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Table of Contents
Course Overview....................................................................................................................... 4
Course Structure Flow............................................................................................................................ 5

Introduction............................................................................................................................... 6
Pre-Design Setup.................................................................................................................................... 6
Basic Workflow........................................................................................................................................ 6

Tunnel Profiles........................................................................................................................... 7
Tunnel Display Profiles........................................................................................................................... 7
Tunnel Type Profiles................................................................................................................................ 9
Tunnel Display Options......................................................................................................................... 11

Tunnel Design.......................................................................................................................... 12
Create Tunnels...................................................................................................................................... 12
Create Intervals..................................................................................................................................... 13
Create Safety Bay Features.................................................................................................................. 14
Editing Safety Bay Features.................................................................................................................. 15
Moving Safety Bay Features................................................................................................................. 15
Deleting Safety Bay Features............................................................................................................... 16

Review...................................................................................................................................... 17
Index....................................................................................................................................... 178

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Course Overview
The Gemcom GEMS Tunnel Design course is a one-day course designed for mine planners who need a
quick and simple method to evaluate proposed underground advances for medium- to long-term plans.

Course Prerequisites
Before taking this course, you require the following:

Successful completion of GEMS Foundation course

Successful completion of GEMS Geological Modelling course

Successful completion of GEMS Polygon Modelling course

Successful completion of GEMS Mine Survey course

Expected Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to accomplish the following:

Starting from a tunnel design, you will be able to:

Design underground tunnels

Combine underground tunnel designs with your geology and excavation data to schedule the mine
development and production

Categorise volume and tonnage reports by working period and by production and development
category

Format tunnels to show development advances

Set tunnel hierarchy automatically or manually

Automatically create triangulation solids (not solid objects) from your tunnel centrelines

Modify the attributes at any point along the tunnel

Use the tunnels with GEMS Production Scheduler to create production schedules

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Introduction
When working with tunnels, GEMS creates tunnels using the principle of extrusion (the process of
applying a profile shape along a centreline).
Unlike the traditional method of creating underground excavation, which requires that two data objects
(polyline and solid objects), creating tunnels only requires that one object be stored. When you have
created the tunnels, you can display them as simple lines, as footprints (projected onto a plane, with fill
patterns), and as triangulation solids.

Pre-Design Setup
Before you can start designing tunnels, you need to consider several factors that affect the whole design
process. When designing tunnels you need to do the following:

Understand the design specifications:

Ensure all GEMS settings are in place:

Traffic limitations, including height and width clearances, turning radius, and maximum
tunnel grades.
Design limitations, including drainage and compressed air.
Ventilation, water, and other pipes.
Tunnel workspace(s).
Tunnel-display profile.
Tunnel-type profile.
Rock-code profiles.
Polygon-fill profiles.
Set up an arch shaped heading profile (recommended) to extrude the tunnel centre line, or
set up another shape.

Open and display supporting data that will control the position and shape of the proposed design

Open and display geological solids.

Open as-built data (survey pickups).
Planning data (survey set-outs, control stations).

Basic Workflow
When you are ready to create the tunnels, use the following workflow:
1. Create, format, and save tunnel centrelines (this work is usually done on plan views):

Divide tunnel segments into intervals (if required) to report development progress by logical
increments (e.g. 10 metre advances per day).
2. Confirm that safety standards are met:

Spacing and location of safety bays.

Clearances between traffic and plumbing.

3. Report or plot.

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Tunnel Profiles
When working with tunnels, you need to create the following profile types:

Tunnel display profiles.

Tunnel type profiles.

Tunnel Display Profiles

Tunnels display profiles control the appearance of the tunnel objects. The Tunnel Display Settings dialog
box contains the following tabs, each one enabling you to configure specific display features of your
tunnel:
Tabs

Use this tab to

Solids

to control the appearance of the extruded 3D tunnel.

Centrelines

to control the appearance of the tunnel centreline.

Footprints

to control the appearance of the 2D polygon representation of the tunnel floor.

Points

to control the appearance of vertices along the tunnel centreline.

Labels

to enable you to annotate vertices (points), intervals, or the entire tunnel centreline.

The tunnel display profile enables you to format the tunnel centreline, the tunnel footprint (a polygon
projection of the walls and end caps onto the current plane), the tunnel triangulation, the tunnel intervals,
and tunnel features, such as safety bays. You can also add labels to any of these features.
To create a tunnel display profile, follow these steps.
1. Choose Format > Tunnels to open the Tunnel Display Settings dialog box.
2. Click New Profile and name the profile.
3. Select a Workspace and enter a Comment to describe the profile.
4. In the Solids tab, enter the following
information:

Colour: Choose a colour

for the tunnel.
Click More to have the colour
determined by a field value in the
tunnel workspace. This is typically
used to colour code tunnels based
on the periods (days, weeks,
months), in which they are
scheduled.

