in 3D Visualizer View

The Outline string file (outline.dm) contains ore and waste outlines, which are differentiated by

unique combinations of COLOUR, LSTYLE and SYMBOL.

Figure 11 – Outline Design Strings in 3D Visualizer View

These three files, design.dm, outline.dm and stopes.dm represent our mining layout. We are

going to take these three files and create a schedule.


INITIAL START-UP

This section assumes that Mine2-4D has been properly installed on the user’s

computer. For installation instructions, refer to Mine2-4D installation.

Double-click on the Mine2-4D short cut icon on the desktop.

Figure 12 - Mine2-4D Icon

Once Mine2-4D is finished starting up the user now has two options:

1) Create a new project

2) Open an existing project by

I. Toggle on, clicking , and

selecting the path of the required project.

II. Or, specifying an existing project under the Recent tab

Figure 13 – Projects Dialog – New/Existing Tab


If a project has not been created previously for this tutorial, the user will have to follow

option 1, which is explained later in the document.

If, on the other hand, the user has already created a tutorial project, they must use

option 2i or 2ii to open the project and resume the tutorial.

Creating a new project

Ensure that the toggle is activated on the Projects dialog – New/Existing

tab and click . The New Project Wizard dialog will appear as follows:

Figure 14 – New Project Wizard

Select the button to browse for the desired working directory for the new project by

double-clicking the directory tree until the desired working directory is reached and click

on the browser. This directory should contain all the design files that are provided

with the tutorial under C:\\database\tutorial root. By doing this the new project will be created

and stored in the same directory as the aforementioned design files. Provide the new project

with a name, Training beside the Project Name text box.

Click the toggle ‘Automatically add files already in project directory, this will add any design files

(strings, points and/or wireframes) in the Folder to the new project.


Click if all the files that reside within the selected directory are desired (which

skips the next window), alternatively, click the button for the following window.

Figure 15 – New Project Wizard Page 2

At this stage, all of the relevant files from the selected directory will be listed within the Training project and are shown in the figure above. For future reference, in order to add files into the

project that are not currently contained within the assigned directory, click the

button to browse for them (using the control or shift keys enables multiple selections). When all

the desired files exist within this window, click the button to arrive at the window

below.


Figure 16 – New Project Confirmation

When is clicked at this stage, Mine2-4D searches for the M4Duserlist.m1d file,

which contains user information. Only one of these .m1d files is required to reside on any given

machine and is required in order to run Mine2-4D. If this is the first time a project is created on

the user’s computer an M4Duserlist will not exist and the following error will appear:

Figure 17 – No User List Found Error

The user now has the option to select the location of an M4Duserlist if one exists by clicking

or run the User Manager to create a userlist by clicking . For the

purpose of this tutorial, click to run the User Manager and create a user list.


Figure 18 – User Manager

Before a userlist can be created, a location for the userlist must be specified. From the

menu in the Mine2-4D User Manager, click and from the directory tree select,

C:\\Program Files\Earthworks\Mine2-4D\Mine2-4D.10. The new user list will be save to this

specified directory.

Once the location is set, return to the menu in the Mine2-4D User Manager and select

. The user will be asked to enter an administrator password for the new user

list, as seen in the following:

Figure 19 – Admin Password

Only the administrator will be able to add or edit users and passwords to the userlist, please

enter a password and click , the user will be prompted with the following dialog:

Figure 20 – New UserList Creation


To add files to the new userlist go to the User menu in the Mine2-4D User Manager and select

Administrator and enter the administrator password supplied earlier, the user will now be

presented with the following.

Right-Click to add Users

Figure 21 - Add/Edit User Priveledges

The user can right-click in the User Administration window to add rows to the list. Enter

Usernames and Passwords in these new rows, when finished click .

Now that the userlist has been created, under the File menu in the Mine2-4D User Manager,

click . Click on the following window to continue with the Project

Creation sequence.

The user will then be presented with the Mine2-4D Logon window. All the users added earlier

are available for selection under the Username drop down box. Once the Username has been

selected and the Password is entered click .

Figure 22 – Mine2-4D Logon


When Mine2-4D is done creating the new project, the user will be prompted with a Tip of the Day, which provides the user with a random tip. However, not all the messages are tips;

sometimes it relays analogies or philosophical thoughts.

Figure 23 – Tip of the Day


PROJECT SETUP

Mine2-4D was designed to step a user through the various stages of a project all the way from

set-up and design to scheduling. The following figure provides a roadmap to the Mine2-4D

environment.

Project Flow

Mine2-4D Vertical Menu

Design Window Visualizer

Output Window Pull Down Menus

The first stage in the Mine2-4D project flow is Project Setup. It is important to understand that

all the design work for a mine layout can take place before the Project Setup step, but once a

project is to be taken through any advanced Mine2-4D processes certain rules for the project

must be established.

Since the design files were supplied for this tutorial already completed, and no further design

work is required, click the button to access the Project Setup dialog. The window

that should now be displayed should look like the following.


PROJECT SETUP – GENERAL MENU

Project Setup Vertical Menu

Figure 24 – Project Setup Dialog – Default View

The Project area of Project Setup is located under the section of the Project Setup

Vertical Menu and can always be accessed by clicking the icon.

Project This area of Project Setup deals with specifying Design Strings, Current Scheduling Project

(defaulted to Training_0) and Options.

Design Strings

In order for Mine2-4D to recognize the project design files (Fixed Cross Sectionals, Outlines and

Complex Solids) to be used in the project they must be listed in this section.

Specify the input file to be used by toggling on, and clicking the

button, and selecting the file called design.dm from the C:\\database\tutorial root. Following

the same procedure, specify the Outline and Complex Solid input files as outline.dm and

stopes.dm respectively.


Current Scheduling Project

Each Mine2-4D project can eventually produce a schedule. This area of Project Setup is where

the user specifies the name and location to save this schedule. Mine2-4D defaults the name of

the schedule to the name of the project.

Option Toggles

The Option Toggles area of Project Setup allows the user to activate certain areas of Project

Setup before the user enters them.

Create Naming Convention

This feature is to be used when the user wishes to create a naming convention that will suit the

particular mining environment. This naming convention will get saved onto each activity and

makes it easier to distinguish similar types of development from different areas once the data

has been passed onto the scheduler.

Create Additional Attributes

Additional attributes can be created in order to make development or stope identification easier.

For example, LEVEL could be an attribute created in order to later filter for LEVEL 335 or

LEVEL 1065. ZONE could be an attribute used to distinguish MAIN from VEIN in plan view.

The user may also want to specify attributes that already exist in the design files, otherwise

Mine 2-4D will not recognize them and will not attach them to activity points and segments.

Interrogate Geological Model

Interrogating a block model can be done in several ways in Mine2-4D. Sequential, Design

Type, and Description are the standard methods of interrogating the block model. Since more

than one block model can be applied to the design, it can be tailored to suit a variety of

situations. If the geology department has two different block models to represent two different

areas of exploration, let’s call them UPPER and LOWER, and knowing that the upper part of the

mine only goes down to 685 level. Then all the appropriate workings on that level and above

can be set to interrogate the UPPER block model. The rest can be set to use the LOWER

model.

Create Derived Activities

Creating derived activities can only be done if this toggle is activated. These are activities are

derived from other activities. For example, stoping activities will be generated from the stope


design file, however a filling activity will not, but by using the Create Derived Activities feature

we will be able to create a fill activity from each stoping activity for each stoping activity.

Create Defined Activities

Defined activities can be used to represent activities that are more sporadic during the life of a

mine and cannot be easily derived from other activities. Such an activity could be the erecting

of a barricade or building a sump. If the user wishes to create these kinds of activities Create

Derived Activities must be toggled on.

Options Menu

When the user clicks the button, the following screen is displayed. Under this menu the

user is presented with basic measurement, scheduler and program options.

Figure 25 – Project Setup – Options Dialog


Project Options

Figure 26 - Project Options

Project Options allows the user to specify such conventions as Measurement System,

Language and Gradient Convention. The default settings (shown in the preceding figure) are

suitable for the purposes of this tutorial.

Scheduler Options Tab

In order to specify the scheduling program that Mine2-4D will export the scheduling data to,

click and select Scheduler from the pull-down menu.

Figure 27 – Program Options – Scheduler Tab

Display Options Tab

If the user has a dual screen system, this option allows Mine2-4D to display the design portion

on the designated screen with the scheduler on the other. This feature is also very handy for

working on large schedules as it allows the user the option of spanning two monitors with a

single schedule.


Figure 28 – Program Options - Display Tab

General Options Tab

It is recommended that you ensure that the toggle is

activated.

Figure 29 - Program Options - General Tab

All of the default settings in the Program Options will suffice for the purposes of this tutorial.

Please proceed now to Project Setup\Conventions.


PROJECT SETUP – CONVENTIONS MENU

When the button is clicked from the Project Setup Vertical Menu, the following

options become available:

Figure 30 – Project Setup – Conventions Vertical Menu

Under the Project Setup\Conventions menu, the user will define Attributes and Properties,

which will ultimately be required for future successive Mine2-4D processes such as creating

Derived Activities and Interrogating the mine, design with respect to the geological block model,

for example. The Conventions menu will also allow the user to establish a Naming Convention. This feature allows mines to implement Mine2-4D while maintaining their existing

design Naming Convention.


PROJECT SETUP – CONVENTIONS MENU - ATTRIBUTES

When the user clicks on the button in the Conventions section, Mine2-4D displays the

following dialog:

Figure 31 - Activate Additional Attributes Toggle

Click and begin creating attributes (if the toggle in the

Project area of Project Setup was toggled on, the previous window would not appear):

The user is presented with a blank Attributes table:

Figure 32 - Project Setup - Conventions - Attributes Dialogue


refers to the name of the attribute to be applied to the activity points

requires specification of the attribute type, alphanumeric or numeric. If this attribute

exists in a design file already, this field must be specified exactly how it is in the design files.

refers to the number of characters an attribute can have if the attribute is of the

alphanumeric type. Similar to the Alpha field, the Size field must be set exactly how it is in the

design file (if it exists in a design file already).

determines how each attribute will be applied to it’s

associated activities.

: The object file contains the solid (wireframe) or grid from which a user

specified attribute must be applied to the project activities.

Before proceeding with this section, it is important the user have a general knowledge of

attributes as they pertain to design files. Firstly, there are two types of Attributes, visual and

nonvisual; visual of course being LSTYLE, COLOUR and SYMBOL, and nonvisual being any

other attribute associated with a design such as filltype, zone, rocktype, etc. There are also two

ways to apply attributes to activities; manually or automatically.

Applying Attributes Manually

There are two trains of thought when applying attributes manually, applying new attributes to

designs and/or activities or carrying existing attributes across from project design files to

activities.

I. Creating New Attributes – The user can either add visual or non visual attributes to

the design by entering desired attributes and applying them using the Visual Manual

Application – Design or Non Visual Manual Application – Design application methods. If

the user would like to add a new attribute only to the activities simply enter the new

attribute and choose the Non Visual Manual Application – Activities application method.

II. Carrying Existing Attributes From Design Files to Activities - Mine2-4D will add its

own nonvisual attributes to the design files as the user progresses through the

advanced processes. For this reason Mine2-4D will prevent any unnecessary attributes

from being carried across from the design files to the activities, which are generated

from the design files. If any attributes are to be carried across from the design to their

subsequent activities they must be listed in the attributes table. For the purposes of this


tutorial, we have an attribute in the design files called LEVEL which should be carried

across to the activities. Therefore, we need to add LEVEL using a manual Application

Method. Since LEVEL is a Non Visual attribute and already exists in the design we

must choose the Non Visual Application – Design method, see the following figure.

