<Copy the sample database file Attrdb.mdb (provided with MS3D) to your working directory and give it a suitable name. Create a new IP Object by selecting
File=>New=>Interactive Planner Object from the Data Manager. After selecting a name for the IP Object you will be prompted to make a connection to your database with the ODBC connection manager available under Windows. Make the connection by selecting your Data Source from the list on the Machine Data Source page.>
Each IP Object corresponds to an IP Set in the database. The IP Set is the collection of the IP Object’s Areas, Material Sets, and cuts (geometry, attributes, and reserves).
The database may contain many IP Sets, each with a unique name; and one or many IP Objects can reference each IP Set.
When the first IP Object is created, no IP Sets exist in the database. <Select Create New for the type of IP Set and give the IP Set a name. Use Exposed Geometry for the new set to store polygonal cuts as XYZ points in the database.> While this storing method is less efficient, it allows external programs easier access to the data. The Exposed Geometry option can only be assigned to a new IP Set and cannot be used to change the store method for existing sets. If you do not want to access the polygonal cut points from any external program, you do not need to choose this option.
If the database already contains IP Sets, you can choose to Clone an IP Set for use with the new IP Object by selecting the set from the popdown. By default, all Areas, Material Sets, and cuts will be cloned in the database and grouped into the new IP Set.
You can choose to clone only the set’s Areas and Material Sets by toggling the Settings
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Location toggle, and fill in the appropriate coordinate limits. To filter by attribute, select an attribute, an operation and a value (ie. SchedID = 5 or cutPerID Like January).> You can create compound selections by choosing AND or OR, and specifying another attribute selection.Similarly, you can connect to an existing IP Set (also selected from the popdown) or to a subset of an existing IP Set (using Filter Geom). But the new IP Object can modify changes to cuts shared by other IP Objects, so connecting to an existing IP Set should be used with caution.
IP Tool
After creating an IP Set or when an IP Object is opened from the Data Manager, the IP Tool dialog is activated. The Areas and Material Sets for the IP Object are defined in this dialog. Closing the IP Tool dialog will close the IP Object and vice versa.
An Area is a reference to a model and the items in the model and specifies the parameters that control reporting logic such as the grade, topography percent, and whether or not the grade is averaged or accumulated.
A Material Set is based on a single Area and defines the cutoff logic for the Area’s grade item, the binning methodology, and the density specified by the zone/rock code.
At least one Area and Material Set must exist in order to define cuts. A cut always references a Material Set and a Material Set always references an Area. Thus, each cut corresponds to exactly one Material Set and exactly one Area.
The IP Tool dialog opens on the Area notebook page. Start by defining an Area. Fill out the values on the Area tab and save the area. Once an Area is defined, move to the Material Sets page and build one or more Material Sets based on the Area.
When at least one Material Set is defined, use the Design Cuts button to activate the Cut Design dialog.
Note that the File menu options New, Open, Save, Save As, and Delete and their corresponding tool bar buttons operate according to the current page in the notebook.
For example, if the Area page is current, then File=>New will create a new (blank) Area and File=>Save will save the current Area. Delete allows you choose which Area or Material Set to delete.
Deleting an Area or Material Set will automatically delete all corresponding cuts. A notice will appear displaying the number of cuts, or in the case of deleting an Area, the number of cuts and Material Sets, which will also be deleted.
Area
An Area references the model for which reserves will be computed. Thus a model view and at least one Grade Item must be selected in order to define an Area. All other items on the Area page are, in general, optional.
For most mine planning, a single Area definition is sufficient. It is, however, possible to define multiple Areas to correspond to different models if, for example, you have two deposits separated by a large distance that are being mined simultaneously. In this case, the Areas and models need to have the same items (e.g., thickness, topo, copper, gold, etc.).
Reserves can be computed for plan or sectional planes in a 3DBM or for levels in a
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model views based on a file 15 (3DBM or GSM) are allowed. Note that cuts can occur on any model bench or section regardless of the display range in the model view definition.
The selected model view determines the items available for the Area definition. In addition, the model dimensions control possible cut locations and slice thickness. The cuts are on planes corresponding to the model bench or level or, if using a 3DBM with sectional planes, to the EW or NS sectional grids. The reserves will be computed based on the items and extent of the selected model.
Note that some Area options are disabled, notably Grid Set and Partials Mapping.
