Case Study #7, Part 1: Underground Mine Mapping Procedure

Application

Underground mine mapping requires the entry of traverse notes (for the placement of spads), entry of left and right offsets for locating mine pillars and perimeters, connecting the pillars and perimeters, the placing of special mine symbols and strata thickness measurements, and the drafting of projections for future mining. These are all fully covered in the Mining Module of Carlson. The mapping utilities apply primarily to underground coal mines but also to underground limestone, trona and even salt mines. In fact, any mine that creates pillars for roof support.

Procedure

Here's a quick summary of the mine mapping procedure:

1. Enter the traverse notes and plot the spad points.
2. Draw projections.
3. Enter the mine "offset" notes to pillars and perimeter points.
4. Connect up your pillars and perimeters.
5. Add special mine symbols (stoppings, air flow pointers, etc.).

Let's now look at each of these steps in detail.

(1) Entering the Traverse Notes
The most direct method of entering traverse notes begins with Draw/Locate Point in the Points Dropdown and continues with Locate by Bearing or Locate by Azimuth. You would Enter coordinates or Pick a Point within Draw/Locate Point. You might choose to enter a specific northing of 1200465.107 and easting of 795091.135. If this is your first point on the job you will be asked to select an existing or make a new .CRD file (coordinate file). You would select New and choose a name, typically equal to the name of the drawing. We will call our file MINE. Then if you select LOCATE BY AZIMUTH under Notes dropdown menu, the program will start at your first point by default, and allow you to enter an azimuth and distance to the next point, such as 100.1535 (100 degrees 15 minutes 35 seconds), and a distance of 120.09 feet. Press Enter for 0.00 vertical angle and Enter for no Description. Pressing ENTER will repeat the LOCATE BY AZIMUTH command. Next try defaulting (repeating) the azimuth by pressing ENTER, and input a distance of 60.05. You obtain a drawing as shown above.

Now, let's enter an elevation for all 3 points. Go to Points, Coordinate File Utilities, Edit-Assign Point. The following dialog box appears. Enter in the elevation for Point 1, choose next for points 2 and 3. Point1 elevation is 1016.73, Point 2 is 1016.75 and Point 3 is set to 1017.03.

To enter the additional points. Use the Inverse and Traverse commands from the COGO module in the COGO dropdown. Make sure Instrument Rod and Height Prompting is turned on Under Point Defaults. This will prompt for the height each time. Go to the COGO menu and turn on Linework. This will draw the lines of the traverse. Now Select Inverse from the COGO menu, or type I at the command line. Here are the next four Traverse point entry values.

PointNo. Northing(Y)   Easting(X)   Elev(Z)    Description

2        1200443.7177  795209.3048  1016.7500

The following image should appear in the drawing.

(2) Drawing Projections
There are four types of projections: Basic Projections, Advanced Projections, Projections and Ventilation and Rooms. Basic Projections will only produce rectangular projections (not angular). This option, however, has fewer prompts and is more automatic. Let's run Basic Projections.

Start pt. of belt entry: Pick point 4 (You are automatically placed in intersect and node snap mode. All Carlson points have nodes, so you can use the node snap. You can override the pre-set snap by picking the asterisks at the top of the sidebar menu and selecting another choice.)

You will notice how all projection lines are on distinct layers (PROJECTIONS, PROJSTOPPINGS, PROJVENTARROWS).

With the projection shown, it is easy to illustrate rooms. Select Rooms under the Works dropdown.

While here, let's select Label Proj. Distances.

Pick as many entry and crosscut lines as desired. This Label Proj. Distances routine applies to Basic Projections and Rooms using the pick line option. The pick option places the distance on the picked line segment. For Advanced Projections, most lines are continuous from the start to the end of the projections, so the point-to-point end-point pick mode must be used. This point-to-point mode must also be used on the belt line (from spad 4), since it is one continuous line.

Now let's label our panel and rooms. Select Panel Label Block.

Command: labelplan, LABELPAN
Insertion point: Pick anywhere in the open areas.
Rotation angle: Pick the rotation angle from the insertion point.
SECOND DIMENSION <60'>: press Enter
FIRST DIMENSION <60'>: press Enter

Now Select the command: Room Label Block

The final projection option we'll run is Advanced Projections. Select it.

Command: panel2, PANEL2 (Intersect/node on)
Pick Start Point For Belt: Pick where Pick3 is on the figure below.
Pick End Point For Belt, or <A> For Azi/Dist: A
Enter Azimuth in ddd.mmss <280.1535>: 280.1535
Enter Distance: 360
How Many Entries Left Of The Belt <0>: 2
How Many Entries Right Of The Belt <0>: 3

