We’ll put a filter to work in this exercise. We’ll revisit the Points display from Exercise 4.3 so that we can graphically illustrate the results of our filters. Our task is to create a filter to subset all geochemical samples whose coordinates fall within the following ranges:
· 15900 – 16000N · 24900 – 25000E
First, we need to reload the Points display we created earlier. To do this: 1. From the Vizex Forms pane at the top left of your screen, click the
small plus [+] icon next to the Points form set type. You’ll see a single entry, Soil geochemistry, immediately below the Points label.
2. Drag the Soil geochemistry form set onto the graphic display to open it. The Points display from Exercise 4.3 will appear.
Now we’ll modify the Soil geochemistry form set so it only includes the data falling within the specified coordinate range:
3. Double-click Soil geochemistry in the Display pane near the bottom left of your screen. Micromine will re-display the Points dialog with the Label tab selected, which is where we last left it.
Notes: 4. Click the Input Data tab to select it, and click the Filter check box to
activate the filter option.
5. Right-click (or press F4) the blank filter number to edit the filter. The
Filter dialog will appear.
6. If the filter dialog already contains previous settings, click the Clear
Table button at the top left of the filter dialog to remove them before
continuing.
7. Double-click the first Field Name response and choose NORTH_GRID from the list.
8. Set the first Operator to >=.
9. Type 15900 into the first Value response and set the Numeric check box.
10. Repeat Steps 6 through 8 for the remaining filter conditions. Your filter should now look like this:
11. Set Combine Lines to And.
12. Preview the filter by right clicking on the File response and choosing
View from the pop-up menu. Scroll through the file and confirm that
most of the records are on a grey background, with a small number of matching records on a white background. If this isn’t the case, you’ll have to correct your filter.
13. Close the File Editor window and then click Save and Close to close the filter.
14. Click OK on the Points dialog to display the filtered data. Your display should resemble the diagram on the following page.
15. Select Edit | Remove All to clean up the display in preparation for the next exercise.
Filtering date values
Although Micromine has no date data type it’s still easy to filter on dates that have been stored as numeric or binary values in YYYYMMDD format. A date in this format can be treated as an ordinary base-10 number for the purpose of filtering. So, a filter to extract all records from the 2009 calendar year would look like this:
DATE >= 20090101 (numeric) DATE <= 20091231 (numeric) Combine Lines = And
Notes: Lesson 6 Summary
These are the key points of this lesson:
· Filters are an extremely versatile way to subset only the data of interest from a larger dataset.
· Most Micromine functions have a Filter option.
· Filters can be saved as form sets, which allows them to be re-used. · Multiple filter conditions must be combined using a Boolean operator. To create or edit a filter:
Turn on the Filter option on the appropriate dialog, then
Right-click the filter number to edit it.
To define a filter condition:
Specify a Field Name, an Operator, and a Value. To preview the filter result:
Right-click the File response and choose View from the pop-up menu, then
Observe the relationship between records on white (selected) and grey (not selected) backgrounds.
To combine multiple filter conditions: Set Combine Lines as desired. Good Practice
· Saving common filters as form sets allows you to re-use them throughout your project.
Help Topics
For information on: See:
Filters Files > Filter > Using Filters
Filter wildcards Files > Filter > Filters in the File Editor > Wildcards (hyperlink on Edit filter page)
MICROMINE TRAINING
DISPLAYING AND MANIPULATING DATA
·
BEGINNER
PART 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Displaying and Manipulating Data
LESSON 1 – INTRODUCING VIZEX ... 1
INTRODUCTION ... 1 THE USER INTERFACE ... 3 MANIPULATING THE VIEW ... 8 Grid Settings ... 10 MANAGING MULTIPLE VIZEX WINDOWS ... 11 Opening a New Window ... 11 Creating a New Vizex Document ... 12
LESSON 2 – CREATING A MULTI-LAYERED DISPLAY ... 16
