RR. Designer Tab

Owned by iarmstrong
Last updated: Jun 12, 2023
11 min read

RU

The Designer tab it’s your main area to view, create, modify, manipulate and analyze reserves and dumps solids, shapes, polygons, and lines.

It is the primary 3D work environment for the project, which allows the following:

  • View the entire solid inventory by pit, stage, or bench.

  • Show color-coded block models in the background.

  • Inspect solid properties, reserves, and attributes.

  • Resolve errors in the Error List.

The Designer tab consists of four areas, such as Tree Hierarchy, Viewport with toolbar, Information Panel and Right Panel, each of those includes several elements, tabs and fields. All essential commands and tools are described below in this section.

Designer tab overview

Tree Hierarchy

Tree Hierarchy it’s a tree structure, listing all levels of Dumps and Reserves in a certain order like Reserve - Mine - Pit - Stage - Bench - Flitch.

The hierarchy of levels is set in the RR. Phases step. If necessary, go back to this setup task and check the phases order in the list.

By pressing on a level, it will display in the viewport. You may also select the whole reserve/mine/pit/stage/bench to display or selected solids using <CTRL> and <Shift> hotkeys.

  • Left-click on any level to display it in the viewport. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to quickly view and navigate between the level records.

  • Double-click a level to zoom to it in the viewport.

  • Expand the tree structure to the desired level. You can use the Expand/Collapse tool to expand selection or all levels.

Viewport

In a viewport you may review and work with results of operations and imported layers.

  • Select one block or group of blocks and compare them in the Properties panel.

  • Selected blocks are highlighted yellow.

  • Depending on the operations that are being run, different icons become available at a top of viewport.

  • All icons have tools tips, that appear when hovering mouse cursor over them.

Toolbar

In the table below all toolbar icons are listed with description and hotkeys available.

Examples of usage and exercises see in the section RR. Designer tab Exercises.

Mouse controls

Selection

Left click and drag.

Pan

Middle click and drag.

Rotate

Right click and drag.

Zoom

Scroll wheel.

Zoom Extents

Left click on the compass widget.

Vertical Exaggeration

-

<CTRL> + Scroll wheel.

Measurement and screenshot

Show/Hide grid

Toggle grid in the viewport.

Note that the grid is only displayed in the top view. If the grid is not displayed, then you are working in a different plane. Press the "Z" icon on the compass to return to the top view.

Measure Distances

 

<Enter> - Toggle Including Mouse-Point in Result.

<Backspace> Remove Last Point.

Screenshot

 

Make a screenshot and choose a resolution required.

Design shortcuts

Polygon Draw

<P> - Create Polygon

Line Draw

<D> - Create Construction Line

Point Move

<F> - Move Points

Point Insert

<A> - Add Points

Point Delete

<S> - Delete Points

Line Move

<M> - Move Segment

Line Copy

<C> - Copy Segment

Line Delete

<N> - Delete Segment

Line Join / Poly Close

<J> - Join Segment

Line Break / Poly Open

<B> - Break Segment

Line Rotate

<R> - Rotate Segment

Line Offset

<O> - Offset Segment

Line Trim

<T> - Trim Line

Line Intersect

<I> - Intersect Lines

Line Quick Extend

<X> - Quick Extend

Clear Path

Clearing Path

Compass

The compass widget sits in the top right of the viewport.

Plan View

Click on the axis cones to snap to orthogonal views.

Zoom Extents

Click on the grey cube to zoom to extents.

Night Mode

Click on the sun icon to toggle night mode and back.

Extended Design tools

Generate Blast Shapes

Choice of Blast shapes generation from dropdown. Production, Trim, Ramp and Contour blasts shapes can be generated for the entire mine or selected benches.

More details see in the section RR. Generating Blast Shapes.

Delete designs

Choice of designs to be deleted. Available options depend on an element selected.

 

Bulk Block Rename

Rename Blasts options.

More details see in the section RR. Blast Renaming.

Strip Renamer

Strip Namer option to set Horizontal/Vertical Naming, Included Blast Types and Grid Orientation.

More details see in the section RR. Blast Renaming.

Automated Dig Line Creation

To create automated dig lines with selected blasts/digs or current/visible flitches.

Example of use see in the section RR. Single Destinations.

Information Panel

This panel consists of three tabs: Properties, Reserves and Error List.

Properties tab

Shows all the properties of selected solid/solids. Click on one block in a viewport to display its properties or box select multiple solids to show and compare their properties.

Settings

Review and modify main settings of the selected block(s). Note that the settings available differ for Bench and Flitch level blocks.