1-Right Click in Table and Click Add Record

2-Choose Application Method

4-Select Correct Type and Size of Attribute

3-Type Correct Name of Attribute

Figure 33 - Attributes Table – LEVEL

Applying Attributes Automatically

Mine2-4D also gives the user options to apply attributes automatically from unrelated 3D solids

or grid files.

Automatic Application – 3D Solid – This application method will take a user specified Object

File, which contains 3D solid(s) and applies selected attribute(s) and their values to the project

activities. In this tutorial, the wireframe files orebodtr.dm and orebodpt.dm contain 2

wireframes with the attribute OREBODY. For one of these wireframes the value of OREBODY

is 1 and for the other wireframe the value of OREBODY is 2. For this project the goal is to apply

these values to activities, which reside in each wireframe, thus telling the user which orebody

each activity is in.

Automatic Application – 2D Grid XY Plane – This application method also needs a specified

Object File. Please load the string file zgrid.dm to the design window.


Figure 34 - Zgrid Design File

As can be seen there are basically two grids in this file, both oriented in the XY plane. Both

grids have a ZONE attribute, one with a value of 1 and the other with a value of 2. For this

tutorial the ZONE attribute will be applied to the project activities. When using the XY Plane

method the Z coordinate of the activity does not matter, the ZONE attribute gets applied to an

activity depending on its XY coordinates.

Automatic Application – 2D Grid XZ Plane – This method is just like the XY automatic

application method only the Y coordinate of the activity is of no consequence to how attributes

get assigned to activities.

Please see the following figure for how the rest of the attribute rules get established.


1-Right Click in Table and Click Add Record

2-Choose Application Method

5-Automatically Selected from Object File

4-Select Correct Name of Attribute

3-Select Object File

Figure 35 – Project Setup – Conventions – Attributes Dialogue


PROJECT SETUP – CONVENTIONS MENU - PROPERTIES

By clicking the Properties icon , the user can either assign any of the ten default base

properties, or add user-defined properties, in order to specify the way in which data is tracked and

compared within the project. The and columns cannot be altered or

deleted for the ten base properties.

New user-defined Properties can be added by right-clicking in the Properties grid, and clicking

.

Figure 36 - Project Setup - Conventions - Properties Dialogue

The column contains a drop-down menu with the following intrinsic options: Metres,

Area, Insitu Tonnes, Insitu Volume, Density, Tonnage Factor, Grade Factor, Mined Tonnes, Mined

Volume and Void Volume. These are meant to be applied to any user-defined Properties. The

, , and columns can be used in conjunction with entries from

the column and user-defined Properties.


For example, the property table entries, which can be seen in the following figure, specify the copper

content CU in Cu/Insitu Tonnes.

We will want to track grades from the block model so continue to the Interrogation section and return

when complete.

Now that the project is set-up for geological interrogation we can now complete our Properties grid.

When the designs get interrogated against the block models later in the project, we want to track

certain properties, namely grade. Please refer to refer to the previous figures in this section to see

what properties will be taken from the block models and applied to the project activities.

It is important to stress that the units for the project properties must be different from each other. We

will add another property for a Derived Activity, which will be explained later.

If adding a new Property the user must assign a Name and Units to it. If applicable, a Base Property

can be selected from the drop-down menu upon which the new Property will be weighted. For

example, the property grid entries, which can be seen in the following figure, specify the copper

content CU in Cu/Insitu Tonnes.

Figure 37 - User-Defined Property Example

Please weight the other grades on Insitu Tonnes as well.


PROJECT SETUP – CONVENTIONS MENU - NAMING CONVENTION

This feature is to be used when the user wishes to create a Naming Convention that will suit

the particular mining environment. This Naming Convention will get saved onto each activity

and makes it easier to distinguish similar types of development from different areas once the

data has been passed onto the scheduler.

For the purposes of this tutorial we will create a Naming Convention based on Attributes that

will be added to the activities.

Click on the icon in the Project Setup\Conventions Menu. Since this is a new project

and no Naming Convention currently exists, the following will appear to remind the user to

toggle on the Option in the Project Setup\General\Project dialog.

Once the toggle is activated, the Naming Conventions dialog should

become visible.


Figure 38 – Project Setup – Conventions - Naming Convention Dialog

A Naming Convention can be built from different attributes within the project design files and

attributes created by Mine2-4D processes. The attributes from the design files must be

specified in the Attributes grid. For this tutorial we have built a Naming Convention from the

attributes LEVEL, OREBODY and ZONE.

Specify the name of the attribute to use in the convention in the Name column. Adding a row in

the table and clicking the cell in the column will present the user with the

following options, if the attributes conventions table is set up properly.

Figure 39 - Naming Convention Options

We will begin our Naming Convention with the Attribute LEVEL.


In the columns, we specify how much of the attribute LEVEL we will require

for our Naming Convention. Specify a 1 in the column and a 4 in the

column. This tells Mine2-4D to take characters 1-4 in the LEVEL attribute and add it to our

convention.

The entry in the column must be less than or equal to the of

your LEVEL attribute, previously specified in Project Setup/Conventions/Attributes.

If the number of characters assigned to a given attribute in the Naming Convention

table exceeds that specified in the Attribute Convention grid, the attribute will not be

recognized by Mine2-4D as specified.

The columns tell Mine2-4D to place the attribute, or portion thereof in the

new Naming Convention. These cells in the current row should be filled in automatically, to

match the entries.

The DELIMETER selection will add a user-defined separator to the Naming Convention. Add

a new row in the Naming Conventions table, and add a delimeter. The

entries for the DELIMITER row should be filled in with the default ‘1’. Similarly, the

entries will be filled in to reflect the entries.

Continue building the tutorial Naming Convention using the OREBODY and ZONE attributes,

keeping them separated by a delimiter. We could have also added the Mine2-4D Project

number and Mine2-4D SubProject number to Convention if they had been selected from the

drop down box. Our new Convention will be applied to all activities as they are created from the

project designs.


PROJECT SETUP – GEOLOGY MENU

When is selected from the Vertical Menu, Mine2-4D provides the following

options:

Figure 40 – Project Setup – Geology Vertical Menu

The Geology Menu allows the user input regarding Interrogation (extracting grade and

tonnage information from a block model) , Depletion (removing the interrogated values from the

block model from the subsequent interrogations to prevent overlap) and Density of the

geological block model data. The user can specify different Interrogation methods for multiple

block models, Depletion order for different depletion attributes and different model Densities.


PROJECT SETUP – GEOLOGY MENU - INTERROGATION

Click the icon in the section of the Project Setup Vertical Menu. The

following dialog will be displayed if is not toggled on in the Project Setup\General\Project dialog.

Clicking will activate this toggle. Once toggled on, the Interrogation dialog will

appear as follows:

Figure 41 – Project Setup – Geology – Interrogation Dialogue


The Interrogate Geological Model dialog dictates how Mine2-4D interrogates single or multiple

block models. Three basic ways of interrogating the block model(s) are listed in the

Interrogation Attribute drop-down menu, as well as additional ones created by adding

Attributes to the Attributes conventions grid. The three base interrogation methods are

explained below:

Sequential

This process only allows for the use of one block model and will interrogate segments

sequentially by their segment number.

Design Type

With this method of interrogation, the user can add multiple block models. Then in the

column, the user can specify which design type (fixed cross sectional,

outline or complex solid) will be evaluated against which block model.

Description

Multiple block models can be added and set to interrogate different segments by their

descriptions, which are set in the Design Definitions section of the project.

Attributes

Using design attributes to guide interrogation is not one of the standard options available to the

user. However, in our case because we have two block models, it is ideal. The attributes that

have been previously defined have also been made available to use. Pick the OREBODY

attribute under the pull-down menu, and fill

in the table as follows.


Figure 42 - Model Interrogation Grid


The way the above grid is set up, Mine2-4D will interrogate any activity and its associated solid

against the northmod.dm block model if it has an OREBODY attribute equal to 1. Similarly, for any

activity and its solid with an OREBODY attribute of 2, Mine2-4D will interrogate against the

southmod.dm block model. This is where the application of Attributes from the Attributes grid plays

an important role. Later, we will actually apply the OREBODY attribute to the activities using the

Attributes grid set-up, which will allow us to interrogate against the two project block models properly.

The figure below illustrates the OREBODY values, which will be generated later in the project.

Figure 43 – ZONE Attribute Values


The figure below illustrates complex solids encompassed by orebodies’ wireframes.

Figure 44 – Stopes Encompassed by Orebody with Attribute

Now that the project block models have been specified we can return to the Properties grid

located under Project Setup\Conventions, and add the grades from the two project block

models as user defined properties to be tracked in this project.

Finally, before leaving the Interrogation dialog, activate the toggle. If this

toggle remains unchecked, the void volume will not be considered as waste with no grade but

will have the average interrogated grade of the solid applied to it. It is recommended that the

Dilution Calculations always occur unless the user has a very unique Block Model.


PROJECT SETUP – GEOLOGY MENU - DEPLETION

Selecting the icon in the vertical menu will open the Depletion dialog as

follows:

Figure 45 – Project Setup – Geology – Depletion Dialog

The purpose of this dialog is to allow the user to specify whether they want to deplete their

design against the block model, and if so, which method to deplete by.

Consider the following example: a stope undercut is to be driven completely in ore. The pilot

drift (of Fixed Cross-Sectional design type) is to be driven first, followed by slashing to full

stope undercut width (of Outline design type) and finally by mining of the stope (of Complex Solids design type). In order to avoid interrogating the same area of the block model more than

once and distorting the total tonnages and grades, we use depletion to remove areas from

future consideration once they have been interrogated.


The pull-down menu allows the user to

select an attribute to deplete the block model interrogation by. The pull-down menu selections

are as follows: . No Depletion (default), Design Type and

Description are the standard selections available, while LEVEL, OREBODY and ZONE are

user-defined attributes created for purposes of this tutorial.

is a number assigned to its associated Attribute Value to tell Mine2-4D the

order in which it should be depleted against the block model.

refers to the values of the selected Depletion Attribute, whose

depletion order must be specified by the user.

To remain consistent with the example we just considered, we will deplete according to Design

Type in this tutorial. Start by selecting Design Type from the Depletion Attribute pull-down

menu. Right-Click in the Depletion grid and add a record. Mine2-4D automatically assigns a

number 1 in the field. Click once in the new record under the

field to access the Attribute Value pull-down menu. The choices

available in the Attribute Value pull-down menu correspond to the Depletion Attribute

previously selected. Select Fixed Cross-Sectionals to be depleted first. Finish filling out the

Depletion grid by creating two new records, and specifying the corresponding Attribute Values

as Outline and Complex Solids respectively. The completed grid should look as follows:

Figure 46 – Depletion Grid – Completed


PROJECT SETUP – GEOLOGY MENU - DENSITY

Selecting the icon from the Project Setup vertical menu brings up the following dialog,

which allows the user to add different densities to the project. Entries can be added or deleted

in the usual manner by right-clicking in the Density grid (grey area) and selecting the

appropriate option. Every project will have a default density that cannot be deleted, however,

the value of this default density can be modified. Please change the default value of 1 to 2.5.

Figure 47 – Project Setup – Geology – Density Dialog

Units for the block model density can be specified as metric or imperial as follows:

The importance of adding different densities to the project is realized during interrogation of the

design against a block model(s). When interrogating against a block model Mine2-4D will use


the block model’s densities to calculate tonnages, however, if a piece of development lies

outside the block model it would get a density of 0. Therefore we set a Default project density

that will be used in such instances. Furthermore, we can add more densities that can be set

aside for different kinds of design.

