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Understanding the Plane Object |
Planes
Planes are a specific file type that can be used to indicate a 2-dimensional 'sheet' within your data set. They can be generated manually or as a result of converting from another data type, e.g. strings.
Planes require both explicit position and orientation settings; in Datamine products, a plane is referenced to a single point in 3D space (XYZ) and a specific dip direction. Although a 2D object, the planar qualities are extrapolated from the XYZ position and directional information. Once created, planes can be used in other processes (e.g. Stereonet Charts or the active 3D window, say, as part of rock mass structure analysis). As such, a plane object is closely aligned to a points object, albeit with additional information.
Although resembling points data with respect to the data columns that are included, a planes object can be generated from other data types, such as a string, for example. In this situation, a plane is aligned with the data following a 'best fit' approach.
Each plane object contains the following fields:
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Field |
Numeric or Alphanumeric |
Implicit or Explicit |
Description |
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XP |
N |
E |
X coordinate of the center of the plane. |
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YP |
N |
E |
Y coordinate of the center of the plane. |
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ZP |
N |
E |
Z coordinate of the center of the plane. |
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N |
E |
Dip direction of the plane. |
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N |
E |
Dip of the section. |
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N |
E |
Horizontal size of the plane. |
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N |
E |
Vertical size of the plane. |
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N |
E |
Where a plane has been generated from another process, this value describes a measure of how closely point data in the original object relates to the position of the plane (best fit analysis). |
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N |
E |
A mining block identifier. |
Creating Planes Objects
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You can generate a new, empty, planes object using the Current Object toolbar. Select the [Planes] option from the drop-down menu, then click the new object icon as shown below:
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You can also generate a new, empty planes object by typing "create-new-planes-object" into the command line (or alternatively, typing "cnl" with the cursor in the Design window to effect the same result).
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You can convert a strings object to a planes object by either a) selecting a string object and then activating the Edit ribbon to select More | String to Plane or B) right-clicking an entry in the active 3D window's Sheets| Strings folder in the
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You can import a previously saved planes object by activating the Data ribbon and selecting Datamine | Planes and selecting an existing plane file. Note that planes objects will be separated from the remaining files in the Project Files control bar, within a 'Planes' sub-folder:
Viewing Plane Data
Plane
data is rendered in different formats according to the data window
that is being used. In the Design
or Plots windows, plane entities
are primarily a visualization tool, and as such, they are represented
as a single point - this denotes the XYZ position of the centre of
the plane, e.g.:
The active
3D window offers more visualization options, in particular the ability
to visualize the dip and dip direction by displaying a disc or rectangle
(depending on your Plane properties). In 3D space, a plane can be
represented in a manner similar to the following:
Note that, in the active 3D window, the planar 'surface' can also be used as a basis for creating new strings.
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Related Topics |
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