Activity Types

Use the Activity Types panel to add, edit, and delete activity types. Activity types are a group of activities that share a common work calculation definition. They convert Vulcan objects (or triangulations) into a Vulcan Gantt activities.

The activity type is defined by a quantity attribute and a default rate (to set an initial duration to the activity) and also manages the discretisation of a Vulcan object, creating a group of minimum mining units. An activity type has an auto-assigned expression that can be used to assign automatically to an object. Activity groups consist of multiple activity types, sharing a common discretisation definition and operational precedence.

Examples of Activity Types might include: Backfilling, Lateral Development, Production Drilling, Stope Mucking, etc.

Note: You can use Lava scripts to run automated tests for many of the most common options when setting up your project.

Instructions

On the Setup tab, in the Settings group, click Activity Types to display the Activity Types pane.

General Workflow

Click the green + button to add a new activity type, or click an activity type name to edit an existing activity type.
Choose a method for Work Calculation.
Check any Attributes that should populate fields in the Activity Grid Area of the Gantt Chart window.

Activity Types

Adding and Defining a New Activity Type

Click Add to add a new entry, or press the INSERT key on your keyboard.

Modifying an Activity Type

Select an entry and modify the displayed information as needed.

Copying an Activity Type

Select an entry and click Copy to create a copy of the selected entry or press Ctrl + C.

Removing an Activity Type

Select an entry and click Remove to remove the selected entry or press Delete. The entry can only be removed if it is not being used in the project.

Moving an Activity Type

Select an entry and click Up or Down to move the entry up or down in the list, or press Ctrl + Up arrow or Ctrl + Down arrow.

General

Name

Name of the activity type used in the whole project.

Description

A brief description of the activity type.

Work calculation

Select Calculate Work or Fixed Work to specify a method for calculating work.

Calculate Work

Select this option if you want to calculate work based upon a quantity attribute. If you select this option, you must select the attribute, default rate, and units.

Quantity attribute

Select the attribute upon which you want to calculate work. The list will contain all attributes that have an attribute type of Double on the Attribute Manager panel.

Default rate

Enter an expression to use for calculating work. To use the Formula Editor panel to enter or modify the expression, click the Formula Editor icon.

Units

Select the unit types for distance and time of the calculation, such as meters per day.

Fixed Work

Select this option if you want to calculate work using a specific amount of time.

Fixed time value

Enter the amount of time of the work.

Units

Select the unit type for the time value from the list.

Default auto assign expression

Condition

Enter a formula for the expression to be evaluated when Vulcan objects and triangulations are selected for activity creation. To use the Formula Editor panel to enter or modify the expression, click the Formula Editor icon. If the evaluated expression is true, then the activity type is assigned to the Vulcan object.

Attributes

In the Selected column, select the check boxes next to the applicable attributes that are listed in the Attribute column.

Gantt Chart Properties

Bar Colour

Select a colour from the drop-down chart for the activity.

Animation Properties

Use bar colour

If this is enabled then objects associated with that activity type will use the colour defined by Gantt Bar Colour.

Reverse mining direction

Select this to reverse the mining direction of the animation of each activity.

Visual effects

Clear

Clears the activity from the screen as the animation progresses.

Fill

The animation starts out cleared from the screen and fills in as the animation progresses.

Defining Attributes

There are three possible sources to populate attribute values in the activity grid: manual, expression, and inherent.

Manual

Manual attributes can be edited directly in the Gantt Chart window. They can be populated by an optional default value that is defined in the activity type setup, edited individually in the Gantt Chart window, or edited in bulk with Copy and Paste in the Gantt Chart window.

Expression

Expression attributes are defined using the Formula Editor panel as described above.

Inherent

The Gantt Scheduler can inherently read the Length (design data only), Area (design data and/or triangulations), and Volume (triangulation and/or design data with assigned primitive) attributes from Vulcan.

Tip

To avoid errors when calculating attributes with an Expression, click the function button to launch an expression builder.
Expression entries are case sensitive.
Enter &, or press [Shift + 7], to concatenate operands. An example is: [DGD:Layer Name]&"_"&[DGD:Object Name].
Enter text in the Enter Formula/Expression area of the Formula Editor dialog box to obtain a list of probable Functions and Operands.
The triangulation attribute called within the brackets [ ] must match the triangulation attribute name exactly.
Consider defining fewer Activity Types and use other attributes to denote more detailed mining types.
Ensure rate units are correct as they impact the calculated work.
Changes to Quantity attribute, rate units or the activity Name will change all imported activities in the Activity Grid Area of the Gantt Chart window.
A Quantity attribute must be defined as a double type attribute in the Attribute Manager panel. If the required attribute does not appear in the drop-down list, on the Setup tab, in the Settings group, click Attributes and ensure the attribute is a Double type.
Any Default values, including the Default auto assign expression, are evaluated when activities are created. Changes to defaults do not change existing activities in the Activity Grid Area of the Gantt Chart window.
The Default auto assign expression is optional.
Apply a unique colour to the Gantt bar for each Activity Type so activities are easier to visualise in the Gantt Chart. On the View tab, in the Colour group, select Activity Type as the Current Colour.
The Attribute Default value field accepts edits when the listed Attribute is a manual type attribute. The Default value field is deactivated on rows that contain either Expression type attributes or Inherent type attributes.
The Default auto assign expression can call Vulcan attributes, file names, and data paths.
If a Default auto assign expression is used to assign activity types, do not use the colour attribute as selection criteria. Colours can easily change.