In order to schedule the spoil polylines (which are closed
polylines), they must have directions assigned. The Assign
Directions command places the direction of spoil placement into the
spoil polyline itself, where it is permanently stored along with
other aspects of the drawing. Directions can vary by bench. The
command prompts to assign the same direction to the Whole spoil
polyline, or by bench. If doing by bench, the routine must be run
separately for each bench.
Assign Directions is found within the Spoil menu in the Carlson Surface Mining. There are six methods employed to assign direction: Automatic, Text, Sequence, Polyline, Bearing and Azimuth. The "automatic" method will move "longways" across the pile, following the longest axis detected, but may not choose the preferred direction along that axis. The text method finds the side closest to the insertion point of the pile name and will mine from that side perpendicular across the pile away from the text. The sequence method will mine left to right and/or right to left across a series of piles as specified by the user, the polyline method will follow a "direction polyline" across a pile or series of piles and the Bearing or Azimuth method will mine at defined bearing or azimuth angle. Below is the prompting and results obtained with each method:
Assign direction using which method
[<Auto>/Text/Sequence/Polyline/Bearing/AZimuth]: A or
press Enter
Select pile polylines to have direction assigned to:
Select objects: Pick the piles and the direction is assigned
as shown below
In this example, it uses the long axis of the pile, and alternates back and forth for direction. It is a quick way to get directions assigned. A pile direction can be easily reversed using the Reverse Directions command.
Next are the prompts for the
Text option.
Assign direction using which method
[<Auto>/Text/Sequence/Polyline/Bearing/AZimuth]:
T
Select pile polylines to have direction assigned
to:
Select objects: pick the piles and the required pile text as
shown below
The highlighted pile has the direction
information assigned already.
Would you like to overwrite this (<No>, Yes, None, All):
A for All. This prompt only occurs when piles are chosen
that already have pile direction. Note that the command "Clear
Directions" could be used to remove directions prior to using
Assign Directions.
The arrows show the resulting directions. Note that this routine
looks for the pile name for the direction, not for the "site" name.
(All piles have a two-tiered naming convention: site and pile,
which can be re-worked as pile and block or any other two-level
form, to adapt to company practices.)
Next is the Sequence option.
Assign direction using which method
[<Auto>/Text/Sequence/Polyline/Bearing/AZimuth]:
S
Select pile polylines to have direction assigned to:
Select objects: select the piles (Don't worry if you
also select other polylines. It only finds piles.)
Select a direction polyline.
Select objects: select a polyline that crosses all of the
piles
Assign direction in which sequence (<LL>, LR, RL, RR):
LR
In our example, we selected LR, which causes the piles to be
filled left to right on the first pile (with respect to the
south-to-north direction polyline--imagine yourself standing at the
beginning of the polyline looking down it. LL would fill all piles
coming from your left. LR would fill from the Left first, then the
Right in the next one and so forth. RR and RL are just the
opposite.), then right to left on the second pile, then left to
right on the third, etc. An entry of LL would cause the piles to be
filled from the left side to the right side. An entry of RR, for
example, would fill all the piles from right to left. The entry of
RL would fill first right to left, then left to right. The sequence
method is ideal for assigning direction to a series of long and
narrow piles that have not been broken up into small
blocks.
If these same piles were each subdivided into 10 or more blocks, or there are many piles that would not be intersected by the sequence polyline, for example, then the following method, direction by polyline, is most appropriate.
Next is the Polyline option.
Assign direction using which method
[<Auto>/Text/Sequence/Polyline/Bearing/AZimuth]:
P
Select pile polylines to have direction assigned to:
Select objects: select the piles
Select all direction polylines.
Select objects: In the example above, select the single
direction polyline.
The polyline-based selection is ideal for piles that follow
sinuous property lines. Direction polylines cannot have arcs, so if
you've used an arc to draw the polyline, use the command Remove
Polyline Arcs on the Edit menu to remove them.
Lastly, are the Bearing and Azimuth option
Bearing Option:
Assign direction to whole pile
or to a specific bench [<Whole>/Bench]: W or Enter to
assign direction to whole pile
Assign direction using which
method
[<Auto>/Text/Sequence/Polyline/Bearing/AZimuth]: B for
Bearing
Select pile polylines to have
direction assigned to:
Select objects: select
the piles
Enter Bearing (Qdd.mmss):
145.0000
The highlighted pile has the
direction information assigned already.
Would you like to overwrite this
[<No>/Yes/None/All]: A for all
The Bearing is entered in the format (Qdd.mmss), the following
figure shows the quarter numbers and the angle is calculated
clockwise.
Azimuth Option:
Assign direction to whole pile or to a
specific bench [<Whole>/Bench]: W or Enter to assign
direction to whole pile
Assign direction using which
method
[<Auto>/Text/Sequence/Polyline/Bearing/AZimuth]: B for
Bearing
Select pile polylines to have
direction assigned to:
Select objects: select
the piles
Enter Azimuth (ddd.mmss):
135.0000
The highlighted pile has the
direction information assigned already.
Would you like to overwrite this
[<No>/Yes/None/All]: A
The Azimuth angle is calculated from
the true north as 0, rotating clockwise.
Pulldown Menu Location: Spoil
Keyboard Command: spoil_assign_dir
Related Commands: Display Directions, Reverse Directions,
Clear Directions, Create pile Plines from Mineplan