Enter Offset For This Heading <0>: press Enter
Enter Offset For This Heading <0>: press Enter
Enter Offset For This Heading <0>: press Enter
Enter Offset For This Heading <0>: press Enter
Enter Offset For This Heading <0>: 20
Use sidebar to select double-dash stoppings.
Pick pt. on xcut for beginning of stopping line: Pick as many xcuts as you would like.
Draw another stopping line <y>/n: Y Use sidebar to select double-dash stoppings.
Pick pt. on xcut for beginning of stopping line:
Draw another stopping line <y>/n: Y Use sidebar to select double-dash stoppings.
Pick pt. on xcut for beginning of stopping line:
Draw another stopping line <y>/n: N
Pick pt. on entry to begin drawing ventilation arrows [nea on]: Pick ventilation arrow location.
Distance between ventilation arrows: Pick interval distance.
<I>ntake or [R]eturn: I
Draw ventilation arrows on another entry <y>/n: Y
Pick pt. on entry to begin drawing ventilation arrows [nea on]: Pick ventilation arrow location
Distance between ventilation arrows: Pick interval distance
<I>ntake or [R]eturn: R
Draw ventilation arrows on another entry <y>/n: N

Complete the stopping and ventilation options as desired. A plot similar to the one above is obtained. All entries are continuous lines, while crosscuts are individual lines.

(3) Entering the Offset Notes
Since mining operations have different methods for note taking and posting, there are three distinct routines for entering offset notes: Mine Note Left/Right/Face, Mine Note Auto Left/Right, and Mine Note From CRD File. Each of these routines operate with a similar procedure of first choosing a starting point and direction, and then distancing up and offsetting left and right repeatedly. There are also two setup routines. Mine Note From Face Prompt allows the mine note entry routines to post back from the face, and ASCII File From Notes is an option for keeping a record of the offset notes in an ASCII file. All these routines are located in the Notes dropdown menu.

Before we can begin an example, there needs to be some starting points. Select Locate Point and place one point. Then select Locate By Azimuth and place a point at azimuth 100.0000 and distance 60. Repeat Locate By Azimuth with the same values from the second point.

Now we can enter offset notes. Go to Mine Note Auto Left/Right in the Notes dropdown menu.

Command: note2
Enter Offset File Name <offset.dat>: press Enter
Append File [<Yes>/No]? N (This appears only if the file already exists.)
Tabular Format--Distance L R Hgt-- (<y>/n):Y
From Station point[node on]: (795704.0 1.20119e+006) Pick Point 1
To Station point (A for Azimuth): A
Azimuth of Heading (DD.MMSS) or p for pick <0.0>: 10
Spad Number, or <ENTER> For None: press Enter
Entry Number: press Enter
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 10
Enter left offset distance: 10
Enter right offset distance: press Enter
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 30
Enter left offset distance: C11
Enter right offset distance: C10
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 70
Enter left offset distance: 10
Enter right offset distance: 9
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 88
Enter left offset distance: C10
Enter right offset distance: C10
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 110
Enter left offset distance: 10
Enter right offset distance: 9
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): press Enter
Another Spad [<Yes>/No]? Y
From Station point[node on]: (795763.0 1.20118e+006) pick Point 2
Azimuth of Heading (DD.MMSS) or p for pick <10.0>: press Enter
Spad Number, or <ENTER> For None: press Enter
Entry Number: press Enter
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 30
Enter left offset distance: C11
Enter right offset distance: C11
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 65
Enter left offset distance: press Enter
Enter right offset distance: 8
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 70
Enter left offset distance: 10
Enter right offset distance: 12
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 90
Enter left offset distance: C10
Enter right offset distance: C10
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): press Enter
Another Spad [<Yes>/No]? press Enter
From Station point[node on]: (795822.0 1.20117e+006) pick Point 3
Azimuth of Heading (DD.MMSS) or p for pick <10.0>: press Enter
Spad Number, or <ENTER> For None: press Enter
Entry Number: press Enter
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 10
Enter left offset distance: press Enter
Enter right offset distance: 10
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 30
Enter left offset distance: C10
Enter right offset distance: C10
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 68
Enter left offset distance: press Enter
Enter right offset distance: 9
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 70
Enter left offset distance: 10
Enter right offset distance: 20
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 88
Enter left offset distance: press Enter
Enter right offset distance: 20
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): 90
Enter left offset distance: C10
Enter right offset distance: C10
Enter distance from station on centerline (U To Undo, Enter to end): press Enter
Another Spad [<Yes>/No]? N
Print file containing offset input data [<Yes>/No]? N

This should produce the following layout of points and spads:

(4) Connecting Pillars and Perimeter
Once the offset notes have been entered, the pillars and perimeters can be drawn by connecting the dots. Pillars are created as closed polylines in the PILLARS layer, and perimeters are created as closed polylines in the PERIM layer.

There are two approaches for connecting the dots. One is to manually connect the pillars and perimeters by simply picking each point in order and using C to close at the end. This is done with the Draw Pillars and Draw Perimeter routines in the Works dropdown. The other method is to use AutoMine Connections which automatically connects up the pillars and perimeter. This routine reads a record file from a mine note entry routine and requires that the corner points (the first points across a crosscut) are coded. If you entered the example offset notes in the previous section, then everything is ready for AutoMine Connections. Select it from the Works dropdown and choose the file "offset". After drawing the pillars and perimeter, AutoMine leaves a pick box hanging off the perimeter so that you may connect it with a previous perimeter. In our sample case, just enter 'C' to close the perimeter.

It is important for quantity calculations that these polylines are closed. To make sure your pillars and perimeter are closed polylines, use the Highlight Unclosed Polylines routine in the Works dropdown.