Fence Diagram

Fence Diagram produces a profile of the surface and strata along the selected baseline polyline--a geological cross-section. Fence diagrams are a good way to verify that the geological model is correct-especially when the drillholes are plotted on them with Draw Geologic Column command. The first step is to draw a baseline polyline in plan view from which the fence diagram is created. This polyline can have more than two points. There are three tabs on this dialog, detailed below.


Process Settings

Fence Type: This option determines if the fence will be drawn in 2D at a user-specified location, or in 3D in real world coordinates.

Source: This option determines the source of the fence.
The Intersection method builds a model on-the-fly by triangulating the drillholes and then finding the intersection of the triangulation mesh and the fence polyline. In order to obtain data for the strata with the intersection method, the polyline must have at least one drillhole on each side. It is the only way to see a fault in a fence diagram when using the drillholes.
The Grids from Drillholes option builds a model on-the-fly. When this option is used, you will be prompted to select drillholes to build the model, as well as your modeling parameters. This option is only recommended for quick inspection of how the model will appear, but it is not generally recommended as some geologic modeling options cannot be applied with this method, such as accounting for faults.
The Geologic/Mining Model option is the most common method, as it pulls the geologic information from an existing Geologic or Mining model file (.pre or .mmd). This is the recommended method for drawing most fence diagrams.

Max Drillhole Offset: This option is only available when the Source is set to the Grids from Drillholes option. This values sets a search radius for drillholes. Any drillholes further than this distance from the polyline will not be used for building the geologic model.

Ignore Zero Elevations: This option is only available when the Source is set to the Grids from Drillholes option. When creating a surface topo for the model, this option will disregard any entities at zero elevation.

Process Multiple Fence Polylines: This option allows you to draw multiple fence diagrams at the same time. Instead of picking a single fence alignment polyline, you can select multiple polylines that have been tagged using the Tag Fence Polylines command. Each of the fence diagrams will be labeled accordingly.

Vertical Spacer Between Diagrams: This value controls the spacing between fence diagrams when more than one are drawn at a time. This value is multiplied by the Horizontal Scale and the Fence Label Text Size Scaler to determine the true drawing distance between the diagrams.

Fence Label Text Size Scaler: This value controls the size of the fence labels when drawing more than one at a time (that is, the labels identifying Fence 1, Fence 2, etc.). This value multiplied by the Horizontal Scale sets the actual text size for the labels.

Sort Order: This option determines if the fences will be stacked upwards or downwards when more than one are drawn at a time. 


Grid Settings


Horizontal Scale: This value sets the overall drawing scale that many other options in the dialog reference for scaling. This allows you to quickly change the size the geologic columns with a single value.

Vertical Scale: This value, relative to the Horizontal Scale, determines the vertical exaggeration. For example, a Horizontal Scale of 50 and a Vertical Scale of 10 will produce a 5X vertical exaggeration.

X/Y-Axis Grid Interval: This value sets the grid line spacing for the X and Y axes. For example, a Y-Axis Grid Interval of 25 will draw a tick/grid line every 25 ft/m of elevation change.

X/Y-Axis Label Interval: This value sets the text intervals for the X and Y axes. For example, a Y-Axis Label Interval of 100 will draw an elevation/depth label every 100 ft/m of elevation change.

Grid Style: This option controls how the grid will be drawn.
The Grid Lines option will draw a true grid with lines spanning the appropriate axes.
The Ticks Only option will draw the grid axes, but instead of full lines spanning the axes, small tick marks will be placed along each axis.

X-Axis Text Orientation: This option controls the rotation of the stationing labels on the X-axis.

Axis Label Size Scaler: This value, relative to the Horizontal Scale, determines the text height of the elevation/depth/stationing labels. For example, an Axis Text Size Scaler of 0.15 and a Horizontal Scale of 100 will produce text labels with a height of 15 drawing units.