ADDING LAYERS TO THE VIZEX DISPLAY ... 16 Points: Displaying Geochemical Samples ... 16 Revision: Using the Vizex Forms and Display panes ... 17 Outlines: Displaying Property Boundaries ... 21 Image: Displaying an Aerial Photograph ... 23 Supported Image File Formats ... 25 CAD/GIS: Displaying Geological Polygons ... 26 Completing the Picture ... 27 CREATING A PLOT FILE ... 28
LESSON 3 – WORKING WITH DRILLHOLES... 32
INTRODUCTION ... 32 THE DRILLHOLE DATABASE ... 32 Creating a New Database ... 34 Adding Event and Interval Files ... 35 REFRESHING A DRILLHOLE DATABASE ... 38 VALIDATING A DRILLHOLE DATABASE ... 39 Automatically ... 39 Manually ... 39 DISPLAYING DRILLHOLE DATA ... 41 Displaying Drillhole Traces ... 41 DISPLAYING VERTICAL SECTIONS ... 44 The Sections Toolbar and Sections Window ... 45 Understanding Clipping ... 47 The View Toolbar ... 48 The Display Limits Dialog ... 48 VIEWING IN 3D ... 52 The Rotate Tool ... 52 The Display Limits Dialog ... 53 SECTION CONTROL FILES ... 55 ADDING DOWNHOLE INFORMATION ... 56 Creating a Text Colour Set ... 58 Creating a Hatch Display ... 61 CREATING A PLOT FILE ... 66
LESSON 4 – SPATIAL EDITING... 70
INTRODUCTION ...70 The user Interface ...70 Using the Spatial Editing Tools ...70 The Editing Toolbars ...71 Editing Strings ...73 Creating New Strings (or Points or Polygons) ...76 Snapping and Following ...77 CREATING NEW FILES ...80 INTERPRETING 3D SOLIDS ...82 Naming the Interpreted Features ...82 Interpretation Steps ...84
LESSON 5 – WORKING WITH DTMS ... 90
INTRODUCING DIGITAL TERRAIN MODELS (DTMS) ...90 Draping Images onto DTMs ...93
TABLES
Table 1.1: Supported data types ... 4 Table 3.1: Drillhole data types ...33
SIDEBARS
Displaying a Vizex form set ... 3 Changing the properties of a display layer ... 6 Understanding the Vizex drawing order (depth testing) ... 8 Middle-button shortcuts ... 9 Restoring the Vizex window ...15 Adding numeric values to a colour set ...19 Adding colours to a colour set ...20 Form sets: untitled and unsaved? ...21 Outline vs. string files ...22 Revision: The Vizex drawing order (depth testing)...25 Use saved views to create predefined layer groups...27 Don’t use saved views to define multiple views containing the same data ...28 Save your form sets! ...31 Behind the scenes: How does Micromine calculate drillhole trajectories? ...35 Refreshing a drillhole database containing ODBC or MDB links ...39 Orientation, location, thickness ...44 Displaying ‘Plane of the Vein’ with the Section Tool ...46 The physics of 3D rotation ...53 Constraining 3D rotation ...53 Perspective Mode and Depth Testing ...55
Hatch field vs. Colour Control ... 63 How big is the hatch? ... 64 Where do new features go? ... 71 Need a reminder to set properties? ... 77 Setting the default snap status ... 78 Save a mouse click: Keep the Properties window visible ... 79 Layer precedence and Follow Mode... 80 Controlling the newly created file structure ... 81 Wireframes, triangulations, DTMs, DEMs, surfaces, TINs, 3D solids – what’s with all the names? ... 91 Plotting views containing wireframes ... 94
EXERCISES
Exercise 1.1: Load a previously saved view ... 2 Exercise 1.2: Use the Display pane to manage the display ... 6 Exercise 1.3: Use the view tools ... 9 Exercise 1.4: Set up a coordinate grid ... 10 Exercise 2.1: Symbolise the points display ... 18 Exercise 2.2: Display property boundaries as outlines... 22 Exercise 2.3: Display an aerial photograph ... 24 Exercise 2.4: Display a geological map in GIS format ... 26 Optional Exercise 2.5: Save, remove, and then reload the display ... 27 Exercise 2.6: Create a plot file ... 28 Exercise 3.1: Create a new drillhole database ... 36 Exercise 3.2: Manually validate a drillhole database ... 40 Exercise 3.3: Set up a drillhole trace display... 41 Exercise 3.4: Display data in cross section ... 50 Exercise 3.5: View data in 3D ... 54 Exercise 3.6: Using a section control file ... 56 Exercise 3.7: Add drillhole assay values to the trace display ... 56 Exercise 3.8: Add drillhole lithology labels to the display ... 57 Exercise 3.9: Create a text colour set ... 59 Exercise 3.10: Add a hatch pattern to the display ... 62 Exercise 3.11: Create a plot file ... 66 Exercise 4.1: Edit features in a string file ... 75 Exercise 4.2: Snap to features ... 78 Exercise 4.3: Set up a new string file ... 83 Exercise 4.4: Interpret the quartz vein, making use of all available data ... 85 Exercise 5.1: Create a topographic DTM ... 91 Exercise 5.2: Drape an air photo onto the topographic DTM ... 93
Notes:
Lesson 1 – Introducing Vizex
Duration: 45 minutes
Vizex is Micromine’s graphic environment, and is what you see whenever you open Micromine.