Click to exit the Project Setup dialog. You are now ready to explore the

vertical menu.


PLANNING MENU

Selecting the horizontal icon provides access to all of the Mine2-4D processes

covered in this tutorial, excluding Project Setup of course, which has already been completed.

The Planning processes (shown below), with the exception of the Design processes, will be

used to generate a schedule for our mine design.

Figure 48 - Planning Menu

The Design menu need not be used since all of the design files required for this tutorial have

been provided. The creation and editing of design files is covered in the prerequisite document

entitled Mine2-4D Design Tutorial.

The Design Definition process allows the user to establish rules for the eventual transformation

of Fixed Cross-Sectional, Outline and Complex Solid design strings into 3D solid,

sequenceable activities.


The Sequencing Menu will be used to Generate Walls and Activity Points and Derived Activities from the Design Definitions and Base Activities. The Walls will provide the basis

for the creation of solids, while the Activity Points provide a means of dividing like design

activities into segments. With the creation of activity points, the individual segments suddenly

acquire the ability to carry Attributes, as well as dependencies for scheduling purposes. We

will sequence our mine design here through the initial development of Automatic Dependency Rules and Definitions, and the subsequent refinement of the sequence through the Manual Process of Dependency Checking. With the design sequencing complete, we will Export a

Dummy Sequence to the Scheduler, and perform the iterated process of refining our mine

schedule.

The Scheduling menu allows the user to Create and Edit Solids from the Sequenced Walls and Points and Design Definitions, and then Evaluate the solids against the geological block

model(s). Once the actual grades and tonnages are produced from the geological Evaluation,

we can now Setup Scheduling Constraints and Export the Geological Sequence to the

Scheduler.


PLANNING - DESIGN MENU

Design

Once the Visual Table Recovery progress bar has completed, the user is brought back to the

default screen layout. Since the tutorial files have been provided, the design tab (shown below)

will not be used at this time. Proceed now to the Design Definitions section of the tutorial.

Figure 49 – Planning Vertical Menu - Design Tab


PLANNING - DESIGN DEFINITION

When the icon is selected, the user is prompted with the following dialog:

Figure 50 – Design Definition – Clear Design Window Dialog

If the user wishes to be able to view the design strings during editing, they can activate the

toggle.

Please note that if the above toggle is not activated, then the user will not have

access to zooming and filtering capabilities during editing of the Design Definitions.

Clearing the Design Window before continuing is a precaution against producing duplicate

strings, which would invalidate your designs. By clicking , the user is prompted

with the following dialogs for Fixed Cross Sectionals (FXS), Outlines and Complex Solids (CXS). Their purpose is to inform the user that, since this is the first time running design

definitions, there is no definition database established for the current project.

Figure 51 – Automatic Design Definition Creation - FXS


Since the user will be required to input the design definitions manually for the purposes of this

tutorial, they should select in response to the above dialog. Similarly, select

for the remaining two dialogs that follow, in order to allow the Outline and Complex

Solid design definitions to also be created manually.

Figure 52 - Automatic Design Definitions Creation – Outlines

Figure 53 - Automatic Design Definitions Creation – CXS

The Design Definitions dialog is organized into three tabs, one for each Mine2-4D design type,

namely Fixed Cross Sectionals, Outlines and Complex Solids. Each tab is, in turn, divided into

3 main areas; the Design Definitions Grid, Attribute Editing Tools and the X-Section Tool.

The Design Definitions Grid, which makes up the main portion of the dialog, is broken up into

many fields, which allow the user to specify the attributes, properties, and basic scheduling

parameters, which make up the design definitions, for each of the design types present.

Because we chose not to use a field from the design string file as the DESCRIPTION to

automatically produce the design definitions, Mine2-4D lists each unique combination of visual

attributes in the left half of the Design Definitions grid (portion grey in colour) and leaves the

rest of the grid (portion white in colour) as defaults to be specified by the user. The following

figures show the defaults for the Design Definitions for all 3 design types:


Figure 54 – FXS Design Definitions – Default Settings

Figure 55 – Outlines Design Definitions – Default Settings

Figure 56 – Complex Solids Design Definitions – Default Settings


The Attribute Editing Tools, which include the Filters, Attributes and Sort Definitions By

tools, are located below the Design Definitions Grid within the Design Definitions dialog box.

• The Filters and Attributes tools (bottom left-hand corner) are only active if the user has

toggled on. Filters provides the user

with filtering capabilities, which can be applied to the data shown in the Design Window, to aid in design definition editing. The Attributes tools include zoom

functions, and allow the user to edit the linking attributes and apply these editing

changes to the designs.

• The Sort Definitions By tool (located in the bottom right-hand corner) allows the user

to sort the design definition data according to any attribute, property or scheduling field

in the Design Definitions Grid.

Activate the X-Section Tool by clicking the button. The X-Section Tool, which is

active only within the Fixed Cross Sectionals tab, allows the user to create excavation outlines

from a choice of six cross-sectional shape tabs. Desired shapes other than the Standard

Rectangular, Standard Circular and Shanty Back accessible in the Design Definitions Grid,

are created with this tool. We will now create a user-defined x-sectional shape for a 5x5arch

type FXS. The following figure shows the default view of the X-Section Tool dialog:


Figure 57 – X-Section Tool Dialog – Default View

Under the Section Creation tabs, select Arch. We wish to create a 5m by 5m cross-section

with an arched back. Enter , and .

The cross-sectional area is automatically calculated and displayed. Click to view the

specified shape, which should resemble the following (outlined in yellow):


Figure 58 – Cross-Section Shape - 5x5Arch

Click to specify a save name for our newly created FXS shape, enter the name as

follows: then click .

Mine2-4D now requires that the user specify two points on the cross-sectional shape from which to create

the outline. The following is the dialog that prompts the user to do so:

Click and specify the two points as seen in the next figure:


Figure 59 – Cross-Section Shape – Select Points

Clicking on the desired points will turn them red. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will

specify the 2 bottom corners of the excavation cross-section.

The reason that these points must be specified is that, in order to make solids

from our string designs we must first make walls and activity points. The two red

points in the preceding figure represent where the walls will be generated in 3D.

After the second point has been specified, the user will be prompted with the following dialog:

The purpose of this dialog is to allow the

user to respecify the points if desired, before saving the section outline. Clicking

will clear the previously selected points. Click now to save your 5x5Arch section,


which should then be visible in the pull-

down menu. Finally, click to return to the Design Definitions dialog.

If we click any field within the , we see that there is now an option available

called 5x5Arch.

Right-clicking a highlighted column gives the user more options including row addition and

deletion, as well as bulk field changes. For example, to specify a segment distance of 7m for all

FXS types in the grid, click on the field header, which highlights the entire field

column. Right-clicking on the same field header now will present you with 5 options, the last of

which is . Select the bulk field change option and enter a segment

distance of 5 in the following dialogue: .

Referring back to the Design Definitions grid reveals that the segment distances for all the FXS

types have indeed been set to 5m. Having become familiar with the tools and options available

in this dialogue, the user is now ready to begin specifying design definitions.


Fixed Cross Sectionals

Using the figure below in conjunction with the field descriptions that follow, fill in the Design

Definitions grid in your tab, to match the design definitions below.

Figure 60 - Design Definitions Dialog – Fixed Cross-Sectionals Tab

The following are descriptions for the fields found in the Fixed Cross-Sectionals Design

Definitions Grid:

Linking Attributes:

Visual attributes , and are read from the specified

design file, but can be edited at any time by selecting the desired attribute from the pull-down

menu within each visual attribute field.

indicates the number of different string types defined by their unique combination of visual

attributes, and is automatically assigned by Mine2-4D.

Properties:

is a user-defined name applied to describe each design string type, and is

generally chosen to describe the type and location of development (i.e. Footwall Drive South).

classes excavations into the following categories accessible through the

pull-down menu. The division is made between Normal excavations (i.e. standard benching,


drifting, ramping and raising rounds) and slashing (also known as slyping). Slashing is further

subdivided into TDB Bottom (slashing down) and TDB Top (slashing up). All of the our

designs are of the Normal type, which is also the default.

allows the user to define the X-Section orientation as either .

Perpendicular to Dip (default) orients the X-Sectional Shape perpendicular to the direction of

the design string that defines the excavation, whereas Vertical orients the X-Section shape

vertically regardless of the dip. All of our orientations should remain as default.

can be specified as any of the following standards . Standard Rectangular and Standard Circular X-Sections are defined by user-specified

dimensions, while Shanty Back refers to an excavation X-Section with a back or floor defined

by a file resulting in 2 walls of differing height. As previously covered, the user also has the

option of defining their own X-Sectional Shape (i.e. ramp with an arched back) using the X-

Section Tool . Fill in the X-Sectional Shape field as shown in the previous figure.

and refer to the width and height of the Fixed Cross-Sectional. Both require

user-definition for all X-Sectional Shapes except Standard Circular, for which the diameter is

defined through the Width. Fill in the Width and Height fields as shown in the previous figure.

allows the user to specify a separate density for each design type Description. The

densities available to the user in the Design Definitions dialog are limited to those already

established under Project Setup\Geology\Density, which can be selected from the pull-down

menu. Since we have specified a default density of 2.5 in Project Setup, leave all densities as

.

Scheduling:

can either be specified with respect to the schedule as either , which

mean As Soon As Possible and As Late As Possible respectively. Generally, we try to

schedule development activities ALAP and stoping activities ASAP. For our purposes, leave all

of the Scheduling Constraints as the default ASAP.

refers to the user-defined rate at which the design type will be mined or developed, and

should be assigned as shown in the preceding figure.


allows the user to specify how the design strings should be broken up into mining

segments. Segment Distance can represent round length for Fixed Cross-Sectionals, or

stoping height for Complex Solids (i.e. cut height in Cut and Fill, or lift height in Vertical Crater

Retreat). The range of possible user-defined inputs is as follows:

• 0 tells Mine2-4D to create an activity point on each point on the design string, which by

definition will represent the centroid of each of the resulting segments.

• a positive number indicates the length of each segment. For example, inputting 4 tells

Mine2-4D to break the design strings into segments, each having a length of 4 units.

• a negative number indicates the number of evenly sized segments that each design

string is to be broken up into. For example, inputting -4 in this case tells Mine2-4D to

break the associated design strings into 4 evenly sized segments.

One might assign a Segment Distance of -1 to development which has already been completed

in order to speed up the processes of creating walls and points, solid modelling and evaluating,

while keeping the option of viewing those development activities in the design window and in the

schedule. Fill in the Segment Distance field as shown in the previous figure

is a toggle which allows the user to de-activate any row in the Design Definitions grid

and prevents those Design Definitions from being connected to the design strings. This feature

can be useful in excluding actuals (reconciled production or development) from the current

scheduling project.


Outlines

Similarly, use the figure below in conjunction with the field descriptions that follow to fill in the

Design Definitions Grid in your tab, to match the design definitions below.

Remember that an Outline is a design type whereby a closed string is

projected a user-specified distance vertically in order to create a 3 dimensional solid.

Figure 61 - Design Definitions Dialog – Outlines Tab

The following are descriptions for the fields found in the Outlines Design Definitions Grid:

Please note that the , , , ,

, , , , and fields in

the Outline Design Definitions have the same meanings as those in the Fixed Cross–Sectionals Design Definitions. Please refer back to the Fixed Cross-

Sectionals Design Definitions section of the tutorial for a reminder of their explanation

and fill in these fields as indicated in the preceding figure.

