Surface Conditioning in MineSight 3D I
n MineSight 3D (MS3D), it is crical to ensure that you are working with clean surfaces and solids at all mes.
Some of the most crical operaons in MineSight, including reserves calculaons and model coding, depend on the use of properly condioned surfaces and solids. Surfaces and solids containing self-intersecons, duplicate faces, or openings can produce erroneous coding and calculaons. These errors could adversely aect the validity of all downstream processes such as geologic modeling or mine scheduling. MS3D provides several funcons to condion and repair surfaces. The primary tool is the Verify funcon accessed via the Surface menu. We’ll also discuss other surface condioning tools including the Explode, Decimate, and Delete Face funcons.
YOU SHOULD CHECK YOUR SURFACE OR SOLID INTEGRITY BEFORE:
) HINT
PVolumecalculations PPartialsgeneration PCoding PResource/reservecalculations PGeneratingperiodmaps PIntersectingwithothersurfaces
S U R F AC E | V E R I F Y F U N C T I O N The Verify funcon checks for self-intersecng faces, duplicate faces, or openings in surfaces. Aer launching the Verify funcon, select the surface to condion. The funcon operates on any surface in the selecon set (i.e. surfaces selected before the Verify funcon is acvated using Selecon | Make New) and can be checked using the Verify buon or condioned in-place using the Repair buon. Alternavely, Alternavely, a surface not in the selecon set can be checked (but not repaired) if Allow all surfaces in the viewer to be selected is toggled on (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 The Verify funcon. Perform the operaons in the order they appear on the dialog to condion surfaces. Use Allow all surfaces in the viewer to be selected to check surfaces that are not in the selecon set.
á Fig. 1
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To repair a surface, apply the opons in the order shown in the Verify dialog: 1
Repair self-intersecng faces
2
Repair duplicate faces
3 Repair openings These steps will repair most surfaces or solids. However, occasionally a surface may require an addional pass through the repair steps. Aer repairing, you should check the surface again and repeat steps 1-3, if necessary.
R E S O L V I N G S U R F A C E C O N D I T I O N I N G LO O P S In most cases, ulizing the steps noted above in succession will repair the surface. However, somemes you may enter a “surface condioning loop” where these successive steps are not capable of repairing the surface (Fig. 2). If this happens, we have another opon inside the Verify funcon, as well as several addional surface condioning funcons that can assist with the repair.
á Fig. 2
First, try changing the method used to repair duplicate faces. While the All except one opon works in most cases, somemes for dicult surfaces it may not properly remove all problem faces. Try running the typical surface repair workow using the Delete all opon instead (Fig. 3). This resolves a large percentage of surface condioning loops.
Fig. 2 Messages showing a surface condioning loop for a parcularly damaged solid. Noce that aer applying the repair steps twice, there are sll self-intersecons.
The Explode funcon (Surface | Explode) can also be used to resolve surface condioning loops. Explode will break a large surface into smaller surfaces that don’t share common edges. Oen exploding a large topographic surface with bad faces will produce one large surface with many single-face fragments that can be discarded. If you have a surface that explodes in this manner, then deleng the single-face fragments might resolve the condioning loop.
Fig. 3 Using Delete all for repairing duplicate faces may resolve a surface condioning loop.
á Fig. 3
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Exploding should be performed aer repairing the self-intersecng faces in the Verify funcon. Use the following steps: 1
Make sure the Verify funcon is closed
2
Select the surface (Selecon | Make New)
3
Explode the surface (Surface | Explode); you should have one large surface and some single-face fragments, all of which are sll in the selecon set
4
Use Selecon | Modify Selecon and shi+click on the large surface to remove it from the selecon set (Fig. 4)
5
Use Selecon | Delete to remove the single-face fragments
á Fig. 4 à
The Decimate funcon (Surface | Decimate) can also be used to resolve condioning loops by cleaning up cluered areas of the surface. Decimate will reduce the number of faces in the surface by combining ones that are nearly co-planar. The co-planar tolerance is specied in the dialog (Fig. 5). The last resort is manual repair. Occasionally, a large concentraon of twisted and self-intersecng faces may occur in an area of the surface that should be completely at. If this occurs, try using Surface | Delete Face to remove the oending faces. Then patch the surface by repairing openings with the Verify funcon. If none of these opons resolve your surface condioning issues, please contact your local Technical Support group. We will be happy to examine your surface and advise the best way to repair it.
á Fig. 5
Fig. 4 Modify Selecon will color all selected elements with the secondary highlight color (Viewer| Preferences) , in this case orange. When you shi+click on the large surface it will be removed from the selecon set and displayed as an unselected element. Fig. 5 Use Decimate to combine nearly co-planar faces.
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