PLOTMX Process

Note: This legacy plotting process is no longer supported or developed. It is included here for legacy macro support only. For interactive plot creation and editing functions, with template and automation support, consider the Plots window tools.

To access this process:

Enter "PLOTMX" into the Command Line and press ENTER.
Display the Find Command screen, locate PLOTMX and click Run.

See this process in the Command Table.

Process Overview

Plots the intersection of a block model with any plane.

The plane may be specified by its centre, size, azimuth and dip; end points and vertical limits of a vertical section; corner points and RL for a plan; or a section from a standard section definition file. The polygonal outlines, representing the intersections with model cells and sub-cells, may be colored using a model file field; shaded or solid colour filled using intervals on a model file field with an optional legend; or annotated with one or more field values or a symbol.

Features of PLOTMX include; shrinking of block outlines; annotation of up to 10 fields offset from one of 5 reference positions; default and user defined titles; icon showing the orientation of the plane; legend; plotting of grids and control of character size and color for annotations, titles and other plot components.

PLOTMX may be used for reproducing views of a block model with additional annotation options. Plots from PLOTMX are particularly useful for superimposing when creating outlines for underground design and stope evaluation. It adds to Datamine the ease of producing views of a block model on any general plane.

The process will accept a block model which has been defined using the Rotated Model option in PROTOM. A message will be displayed to show that the model has been identified as having the reserved Rotated Model fields. The main restrictions when using rotated models are that the position of the annotation must be relative to the cell centre, and vertical exaggeration is not permitted.

Note: A 'box' is defined as the intersection of the specified plane with a model cell or sub-cell. Such boxes may be irregular in shape if the plane is oblique.

Input Files

Name	Description	I/O Status	Required	Type
IN	Input model file. This must contain the fields XC, YC, ZC, XINX, YINC, ZINC, XMORIG, YMORIG, ZMORIG, NX, NY, NZ, IJK. If it is a Rotated Model then it must also include the fields X0, Y0, Z0, ANGLE1, ANGLE2, ANGLE3, ROTAXIS1, ROTAXIS2, ROTAXIS2.	Input	Yes	Block Model
PROTO	Plot prototype file. Must contain the fields X, Y, S1, S2, CODE, (numeric, explicit) and XMIN, XMAX, YMIN, YMAX, XSCALE, YSCALE (numeric, implicit). If these last 6 values set in PROTO , then corresponding parameters need not be set.	Input	Yes	Plot Prototype
SECTION	Optional section definition file. Must contain the fields SVALUE,XCENTRE,YCENTRE, ZCENTRE,SDIP,SAZI,DPLUS,DMINUS,HSIZE,VSIZE	Input	No	Section Definition
ANNFILE	Optional annotation input file for specifying annotations as an alternative to the interactive input. Only used if the ANNOTATE=1. Compulsory fields: FIELD A8- Field to annotate. CHARSIZE N - Annotate character size. N - Annotate colour. XOFFSET N - X offset in mm. YOFFSET N - Y offset in mm. ANGLE N - Angle of annotation. NDP N - Number of decimal places. Optional fields if FIELD is numeric: LOWER N - Lower bound non-inclusive. UPPER N - Upper bound inclusive. LOWER and UPPER define the range on FIELD for which the particular annotation will plotted. Special values - and + may be used.	Input	No	Undefined
LEGEND	Optional shading legend input file which may be used as an alternative to interactive input. Only used if the SHADE=1. Compulsory fields: FIELD A8- Field to annotate, must be N. CODE N - Fillcode to use for shading. LOWER N - Lower bound non-inclusive. UPPER N - Upper bound inclusive. LOWER and UPPER define the range on FIELD for which the particular shading will plotted. Special values - and + may be used. Optional fields: N - Used if CODE is one of 1100 box outline; 1101-1105 hatchings; to set colour otherwise the shading colour is determined from fillcode. SHRINK N - Amount in mm the shaded box will be shrunk inside the true cell outline. If missing and BOX=1 then shrink will be set to 2 times the SHRINK value.	Input	No	Undefined

Output Files

Name	I/O Status	Required	Type	Description
PLOT	Output	Yes	Plot	Output plot file.

Fields

Name	Description	Source	Required	Type	Default
MODCOL	Model colour field, used preferentially for plotting box outline, symbol and pattern shading.	IN	No	Numeric	Undefined

Parameters

Name

Description

Required

Default

Range

Values

CHARSIZE

Default character size in millimetres (2).

Undefined

CHARSMIN

Minimum character size in millimetres (1.3).

1.3

Undefined

ASPRATIO

Aspect ratio, width / ht. for chars (1.0).

1.0

Undefined

Colour [as 'pen' number] for plot (1).

Undefined

FRAME

0,1

SHRINK

box shrink to avoid overplot, in mm (0.5)

0.5

Undefined

ANNOTATE

0,1

ANNCOL

Default annotation colour (-).

Undefined

ANNPOS

Reference position for annotation offsets (1). If a Rotated Model is used then ANNPOS should be set to 1.

1,5

1,2,3,4,5

BOX

0,1

BOXCOL

Default box colour (-).

Undefined

SHADE

0,1

SYMBOL

Plotted symbol.

Point symbol number:

91 : Circle (o)
92 : Cross (+)
93 : Cross (x)
94 : Triangle
95 : Box
96 : Diamond
97 : Star ( )
98 : Pie Segment

Undefined

SYMSIZE

Symbol size in millimetres (0). 0 for no symbol.

