distance to 2d area

distance to 2d area receives any 3D field into its left input port and it receives triangulated polygons (from triangulate polygon, or other sources) into its right input port. It adds a data component to the input 3D field representing the signed distance from the boundary of the input area. Using subsetting modules such as plume shell, you can cut structures inside or outside of the input polygons. Only the x and y coordinates of the polygons are used because distance to 2d area cuts a projected slice that is z invariant. distance to 2d area recalculates when either input field is changed or the “Run Once” button is pressed.

The data values are zero (0.0) at the boundaries of the surface, less than zero (negative) inside the surface, and greater than zero (positive) outside of the surface. To get everything inside, you need to choose “Below Level” in the subsetting modules rather than the default “Above Level”.

distance to 2d area does not cut directly. It provides data with which you can then subset using other modules like plume or intersection. Without the subsetting modules after distance to 2d area, the only effect is the addition of a new nodal data component.

distance to 2d area needs a surface as its input. The surface can be complex, meaning that it can have holes in it, or it can be separate disjoint pieces. If you are starting with lines, they must form a truly closed polyline. Once you have one or more closed polylines, pass those through triangulate polylines to create a TIN surface before connecting to distance to 2d area.

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distance to surface

distance to surface receives any 3D field into its left input port and it receives a surface (from create tin, surface from horizons, slice, etc.) into its right input port. It adds a data component to the input 3D field referencing the cutting surface. With this new data component you can use a subsetting module like plume to pass either side of the 3D field as defined by the cutting surface, thereby allowing cutting of structures along any surface. The surface can originate from a TIN surface, a slice plane, or a geologic surface. The cutting surface can be multi-valued in Z, which means the surface can have instances where there is more than one z value for a single x, y coordinate. This might occur with a wavy fault surface that is nearly vertical, or a fault surface with recumbent folds.

distance to surface recalculates when either input field is changed or the “Execute” button is pressed.

The general approach with distance to surface is:

• Create a cutting surface representing either a fault plane, a scouring surface (unconformity), or an excavation.
• Create a 3D model of the object you wish to cut.
• Pass the 3D model into the left port of distance to surface, and the cutting surface to the right port of distance to surface and press Execute.

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GPU Options

distance to shape

distance to shape receives any 3D field into its input port and outputs the same field with an additional data component. Using plume shell, you can cut structures with either a cylinder or rotated rectangle. The cutting action is z invariant (like a cookie cutter). Depending on the resolution of the input field, rectangles may not have sharp corners. With rectilinear fields (and non-rotated rectangles), the threshold module can replace plume shell to produce sharp corners (by removing whole cells). plume can be used to output 3D fields for additional filtering or mapping.

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Shape Settings

buffer distance

buffer distance receives any 3D field into its left input port and it receives polylines (from read lines, import vector gis, import cad, isolines, or other sources) into its right input port. It adds a data component to the input 3D field representing the 2D distance from each node to the input polylines. Using plume shell, you can cut structures along the path of the input polylines. Only the x and y coordinates of the polylines are used because buffer distance creates data to cut a projected region that is z invariant. buffer distance recalculates when either input field is changed or the “Execute” button is pressed. “Thick Fences” can be produced with the output of this module.

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distance to tunnel center

The distance to tunnel center module is similar to the distance to surface module in that it receives any 3D field into its left input port, but instead of a surface, it receives a line (along the trajectory of a tunnel, boring, or mineshaft) into its right input port. The distance to tunnel center module then cuts a cylinder, of user-defined radius, along the line trajectory. The algorithm is identical in concept to distance to surface in that it adds a data component to the input 3D field referencing the distance from the line (trajectory). With this new data component you can use a subsetting module like plume volume to pass either portion of the 3D field (inside the cylinder or outside the cylinder), thereby allowing cutting tunnels along any trajectory. The trajectory line can originate from any one of a number of sources such as read lines, import cad, or import vector gis.

The general approach is to subset the distance to tunnel center data component with either constant shell or plume volume. The choice of 1.0 for the subsetting level will result in cutting at the user radius, while less than 1.0 is inside the cylinder wall and greater than 1.0 is outside the cylinder wall.

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overburden

The overburden module computes the complete volume required to excavate a plume or ore body given the pit wall slope (measured from vertical) and the excavation digging accuracy (referred to as buffer size).

overburden receives any 3D field into its input port and outputs the same field with an additional data component. It computes a new data component based on the nodal values in the 3D field and two user-defined parameter values called Wall Slope and Buffer Size. The data component is subset according to a concentration input (based on the subsetting level you want excavated). For example, once overburden has been run for GOLD at a 45 degree pit wall slope, the user would select the overburden data component and subset all data below 1 ppm to render a 45 degree slope pit which would excavate everything higher than 1 ppm concentration. A volumetrics calculation could be made on these criteria which would encompass the excavation and the ore body above 1 ppm.

overburden creates a data component name that includes the wall slope, module name, and original data component (analyte) name.

The overburden data component may be subset by modules such as plume, isosurface, or plume shell.

Notes:

• It is much safer and more understandable to work at Z Scale = 1. Otherwise, the apparent angle of your pit will be very different than the input angle. As the Z Scale increases, the angle of pit sidewalls looks more vertical, since the tangent of the apparent angle is the tangent of the actual angle multiplied by the Z Scale.
• The overburden module must be placed before any scaling modules (such as explode and scale) to ensure an accurate slope angle during computations and subsequent visualizations.
• The grid resolution and resulting cell aspect ratios are very important. You cannot see any pit wall slope differences if those differences create a slope which is less than one cell wide from the bottom of the pit to the top. Therefore, very high resolutions in X-Y are needed for large sites with shallow pits. Expect long run times for overburden.
• Angles are defined from the vertical and are specified in degrees. A vertical wall pit is created with an angle of zero (0.0) degrees. A 2:1 pitch slope from horizontal would be an angle whose arctangent = 2.0, which is 63.4 degrees from horizontal, so you would enter 26.6 degrees (from vertical).

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