Properties

is specified by the user if the 3D outline solid is to created through simple projection.

Simple projection means that the outline string is projected vertically, to a new location whose


distance is indicated under Height and location under Position. Please ensure that the Height of our outlines in 5m.

refers to the location of the projected outline after simple projection. The Position

options available to the user through the pull-down menu are . Top projects the

outline upward, Bottom projects the outline downward and Centre projects the outline half up

and half down from the original outline, governed of course by the user-defined Height. Please

ensure that the Position of the outlines in Bottom.

allows the user to define a Minimum Mining Width to address narrower areas of the

Outlines that must be mined regardless of their ore content. Specify MMW as 4m.

gives the user control over outline centreline generation with the following options

. Other than some specialized cases, you will generally use the default Normal Centreline Placement.

toggle activates features associated with advanced projection (geological contacts

and controlling wireframe), minimum and maximum mining height, and planned dilution (which

are normally deactivated). Because advanced projection is activated, this toggle also

deactivates Height and Position because they are related to simple projection. Since we are

using simple projection in this tutorial, ensure that this toggle remains deactivated.


Complex Solids

Once again, use the figure below in conjunction with the field descriptions that follow to fill in the

Design Definitions Grid in your tab, to match the design definitions below.

Figure 62 - Design Definitions Dialog – Complex Solids Tab

The following are descriptions for the fields found in the Complex Solids Design Definitions

Grid:

Please note that the , , , ,

, , , and fields in the

Complex Solids Design Definitions have the same meanings as those in the Fixed Cross–Sectionals Design Definitions. Please refer back to the Fixed Cross-

Sectionals Design Definitions section of the tutorial for a reminder of their explanation

and fill in these fields as indicated in the preceding figure.


refers to the type of mining method and helps to further identify the corresponding

complex solids. The Type can be selected from the pull-down menu selections as follows, or

inputted by the user by double-clicking in the Type field.

tells Mine2-4D how to segment the stope into activities with respect to the number of

CXS strings. Do a bulk field change making all Strings/Segment entries 0, and then enter a 2

for stope 8. 0 indicates that the stope should be made into a single activity regardless of the

number of complex solid strings. Stope 8 has been assigned a Strings/Segment value of 2 so

that we may demonstrate (during Generation of Walls and Points) how a stope can be broken

up mining blocks.

When the Design Definitions have been successfully created, the user can exit in the following

ways:

• If the user wishes to exit without saving any changes since the last time was

clicked, they could do so by clicking .

• If the user wanted to apply any changes made to the design definitions database and

design strings without connecting the definitions to the design strings, they could do so

by clicking .

• Since we would like to save all changes to both the design definitions database and the

design strings and then connect the design definitions to the design strings, click

now. Before connecting the Design Definitions to the design string files,

Mine2-4D examines the files to look for and and generates the

following dialog:


Figure 63 - Select Design Types to Connect Definitions

The purpose of the Connect to Design dialog is to allow the user to select which design type

to reconnect the Design Definitions to. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. When you connect the

Design Definitions to the designs, any Walls and Points, Wireframes or Evaluations that

already exist for those design types are erased. This is because the existing ones will not

reflect the changes that have just been made to the Design Definitions.

If there have only been changes to the Outlines design type for example, then there is no need

to connect to Fixed Cross-Sectionals or Complex Solids. This dialog allows you

include/exclude any of the design types from the connection process by toggling them on/off

under the field. Since none of the aforementioned processes have been run on these

designs yet, leave all three design types toggled on.


PLANNING - SEQUENCING MENU

To access the Sequencing tabs, select the icon is from the vertical

menu.

Figure 64 – Planning - Sequencing - Preperation Tab

As you can see, the Sequencing and tabs have flow chart type

layouts, which make them very intuitive and user-friendly. In the sequencing section, the user

will create activities from the design files and user-defined Design Definitions.

It is important to mention that when this stage is completed the user has not

generated any meaningful numbers from Geological Interrogations; however,

Mine2-4D will have established Dummy values for each activity so that the designs


can still be sequenced. Interrogation against the Block Models will occur in the

Scheduling section.


PLANNING - SEQUENCING MENU - PREPARATION TAB

Upon completion of the Preparation Tab, the data will be ready for dependency creation and

sequencing. The first option available to the user is applying design attributes.

Apply Visual and Non-Visual Design Attributes

At the very top of the Sequencing – Preparation Tab the user has the ability to add any

attributes to the project design files. Looking back to the Attributes Convention grid in Project

Setup, we had the option to add either of the two kinds of attributes to our design using the

Visual Manual Application – Design or the Non-Visual Manual Application – Design methods. If

we had specified a new attribute to add to the design files we would add them here by clicking

the buttons shown below, depending if we were adding visual or non visual attribute(s).

Figure 65 - Apply Visual and Non-Visual Design Attributes Options

Our current project is set up so that we are not actually adding a new attribute. Return to

Project Setup and go to the Attributes Conventions grid. We have actually specified an

Attribute called LEVEL to be added via the Non-Visual Application Method, however the design

files already have this attribute. Our rule is there only to carry this attribute across to the

activities, therefore we do not need to run these processes, if however LEVEL did not exist in

our designs we would need to click the Non Visual button.

Generate Walls and Points

Generating Walls and Points is a very important step towards the creation of our schedule.

During Design Definitions we specified many rules and dimensions for our mine layout and

connected them to the actual designs strings. In Generate Walls and Points, we will actually

take the designs and create 3D activity points from them using the rules established in Design

Definitions. Solids are required for interrogating against a block model, and the points will be

used to create scheduling links between the various solid objects. In other words, the walls will

be used to generate data blocks while the points provide a means of linking these blocks for

scheduling purposes.


Figure 66 - Generate Walls and Points Options

Obviously, walls and points need only be generated for the design types included in a particular

project. Each of the three design types has been included in this tutorial so that the user can

work through the sequencing process for each.


Fixed Cross-Sectionals

To begin the process of Generating Walls and Points from our Fixed Cross-Sectionals

design, click , which will generate the following:

Figure 67 – Fixed Cross-Sectional Preparation Dialog

The Fixed Cross Sectional Preparation dialog is the process for creating walls and activity

points for the fixed cross sectional design type. The process uses the specified design

definitions, which were applied to the design strings. During this process, parent strings will be

broken into segments based upon the length specified in the Design Definitions, and wall

prints and activity points will be created for each segment.

The toggle can be used to create

a second set of wall prints with a single segment for each parent string. The new

second set of walls will be placed in a visual table by the name

out{subprojectnumber} (eg. out0). These walls can serve as a base for drafting

purposes or for quick checking of outline positions.


Since an additional set of walls is generated when this toggle is activated, it should be

understood also that the time required to complete this process will also be doubled. We do not

require this second set of outlines, so leave this toggle deactivated and click .

During the automated process that follows, Mine2-4D takes the fixed cross-sectional design

strings (activities) and divides each Description type into segments according to the Segment Distance specified in the Design Definitions. An activity point is created at the centre of each

segment, which is used to store all the information applied to that segment, including its Length,

Volume, Tonnage and Grade.

The exceptions to this rule are the START and END segments of each string.

The Activity Points for these types of segments are created not at the centre but

closer to the outside edge of the segment. This is done in order to allow a smaller

Search Radius to be used between Autodependencies. This concept will be

explained in greater detail when we get to the Automatic Sequencing portion of the

Sequence tab.

The segments are then outlined according to their Design Definitions , in an

order defined by their M4DSID (string identification numbers). Once the wall outlining is

complete, the newly created Fixed Cross-Sectional Walls and Points are saved to the visual

tables database as walld0.dm and pointd0.dm respectively, and should appear in your Design

Window as follows:


Figure 68 – Fixed Cross Sectional Walls and Points

As indicated above, the activity points are coloured according to where they are located on a

particular string, which is in turn governed by string direction. It is considered good practice to

check your Fixed Cross-Sectional string directions at this point. If some activity points are

found to be pointing in the wrong direction, take the following measures:

• Proceed to the Edit Design Directions dialog (accessed through

Planning\Design\Design tab) and correct the misdirected string(s)


• Reconnect the Fixed Cross-Sectional Design Definitions (because you have made a

change to the design)

• Regenerate Fixed Cross-Sectionals Walls and Points

Proceed now to Generating Walls and Points for Outlines.


Outlines

To begin the process of Generating Walls and Points from our Outline design, click

, in order to access the following Outline Point Generation dialog:

Figure 69 – Outline Point Generation Dialog

Since no other centrelines have been created yet for this project, ensure that the

toggle is activated.

If the user has previously created outlines that will not be changed, they can be

loaded by activating the toggle. This is

particularly useful if the existing centrelines were created automatically, edited and

saved.

The first step in the automated process of Generating Outline Walls and Points is Preparation

of the outlines design file (outlines.dm). During the Preparation stage Mine2-4D extracts the

outline file from the database, ensures that all the outline strings are closed, checks them for

crossovers, sorts the strings according to the specified in Design Definitions

and creates outline centrelines. Similar to the Fixed Cross-Sectionals, the outlines are

prepared and the centrelines created in an order defined by their M4DSID (string identification

numbers). Click to begin this process. The automatically generated outline

centrelines should appear in the design window as follows:


Figure 70 – Automatically Generated Outline Points and Centrelines

As seen above, the outlines are coloured as specified in Design Definitions (with ore being red

and waste shown in blue). The outline centrelines will always have the same visual attributes,

namely COLOUR 47, SYMBOL 221 and LSTYLE 1002. Note also that because of the irregular

shape of the ore outlines, the resulting centrelines are skewed, and would be impractical if

driven as pilot drifts. For this reason, the Edit Outline Centrelines dialog (shown below) was

created to allow the user to modify the automatically created centrelines to their liking.


Figure 71 – Edit Outline Centrelines Dialog

The Edit Outline Centrelines dialog is equipped with the standard Mine2-4D zoom and filtering

tools, as well as tools for editing the outline centrelines or reversing their string direction. We

will look at some of these tools in greater detail as we proceed to edit the ore outline

centrelines.

Ensure that the toggle is activated, filter for associated with ore

outline #1 and highlight the centreline string by clicking on it in the design window. It should

appear as follows:


Figure 72 – Ore Outline #1 - Automatically Generated Centreline

First we want to move the start point of the centreline to intersect the outline (somewhere in the

area shown by the yellow arrow in the above figure). Selecting the icon from the

Commands section of the Edit Outline Centrelines dialog will put Mine2-4D in move points mode. First click on the point to be moved, then click on the desired destination point. To stop

move points mode, either click in the top left-hand corner of the design window, or

press the Esc key on your keyboard. The resulting design window view should look similar to

the following:


Figure 73 – Ore Outline #1 - Move Centreline Start Point

Now all we have to do is smooth the centreline by deleting points starting inside the new string

start point. Selecting the icon from the Commands section of the Edit Outline Centrelines dialog will put Mine2-4D in delete points mode. Ensuring that the centreline

string is still highlighted, continue deleting points until the desired centreline has been created.

Stop delete points mode and click the redraw display icon (located along the right-hand

side of the design window) to eliminate the old centreline directional arrows. The refreshed

design window view should resemble the following:


Figure 74 – Ore Outline #1 – Editing Complete

Similarly, filter for associated with ore outline #2, highlight the centreline string

and smooth it using delete points mode. The refreshed design window view should resemble

the following:

Figure 75 – Ore Outline #2 – Editing Complete


Figure 76 – User-Edited Outline Points and Centrelines

The direction of an outline centreline is determined randomly, and is made visible by the arrows

that appear along its length (pointing from START to FINISH). To edit the direction of a

centreline string highlight the string in the design window by clicking on it, then click

.