Undefined

GRCOLR

Preferred grid colour (-).

Undefined

XGRIDINT

X grid interval, 0 no X grid (0).

Undefined

YGRIDINT

Y grid interval, 0 no Y grid (0).

Undefined

ZGRIDINT

Z grid interval, 0 no Z grid (0).

Undefined

XGRIDNDP

X grid number of decimal places (0).

Undefined

YGRIDNDP

Y grid number of decimal places (0).

Undefined

ZGRIDNDP

Z grid number of decimal places (0).

Undefined

ICONSIZE

Icon size (25). 0 for no icon.

Undefined

ICONCOL1

Preferred icon box colour (-).

Undefined

ICONCOL2

Preferred icon section colour (-).

Undefined

TITLE

Option	Description
0	default title only
1	default plus prompted title
2	prompted title only
3	no titles (1).

0,3

0,1,2,3

TITCOL

Preferred title colour (-).

Undefined

TITCHS

Preferred title character size (2).

Undefined

LEGEND

0,1

LEGCOL

Preferred legend colour (-).

Undefined

LEGCHS

Preferred legend character size (-).

Undefined

APPEND

Plot append flag. If set to 1 then the new plot will be appended to the PLOT file, if it exists and is a valid plot file (0).

0,1

XSCALE

X scale in user data units per millimetre. If specified here or in PROTO this value will override section limits.

Undefined

YSCALE

Y scale in user data units per millimetre. If specified here or in PROTO this value will override section limits.

Undefined

VERTEXAG

Controls vertical exaggeration. This must be set to allow different scales. The default is forced equal scales (1). If the input model is a Rotated Model then the process will always set VERTEXAG to 1 and display a warning message. = 0 allows different scales for both axes determined by XSCALE and YSCALE if provided or else by filling the data area to the section limits. > 0 sets value of XSCALE/YSCALE. = 1 forces equal scales.

Undefined

Examples

Example 1

This example illustrates the cell annotation features of PLOTMX. Two fields are annotated with different character sizes offset from a centered symbol. The plane is a north-south section specified by its end points. The section is scaled into the data are as specified by the plot prototype and the icon is plotted in the margin area:

!PROTOP  &OUT(PROTO)

OK

!PROTOP

OK

!PLOTMX  &IN(MODEL),&PROTO(PROTO),&PLOT(PLOT), 
@CHARSIZE=1.8,@CHARSMIN=.5,@=1,@FRAME=1, @SHRINK=O.4,@ANNOTATE=1,
@ANNCOL=1,@ANNPOS=1,@BOX=1,@BOXCOL=1,@SHADE=0,@SYMBOL=92,
@SYMSIZE=1.5,@GRCOLR=1.0@YGRIDINT=10,@ZGRIDINT=10,@YGRIDNDP=0,
@ZGRIDNDP=0,@ICONSIZE=25,@ICONCOL1=1, @ICONCOL2=1,@TITLE=1,
@TITCOL=1,@TITCHS=4

PLOTMX 
		 - Annotated with Au and Rock type.

AU,2,1,-3,1.5,0,1

ROCK,3,1,-1,-4,0,0

Example 2

This example illustrates the use of PLOTMX for an oblique section as defined by its azimuth, dip centre point and size. The cells have been shaded according to different intervals on the AU field. A legend has been specified and grid lines for both eastings and northings plotted:

!PLOTMX   &IN(MODEL),&PROTO(PROTO),&PLOT(PLOT),@CHARSIZE=2,@=1,
@FRAME=1,@SHRINK=0.2, @ANNOTATE=0,@BOX=1,@BOXCOL=1,@SHADE=1, 
@SYMBOL=92,@SYMSIZE=0,@GRCOLR=1,@XGRIDINT=20, @YGRIDINT=10,
@ZGRIDINT=10,@XGRIDNDP=0, @YGRIDNDP=0,@ZGRIDNDP=0,@ICONSIZE=25, 
@ICONCOL1=1,@ICONCOL2=1,@TITLE=1,@TITCOL=1,@TITCHS=3,@LEGEND=1,
@LEGCOL=1,@LEGCHS=2.5

PLOTMX - oblique plane shade by AU

8130 X centre

6510 Y centre

380 Z centre

90 Dip

30 Azimuth

35 Horizontal size

25 Vertical size

AU

1128,0,1.0

1130,1,10

1138,10,100

Example 3

This example illustrates the specification of a general plane (dip = 41 , azimuth = 31 ):

!PLOTMX  &IN(MODEL),&PROTO(PROTO),&PLOT(PLOT), 
         @CHARSIZE=1.8,@CHARSMIN=.5,@=1, @FRAME=1,@SHRINK=0.4,@ANNOTATE=1, 
         @ANNCOL=1,@ANNPOS=1,@BOX=1,@BOXCOL=1, @SHADE=0,@SYMBOL=92,@SYMSIZE=0, 
         @GRCOLR=1,@XGRIDIN=20,@YGRIDINT=20, @ZGRIDINT=20,@XGRIDNDP=0,@YGRIDNDP=0, 
         @ZGRIDNDP=0,@ICONSIZE=30,@ICONCOL1=1, @ICONCOL2=1,@TITLE=1,@TITCOL=1,
         @TITCHS=4

PLOTMX - Oblique plane annotated with rock type

8130 X centre

6510 Y centre

375 Z centre

41 Dip

31 Azimuth

70 Horizontal size

50 Vertical size

ROCK,2,1,0,0,0,0