 Starting Station: This is the station that is labeled at the beginning of the fence diagram horizontal X-axis grid. By default it is set to 0.

Offset Station Text: Offsets the station labels below the horizontal axis of the grid.

Station By Another Reference Centerline: This option will station the horizontal X-axis by a predefined centerline CL file. The centerline file will be prompted for after clicking OK.

Label Northing/Easting: This option labels the Northing and Easting coordinates along the bottom of the fence diagram at every vertex on the fence line that is drawn in plan view. An example is shown below.


Draw Settings


Draw Legend: This option draws a legend of the strata hatch patterns and colors. You will be prompted to pick the location for the legend after clicking OK.

Legend Size: This values sets the size of the legend.

Hatch Fence: This option will hatch in the strata layers in the fence. If this option is disabled, only polylines will be drawn. The strata hatch patterns are defined in the Define Strata command. If a strata exists that is not defined, it will use a default hatch pattern.

Hatch Settings: This button will display the below dialog.

Use Specific Strata Definition File: This option will draw the strata hatch patterns using a strata definition file other than the current strata definition file. When enabled, you can select the strata definition file by clicking the ellipsis button.

Hatch Key Strata Only:  This option will just hatch Key strata that are drawn. The Non-Key strata will be left as polylines with no hatch inside. Shown here is an example that has just the Key strata hatched.


Hatch by Block Model: This option will hatch the seams using a Grade Parameter File. This option requires a block model to be stored in the Geologic Model to define the quality of the strata. An example is shown below.

Hatch by Strata Attribute: This option is similar to Hatch by Block Model, except there is no Grade Parameter File required. It will look at look at the quality attributes found in the Geologic Model, or in the drillholes, and bring up a list. You will be able to select an attribute to hatch by, and then a color palette will appear, allowing you to specify the colors and ranges for the quality zones. This will just change the hatch horizontally across the strata, not vertically as the Block Model does. Shown below is an example of coal seams colored by BTU.


Default Hatch Pattern: This option sets the hatch pattern for strata layers that are not defined in the Strata Definition file.

Auto Scale Hatch Pattern: This option will auto fit the hatching inside the strata perimeters.

Default Hatch Scaler: This value sets the hatch pattern scale for default hatch patterns. The scale of the hatch pattern will equal this value multiplied by the Horizontal Scale.

Bottom Hatch Scaler: This value sets the hatch pattern scale for the portion of the fence diagram below the last strata layer. The scale of the hatch pattern will equal this value multiplied by the Horizontal Scale.

Rotate Hatch Pattern: This option rotates hatch patterns to best fit the angle of the strata. A hatch pattern can have only one rotation, so rotating will not be effective for a strata with multiple rotations. Rather than use this automated method for setting the hatch rotation, the rotation for each hatch can also be set in the Strata Definition file.

Clip Intersecting Strata: This option will automatically clip strata layers that cross one another, with the upper grids clipping out the lower grids. This will display the strata layers as they will be interpreted for volume calculations. If this option is disabled, the strata layers will not clip one another. The below image shows two strata layers that clip one another. Note that this option cannot be used when hatch patterns are used.


Draw Strata Polylines as: This option determines if the strata layers are drawn as closed polylines, or as single, open polylines. It is recommended to use the Single option when drawing cross sections for use with the Range Diagram commands in the Surface Mining module.

Draw Geologic Columns: This option will draw the drillholes on the Fence Diagram. When this option is enabled, you can click the Geologic Column Settings button to show settings associated with drawing the drillholes. These are the same settings included in the Draw Geologic Column command.

 Max Offset from Fence Polyline: This option sets the search distance from the fence alignment polyline. Any drillholes beyond this distance will not be drawn on the fence diagram.

Draw Pit Lines: When this option is enabled, the program will prompt you to select pit polylines. These pit polylines will be labeled with a vertical line and labeled along the bottom of the fence diagram grid at the position where the fence plan view polyline crosses the pit polylines. This option is useful for dragline design commands such as Cut and Place. The dropdown list to the right of this option controls if the vertical line is set to a fixed height (Tick Mark option), or if the vertical line extends from the grid bottom to the bottom strata (To Bottom Strata option).