Other string and point editing commands that we have not used but are available in this dialog

include: add user centreline , erase selected string and insert points on string

. (Coincidentally, our outlines already have the correct direction and do not need editing,

so if you did reverse a string remember to correct it again.)

Once the user is satisfied with the outline centrelines, click and save changes.

Mine2-4D will now prompt the user to project centrelines to the outline plane. This is not


necessary if the outline and corresponding centreline already sit in approximately the same

plane.

The next process in Generating Outline Walls and Points is the creation of outline offsets,

which will result in the following design window view:

Figure 77 – Automatically Generated Outline Offsets

During this process, Mine2-4D segments the outlines according to the specified in the

Outlines tab of the Design Definitions (remember that we specified a segment distance of 5m).

The segmenting is done by creating offsets perpendicular to the outline centreline (another

reason for ensuring that the centrelines are suitable before proceeding). Because this is also an

automated process, the Edit Outline Offsets dialog (shown below) was created to provide the

user with an opportunity to edit the offsets.


Figure 78 – Edit Outline Offsets Dialog

Besides the standard Mine2-4D zoom and filtering tools, the Edit Outline Offsets dialog is also

equipped with offset editing tools including: move point , erase selected string ,

create new offset string and rotate string . Since the automatically generated

outline offsets are suitable for our purposes, click and save changes.

Next, Mine2-4D divides each Outline into Sub-Outlines along the newly created Outline Offsets. The results of this process can be seen in the following figure, with some of the

individual Sub-Outlines highlighted.


Figure 79 – Automatically Generated Sub-Outlines

The Sub-Outline Checks dialog (shown below) allows the user to ensure that the Sub-

Outlines are valid, and to edit them to their liking. The and were also

determined during this process, and displayed in the grid. The user can sort all records by

column simply by clicking on the desired field header. Clicking the same header again will

sort that column in the opposite direction.


Figure 80 – Sub-Outline Checks Dialog

Besides the standard Mine2-4D zoom and filtering tools, the Sub-Outline Checks dialog is also

equipped with several String Validation and String Editing tools.

The String Validation tools are used to ensure that the Sub-Outline strings are valid outlines.

Because it takes a minimum of 3 points to define an outline, the and tools

have been made available. The tool is used to remove string crossovers, which would also

serve to invalidate an outline.

The following String Editing Tools are also available to the user: move points , delete

points , insert points , condition string , smooth string , reduce number

of points in string and undo last string edit . Editing a Sub-Outline will change its


corresponding area, and the user should subsequently in order to correct for this.

Since the automatically generated Sub-Outlines are suitable for our purposes, click

and save changes.

During the final stage of Generating Outline Walls & Points, Activity Points are created at

the centroid of each Sub-Outline segment, as seen below. These activity points still have no

sequence applied to them yet.

Figure 81 – Generate Outline Walls & Points – Still Unsequenced

Finally, Mine2-4D assigns START, MID and END points to each outline activity, based on the

centreline string direction specified earlier. As discussed previously the green, yellow and red

nodes represent the activity START, MID, and END points respectively, while blue signifies

ANY other activity points in between. The importance of these points will become more evident

once we begin creating Automatic Dependencies between the different mining activities as the

framework for our schedule.


The newly created Outline Walls and Points are saved to the visual tables database as

wallf0.dm and pointf0.dm respectively, and the final results of this process can be seen in the

following figure:

Figure 82 – Generate Outline Walls & Points - Complete


Complex Solids

Begin the process of Generating Walls and Points from our Complex Solid design by

clicking , in order to access the Complex Solid Preparation dialog as follows:

Figure 83 – Complex Solid Preparation Dialog

During Complex Solid Preparation, Mine2-4D examines the complex solids design file

(stopes.dm) and divides the design strings into two-string and multi-string complex solids.

The reason the CXS design strings are separated into these two types is that two-string

complex solids do not require centre linking for internal sequencing, because the stope is

completely defined between two outlines. After separation is complete, activity points will be

generated for the two-string complex solids. Let’s proceed now with Complex Solid Preparation.

If the user has previously-generated Complex Solid Walls and Points that

will not be changed, the user can save processing time by activating the

toggle.

Since no other complex solid centre links, point and wall strings have been created yet for this

project, ensure that the above toggle is NOT activated, and click .

Mine2-4D pauses the CXS preparation process to allow user input regarding the preparation of

the multi-string complex solids, via the Complex Solids Sequencing Dialog (shown below).


Figure 84 – Complex Solids Sequencing Dialog

To aid the user in the Complex Solid Sequencing, the multi-string complex solids are also

loaded into the design window for viewing. The following figure shows multi-string stopes 6, 7

and 8, which require centre linking:

Figure 85 – Multi-String CXS Preparation


To view the CXS strings as seen in the preceding figure, click the update

visualizer objects icon (located along the right-hand side of the design window)

to manipulate the view of the multi-string complex solids in the design window. To

then view the design strings in the design window as shown in the visualizer, click the

read visualizer view icon.

We are now ready to create the necessary centre links between the multi-string stopes. This

involves creating complex solid (stope) activity points and the links between them. Activity

Points are created at the centroid of each stope string, and Centre-Links are in turn created

between these activity points. This will enable Mine2-4D to schedule the stoping activities

later on.

Note that the only complex solids that show up under the grid of the

Complex Solids Sequencing dialog are those of the multi-string type.

Creating the internal sequencing (or mining sequence) can be performed by the following

methods:

• automatically generates the centrelinks for all stopes.

• creates centre links for the currently-selected stope using either method

explained below:

o will generate the internal sequence by specifying

the outline string at one end of the multi-string complex solid. This method can

only be performed on individual solids one at a time.

o tells Mine2-4D to attempt to generate the

internal sequencing automatically, without user input.

Generate the mining sequence now by clicking . As seen in the following figure, a

mining sequence has been applied to each stope, which is indicated by directional arrows.


Figure 86 – Multi-String CXS Internal Sequencing Completed

The internal stope centrelinks can be examined using Mine2-4D standard zooming and filtering

tools, and edited if desired. Once the user is satisfied with the Complex Solids Sequencing,

click and .

Mine2-4D now completes the CXS Wall and Point Generation process by

creating a dummy evaluation file, which will allow the user to make a trial schedule

without having to create solids and evaluate them against the geological block model

first.

The newly created CXS Solid Walls and Points are saved to the visual tables database as

walls0.dm and points0.dm respectively. Finally, walls_all_0 and points_all_0, which are a

combination of the Walls and Points for ALL of the design types used in the design project, are

also saved. The completed Complex Solid Walls and Points should look similar to the

following, when viewed in the visualizer:

Figure 87 - CXS Walls and Points Completed


Understand now how the stopes were broken up into mining blocks, depending upon the

specified in the CXS Design Definitions, and the number of strings defining each

CXS. In order to clarify this point, we have zoomed in on the multi-string stopes in the

following figure:

Figure 88 – Effect of Strings/Segment on Generating CXS Walls & Points

We see that the two top stopes (stopes 6 and 7) have a single Activity Point defining each one.

This is because we specified as 0 or all stopes except for stope 8. (Remember that a

0 tells Mine2-4D to make one stoping activity, regardless of the number of strings in the

complex solid). Note also that the bottom stope (stope 8) is defined by 2 activity points. The

points are green and red in colour indicating a 2 segmented stoping activity with specified

direction. (Remember now that we assigned a Strings/Segment of 2 for stope 8).


Apply Activity Attributes

We have Generated Walls and Activity Points for all of the design types, which so far have

attributes applied to them. The Automatic Attribute Application process takes the Attributes

previously defined in the Project Setup and applies them to the Activity Points.

Figure 89 - Apply Activity Attributes Automatically Option

Automatic

Clicking provides access to the Automatic Attribute Application dialog as follows:

Figure 90 – Automatic Attribute Application Dialog

This process Interrogates the file, and applies the to the Activity

Points according to the specified . If the Object data

is suitable for application for a particular Attribute, the corresponding toggle under the

field will be activated, as will the button.


Remember that the LEVEL attribute is not present in this dialog because it was

Manually applied to the tutorial design files, whereas this section deals with

Automatic Attribute Application.

Click now to proceed with the Automatic Attribute Application. The following figure

shows the Complex Solid design types annotated with the OREBODY Attribute.

Figure 91 – Complex Solids Annotated with OREBODY Attribute


Derived Activities

The Derived Activities function within Mine2-4D is used for creating new activities in the schedule

that have their properties derived from other Base Activities in the mine design. The process is

divided up into two sections; namely creating the Derived Activity Definitions and, Generating the Derived Activity Walls and Points. As with the other preparation functions in Mine2-4D, a Dummy

evaluation file will be generated along with Derived Activity Walls and Points, which will be required

later for sequencing.

During this process, we will be covering the following:

• Create a Filling Derived Activity Definition by:

o Creating a new Filling Property

o Specifying a Base Activity Filter Stopes_All

o Making a Filling Derived Property

o Specifying the Derived Point Translation parameters and their role in Derived Activity Point placement

• Generating Derived Activity Walls and Points by:

o Explaining the process of Derived Activity Preparation

o Derived Activity Creation Report and Data Reporting – what to look for

o Introduction to Dummy Evaluation data using a Stoping/Filling Activity example

Figure 92 - Create Derived Activity Definitions Option


Derived Activity Definitions

Click to access the Derived Activity Definitions Dialog as shown below:

Figure 93 – Derived Activity Definitions Dialog

This Mine2-4D process is used to create activities that are DERIVED from the project Base Activities (Base Activities refer to those created through the Generation of Walls and Points for

Fixed Cross Sectionals, Outlines and Complex Solids). Derived Activities are usually activities

that are not easily designed for. (i.e. backfilling or blasting). We will now create a Derived Activity for Filling.

The first step is to go back to Project Setup\Conventions\Properties, in order to create a new

Filling Property. Right-click in the Properties grid and .

the new Property Filling, assign it of FT (for Fill Tonnes), and Mined Volume, since that is the void which we will need to fill. Now that we have finished creating our

new Filling Property, click and return to the Derived Activity Definitions Dialog.

Next we need to establish a Derived Activity Definition for Filling. to the

grid and specify the as Filling (the same as our newly created Property).

Choose F as the for the new Derived Activity from the pull-down menu.


When a Derived Activity is created, Mine2-4D takes the SEGMENT number

of the Base Activity it is being created from, adds the Segment Prefix to it and

assigns it to the Derived Activity.

Now we must create a to tell Mine2-4D which Base Activities to apply the Filling

Derived Activity to.

If such a filter is not created here, our Derived Activity for Filling will be

applied to ALL Base Activities and not just those associated with Stoping.

Click on the button to access the Filters dialog (shown below), and select

to start specifying our new Base Activity Filter.

Figure 94 - Base Activity Filters Dialog


Indicate the Save Name as follows, and

click . Now Stopes_All should appear in the

pull-down menu, and you should be able to to the Filters grid.

refers to the Mine2-4D field that we wish to filter on. Choose

SEGMENT from the pull-down menu, remembering that the first letter of an activity SEGMENT

number, indicates the design type that the activity belongs to.

requires input as to the value of the Field parameter that you wish

to Filter for. Enter to indicate that we want to filter for all Stoping Activities. The

completed Stopes_All Filter should appear as follows:

Figure 95 - Stopes_All Base Activity Filter - Completed

In summary, the Stopes_All filter that we have created will filter all activities in the design, for

only those activities with a SEGMENT value starting with S (signifying a Stoping Activity). To

save the filter definition and return to the Derived Activity Definitions dialog, click .