Force Exclude

Flag to excludes unwanted solids from the Reserves. Hatching is shown in Legend and set in Setup > Settings > Hatch Patterns.

Too Small

Excludes smaller solids from being displayed. Threshold values are set in Setup > Settings > Discard Thresholds.

Is Locked

Prevents a solid from being edited.

Full Height Dig

Flag to make one large dig block across all the flitches.

Parent Blast Type

Type of the Blast (Trim / Contour / Ramp / FreeDig / Production), which includes the selected dig solid.

Reserves Source

Block Model/Grade Control.

Temp Ramp Bearing

Add a numeric value to set an Azimuth. This will cause the block to be split in to two blocks, “upper” and “lower” in the azimuth direction. Changes populated in this field will be displayed in Production Scheduler/Tactical Scheduler Viewports.

Level Names

Level Names hierarchy: Reserves - Mine - Pit - Stage - Bench - Blast - Flitch - Dig Solid.

 

Blast and Dig Solid identifiers can be edited, if desired.

 

Solid Properties

Solid Properties, added and configured by user in the Setup > Blast Properties, more details see here.

 

 

Metric

Quantitative characteristics of selected solids, such as volume, surface area, perimeter.

 

Reserves tab

In the Reserves tab you may see all Sum, Weight and Class fields of selected solids. Toggle Min/Max icon to inspect the data for missing or rubbish values or press Export button to export the current table to Excel or Text/CSV file.

Error List tab

Open the Error list tab to review all the errors found for the project and zoom in to see each of them. Check the reserves for trivial volumes and batter shards.

  1. Activate the Error List tab.

  2. Double click on a line to zoom to it.

  3. Either set the block property to Exclude or redraw the construction lines to remove the block.

In the left part you may set a flag to display different types of errors, such as “Duplicate Names”, “Silvers”, “Absolute Minimum Volume“, “Minimum Volume” or “Depleted Solid”.

In the right part you see full description of errors: you may double click on the selected error to zoom in to see it in a viewport or toggle an eye icon to hide it from a list.

Display Panel

Display panel on the right consists of three tabs described in details below.

Display tab

In the right Display panel multiple custom options are available. Their explanation is provided in the table below:

Section

Description

Section

Description

Labels

  • Toggle an eye icon to display or hide labels.

  • Select a text to display in the label from the Text dropdown, or configure custom labels through the gear icon. Examples and instructions on how to create Custom Blasts Labels can be found here.

    • Orange labels are custom configured.

    • Blue labels are pre-configured by Alastri.

    • Black labels are standard.

  • Optionally, specify preferred text back and fore colors, as well as font and size.

Blasts/Digs

  • Choose what type of the solid level you wish to display (Blasts or Digs). Note that depending on whether Blast or Dig display type is selected, different properties become available for editing.

  • Toggle an eye icon to display/hide polygons. Optionaly, change their opacity.

  • Toggle an eye icon to display/hide solids. Optionaly, change their opacity.

  • From the Shading dropdown select a standard or pre configured blasts/digs shading. Alternatively, create your own. Examples and instructions on how to create Custom Blasts Shadings can be found here.

Construction Lines

Toggle to display/hide construction Lines and Extrusions.

Block Model

  • Toggle an eye icon to display or hide Block Model.

  • Optionally, select block’s height and scale.

  • Use Constraints to hide parts of the block model based on some criteria, such as material type or grade threshold. Examples and instructions on how to create Block Model Custom Constraints can be found here.

  • Select Block Model Shading from a preloaded list of automatic shadings. Alternatively, add to this list by configuring custom shading sets. Examples and instructions on how to create Block Model Custom Shading can be found here.

Cash Flows

  • Toggle to display or hide Cash Flow values. Note that to have this section available option Enable Single Destinations must be flagged in the Settings step. Examples and instructions on how to create use Single Destinations functionality can be found here.

Other Entities

Options to display/hide, or change a color of the following entities:

  • Bench Above/Bench Below,

  • Flitch Above/Flitch Below,

  • Blast Designs,

  • Silhouette,

  • Expanded Silhouette,

  • Wall Control.

Layers tab

The Layers tab is a common part of all Alastri products. In this panel you may import surfaces and solids triangulations, display and organize them, as well as assign colors, visibility and other properties. More detailed information on the Layers panel tools see in a section UI. Layers/Overlays panel.

History tab

The History tab is located in the bottom right corner of an application.

Click through the history list to see different past states and revert to any of them.

More detailed description of tools available in the Designer tab see in the children pages:

Import and Export

Various Importing and Exporting options, available through the Import and Export buttons at a top of the Benches / Lifts panel, are described in the section RR. Imports and Exports.