This section describes the options under the Ring Design submenu, which offers an extensive set of tools for underground blast design.

The Ring Design options provide both manual and automatic tools for laying out blasthole patterns. The Explosives Loading options provide explosive analysis on blasthole patterns. These tools give you the flexibility to adapt to the many different situations encountered in the range of underground mines at which Vulcan is used.

The explosive analysis tools can be used to assign explosive columns to blasthole, as well as order (cap) each column for the blast sequence. The explosive columns, in conjunction with the explosives library found in the blast design specification file, contain the information regarding the explosive type. This information is used by the available reporting features to report the explosive weights, lengths and other associated information.

In addition to the design and explosive analysis tools, underground grade control can be performed. Assays can be merged, displayed and analysed on the same blastholes that are used in the blasting stage. This information can be used to modify dynamically the blasthole pattern according to the updated location of the ore. These blastholes can also be used in other mine planning tasks, such as reserve estimation and geological interpretation.

When creating ring designs the sequencing of both the stope reference line and the stope section lines is critically important to create meaningful reports. You must design lines that are sequenced from the left to the right (that is, from West to East in plan view) or from bottom to top (that is, from south to north). The Left and Right values displayed in the report are dependent upon the 'look' direction, which in turn is dependent upon the line sequencing when you changed to section view. If you want the Left and Right values displayed in the report to be consistent with the convention (that is, When looking northerly in a cross section, west is to the left and east is to the right, or when looking easterly in a cross section, north is to the left and south to the right), then you must ensure that you have sequenced the lines in the correct manner. Use the Draw direction dials button to confirm your 'look' direction.

Main functions

Vulcan Ring Design is organised into the following main functional areas.

• Ring Design setup
• • Create/Edit Specification File
  • Create/Edit Database Design
  • Create Blast Database
• Create rings/profiles
• • Create Rings
  • Create Ring Profiles
• Ring reserves
• • Calculate Ring Reserves
• Onscreen manipulation
• • Navigate rings
  • Display rings
• Create/edit holes
• • Create Hole
  • Create/Edit Five-Spot Hole
  • Move Hole, Copy Hole, Shuffle Holes, Delete Hole
  • Edit Hole Diameter
  • Adjust Hole Lengths
  • Layout Hole Pattern
  • Fill Hole Pattern
  • Change Sequence
  • Explosives loading
• Reporting
• • Edit Report Format
  • Report on Rings
  • Plot Rings

Prerequisite files:

Before you use Ring Design options, ensure you have the following files ready.

Underground Blast Display Preferences File

The display settings specified through the Display Preferences option are saved to the BlastDisplay.prefs specification file. This file is stored in your users profile area.

.dg1 files (<PROJ> codes)

The project (.dg1) file is used whenever you start a Vulcan session. For information on setting up the project/job specification file (.dg1) and windows parameters (<PROJ>.wnd), see Creating a Project File.

.scd/.ftd/.rep/.pgd (PRIMITIVES)

Primitives are useful when repeatedly using complex 3D designs where the shape is always basically the same. Instead of redesigning the object every time it is needed, it can be designated as a primitive and applied to any line. For more information on primitives, see Create/Edit Primitives.

Some Ring Design options may also require the following files.

Design (datasheet)

The design (datasheet) describes the blasthole database and provides information on the tables contained in the blast database in a.dsf file. The design (datasheet) is created or edited in the Create/Edit Blast Database Design option.

Blasthole Database

The blasthole database contains all the blastholes for all the ring designs. It is created through the Create Blasthole Database option, and opened through using the Open Blasthole Database option. This database will be empty until holes are created. Each hole will have the above mentioned tables.

Blast Design Specification File

Underground blast design specification file ( Blasting.spc ) contains a drill bit and explosives library. Unlike Version 5.0, which used the older <proj>.ug_spec specification file, the Ring Design module now uses the new Blast Design specification file ( Blasting.spc ).The Blasting.spc specification file, which is created through the Create/Edit Specification File option, is stored in the directory pointed to by the $ENVIS_RESO environment variable, however, it can be copied to the your current data directory.

Note:   If the older .ug_spec file exists in your current working directory, then the contents of this file will be used to 'populate' the UG Specification File panel. Upon completing this panel, the older Blast Design specification file, which will be archived and renamed to <proj>.ug_spec-old. , is replaced with the new Blasting.spc file.

Prerequisite knowledge:

Before you use Ring Design options, ensure you are familiar with the following concepts.

Basic file structure

For an overview of Vulcan data organisation, see the Data Structures Overview.

Standard CAD features

For more information on standard CAD features in Vulcan, such as Snap to Point/Object/Grid, see the Digitise toolbar section.

View Create Section

For an overall understanding of how to view Vulcan data, see the View section.

Rotation, Reset, and Fit to world views

For more information on viewing manipulating visualisations onscreen, see the Viewing Data section.

Numbered and Named Views

For more information on accessing saved views using numbers or names, see the Numbered Views and Load View Toolbar respectively.

Load Screen/ Save Screen/ Screen dump/ AVI dump

To load or save onscreen contents, see Load Screen, Save Screen  and Screen and AVI dump