Pit Precedence by Polylines

This command allows you to quickly assign precedence to timing blocks by drafting directional polylines to indicate the direction of precedence. Before the command is executed, a polyline must be drawn on the PRECEDENCE layer, and must be over the pits to be modified. It is important to note that a vertex must exist inside each pit boundary to be affected (a polyline with only 2 vertices will only modify 2 pits).

When the command is executed, you will be prompted to select the pits to be modified and the Precedence polylines. You will then be prompted to select the benches to be affected. A brief description of each method is given below.

• Single - This option will affect a single bench. The pit at the start of the precedence polyline will not have a precedence rule assigned to it.
  The second pit along the polyline will be modified so that it cannot be mined until the first pit is mined.
  The third pit will be modified so that it cannot be mined until the second pit is mined.
  This process repeats down the length of the polyline
  
• All - This option will affect all benches, but each bench is analyzed separately. This produces the same result as using the Single option on each bench separately.
  
• Stairup - This option will affect multiple benches in a staircase method, with higher benches being mined after lower benches.
  In this case, the highest bench in the first pit will not have a precedence rule assigned to it.
  The second pit will be modified so that the highest bench cannot be mined until the lower bench of the first pit is mined.
  The third pit will be modified so that the highest bench of the third pit cannot be mined until the lower bench of the second pit is mined.
  
• Stairdown - This option is the inverse of the Stairup method, with lower benches being mined after higher benches.
  In this case, the lowest bench in the first pit will not have a precedence rule assigned to it.
  The second pit will be modified so that the lowest bench cannot be mined until the higher bench of the first pit is mined.
  The third pit will be modified so that the lowest bench of the third pit cannot be mined until the higher bench of the second pit is mined.
  
  

A simple example using three of the four assignment methods is provided in the below table. Here the black polylines with arrows represent the Precedence polylines.

Drawing - 3 Bench Example	Method
	Single - Bench 1 Only		Staircase Up		Staircase Down
	Mine This	Before Mining This	Mine This	Before Mining This	Mine This	Before Mining This
	Pit1-Bench1	Pit2-Bench1	Pit1-Bench1 Pit1-Bench2 Pit1-Bench3	- Pit2-Bench1 Pit2-Bench2	Pit1-Bench1 Pit1-Bench2 Pit1-Bench3	Pit2-Bench2 Pit2-Bench3 -
	Pit1-Bench1 Pit3-Bench1 Pit4-Bench1	Pit2-Bench1 Pit2-Bench1 Pit2-Bench1	Pit1-Bench1 Pit1-Bench2 Pit1-Bench3 Pit3-Bench1 Pit3-Bench2 Pit3-Bench3 Pit4-Bench1 Pit4-Bench2 Pit4-Bench3	- Pit2-Bench1 Pit2-Bench2 - Pit2-Bench1 Pit2-Bench2 - Pit2-Bench1 Pit2-Bench2	Pit1-Bench1 Pit1-Bench2 Pit1-Bench3 Pit3-Bench1 Pit3-Bench2 Pit3-Bench3 Pit4-Bench1 Pit4-Bench2 Pit4-Bench3	Pit2-Bench2 Pit2-Bench3 - Pit2-Bench2 Pit2-Bench3 - Pit2-Bench2 Pit2-Bench3 -
	Pit1-Bench1 Pit3-Bench1 Pit4-Bench1	Pit2-Bench1 Pit4-Bench1 Pit3-Bench1	Pit1-Bench1 Pit1-Bench2 Pit1-Bench3 Pit2-Bench1 Pit2-Bench2 Pit2-Bench3 Pit4-Bench1 Pit4-Bench2 Pit4-Bench3	- Pit2-Bench1 Pit2-Bench2 - Pit4-Bench1 Pit4-Bench2 - Pit3-Bench1 Pit3-Bench2	Pit1-Bench1 Pit1-Bench2 Pit1-Bench3 Pit2-Bench1 Pit2-Bench2 Pit2-Bench3 Pit4-Bench1 Pit4-Bench2 Pit4-Bench3	Pit2-Bench2 Pit2-Bench3 - Pit4-Bench2 Pit4-Bench3 - Pit3-Bench2 Pit3-Bench3 -

Pulldown Menu Location: Boundary
Keyboard Command: pit2plprec
Prerequisite: Pit Polylines and directional polyline(s) on the PRECEDENCE layer