Minescape Form Help

Form Name: Generate Samples from Polygons

Form Usage:
Setup
Polygons can be used to generate samples to a table file. These samples are prisms with
triangular top and bottom faces and can be accumulated to calculate volumes. Samples may
also be generated graphically to a design file.

The Input Polygons can be listed by name as polygon blocks in a ASCII data file and/or
polygons may be entered on the screen in the fields supplied. If you are using polygon
blocks, use the Polygon list option and/or list the polygon block names with the element ID
fields left missing

Note: Selection by element ID takes precedence over polygon block name.

If using using polygons from any Design file , the Polygon name and Element ID must be
supplied. The recoveries are transferred to the output table and are used in the calculation of
volumes.

The Table file must be a valid name. The Polygon column to contain the name of the
polygon should be specified. The table file does not have to exist − if it does exist, it is first
deleted. The table file stores the corner coordinates of the samples, the top and bottom
surface names and the values of any optional columns.

Setup/Controls
A number of optional columns may be included in the sample table. These columns may be
added for more detailed information. It is recommended that Volume, Plan area, and Mass
are included.

The sampling modules require certain common parameters which must be set. Once defined,
it is unlikely these will require revision throughout the sampling process.

The Topo surface must be identified. The name entered must be a valid surface. This
surface is used as the upper surface for overburden when using reserve intervals.

Note: The inclusion of optional columns increases the size of the table file and the amount of
processing required.

If output is to a design file, the name of an existing Design file must be entered. An output
Layer must also be specified. If the layer already exists in the design file, the Append flag
can be set to Off to overwrite existing data. The Title is optional. Design file output is
generally used to graphically examine the samples e.g. to check the sampling density. The
tops and bottoms of the samples are represented in the design file as triangular polygons. For
high sampling densities, it is not recommended to use design file output as the file becomes
very large and slows down the process. If design file output is not required, ensure that the
design file field is blank.

If samples are to be drawn into a design file at any stage, the sample tops and bottoms are
drawn as polygons. The attributes of these polygons are according to the reserve interval
display definitions (i.e. display definitions named INT_interval name) if the samples
represent a reserve interval roof or floor. A default display definition should be supplied for
all other samples.

Samples are generated within the polygons and are limited by the specified Top surface and
Bottom surface. These fields cannot be left blank. The elevations on the vertices of the
polygons are not used.

Samples can be generated using the following Sample types:

Point the value for the sampling density represents the number of samples per block −
therefore, the larger the number, the more samples generated.

The following Cut/Fill options may be used:

• Cut
• Fill
• All

Samples with cut volumes are generated for the Cut or All options where the top
surface is above the bottom surface.

Samples with fill volumes are generated for the Fill or All options where the bottom
surface is above the top surface.

A cut/fill column name must be specified for the All option. This column is flagged
with either Cut or Fill for each sample in the output table.

Tables can be accumulated by setting the Accumulate flag to On.

Note: No further intersections or evaluations can be superimposed onto the sample table if
the table is accumulated. This option should only be used if a quick one−step process is
intended. In most cases, this flag should be set to Off.

The Accumulate Samples menu option can be used when all sample generation steps are
complete.

Samples can be generated with either horizontal or sloping top and bottom faces when
evaluating surfaces. In most cases, horizontal faces are sufficient, particularly when the
sample density is adequate to represent the data and the surfaces being evaluated have small
dips (low angle slopes). For this option, the Use centroid flag should be set to On − samples
are then generated with the top and bottom faces on the same elevation as their centroids.
This provides a quick and efficient method of processing. Setting the Use centroid flag to
Off ensures that calculations are always performed at each corner of the sample prisms, bue
the amount of processing time is increased. This option should be used when design file
output is important so that samples are generated with a smooth appearance at surfaces.

If the surfaces to be processed (topography, subset roofs or floors) include triangle surfaces
then you can nominate that samples generated should honour surface triangles. Note that this
may slow down the reserves significantly if a large number of triangles are involved.
Intervals
Intersections with reserve intervals and surface sets can be performed using the Intersect
Samples/Res.Intervals and Intersect Samples/SurfSets menu options respectively.

Evaluation of surfaces and intervals may be performed using the Evaluation samples menu
option or can be performed as part of this module (see below).

Reserve intervals divide the samples into mining resource and burden components. Surface
subsets limit the samples to be between the specified pairs of surfaces only, and according to
selection expressions. Geological surfaces may be evaluated to generate columns with their
elevations for each sample. Similarly, geological interval attributes such as floor, thickness
and parting may also be evaluated.