Now that we have defined our filter in the Filters dialog, select it from the pull-down

menu in the Derived Activity Definitions dialog.

allows the user to indicate how they want the Derived Activity to be driven, of the

following choices: . Select Rate from the pull-down menu.

Right-click under the field and select from the available options.

The Rate Builder (shown below) provides a user-friendly way of ensuring that the proper


notation is used to build the rate for the Filling Derived Activity. The rate builder contains 2

pull-down menus for specifying the units and time period.

Figure 96 - Rate Builder

The choices available in the units pull-down menu are restricted to those previously defined in

the Project Setup\Conventions\Properties grid, while the time period pull-down menu

includes . Specify a fill rate of 2000 Fill Tonnes / week, and click to have the

value inserted in the main menu.

At this point Mine2-4D knows that a Filling Derived Activity has been defined, but does not yet

know what values to assign. allows the user to define a numerical relationship

between our Derived Filling Property and any of the Base Properties that already exist in the

Project Setup. Click the button under the Create Properties field header to access the

Property Selection dialog (shown below). , specify the

field as Filling and the as Stopes_All, both from the pull-down menus.


Figure 97 - Property Selection Dialog

Double-click in the record under the field header to begin making an entry.

Mine2-4D has tools available for creating valid formulae easily, which include the following:

Figure 98 - Derived Property Formula Creation and Editing Tools

allows the user to select a variable from a pick-list, and insert it into the

current formula. The variables in this pick-list include Mine2-4D’s built-in Properties,

user-defined Properties, user-defined Attributes as well as all of the fields required

to completely define points in Mine2-4D. provides a pick-list of standard

mathematical functions to choose from. Finally, clears the current formula, while

queries the current formula and checks to make sure that it is valid.


Now finish specifying the Derived Property Formula as follows:

Figure 99 - Create Derived Property Dialog – Completed

As a result, Mine2-4D will create a Filling Derived Property for each Stoping Base Activity,

with a volume equal to 1.92 times the Mined Volume of that Stoping Activity. Click

to exit the Derived Property Selection dialog and return to the Derived Activity Definitions dialog.

Now that we’ve established how Mine2-4D is going to calculate the values for Filling, we now

need to define where to place them in the mine layout. Since 2 points cannot occupy the same

point in space in Mine2-4D, we must TRANSLATE each Derived Activity Point with respect to

its corresponding Base Activity Point. In order to achieve this, we use the

parameters.

From Mine Surveying first principles, we know that in order to find the 3D coordinates of an

unknown point from a known point, we need to find the direction, dip angle and slope distance

from one point to the other. The same information is required to tell Mine2-4D where to locate

our new Derived Activity Point with respect to our existing Base Activity Point. Specify the

as 5, leave as the default 0 and as 90. As a result, a Filling Activity will be placed 5m above each Stoping Activity. (-90 would have located the Filling

Activity below the Stoping Activity.)

Similarly, Mine2-4D has parameters, which can be used to ROTATE the

Derived Activity Point with respect to its corresponding Base Activity Point. For the

purposes of this introductory tutorial, leave these parameters set to their default values.

The completed Filling Derived Activity Definition should appear as follows:

Figure 100 - Filling Derived Activity Definition – Completed


The purpose of the following figure is to help visualize the spatial relationship among the Base Activity and Derived Activity Walls and Points generated for a single stope.

Figure 101: Derived Activity Placement

Click to save our Derived Activity Definition and proceed with using it to

Generate Derived Activity Walls and Points.


Generate Derived Activity Walls and Points

Figure 102 - Generate Derived Activity Walls and Points Option

Begin by selecting the , which provides access to the Derived Activity Preparation Dialog as follows:

Figure 103 – Derived Activity Preparation Dialog

We will now start the process of Generating Derived Activity Walls and Points, using the

Derived Activity Definitions established during the preceding process. In order to view the

results in spreadsheet format afterwards, ensure that the toggle

is activated and Click .

First, Mine2-4D filters all of the design Base Activities for Stoping activities, and creates

Derived Activity Points and Walls according to the Derived Point Translation parameters in

Derived Activity Definitions. The following report is generated to inform the user how many

Derived Activities were successfully created for each Activity Description:


Figure 104 - Derived Activity Creation Report

Remembering that our mine design contains 10 stopes, but stope 8 was divided into two

separate stoping activities, we see that the correct number of Filling activities was generated.

Click to clear the report and complete the process.

The final step in the process is to create Derived Activity evaluations for Filling, which is best

discussed while viewing the Data Reporting grid (shown below).

Firstly, recall that since no solids have been created yet and there have been evaluations, all of

the data generated thus far with respect to tonnages and grades is only an estimate. Because

no actual interrogation of the block models has taken place yet, all values produced at this stage

are Dummy values. This is why the Dummy toggle is activated and the Geological toggle is

greyed out as follows: . Remember also that we use Dummy data

at this stage so that the user can experiment with different mine sequences and make design

changes without having to regenerate solids or repeat any lengthly geological interrogations.

Secondly, notice the naming convention for the records in the field.

• Fixed Cross-Sectional Base Activities have SEGMENT numbers starting with D_

• Outline Base Activities have SEGMENT numbers starting with F_

• Complex Solids Base Activities have SEGMENT numbers starting with S_

• Filling Derived Activities have SEGMENT numbers starting with SF_ because they are

derived from the Complex Solid Stoping activities, which in turn were assigned the

F in Derived Activity Definitions.


Figure 105 – Derived Activity Data Reporting

First understand that the Data Reporting grid shown above represents only a portion of the

fields that were required to explain how values are generated in preparation for the Dummy

Evaluation. The field has been locked so that it could be shown with other fields

on the opposite side of the grid. Notice the other fields shown include some of the default and

user-defined Properties from Project Setup.

Vertical and horizontal panes can be frozen within the Data Reporting gridby

clicking and dragging the field lock to the right or bottom of the panes that you wish

to freeze. The default positions of the field locks are below the column headers and to

the left of the leftmost field, and hovering over these positions in the grid will make the

field lock visible.

With reference to the above Data Reporting grid, let’s take a closer look at the Dummy Evaluation data being generated by Mine2-4D, by making an example of one of the Stoping

Base Activities and its corresponding Filling Derived Activity.


Figure 106 - Dummy Evaluation Data - Stoping/Filling Activity Example

Mine2-4D begins by assigning each stope a of 1000 m3 as a Dummy value, until

the actual volume can be determined by Evaluating the Solids against the Geological Block

Model.

The is now calculated as 2500 tonnes because we assigned a default density of

2.5 in the Project Setup.

The Derived Activity field for each Stoping Activity has been calculated as 1920 m3

because it is derived from the Dummy Mined Volume of 1000 m3. Remember that we

specified for the , in the Property Selection dialog.

Also note that the grades, for which the fields now contain 0 for the

Dummy Evaluation, will also be filled in with the actual grades after the Geological Evaluation

process has been completed.

Finally, note that this Data Reporting grid can be exported to Excel or HTML, for use in

standard spreadsheet format.

Click to exit the Data Reporting grid and complete the Derived Activity Preparation process. The Derived Activity Walls and Points are saved to the visual tables

database as wally0 and pointy0 respectively. The walls_all_0.dm and points_all_0.dm files,

which already contain the FXS, Outline and CXS Walls and Points, are also updated to

include the Derived Activity Walls and Points, all of which are subsequently displayed in the

design window for viewing (as shown below).


Figure 107 – Base Activity and Derived Activity Walls and Points


PLANNING - SEQUENCE MENU - SEQUENCE TAB

Figure 108 – Planning – Sequencing Menu – Sequence Tab

Sequencing

Now that we have created all of the design activities that require sequencing (even though

they contain dummy values), they can be sequenced by creating dependencies between them.

The Sequencing portion of the tab consists Automatic and Manual Sequencing Options. In this very critical Mine2-4D process, we will be covering the

following:

• Full explanation of the Basic Search Parameters through a simple Cubby/Ramp

linking example

• Introduction to Generating Automatic Dependency Rules


• An introduction to the iterative process of refining the sequence through the creation of

Automatic Dependency Definitions and Manual Dependency Checking.

• Completing the sequencing for our mine design using both the Automatic and Manual Sequencing Options

Figure 109 - Automatic and Manual Sequencing Options

Automatic

The ability to create Automatic Dependency Definitions was included in Mine2-4D to allow

the user to link as many of the recurring activities as possible through a series of rules; in

order to minimize the number of Manual links required to complete the sequencing process.

Click to access the Automatic Dependency Definitions Dialog as shown below:

Figure 110 – Automatic Dependancy Definitions Dialog

The portion of the Automatic Dependency Definitions grid visible in the preceding figure shows

the Basic Search Parameters that will be used in this tutorial. The dialog can be expanded to

reveal more Advanced Search Parameters, however these will not be used in this

introductory tutorial.

We will begin by taking you through a simple example of creating an Automatic Dependency Definition for linking Cubby activities to Ramp activities, by specifying the Basic Search Parameters as follows:


is a number automatically assigned to each automatic dependency rule in the order

that the rule is created.

The tells Mine2-4D where to start searching for dependency

Predecessors and Successors.

refers to that specified in the Design Definitions for each of the Search Origin, Predecessor and Successor activities, all of which are selectable from the pull-down

menu.

indicates where on the specified Description string to search FROM (for Search

Origin) or TO (for Predecessor and Successor), and is limited to the following choices:

. Note that there is no Position available for the Search Origin..

Dependencies between activities must be established from the event that must occur first (the

) to the event, which must occur afterwards (also known as

the ).

Note that at least one of the Predecessor or Successor fields must match

the Description of the Search Origin, or there will NOT be any automatic links

(dependencies) generated.

, in reference to Position, is often used in order to avoid ambiguity within the search

criteria. It is typically used when the existing search criteria could result in multiple successful

searches within the specified Search Radius. In this case, a Position Overrider allows a

smaller search radius to be used. The Position Overrider choices are the same as those

available for Predecessor and Successor Positions.

allow the user to introduce Delays of various Types into the linking process.

The dependencies that we are creating dictate an order of operation for the activities however;

if we want to provide time lags we do so using the field. selections include the

following: .


• FS = Finish to Start (Successor starts when Predecessor finishes)

• SF = Start to Finish (Successor finishes when Predecessor starts)

• SS = Start to Start (forces the Predecessor and Successor to start at the same time)

• FF = Finish to Finish (forces the Predecessor and Successor to finish at the same

time)

The final parameters requiring specification to complete a Basic Search are and

. Search Methods include the following: .

Standard (Spherical), as the name implies, searches for Predecessor and Successor activities in a complete sphere around the Search Origin. The user-defined Search Radius

dictates the radial limits of this search sphere. The remaining Methods limit the search to a

portion of this complete sphere, constraining the sphere with respect to elevation or azimuth,

and will not be used in this introductory tutorial.

For our Ramp/Cubby example, we wish to schedule the start of each Cubby when the

nearest Ramp activity reaches the Cubby START point. To begin creating this Automatic

Dependency Definition, right-click in the grid and . First, we need to tell

Mine2-4D to locate a Search Origin at the START point of every Cubby as follows:

. Since the dependency should originate from the nearest Activity Point

on the Ramp, we specify the Predecessor search parameters as follows:

. This means that we want the dependency to start at ANY

Ramp Activity Point, regardless of its location on the string, even if it is also the START, MID

or END Activity Point. Similarly, since the dependency should terminate at the Cubby START

Activity Point, specify the Successor search parameters as follows:

. As previously mentioned, we will leave the Properties as the


following defaults: . Finally, specify the Search Radius and Method as follows:

.

