Pit Scheduler

Pit Scheduler is a short-range surface mine scheduling command and is located under Reserves/Timing dropdown menu in Carlson Surface Mining. It displays selected pits in a cross section view with benches and allows user to assign equipments to pit benches by time period. The planner can simply pick on a bench to mine/un-mine it and the updated quantities will appear in the quantity spreadsheet. These quantities can be reported using report formatter at any time.

Interface Components

1.    Menu
    The Pit Scheduler has three main dropdown menus.
     a.    File Menu
        i.    Read Pit Blocks: This command can be used to read in the new pits in the view to work on.
        ii.    Report: This command can be used to report the currently assigned quantities.
        iii.    Export to Bitmap: This command can be used to save the current pit display in to a bitmap file.
        iv.    Save and Exit: This command saves all the assignment and exits from the Pit Scheduler.
        v.    Exit: This will exit from the Pit Scheduler without saving any assignments.
     b.    View Menu
         i.    Project Manager: This command brings up the Surface Project Manager that can be used to define equipments, timing calendar, and other components to be used in scheduling and to view assignments and loaded pit names.


        ii.    Settings: This command shows the settings for Pit View, Pit Text and Mining.
            -    Pit View: These settings can be used to modify the pit display to view it more efficiently. The “Pit Width” and “Pit Separation” can be set for better viewing the pits based on their thickness. The pit width is the width of the pit column and pit separation is the separation between two pit columns.  The “Show Pit” allows user specify the number of pits to view in current view. If “Zoom selected Pit in plan view” is on as soon as used clicks on a pit it will be highlighted in the AutoCAD drawing plan view and the view will be zoomed in to current pit. The “Set Common Elevation” option allows pits to be hanged from a common elevation specified in the “Elevation” edit box, if this option is turned off the program looks for the “SURFACE” attribute for the pit and reads the elevation from there.
            -    Pit Text: The Pit Text settings can be used to display different text in the pit display for a pit column.
            -    Mine Settings: These settings are used in timing the pits similar to used in Equipment Timing.
     c.    Tools Menu
        i.    Clear Assignments: This command clears all the assignments for the current equipment selected in “Equipment” dropdown list. This will allow user to select the assignments for equipment from the beginning.
        ii.    Clear All Assignments: This command will clear all the assignments for all the equipments and bring the mine to the starting point, and allows user to start the scheduling from the beginning.
2.    View Toolbar
3.    Pick Mode and Selection Option
    a.    Pick Mode: is used to set the mode for selection of pit benches. There are three pick modes:
        i.    Assignment: This mode is used to assign the current equipment selected in the “Equipment” dropdown list to the selected bench/benches based on the “Selection Option”.
        ii.    Waste Bench: This mode is used to specify whether a bench will be mined or treated as waste bench. The waste bench quantities will not be added to the quantities as it will not be mined.
        iii.    Add Delay:  This mode allows user to add delays associated with a bench. If this mode is selected than based on the selection option delay will be added to the bench/benches and mining will be delayed by delay duration. (Look in Surface Equipment Timing for more information on adding delays)

    b.    Selection Option: is used to apply the pick mode to the benches. There are five selection options user can choose from.
        i.    Individual Pit: the pick mode will be applied to the selected bench in selected pit.
        ii.    Current View: the pick mode will be applied to the selected bench for all the pits in the current view.
        iii.    All Pits: the pick mode will be applied to the selected bench for all the pits loaded in the Pit Scheduler.
        iv.    Pits to the Right: the pick mode will be applied to the selected bench for selected pit and to all the pits on right side.
        v.    Pits to the Left: the pick mode will be applied to the selected bench for selected pit and to all the pits on left side.
4.    Pit Navigation
The Pit Navigation can be used to scroll through the loaded pits. The “Goto” pit allows user to select the starting pit for the view. The Left or Right View scrolls the view to left or right respectively by the number of pits selected in “Show Pits” in the Settings dialog under View Menu. The Move Left or Right scrolls the view by a single pit.
5.    Pit Display
The Pit Display shows the pits with benches in a plan view based on the view and text settings. Following figure shows a typical Pit with all text options turned on.

6.    Tool-Tip
A Tool-Tip window is shown with the full name of bench (Site-Pit-Bench) and Key and Non-Key thickness when user cursor over a bench.

7.    Period & Equipment    a.    Period: can be used to view the number of days used and available for the selected equipment. The Period string can be formatted using the Period Formatter dialog or can directly be typed in the edit box. The Period string must be in the specified format. As soon as the user updates the Period and hit enter the “Days:” label is updated to show “Used Days/Available Days (Period Days)”.    b.    Equipment: This dropdown lists all the defined equipments in the Project Manager. The current selected equipment is used for assignments.

8.    Quantity Spread
 The quantity spread shows the quantities and qualities for the equipment selected in “Equipment” dropdown for each bench it is assigned to. The spread shows Equipment, Bench, Key-Tons, Key-Thickness, Non-Key Thickness, Key Volume, OB Volume, Area, Acres, and Strip Ratio columns followed by the pit attribute values.

9.    Elevation
The current elevation of cursor is show on the “Elevation” label. If the “SURFACE” attribute is defined for the pit it will show the actual elevation for that pit and its benches.

10.    Right Click Menu
A Right Click menu pops-up when user right click on a Pit Column. This menu lists Edit Pit followed by the full name of benches in that pit. The thickness of a bench can be very small that it becomes hard to pick that bench using left click, in that case right click menu can be used to pick that particular bench. It shows the mined benches with a check mark. The “Edit Pit” command can be used to edit the pit values and attributes. (For more information refer to “Edit Pit” command under Boundary dropdown menu of Carlson Surface Mining).

Pulldown Menu Location: Reserves/Timing in Surface Mining
Keyboard Command: pit_scheduler
Prerequisite: Pits with assigned quantities