These options will be available in future upgrades.
The Thickness Item will be used for the cut thickness and will override the bench height or sectional width. You must specify a Thickness Item (e.g., LNGTH) when using a GSM model view.
You can also specify a Volume Reduction or Mined Out item. This would be a percentage item (i.e., a model item with a minimum value of zero and a maximum value of 1 or 100), which contains the percent of the model block that exists (Volume
Reduction) or the percent that is missing (Mined Out). To account for Topo% in the block model, use the Volume Reduction toggle. To account for a mined out percent in an underground operation, use the Mined Out toggle.
The Number of Slices is the number of slices through each model block when computing partials for polygonal cuts (partials for solid cuts use the project subcell count for volume calculations, available under File=>Project Settings=>Volumes).
The slice direction can be “switched” by toggling Switch Slice Direction. For example, given a planar cut, the partials slices are usually in the EW direction and spaced NS. However, if the cut is very long in the EW direction and short in the NS direction, you could switch the direction and use NS slices to better compute the partials. The slice directions are shown as a function of cut orientation in the table below. Planar Cut - EW slices spaced NS (switch off)
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Cut
The Area also has a single Ore Item consisting of a set of model view items and parameters that determine the reserves binning methodology.
Only a Grade Item is required to define an Ore Item. The other parameters are optional. The cutoffs for the Grade Item are set when the Material Set is defined. Note that up to 20 Grade Items can be selected. The first one is referenced when specifying cutoff values on the Material Set cutoff table. To compute reserves based on an accumulated grade (as opposed to an average grade), toggle the Accum box to the right of the Grade Item. This could be used to accumulate Ounces/block or Barrels of Oil/block.
The Zone Item is a model item containing integer values corresponding to the Value in the Material Set definition. If no Zone Item is specified the material will be assigned to the default zone in the Material Set. Obviously only one zone, the default, will be used for binning if no Zone Item is specified.
The Ore% Item is a percent item containing the percent ore per model block. The tonnage in the block based on the Ore% item and the associated grade will get reported to the ore class (if defined), and the remaining material, with 0.0 grade, will be reported to the default material.
The Density Item is the model item used to compute the tonnage and will override the Density in the Material Set definition. If an Ore% Item is also selected, the reported waste tonnage will use the density of the default Zone in the Material Set. The Density Item can be one of three types: Tonnage Factor (TF), Specific Gravity (SG), or Factor which would usually be used to indicate that the Density Item values correspond to the actual tonnage in the block.
Partials Slice Direction as a Function of Cut Orientation and Switch Toggle
Cut Orientation Switch OFF Switch ON
Planar EW slices spaced NS NS slices spaced EW
EW EW slices spaced vertically Up and down slices spaced EW NS NS slices spaced vertically Up and down slices spaced NS
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Material Set
Every cut has an associated Material Set. Therefore, at least one Material Set must exist before cuts can be defined.
An Area can have multiple Material Sets in order to specify different reserves logic within an Area. Thus reserves could be reported for one period with a certain set of cutoffs and for a different period with another set of cutoffs. However, this is not the usual case and, in general, only a single Material Set would be defined.
To define a Material Set, first select an Area and then define the zones in the table.
Up to 100 zones are allowed in each Material Set.
Each zone has a Zone Name which is the label used for reporting this zone. Any row in the table with a non-blank Zone Name will be part of the Material Set. One of the zones must be the default where material will go that doesn’t fit in any other zone. It is typical that a Material Set would have at least one zone corresponding to waste.
A zone also has a Value which is a non-negative integer corresponding to the model’s Zone Item value, a Density which is used to compute tonnage if the Area does not have a Density Item, and Cutoffs.
The cutoffs correspond to the Area’s first Grade Item and will be sorted into increasing order when the Material Set is saved. Note that zero is not automatically inserted as one of the cutoff bins in order to allow negative cutoffs, and you should generally have a zero cutoff. If you forgot to add zero, insert it at the end and save.
Properties
The properties of the IP Object’s underlying Geometry View can be modified via Edit=>Properties. The IP Object display can be styled by the selected Material Type or by cutoffs assigned to any of the cut attributes (see Cut Design Attributes).
Recompute Reserves
You can recompute reserves by selecting Edit=>Recompute Reserves. Reserves will be recomputed for all cuts in the database that reference the current Material Set displayed on the Materials Sets page.