Draw Key Strata Only: This option will only draw the Key strata on the fence diagram. The Non-Key intervals found in between the Key will be drawn, but not be labeled individually.

Draw Faults: This option will draw the fault line in the location and at the angle that it crosses the cross section. Although grid files may be modeled with a fault, this option ensures that the representation of the fault is sharp. The below image shows a fence diagram without this option (above) and with this option (below). The program uses the Faults Buffer Offset value to clip the strata. The fault line will be offset by this amount and the strata within the offset will be redrawn to remove the noise of the grid behavior near the fault. It is recommended to set the Faults Buffer Offset value to be at least 1.5 times the strata grid cell size.



Draw Surface Polyline: This option will draw a new polyline along the surface of the fence diagram. This is particularly helpful for show the true surface topography when there are outcrops, as this new polyline is guaranteed to run along the full length of the cross section. This is necessary for the Range Diagram commands found in the surface Mining module.

Draw Additional Surfaces: This setting will allow you to show additional surface files on the cross section that are not part of the geologic model. A prime example is the water table, which may traverse multiple strata types. When this option is used, you will be prompted to select the surfaces to draw after clicking OK.

Draw Plan View: This option will graph the drillhole locations above the fence diagram. For this graph, each drillhole is projected onto the baseline polyline to find the station and offset of the drillhole.

Plan View Vertical Scale: This value sets the scale factor for the Plan View drawn above the fence diagram.

Label Strata Thickness: This option adds a label for the strata thickness along the fence. When this option is used you may specify the number of decimals to display with the Thickness Decimals dropdown list, and you may also add a suffix to the labels with the Thickness Suffix text box.

Layer Settings: This button displays the below dialog to set the layers for the different portions of the diagram.



Strata Layer: This value sets the layer the area of the diagram below the last strata layer (the portion of the cross section that has not been modeled as part of the geology). You may also set a Prefix and Suffix for this layer name.

Strata Polyline Layers: This option controls the layering for the strata polylines.
The Layer by Strata Name option will put each strata on a separate layer as defined in the strata definition file. If a strata definition file is not used, the layer for each strata will simply be the name of the strata.
The All on Same Layer option will put all strata polylines on the same layer, defined by the Strata Layer option.
The Non-Key on Same Layer option will place all of the Non-key strata on the same layer, while the Key strata will be placed on their own layers.

Pit Label Layer: This option controls the layer for the Pit Labels that are drawn as a result of the Draw Pit Lines option.

Surface Layer: This option controls the layer of the surface polyline that is drawn as a result of the Draw Surface Polyline option.

Grid Line/Text Layer: These options control the layers of the grid lines and grid labels.

Fault Line Layer: This option controls the layer of the fault polyline drawn as a result of the Draw Faults option.

Fence Polyline Label Layer: This option controls the layer of the labels for the fence name when multiple fences are drawn at once (e.g. Fence 1, Fence 2, etc.)

Prompts

Fence Diagram Settings dialog box
Select polyline to pull fence diagram from: pick the polyline
Select surface entities & at least 3 drillholes.
Select objects: Select the drillhole symbols and surface entities. Surface entities can include points, lines, and polylines.
Reading points ... 139
Reading drillholes ...
Choose modeling method (<Triangulation>/Inverse dist/Kriging/Polynomial/LeastSq)? Press Enter
Bottom elevation of grid <1600.00>: press Enter to accept default
Top elevation of grid <2000.00>: press Enter to accept default
Pick the lower left corner for the fence diagram: pick a point in a clear area of the drawing

Pulldown Menu Location: StrataCalc
Keyboard Command: fence
Prerequisite: Drillholes or Geologic Model, and a fence alignment polyline