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5. In the Centrelines tab, enter the

following information:

Colour: Choose a colour

for the tunnel centreline.

Style: Choose a line style,

or click Browse to create a
new style.

Weight: Choose a line

weight.
Click More to have the colour
determined by either the rock
code value, or a field value in the
tunnel workspace. This is typically
used to colour code tunnels based
on the periods (days, weeks,
months), in which they are
scheduled.
6. In the Footprints tab, enter the
following information:

Line formatting: Select the

Colour, Style, and Weight
of the footprint line.

Fill effects: Select a

Background, Pattern, and
Pattern colour.
Click More to have the line and fill
effects determined by a field value
in the tunnel workspace. This is
typically used to colour code
tunnels based on the periods
(days, weeks, months), in which
they are scheduled.

7. In the Points tab, choose a Colour,

Symbol shape, and Height for the
points.
Click More to have the point
display options determined by a
field value in the tunnel
workspace.

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8. In the Labels tab, you can display

the labels for points, intervals,
centerlines, and features. Click New
to add a new label.
For points, the label is typically
the elevation value (LOCATION:Z)
to indicate the change in slope.
Note:

If your centerlines have

many points, this option may
clutter the screen with text.

9. Click Apply when you have finished setting the parameters for the profile.
10. To create more profiles, repeat steps 2 to 9.
11. Click OK to exit.

Tunnel Type Profiles

Tunnel type profiles help you identify characteristics of a tunnel. Later, when you create tunnels, you
apply different tunnel-type profiles to the tunnels, to identify them by type.
To create a tunnel type profile, follow these steps.
1. Choose Format > Tunnel Types to open the Tunnel Type dialog box.

2. Click New Profile, and enter a Profile name.

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3. In Shape (heading profile), select a shape to sweep along the centre lines of all tunnels that use this
profile. Click Browse to create a new one if required.
Tip:

In the series of tunnel shapes, use as many common points as possible.

The following image is an example of creating the best triangulation by adding an extra point in the basic
tunnel heading shape (top image) and in the heading shape for the safety bay (bottom image).

4. In Default display profile, select a tunnel display profile to be applied to all tunnels of this tunnel
type. Click Browse to create a new one if required.
5. In Default precedence for this tunnel type, enter the default hierarchy.
Tip:

Plan to use a range of numbers that meet your design needs. Typically, main tunnels have a higher
hierarchy (1 or 2) than lesser ones (3, 4, 5, etc.). When tunnels intersect, GEMS uses the hierarchy to
draw the tunnels and to help determine their volumes.

In the following illustration, the blue tunnel (with hierarchy 3) intersects an orange tunnel (with
hierarchy 2). The intersected volume belongs to the orange tunnel because it has the higher
hierarchy.

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Tunnel Display Options

After you have defined tunnel display and tunnel type profiles, you can choose Tunnels > Display
Overrides to open the Tunnel Display Options dialog box, where you can override some of the settings.

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Tunnel Design
In this chapter, you will learn how to do the following:

Create tunnels

Create intervals

Create safety bays

Create Tunnels
Creating tunnels is similar to creating polylines. In fact, you can use many of the CAD tools from the
Polyline menu when you crate or modify the tunnel segments. In general, you will want to define tunnels
on a plan view, so make sure you have one or more plan views defined. The plan views are typically
named after the mine levels.
To create a tunnel, follow these steps.
1. Select a plan view.
2. Switch to 2D viewing mode.
3. Choose Tunnel > Create Tunnels to open a
Create Tunnel tab to the left of the graphics
area.
4. In this tab, you can select the Workspace, and
enter a Description.
GEMS auto-fills the Tunnel, Tunnel Type, and
Plane fields. You can change these values if
needed.
5. In the Vertex tab, you can manually edit the
values, or digitise the starting point using your
mouse in the graphics area.
While you are in tunnel create mode, you can
use the polyline CAD tools such as Set Point
by Relative Bearing, Extend by Circular
Arc, and Delete Last Segment.

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6. In the Feature tab, you can modify the feature

for the tunnel.

7. In the Intervals tab, you can define intervals for

the tunnel.

8.
9.
10.
11.

When you are finished defining the tunnel, click Next.

When you are ready to create the tunnel, click Create.
Repeat steps 4 to 9 to continue creating tunnel segments.
When you are finished, save your work.