You use Vizex to display, edit, and interact with all Micromine data types, as well as data from many CAD, GIS, and Image Processing applications. Micromine data types include basic elements like points, strings, and polygons, and compound information like downhole data, dynamic contours, wireframes, block models, and open pit or underground mine designs. The broad range of editing tools includes snapping, smoothing, weeding, gradients, curves, draping, and wireframing. Vizex also supports seamless transitions between 2D and 3D views.
After this lesson you’ll be able to: · Work with the Vizex user interface; · Manage Vizex Forms and Display Layers;
· Manipulate the view by using the zoom and pan tools.
Introduction
The Visual Explorer (Vizex) provides a fully interactive display environment for all Micromine and many third-party data types. You interact with these data types in two ways: using the Vizex Forms pane to load the desired objects as layers in the display, and using the Display pane to change the properties of the displayed layers.
Interactive spatial editing tasks such as sectional interpretation, mine design, or wireframe construction, are performed within Vizex.
Vizex is a multiple-document and multiple-window environment, which means you can simultaneously view the same data in different windows at different orientations, or completely different data in different windows. You can set additional windows to be overviews, which can be floating or docked, or as full-size windows that are tabbed with the main window and are accessible with a single keystroke.
Any Vizex display can be saved as a Saved View, which can easily be recalled at a later stage. This gives you a means of quickly restoring a view without having to rebuild it from scratch.
Notes:
Exercise 1.1: Load a previously saved view
In this exercise you’ll load a previously saved view containing some example Display layers.
1. Expand the Saved Views list by single-clicking the plus [+] icon to the left of the Saved Views node. This node is located at the top left of your screen, immediately under the menu and toolbar.
2. Drag the Introducing Vizex object into the graphic display to load it. Alternatively, you can load the Introducing Vizex saved view by double- clicking it.
3. Vizex will load a number of different display layers into the window and change the window extents to match those of the saved view.
Graphic Display Vizex Forms pane
Display pane
Notes:
The User Interface
Vizex consists of three primary windows: the graphic display, which occupies the bulk of the screen, the Vizex Forms pane, which normally docks at the left edge of the screen, and the Display pane, which also normally docks at the left. If having these windows at the left is not your preference you can easily dock them against any other window edge, stack them over each other, float them over the graphic display, or drag them onto a second monitor.
The Properties and Sections windows appear as tabs underneath the
Vizex Forms pane. You’ll explore these in later lessons.
The Vizex Forms and Display panes can be auto-hidden by clicking the small thumb tack icon at their top right hand corners, temporarily reducing them to a small tab at the docked edge and maximising the graphic display area. To restore them to the view, hover the mouse over the appropriate tab.
You can toggle the panes on and off by clicking the
Form Sets Pane and Display Pane buttons on the main toolbar. Alternatively, you can open these panes by selecting View |
Display Pane or View | Vizex Form Sets Pane from the menu. To close
the panes, click the Close button at the top right-hand corner of each one. There are numerous toolbars at the top (and possibly right) of the screen, which provide a variety of tools for selecting and manipulating data, and for manipulating the view. Depending on the specific menu options you select, Vizex may also display or remove additional toolbars.
Vizex Forms Pane
You use the Vizex Forms pane to select the Vizex form sets to view in the graphic display. Before you load a form set as a display layer, you can modify its properties to control the way it will appear in the display.
If you see no objects displayed under the Vizex node in the Vizex Forms pane, click on the plus [+] icon to its left to expand the list.
Displaying a Vizex form set
To display a particular Vizex form set type, double-click the desired type under the Vizex node (the folder icon) in the Vizex Formspane. Alternatively, you can select from the Display | Vizex | … menu.
You can load virtually all Micromine data types, and a variety of third party formats, into Vizex using the Vizex Forms pane. You’re not limited to one occurrence of each type, but can add as many as your computer will allow.
Notes: No matter what Micromine module configuration you have, you’ll be able to display most of the data types shown below, but you won’t be able to spatially edit some of them without the appropriate module.
The currently supported Vizex form sets are illustrated in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1: Supported data types Points: Simple point data such as soil
samples or rock-chip samples, classified by shape, colour, size, and label. Spatially editable.
Strings: Linear data such as roads,
rivers, or contours, classified by colour, fill pattern, and numerous labelling options. Spatially editable.
Outlines: Polygonal data such as
geological units or property
boundaries, classified by pattern and colour. Spatially editable.
Contours: Labelled 3D contours
derived on-the-fly from wireframes, grids, or strings. Classified by line, label, and colour.
[Requires the Micromine Exploration module.]
Profiles: Ordered two-dimensional
data such as geochemical or magnetic sample lines.