If samples are to be intersected with Reserve intervals, a list of intervals and a Selection
expression for each interval should be provided. If the reserve intervals are not associated
with a schema, they must be listed in their correct stratigraphic order (i.e. in downhole
order). The Reserve interval and Burden column names must also be defined. For each
reserve interval, there is a sample which is flagged Resource in the burden column,. Another
sample is always produced for the burden. It is is interburden, the burden column stores the
name of the above−lying reserve interval. If it is overburden, it has the name of the
topographical surface, OVERBURDEN (if no topographical surface is specified) or the top
surface of the original sample (if it is below the topographical surface). If there is any part of
the sample which is below the lower−most reserve interval it is placed in a sample which q
has the burden column flagged as UNDERBURDEN and the reserve interval column stores
the name of the above−lying reserve interval.

Benches can be defined by supplying a bench definition name and selecting one or more
benches from this bench definition. A bench column name also must be defined and the
output table stores the bench name for each sample. The new samples generated only include
samples within the specified benches.

Surface sets can be defined by supplying a name, upper surface, lower surface and a
selection expression. A subset column name also must be defined and the output table stores
the name of the surface subset for each sample. The new samples generated exclude volumes
outside of the specified surface subset limiting surfaces. However if a limiting surface, upper
or lower, is 'missing' then no volume will be excluded by this limit.

A list of geological surfaces and intervals may be evaluated for each sample. The surfaces
have their elevation stored while intervals have their floor elevation, thickness and parting
stored. Elevations and thicknesses are evaluated at the samples' centroids.

An option exists in this module to include qualities in the output sample table.

Each of the qualities are evaluated into the sample table by evaluating the corresponding
quality surface, if one exists, or by using a default. If a quality surfaces are to be used, there
should be surface definitions set up with names of the form:

model code_interval_quality code.

Qualities require a set of Specs be set up. Each quality entered must have a quality definition
Spec defined. These definitions contain parameters such as codes to be used in the
construction of surface names, weighting information, units and other information. For each
quality in the model, there is another Spec which defines default values. These values are
used when a quality surface cannot be found or the surface cannot be evaluated at a location.
The quality surfaces and defaults used depend on the current quality model.

Table columns for each quality per interval are included in the output table. Compositing is
performed over each of the samples for each reserve interval and the values are written to
columns named after the quality,

i.e. <quality>.

If geological intervals are also supplied, columns are added to the output table with names of
the form

<interval>_<quality>.

Washability data can optionally be used by supplying wash table file names as input (drill
hole data) and wash table file names for output (block data). The output files are always
overwritten. A search radius and inverse distance power may be supplied. The latter defaults
to 2.

Report

To generate a report from a sample table, a repent report definition must be created. Under
this option, pre−defined repent report definitions are used to create standard reserves reports.
Since the sample table could potentially have more than one naming column after
intersections, there may be a need to generate one or more names.

Select from one of the standard reports or press the User option to choose a user defined
definition.

For use defined reports enter the name of the report definition from the pulldown list. If the
repent report requires input from the user check the User Interactive box and the program
will be launched in a separate window, and pause at each prompt to wait for user input. Note:
This will also cause MineScape to pause until the response is entered.

The name of the input Table file must be supplied. The table must be an accumulated sample
table with reserve intervals. A selection expression can be supplied if only a subset of the
data is to be used.

The name of the output Report file must be supplied.

The Report description is written on each report page.

The set of output names are created by assigning components from the list of input names,
constant values and counters. Each component definition consists of a type, value and
destination name. The component type can be one of the input column names. If it is not, it
must be CONSTANT or COUNTER. If blank, the default (CONSTANT) is used. If the type
is an input table column name, the value is the character positions to include from the
column value (e.g. 234 represents the second, third and fourth characters). If the type is
constant, the value is literal. If the type is a counter, the value is the start value with number
of digits (e.g. 00001 ).

An example:

Reserving identifier Type Value

 −−−−−−−−−−−−− −−−−−−−−− −−−−−−
RES_BLOCK CONSTANT BLK
RES_BLOCK BLOCKNAME 45678
RES_SUBSET SUBSET 1234
RES_SUBSET COUNTER 0001

In this example, two nomenclature columns are created in the output table. and the two
reserving identifiers are stored in table constants. The first nomenclature column stores a
name for each of the records in the reserves table and constructed using the RES_BLOCK
components. The name stored is constructed using a constant BLK and characters four
through to eight from the original BLOCKNAME column. A second nomenclature column
also stores a name for each of the records with each name being constructed using the
RES_SUBSET components. The name stored for this second column is constructed using the
first four characters from the original SUBSET column plus a counter of four digits starting
at 0001.
Form When the necessary data is supplied to the form and the OK button is selected, modules
Output: SURFSAMPPOLY and SURFSAMPFORM are submitted to the server for execution.

Last updated Sep 27, 2004

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