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Create Intervals
After creating and saving the tunnel segments, you can further subdivide the segments into smaller
intervals. These intervals typically represent the face advances of the tunnels during development, as
reported by the working period used for the plan. For example, short-term plans might use intervals
expressed in daily advances (e.g. 10m), whereas medium- to long-term plans might use intervals
expressed in weekly or monthly advances (e.g. 100m or more).
In either case, you always create intervals from the start of the tunnel segment. This would be the first
that is digitised when you were creating the tunnel segments. You can also create intervals by continuing
them from the last interval in the sub-table.
To create intervals in tunnel segments, follow these steps.
1. In the Project View Area, open all the tunnel
segments for which you want to create
intervals.
Note:

GEMS will create/overwrite intervals for

every tunnel segment opened.

2. Choose Tunnel > Create Intervals to open

the Create Intervals tab to the left of the
graphics area.
3. Select the appropriate interval sub-table in
which you will save the intervals. This is
generally the SINTERVAL table.
4. Enter the size of the interval.
5. In Start creation, specify where to start the
intervals.

Continue from the last interval:

Choose this option if your sub-table
already contains intervals, and
youve simply added additional
length to your tunnel segments, then
select this option. Your original
intervals will be preserved.

From this distance: Choose this

option if there is a specific distance
from the tunnel segment starting
point where you wish so start
creating intervals. To overwrite the
number in here, click the button to
the right to reset to <start of
tunnel>.
6. In End creation, specify where to end the
intervals.
7. Click Create to create the intervals.
8. Save your work.
You can review the results using the Data Editor.

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Creating Safety Bays

The tunnel tools allow you to create safety bays of variable lengths at specified locations, even after a
tunnel has been created you can add safety bay features to it. GEMS stores this information in the
FEATURES secondary-table, which was automatically created when you created the tunnel workspace.
Because safety bays typically have different outlines (cross-sections) to drifts, they require a unique
heading profile, which you can create by choosing Format > Other Profiles > Heading. They also
require a unique tunnel-type profile.
You create safety bay intervals by using Tunnel > Tunnel Feature > Create which opens the Create
Tunnel dialogue in the Project View area;

1. Choose Tunnel > Tunnel Feature >

Create to open the Create Feature tab to
the left of the graphics area.
2. Select the tunnel graphically or from the
picklist.
3. Select the feature heading profile, safety
bay length, lead-in and lead-out distances,
distance from the start of the tunnel to the
centre of the first safety bay, the distance
between bays and the mode of repetition
for creation of the bays.
4. In End creation, specify where to end the
intervals.
5. Click Create to create the features.
6. Save your work.
You can review the results using the Data
Editor.

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The following image is an example of using longer lead-in distance than lead-out.

Plan view of a drive showing safety bay features created on each side.

3D view of the same drive

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Editing Safety Bay Features

1. Choose Tunnel > Tunnel Feature
> Edit to open the Edit Feature tab
to the left of the graphics area.
2. Select the tunnel graphically or
from the picklist.
3. Select the changed feature heading
profile, safety bay length, lead-in
and lead-out distances.
4. Click Apply to commit the features
changes.
5. Save your work.

Moving Safety Bay Features

1. Choose Tunnel > Tunnel Feature
> Move to open the Move Feature
tab to the left of the graphics area.
2. Select the tunnel graphically or
from the picklist.
3. Select the centre of the feature you
want to move.
4. Move the feature to its new position
5. Click Apply to commit the feature
movement.
6. Save your work.

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Deleting Safety Bay Features

1. Choose Tunnel > Tunnel Feature >
Delete to open the Delete Feature tab
to the left of the graphics area.
2. Select the tunnel graphically or from
the picklist.
3. Select the centre of the feature you
want to delete.
4. Click Apply to delete the features.
5. Save your work.

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Review
Use this review to test your knowledge on what you just learned.
1. True or False: Tunnel objects are polylines.

2. What are some of the required profiles for using tunnels?

3. How can you temporarily override the settings in the tunnel-display profiles?

4. Outline in brief the steps for defining intervals in your tunnels segments.

5. Outline in brief the steps for defining safety bays in your tunnel segments.

Time to complete: 5 minutes

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Index

override options, 11
course
outcomes, 4
overview, 4
prerequisites, 4
structure flow, 5
creating data
intervals, 13
safety bays, 14
tunnels, 12

profiles
creating
display, 7
type, 9
display, 7
types, 9
setup
pre-design, 6

display data
profiles, 7, 9
displaying data

workflow, 6

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