In summary, the completed Automatic Dependency Definition for our Ramp/Cubby

example should be set up as follows:

Figure 111 - Ramp/Cubby - Automatic Dependency Definition - Complete

Now that we understand how to create an Automatic Dependency Definition by specifying

the Basic Search Parameters for a given rule, we will now explore how to Generate a series

of Automatic Dependency Rules.

Click to access the Generate Automatic Dependency Rules Dialog shown

below:


Figure 112 - Generate Automatic Dependency Rules Dialog

This dialog is divided into a Rule Restrictions area and a Description Inclusion grid. Notice the

grid includes a field (containing all Descriptions previously

specified in Design Definitions) as well as a field, which allows the user to

toggle off any Descriptions that they do not wish to create rules for. For this example, leave all

Descriptions toggled on.

To toggle all records on/off at once within the Generate Automatic

Dependency Rules dialog, highlight all records (click on the first record, hold down

the shift key, scroll down and click the last record) right-click anywhere in the Use

field and select one of the as desired.

Generally, design strings of the same will consist of several

strings broken at strategic locations for scheduling purposes (i.e. ramp strings broken at

different level elevations). We will start by creating rules to link all activities of similar

Description together. Ensure that the toggle is activated, and

keep the as the default m. Click , referring to the


following figure to view the Automatic Dependency Definitions that have been generated

from the Rules that we just made.

Figure 113 - Auto Dependency Def’s Generated By ‘End to Start Same Desc’ Rules

Note that Mine2-4D has only generated Dependencies for the Rules that resulted in

successful searches.

Proceed creating Automatic Dependency Definitions to finish sequencing the rest of the

activities in our design.

Do not create any Definitions involving the Stoping Base Activities, except

to specify them as Predecessors for the Filling Derived Activities. We will create

Dependencies to the Stoping Activities in the Manual Sequencing portion of the

tab.

Work your way through the design and try to create the remaining Dependency Definitions

on your own, referring to the following figure if required.


Figure 114 - Automatic Dependency Definitions Completed

Now that we have finished specifying our first Automatic Dependency Definitions, we are

going to want to view the resulting dependencies in an Animated Sequence of our mine

design. Activate the toggle, click and then to exit

the Automatic Dependency Definitions dialog, create dependencies from the specified

Definitions and view the resulting link report (seen below).


Figure 115 - Automatic Dependency Creation Report

The Automatic Dependency Creation Report indicates the Automatic Dependency

Definitions and Rules, which resulted in successful searches, along with the number of

Dependencies generated by each. As a quick check, we see that Mine2-4D has successfully

created 5 dependencies from our Ramp/Cubby Dependency Definition, which coincides with

the number of Cubby activities in our design. Clicking will clear the report, load


walls_all_0.dm and points_all_0.dm into the Design Window for viewing and open the

Dependency Checking Dialog (shown below).

Figure 116 - Dependency Checking Dialog - Default View

As you can see, the Dependency Checking dialog is structured in two main parts. The top

half contains 4 tabs, namely the , ,

and tabs. The bottom half is comprised of

the , and tools. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will

be using the Animation and Auto-Dependencies tabs and the Dependencies tools, in order

to Animate the sequence that we have created thus far as well as add Manual Dependencies to include the Stoping Activities in our mining Sequence.


Clicking the icon will annotate all of the strings in the Design Window

according to the field specified for each in the Design Definitions.

Click (located along the right hand side of the Design Window) and click and drag a box over the desired area to zoom in. Notice how the annotation adjusts to

a more realistic size upon zooming. This annotation is useful as a reminder of the

Description of the designs that you wish to create dependencies between.

Select the tab (shown below) in order to access tools that allow the

user to control the Sequenced Animation of the design, using the Dependencies created

thus far.

Figure 117 - Dependency Checking Dialog - Animation Tab

The user can specify the starting point and the length of the Animation as follows.

To specify the Animation Starting Point with respect to the Total Animation Time, either

enter a number in the box, or slide the arrow horizontally within the

area. Since we wish to view the entire

animation, leave the Animation Starting Point as the default zero.


The Animation Time can be specified either by entering a value for the

or the . Specifying the

Animation Interval will automatically change the Total Animation Time and vice versa. If

not already specified as such, enter as the Animation Interval now.

Activating the toggle will display the Dependencies

during the Animation, whereas leaving it untoggled will display them at the end only. To

proceed with the Animated Sequence, click . You should notice a few things after

viewing the initial Animation.

Firstly, notice that the toggle remains inactive until after Mine2-4D

has calculated the Sequence for the first time. This toggle provides the user with the option

of choosing whether or not to recalculate the sequence, as a time saving option. Provided that

there have been no changes made to the Sequence via adding or deleting Dependencies,

the user may view the Animation several times in succession without Recalculation, which

can be a lengthly process for large projects.

Secondly, with regards to the Animation Sequence itself, you should notice the following two

problems:

• One of the Waste Outline Activities starts at the beginning of the Animation, leading

us to believe that the corresponding Automatic Dependency Definition did not

generate the intended Dependencies.

• As planned, the Stoping Activities were not Sequenced yet, and also came in at the

beginning of the Animation as a result..

We will address the missing Waste Outline Dependency first by using the

tab (shown below) to filter and zoom in on the associated activities.

Toggle on , pick the

Definition from the Auto-Dependencies grid and click to apply the filter and update

the results in the Design Window.


Figure 118 - Dependency Checking Dialog - Auto-Dependencies Tab

Remember that we tried to create a Definition to link the END of the FW Drive S Fixed Cross-

Sectional Activity to the START of the Waste Outline Activity. The following figure shows a

zoomed Design Window view where the 2 Dependencies should have been created. The

Automatic Dependency Creation Report indicated that only one of these Dependencies was

generated by the Definition.


The automatic dependencies (links) have been created from a point on the ramp; identifiable

by the magenta lines with arrows in the middle. Your completed table should resemble the

following to get the accompanied results.

Note the magenta links between activities.

Besides the standard Mine2-4D zoom and filtering tools, the Edit Outline Offsets dialog is

also equipped with offset editing tools including: move point , erase selected string

, create new offset string and rotate string . The area near the bottom of

the window named Commands has six shortcut commands, which are Save Dependencies,

New Dependencies, Erase String, Zoom In, Update Visualizer View, and Read Visualizer View

respectively. These commands are customizable by right-clicking on the icon, and selecting

one from the provided list. This allows the user to have easier access to commands that are

more frequently used.

Filters

When the user clicks the tab, the following window is displayed.


Figure 119 – Dependency Checking Dialog – Filters Tab

Existing filters can be recalled in the pull-down

menu.


Select which things to apply the filter to from the

pull-down menu.

Once the boxes have been filled in satisfactorily, click the button to display the data

in the Display window.


Auto Dependency

When the user clicks the tab, the following window is displayed.

Figure 120 – Dependency Checking Dialog - Auto Dependencies Tab

Note that the dependencies that were inputted in the Automatic Dependency Definitions grid are placed in the main spreadsheet of this dialog. Click on one of the dependencies, and

click . The Design window will filter and display the requested data.


Sequence

When the user clicks the tab, the following dialog is displayed.

Figure 121 – Dependency Checking Dialog – Sequence Tab

Mine2-4D interrogates, calculates and displays the sequence of links when is

clicked. Any problematic links will be displayed in the area. Scrolling

through the sequence (starting at 0 – which has no predecessor) can be done with the


Sequence Filter. Activating the toggle will update the Design window every

time there is a change in the first input box.

Manual Sequencing

When is clicked, Mine2-4D displays the same Dependency Checking dialog

that was displayed during the Automatic Sequencing process.

Figure 122 – Dependency Checking Dialog


Using this menu the user can link activities by manually drawing a string connecting two points

to represent the link between predecessor and successor. The icon activates the new

string command in the design window and automatically uses the correct string attributes i.e.

colour and symbol for a dependency link. The user then draws a string from the point of the

predecessor to the point of the successor. Once all manual links have been drawn and

checked they are saved along with the automatic links previously created.


Schedule Iteration

Creating the links through Automatic Dependency Definitions in Mine2-4D obviously has

inherent benefits over creating all of the activities in the scheduler and trying to link them there.

A secondary benefit of using Auto Dependency Definitions is that if additional activities are

added to the project, for which Design Definitions and Auto Dependency Definitions already

exist, the new activities will be generated automatically.

Now that our preliminary mine design and sequencing is complete, we are now ready to start

the Schedule Iteration process. This process consists of the following steps (as outlined in the

intuitive dialog flowchart below:

• Exporting the Dummy Sequence to the EPS

• Opening EPS where scheduling constraints can be edited

• Importing the edited schedule data back into Mine2-4D

• Fine-tuning the mining sequence in 3D through Manual Sequencing

• and Exporting back to EPS.

Figure 123 - Schedule Iteration - Dummy Sequence Export Options


Dummy Sequence Export

Clicking brings up the following dialog:

Figure 124 – Sequence Export Dialog

By clicking , Mine2-4D interrogates the activities and dependencies, creates a

sequence from them, and exports the data to the scheduler so that the user can review and

manipulate the sequence in a Gantt chart format. The Dummy Sequence Export has generated

the schedule files, which can be seen by opening your working directory in your Windows

browser, as shown below.

Figure 125 – Scheduler Files


Open Selected Scheduler

After clicking , click to display the data similar to the following

illustration.

Figure 126 – EPS Initial

Notice the difference in the Segment names in the ID column. The Outline segments begin with

a F_ and the Complex Solid segments begin with a S_. This is a quick and easy way to

differentiate and possibly filter on different segment types.

Links that were created in Mine2-4D, are brought into the EPS file that is created. These links

can be altered or edited in the scheduler. Once edited and saved, the “new” links are brought


into Mine2-4D, for visual inspection and further editing. This is done by clicking the

button. The following dialogue should follow.


Export

The newly created graphical links can now be exported to EPS along with all previously created

links.

When is clicked, Mine2-4D prompts the user to verify that the links are to be

exported from the scheduler with the following window:

Figure 127 – Sequence Links Export Dialog

There is an option not to include the internal links if this is desired. After clicking

the links are exported to a file called EPS_dependency_swap_file.exf which is an exchange

file used only for the exporting of the links. Once the links file has been saved the following

dialogue appears instructing the user on how to import the links file into EPS.


PLANNING - SCHEDULING MENU

Selecting the icon from the vertical menu, gives the user access to the

Scheduling menu (shown below). As you can see, the scheduling menu is comprised of three tabs,

namely the , and tabs.

The

Figure 128 - Planning - Scheduling Menu


PLANNING - SCHEDULING MENU - SOLID MODEL TAB

The tab of the Scheduling menu (shown below) contains processes that allow the

user to Create and Edit Solids from each of the design types present.

Figure 129 - Planning - Scheduling - Solid Model Tab

Create Solids

Figure 130 - Solid Modelling - Create Solid Options


Fixed Cross-Sectionals

Select to access the Fixed Cross-Sectionals Solid Modelling Dialog as follows:

Figure 131 – Fixed Cross-Sectionals Solid Modelling Dialog

It is considered good practice to examine the solid wireframes once Mine2-4D had finished

generating them. To this end, ensure that the toggle is

activated, then click .