Drillhole … : Drilling data with
numerous options for label, pattern, and symbology.
Notes:
Table 1.1: Supported data types (continued) Pie Chart: Multivariate point data
with each variable displayed as a pie segment, classified by radius and colour.
[Requires the Exploration module.]
Image: Raster data such as aerial
photographs, from a variety of file formats, and positioned in any 3D orientation.
CAD/GIS: Data from many common
CAD and GIS formats, classified by symbol, colour, and pattern.
Geographic data, optionally projected to UTM on-the-fly.
Grid File: Interpolated surfaces
consisting of regular arrays of blocks or cells, displayed in 2D or 3D.
[Display only in Core. Grid creation requires the Exploration module.]
Wireframes: 3D surfaces and solids
consisting of meshes of
interconnected triangles, with various drawing styles. Spatially editable.
[Display only in Core. Wireframe creation requires the Wireframing module; DTM creation requires the Exploration module.]
Block Model: Interpolated solids
consisting of arrays of 2D or 3D blocks, classified by colour and label, with various drawing styles.
[Requires the Resource Estimation module.]
Design: Open pit and underground
mine design and ring/blasthole designs. Spatially editable.
Notes: Display Pane
The Display pane lists the currently loaded display layers, and you use it to manage those layers. From here you can temporarily hide or show a particular layer, permanently remove it from the display, or change its display properties.
Temporarily hiding a layer is useful when you’re displaying multiple data layers, since it gives you a clearer view of the objects you’re interested in. To hide a layer, simply uncheck the checkbox alongside it.
To show a previously hidden layer, check the checkbox alongside the layer and it will be re-drawn. Whether it’s visible or not will depend on whether it falls within the current display limits.
In comparison, when you remove a layer (by right-clicking it and choosing
Remove from the pop-up menu, or by clicking it and pressing the Delete
key), it’s removed from both the graphic display and the Display pane. However, the form set you used to load the display object is still available for selection in the Vizex Forms pane.
Changing the properties of a display layer
You change the properties of a layer in the current display by double-
clicking it in the Display pane. Alternatively, you can right-click it and
choose Properties... from the pop-up menu.
The Display pane also allows you to control the order in which layers are drawn, as explained in the sidebar Understanding the Vizex Drawing Order.
Exercise 1.2: Use the Display pane to manage the display
This exercise will show you how to manage the graphic display using the
Display pane.
Notes: 1. Click the check box next to the Aeromag image layer a couple times
(slowly!) to alternately show and hide it. Make sure it’s showing before proceeding to the next step.
Now we’ll edit a layer’s display properties:
2. Double-click the Example topo contours layer name or icon to open the
Strings dialog.
3. Switch to the Display Options tab and double-click the Colour field response (half way down the dialog). Choose RL from the list that appears.
4. Double-click the Colour set response and choose set number 3, which has the title NVG_TOPO DTM Colours.
5. Click Save, followed by OK, on the Strings dialog to save and apply the changes.
Next, we’ll change the drawing order:
6. Click a blank part of the Display pane (below the listed layers) to deselect Example topo contours in preparation for the next step. Alternatively, you can click the Vizex node at the top of the displayed layers.
7. Click the Toggle Depth Testing button near the top of the Display pane to turn off depth testing.
The image now hides the remaining data. You’ve just switched the display from 3D order to layer order; the image covers the other data because it’s above the other layers in the Display pane.
8. Click the Aeromag image layer in the Display pane and drag it to the bottom of the list. When you release the mouse, Vizex will re-draw the display with the magnetic image below the other layers.
Notes:
And, finally, we’ll remove a layer:
9. You’ll notice that the Aeromag image layer is still highlighted, which means it’s still selected. Press the Delete key on the keyboard to remove it. Alternatively, you can right-click and choose Remove from the popup menu.
10. Leave the view open in preparation for the next exercise.
Understanding the Vizex drawing order (depth testing)
Vizex displays layered data in two different ways:
In layer order, objects are drawn in sequence from the bottom of the Display pane upwards, like sheets of paper on a traditional light table; In 3D order, objects are drawn in 3D sequence from the most distant to the closest, irrespective of their order in the Display pane.
In layer order you modify the display by dragging the layers into the desired sequence. The bottom layer is drawn first, the one above that is drawn next, and so on. Conversely, in 3D order the distance between each individual object and your viewpoint determines the drawing sequence; closer objects are always drawn in front of more distant ones. Vizex defaults to 3D order, but you can switch between the two modes by clicking the Toggle Depth Testing button near the top of the Display pane.
Manipulating the View
Vizex is fully interactive, providing you with a suite of tools that allow you to easily view and manipulate your data. Many of these tools are dedicated to