Plotting and Presentation

A wide variety of plotting and presentation methods are found in the Envisage and workstation environment.

3.2.3 Border Styles

User-defined border styles are used to create customised plot borders containing specific legend information, company logo, etc. In this example we will go through the steps of creating an 8.5 in x 11 in border style to be used in the plotting of an underground blast design.

Enter the border style editor by selecting the Envisage option File - Plot Templates - New OR by right- clicking on the drafting.dgd in the Resources tab of the VUCLAN Explorer window and selecting “‘New Sheet”.

Assign a meaningful name, e.g. UGBLAST. Next, select File – Plot Templates - External. This is the outer plot border. Select "Two Points" on the External Box Dimensions panel and click OK. For the upper right corner, remembering the 8.5 x 11-inch portrait border style, click on the keyboard construction icon and enter 21.590 (2.54 cm x 8.5 inches - border style editor is in metric) for the x-coordinate and 27.94 (2.54 cm x 11 inches) for the y-coordinate. Leave the line thickness at 0.25 mm, it generally is OK.

Create the plot clipping border by selecting Plot Templates - Internal. Define the extents of the internal clipping box. For a 1_/

2-inch left border and 2-inch bottom border, use the keyboard icon to set the origin of

the internal box at 1.27x, 5.08y. When the Internal Box panel comes up next, remove the check mark from "Use Scale Dimensions," leave "metre" in the "units" field, and click OK. Assuming a 1_/

2-inch top and right

margin, use the keyboard icon to enter in 20.32 (x), 26.67 (y).

Create any text you wish on your border style. Similarly for other digitising such as lines, polygons, and symbols (company logo). To create fields in which the user will be prompted to enter information, such as

mine level, use the Plot Templates - Field option. If you need to edit an existing field for size, length, prompt, use the standard tools Text Edit - Draft Size, Attribute Edit - Value and Text Edit - Modify Line,

Attribute Edit - Description, respectively.

For the underground blast reporting window, use the Clipping Box option to drag out a rectangle where you wish the report to occur. Then assign to this object a group name of NO_PLOT via Attribute Edit - Group and object name of UGB_REPORT via Attribute Edit - Name. (Use an object name of UGB_EXREP for adding an explosives report).

Your plot template is stored in the drafting.dgd of the ENVIS_RESO directory; by default , this is the $VULCAN/resources directory. Be sure you have permissions to access this sub-directory before reading from it or storing a template in it.

Access your custom plot template in the general plotting routines by first selecting File - Plot - Defaults.

3.2.4 Symbols

Symbols are user-definable, 2D and 3D objects that you create by right-clicking on the symbols.dgd of the Resources tab of the VULCAN explorer window and choosing the “New Symbol” option.

Keep the symbols simple in terms of limiting the total number of points in the symbol. If you have too many points, the symbols will be very slowly displayed on the Envisage screen or not at all.

There are several methods for applying symbols. Use Design - Create - Symbol to place one symbol at a given point on the screen. Use Design - Line Style Edit – Symbolize Points to apply symbols to existing points, lines, or polygons. If you have a samples database containing point data, e.g., chip samples, geophones, etc, the database can store symbol information such as symbol name, symbol size, symbol angle (all of which can be referenced to fields in the database). When displaying the data from a samples database (via the Geology - Sampling menu for example), the points are converted to a symbol.

Downloading survey data from a survey instrument can now be made to automatically apply Envisage symbols at nominated points that have been pre-coded in the survey.codes file (see Survey - Surveying - Edit

Codes option).

Removal of symbols is done with the not-so-obvious step of using Attribute Edit - Feature, and then from the list, selecting UNDEFINED.

3.2.6 Animation

The Animation option found in the View menu might be used during design work or for a presentation. In terms of design work, you could create equipment objects, including articulating equipment. These pieces of equipment could be moved around corners to check for fit. A drill rig could be animated to check that the mast will fit in the cutout or drift.

For presentation, phases of development could be animated, to view the design for period one, period two, etc. and watch the progress of the development over time.

For a general animation, e.g. the development into and around the sublevel cave stopes, begin by selecting Animation - Create. From the Actors confirm box, select Create actor. An actor is simply the name given to the objects, triangles, or grids in the animation. For example, we could choose to animate the display of selected triangulation models (chosen from a drop-down list of models in the current working directory). Next, check the "Use specified name as a sequence prefix". Finally, check "Keep triangulations in later frames".

To run the animation, use the Select option. Put a check mark on the "Set all loaded objects to invisible" in the Animation panel:

Use the Animation toolbar to view your animation; you can play back frame-by-frame or cycle backwards and forwards.