During the Solid Modelling process, Mine2-4D takes the 2-D Fixed Cross-Sectional Walls and Generates Solid 3-D Wireframes by projecting them according to the X-Sectional Shapes

specified in Design Definitions. Recall the 5x5Arch X-Sectional Shape we created. The

following figure shows that the FW Drift S has been given this Solid X-Sectional Shape, and

that the adjoining Slot is quite obviously of the Standard Circular type.

Figure 132 - Solid Wireframes Showing X-Sectional Shapes

The FXS Activities are Wireframed according to their Design Definition , in

an order specified by their M4DSID. Once completed, our entire design should look as follows

when viewed in the Visualizer Window.


Figure 133 - Fixed Cross-Sectional Solid Modelling – Complete

In order to better understand the process of Creating Solids, we will compare the two figures

below, which illustrate the zoomed views of a Slot Activity intersecting a X-Cut Activity, as

viewed in the Design Window versus the Visualizer Window.

Figure 134 - X-Cut - Slot Intersection - Design Window vs Visualizer Views

The Design Window view (on the left) shows Wireframes, while the Visualizer Window view

(on the right) shows Solids.

Remember that FXS Walls, which we see as the outlines of each floor Segment on the left)

have already been generated. Mine2-4D has created a series of vertical outlines of the X-Sectional Shape (specified in Design Definitions) along the FXS Walls, at an interval

determined by the Segment Distance (also specified in Design Definitions).


Next, all of the POINTS in the Walls and X-Sections are joined to make a series of

TRIANGLES. The combination of these Points and Triangles is known as Wireframing. Upon

completion, the FXS Wireframes are saved to the visual tables database as wred0pt.dm and

wred0tr.dm, representing the Fixed Cross-Sectional Points and Triangles files respectively.

The Solids that we see in the Visualizer Window view are the Wireframes that have been

“draped” with solid colour for viewing.

Proceed now to the Creation of Outline Solids.


Outlines

Select to access the Outlines Solid Modelling Dialog as follows:

Figure 135 - Outlines Solid Modelling Dialog

Once Design Definitions have been established, FXS Solid Modelling requires no further user

input. Outline Solid Modelling, on the other hand, allows the user to select the most

appropriate linking process. Let us review the Wireframe Linking Methods available before

proceeding with the generation of Outline Solids.

As the name implies, will create triangles in a configuration, which

results in the smallest Wireframe surface area. will create either

isosceles (2 equal angles) or equilateral (all equal angles) triangles.

creates Wireframe triangles which best maintain their proportional position along the string.

This method is ideal for linking similar strings.

Activating the toggle tells Mine2-4D to generate several Wireframes using

different starting points, yet select the one whose resultant configuration best satisfies the

specified Wireframe Linking Method.

Since we have specified Simple Projection in Outline Design Definitions, the original and

projected Outlines should be identical. Specify as the Wireframe

Linking Method and click to Create Outline Solids.


Mine2-4D Wireframes the Sub-Outlines according to their Design Definition

, in an order specified by their M4DSID.

Upon completion, the Outline Wireframes are saved to the visual tables database as

wref0pt.dm and wref0tr.dm, representing the Outline Points and Triangles files respectively.

The resulting Outline Wireframes and Solids will appear as follows:

Figure 136 - Outlines Solid Modelling Complete - Design Window View

Figure 137 – Outlines Solid Modelling Complete - Visualizer View

Proceed now to the Creation of Complex Solid Solids.


Complex Solids

Select to access the Complex Solids Solid Modelling Dialog as follows:

Figure 138 – Complex Models Solid Modelling Dialog

When generating FXS Solids, no user interaction is required because the solids are adequately

defined by the regularity of the X-Sectional Shape and the Wall strings. Since Outlines

require the projection of strings that can have quite irregular shapes, the Outlines Solid Modelling dialog was equipped with tools that allow the user to vary the Wireframe Linking Method. Due to the nature of Complex Solids, we require even more tools to link the stopes


properly, isolate the problematic stopes and edit the Wireframes if necessary to optimise the

CXS Solid Modelling process.

Having considered this, the Complex Solid Modelling dialog is divided into a Current

Complex Solid section and a Commands section. Activate the ,

, and the toggles. Click the button to create

solids for the different stopes.

Figure 139 – Stope Wireframes - Visualizer View


These solids have been created using the method. It is easy to notice

that this method is not ideal for every stope. Click the toggle, and click

the button. The following error will be displayed since the stope created from the red

strings cannot be joined using this method.

Figure 140 – Complex Solids Equi-Angular Shape

The Design window should now look like the following once the button has been

pressed.


Figure 141 – Complex Solids – Design Equi-Angular Shape

A number of the stope sections (the top of the yellow stope, and the bottom of the cyan stope)

have not linked properly either. Toggle on the method, and click the

button. This method seems to be most applicable under these conditions.


Figure 142 – Complex Solids – Proportional Length

The northernmost green stope and the ends of the orange stope have not been correctly

formed. To rectify this for the orange stope, click the (tag string) button, and join the

corners like the following illustration:


Figure 143 – Complex Solids – Insert Tag String

This will force the wireframing processes to use these connections. The visualizer view should

look like the following after clicking the button.


Figure 144 – Stope 2 Correctly Wireframed

Right-click the Zoom icon, and click Remove All Filters. This activates the process as well as

setting the icon to that function. The Design window should now show all the stopes.

Technical Tip

If the Design window is zoomed in too close, type za (Zoom All) in order to view all the data.

Click the number 9 within the main viewing area to focus on stope 9. Re-wireframe it by using

the toggle and by clicking . Initially, stope 9 looked like the

following.


Figure 145 – Stope 9 Incorrectly Wireframed

After running it through a more applicable method, the Visualizer view should now look like the

following.


Figure 146 – Stope 9 Correctly Wireframed

Turn off the filters within the Design window, and update the Visualizer with the new solids.

Upon completion, the CXS Solid Wireframes are saved to the visual tables database as

wres0pt.dm and wres0tr.dm, representing the Complex Solid Points and Triangles files

respectively. Finally, wre_all_0pt and wre_all_0tr, which are a combination of the Points and

Triangles for ALL of the design types used in the design project, are also saved. The following

figure depicts the completed Solid Modelling for our design project, when viewed in the

Visualizer Window.


Figure 147 - Solid Modelling - Complete

Now that we are finished Creating Solids we will now proceed with the process of Solids Editing.


Edit Solids

The Edit Solids Option allows the user to edit the Solid Wireframes that Mine2-4D has

automatically generated.

Figure 148 - Solid Modelling - Edit Solids Option

Click to access the Edit Solids dialog as follows:

Figure 149 – Edit Solids Dialog


PLANNING - SCHEDULING MENU - EVALUATION TAB

The Evaluation process consists of Evaluating the Design and Updating the Derived Activities with the option of Manually Editing the Evaluation results.

Figure 150 - Planning – Scheduling Menu - Evaluation Tab


Evaluate Design

Select to access the Evaluation dialog (shown below):

Figure 151 - Evaluation Dialog - Evaluate View

The user has the option to designs in the project or only designs, by

activating the appropriate toggle. Under the default All option, the user remains unable to

access any entries within the Evaluation grid. Conversely, by toggling on the Selected option,

the user can now select which activities to Evaluate by clicking the field for those

records. For our purposes, leave this setting as the default and click to progress to

the Current Evaluation dialog (shown below):


Figure 152 - Evaluation Dialog - Current Evaluation View

The Current Evaluation dialog provides the user with Evaluation Status Information, as well

as Evaluation Time Statistics.

Figure 153 - Current Evaluation - Status Information

The Status Information portion of Current Evaluation dialog displays the following information

to the user throughout the Evaluation process:

refers to the current geological block model being Interrogated.


is a means of describing the Activity currently being

Evaluated and refers, of course, to that previously specified in Design Definitions.

, or the Mine2-4D field SEGMENT, is intended to provide the user

with the identification of the problematic Activity Segment, in the event that an error is

encountered during the Evaluation process.

refers to the order, previously specified in Project Setup\Geology\Depletion, in which the current design type should be Depleted from the

geological block model.

, also previously specified in Project Setup\Geology\Depletion

Evaluation Time Statistics are valuable in estimating the time that will be required to complete

the Current Evaluation process, based on the Activities already Evaluated.

Figure 154 - Current Evaluation - Time Statistics

Click to begin the Evaluation process. Mine2-4D begins by creating the

Evaluation matrix, and preparing the Geological Block Models for Depletion, as specified in

the Project Setup…………


Figure 155 – Geological Evaluation Data Reporting Grid


Update Derived Activities

Mine2-4D will undergo a process which will ensure that any derived activities that have been

previously calculated for the Dummy Sequence Export are recalculated against a Geological

Block Model and updated. This is due to the fact that some of the base data used to calculate

the derived activity may have changed when the evaluation against the geological model was

done. For example; Insitu Tonnes is calculated using a default density in the Dummy

Sequence Export and that default density is also used to calculate the Derived Activity.

However, during the evaluation process the Insitu Tonnes are recalculated with the Block Model

values for density and therefore, the derived activities must also be recalculated.

When is selected the following dialog will appear.

Figure 156 – Created Derived Activiteis Dialogue

Toggling the option on will give you the option to view the data

grid in order to look for errors. For this tutorial toggle it on and click .

The following window displays the new data and allows you to edit it.


Figure 157 - Data Grid For Updated Derived Activities


Manual Editing

Clicking provides access to the Manual Evaluation Editing dialog as follows:

Figure 158 – Manual Evaluation Editing

Manual Evaluation Editing allows the user to choose among the following three Actions:

The option is used to edit particular attributes of

the evaluation that does not contain the geological interrogation data. Select the Edit Empty

Evaluation Action and Click . If the toggle is activated, the results

will be displayed in tabular format as follows:


Figure 159 - Manual Evaluation Editing – Edit Empty Evaluation Option

The Evaluation Editing grid displays all of the design Activities according to their

corresponding SEGMENT, as well as all of the intrinsic and user-defined Properties defined in

Project Setup. The grid has been edited to display only the Stoping Base Activities and the

Filling Derived Activities. (Note that all the values are null since the Edit Empty Evaluation Action was selected.)

Selecting the option brings up the data from the

base properties and allows the user to edit the data.

Selecting the option allows the user to edit the

data from the Geological Interrogation. The following window is what Mine2-4D produces. It

allows the user to manipulate the data, and save it back to the Wireframes. This is especially

useful if there is not data available for a particular Stope.


Figure 160 – Evaluation Manual Editing Dialog

The data can be edited by simply double-clicking in the desired cell, and changing the value.


PLANNING - SCHEDULING MENU – SCHEDULING TAB

Figure 161 - Planning - Scheduling - Scheduling Tab

Constraints

Setup Constraints

Figure 162 - Scheduling - Setup Constraints Option


Selecting provides the user with access to create or edit the Scheduling Constraints as follows:

Figure 163 – Scheduling Constraints Dialog

Constraints that have either been created in the scheduler or Mine2-4D can be honoured when

the links are sent back to the scheduler.


Schedule Iteration

The Schedule Iteration from the Geological Sequence Export follows the same logic path as the

Schedule Iteration done after the Dummy Sequence Export (see page 137). The only difference

being that the information being carried through to EPS now contains the correctly calculated

Insitu Tonnes and Waited Grades from the Evaluation process.

Figure 164 - Schedule Iteration - Geological Sequence Export Options


Geological Sequence Export

In order to perform the Geological Export, the block model interrogation must have been

previously completed. When is clicked, Mine2-4D displays the following window.

Figure 165 – Geological Sequence Export Dialog

Clicking saves the data out to a format that the scheduler can read (exf format).

This export does not open the scheduler; it is solely exporting the data. The exf file is created in

the directory that the project resides in.

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