Step 3: Set Dependencies

A dependency is a relationship between two solids. Dependency sets allow you to place solids in a known mining order that Evolution will honour while processing your setup. In the case there are two solids, Solid 1 and Solid 2, the dependency between them will dictate mining Solid 1 (called the predecessor solid) before Solid 2 (the successor solid).

See also:  Dependencies in Epoch

Dependencies in the project

The following dependency sets have already been created for our project:

• Geometric. Ensures that all of an overlying solid is drilled, blasted, and mined before the solid below can be drilled. For simplicity, this example assumes the drilling and blasting occur on each flitch individually, and not on both flitches in a bench at once.
  

• Relational (mine ramp first). Since we are using shovels, the ramp solid must be mined first so that excavators can access the rest of the bench. This only applies to the mining activity, since drills will instead sit on top of the bench.
  

Creating drill and blasting dependencies

To force all of the blasting groups to be drilled before they can be blasted and mined, we must create a new relational dependency set by completing the following steps:

1. In the Viewer tab, open the Relation Dependency Generator panel (see Relational dependency sets for more information).

   Steps 2-5 are illustrated in Figure 1 below.

2. Set both the Predecessor Filter and Successor Filter to solid.DaB_Group > 0.

   This ensures that the dependencies are created only for the solids associated with the blasting groups that we defined in step 1.

3. Specify the relationships between predecessors and successors as follows:

   • phase = phase. This ensures dependencies will be created only between solids that belong to the same phase.

   • DaB_Group = DaB_Group. This ensures dependencies will be created only between solids that belong to the same blasting group.

   • flitch = flitch. This ensures dependencies will be created only between solids on the same flitch.

     Note:  When specifying the above relationships, leave the value in the Offset column as 0 and set the Type to Absolute (see step 2 of the relational dependency set generation procedure for more information).

4. Set the Predecessor Activity to Drilling and the Successor Activity to Blasting. This will guide Epoch that blasting in a successor solid should only occur after the drilling in all the predecessor solids has occurred.

   Note:  By applying the above settings in Evolution, the logic ensures that within each blasting group on a bench, all solids must be drilled before any blasting can occur.

5. Click OK to create the configured dependency set.

   Figure 1: Setting up drilling-to-blasting dependencies.

Figure 2 below shows the dependencies created based on the above configuration, with the following outcomes:

• Since we applied the solid.DaB_Group > 0 for both the predecessor and successor filter, the dependencies were created within each blasting group.

• Blasting group solids are connected by shared phase, DaB_Group, and flitch values, which makes them mutually dependent.

• The name of the dependency set (Drilling to Blasting) indicates that the dependency only connects the drilling and blasting activities. The mining activity is not affected by these dependencies.