MineSight in the Foreground

Data Manipulation in MineSight 3-D

Frequently, the data with which you are working is in different formats or is, in fact, missing critical com ponents. Drawings and objects created using other design software dont always have an elevation item assigned to them. Or in other cases, data becomes corrupted, lost, or not entirely collected in the first place. This data needs to be put into the correct format for manipulating in MineSight 3-D or exporting to acQuire. What do you do when you have data that is missing some elevation values? Examples of this could be objects imported from the zero layer of an ACAD drawing. Files that have been exported by DXF often will not have elevations (roads, boundaries, and buildings). There may be situations where the elevation was not recorded or an instrument failed to acquire all the coordinates. The Drape Tool in MineSight allows the translation of data into a usable format. Lets discuss the situation where a soil survey collected data but the GPS instrument was unable to achieve reliable elevation values. The data has East (x) and North (y) coordinates but the elevations have been discarded. At a later date, the elevations are desired. How do you recover this data? If you have a TOPO surface, you can use the Drape Tool in MineSight to recover the elevation values. Importing the data into MineSight as a DXF would look like Figure 1. Select the data you wish to move and open the Drape Tool, Figure 2. From the Drape Tool, you need only ensure that the azimuth and dip directions are oriented in the correct direction and pick the surface item on which you want to drape. In this example, the shift is a vertical one, but you can apply other orientations from the Azimuth and Dip settings in the dialog box.

Figure 1 (continued on page 12)

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Figure 2a

Figure 2b

Choosing the Dip and the direction to shift the data, you will need to pick the surface on which you want to drape. When completed, select Preview to see the effect of your choices before saving them to a new geometry object. Alternatively, you can drape to a level (typing in an elevation) or you can drape to an edit grid. On the Options tab of the Drape Tool, you alter the direction to go along the direction of the arrow or against the direction of the arrow. If you prefer, move the elements instead of copy (which is default). When draping points and labels onto a solid or a fold, you have the option of keeping everything, the closest, or the farthest points or labels. For polylines, the result from draping is that all elements in the intersection with the surface are found. If the surface is undulating (such as a fold, or a solid), then Points or Text can optionally be draped onto all of the potential surfaces, the surfaces closest to the original elements being draped, or to the surfaces farthest away from the originally selected elements.

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Once the changes have been applied, the data will be copied onto the surface as a new geometry object. Figure 3 shows the Drape Preview.

Figure 3

The data now requires exporting to a database. Select the newly created geometry object, right click and choose Export (Survey ASCII, CSV format) as in Figure 4. Name the fileit will automatically get the .SRG extension. On the Survey Import/Export Panel coordinates can be shifted or X may be interchanged for Y if needed. For this example, no transformations are necessary. Selecting OK will send the data to a comma separated file that can be imported into acQuire or a spreadsheet. You now have complete data.
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Figure 4a

Figure 4b

Viewer Tips

New options in the MineSight 3-D Viewer Properties dialog offer additional flexibility in setting up the Viewer for such CAD functions as Linking or Polyline editing. The use of Plane Filtering without 2-D mode displays the data as in 2-D mode, but allows full rotation for getting into tight spots. In addition, un-checking the box marked Hide 3-D data when plane filter active will also display surface data in conjunction with the plane filtered polyline data. With the pre-existing options available on the Clipping tab, such as the Clipping plane selection, Dim all but current plane, and unequal Volume Clipping range, a wide variety of viewing scenarios can be generated for your convenience. Give some of these options a try the next time youre having problems getting a good visual bead on your data. Call Technical Support or E-mail TS@mintec.com if you have any additional questions regarding these viewing options.

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