Plotting

in Surpac Vision
November 2006
Copyright 2006 Surpac Minex Group Pty Ltd (A Gemcom Company). All rights
reserved.

This software and documentation is proprietary to Surpac Minex Group Pty Ltd.

Surpac Minex Group Pty Ltd publishes this documentation for the sole use of Surpac licenses.
Without written permission you may not sell, reproduce, store in a retrieval system, or transmit
any part of the documentation. For such permission, or to obtain extra copies please contact
your local Surpac Minex Group Office.

Surpac Minex Group Pty Ltd

Level 8 190 St Georges Terrace
Perth, Western Australia 6000
Telephone: (08) 94201383
Fax: (08) 94201350

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this manual, we assume no
responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damage resulting
from the use of the information contained herein.

All brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of there respective
companies.

About This Manual

This manual has been designed to provide a practical guide to the many uses of the software.
The applications contained within this manual are by no means exhaustive as the possible
uses of the software are only limited by the users imagination. However, it will give new users
a starting point and existing users a good overview by demonstrating how to use many of the
functions in Surpac Vision. If you have any difficulties, or questions while working through this
manual feel free to contact your local Surpac Minex Group Office.

Contributors

Rowdy Bristol
Kiran Kumar
Phil Jackson

Surpac Minex Group

Perth, Western Australia

Product
Surpac Vision v5.2
 Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1
Requirements ............................................................................................................................ 1
Objectives .................................................................................................................................. 1
Workflow for Autoplot ................................................................................................................ 2
Autoplot...................................................................................................................................... 2
File-based plotting ................................................................................................................... 10
Workflow for File-based Plotting.............................................................................................. 10
Importing/Exporting Maps and Entities.................................................................................... 34
Map of Drillhole Traces............................................................................................................ 38
Section map of Drillhole data................................................................................................... 40
Creating Multi-viewport Maps .................................................................................................. 45
Title Block Definitions .............................................................................................................. 61
Introduction
This document covers the concepts involved with using both Autoplot and File-based plotting.

Requirements
Prior to proceeding with this tutorial, you should ensure you have the following items:

A copy of the software for installation. This is usually installed from a CD, but the
software can be downloaded from the www.surpac.com website.

Objectives
The objective of this document is to enable you to understand how to plot from Surpac Vision.

1
Autoplot

1. Workflow for Autoplot

The process described in this tutorial is outlined below:

Start

Display data in
Graphics

Run Autoplot

Plot Preview

Ready to plot?

No

Edit/Change plot
entities

Yes

Save plot

Send to plotter

Finish

2
Autoplot is essentially WYSIWYG plotting from the Surpac Vision Graphics environment.

It works by taking the data displayed in Graphics and passing it through to the plotting module.

String styles, colour, marker styles and text are all plotted exactly as they were displayed in
Graphics. This includes data displayed for Geological sections and Ring Design.

Colours are selected based on the current plotting pen file. If you have the plotting pen file set
up with colours the same or similar to those defined in your Graphics screen, then Autoplot
should be able to reproduce all colours faithfully to your graphics screen.

If it cannot find a matching colour, Autoplot will use pen 1 by default. There is a new
plotting.mst file which (when copied to plotting.pen) contains all the standard pens available in
Graphics. If you have two pens defined as the same colour, it will attempt to match the pen
thickness. Use this feature to get thick lines (for example geology traces in sections).

The diagram below shows the steps involved with using the Autoplot functionality:

3
From the Plotting menu, select Autoplot. This will display the Autoplot Presentation
Parameters form as shown below:

Very similar to the Plot Presentation Parameters form, this form can be used to change some
of the presentation parameters. For those who have used plotting, all data from Autoplot is
output with a standard border so this is not on the form. Other things different are the plot
orientation, quadrant, overprinting and text rotation. All of these are set internally by Autoplot.

4
Autoplot Default Settings

From the Customise menu, select Default preferences, then click on the Plotting tab to
display the Autoplot default settings.

Autoplot Action

This setting lets you perform some action on the plot file after processing is complete. You
can send the plot directly to the Plot Driver, the Plot File Viewer (windows only) or do nothing.

Autoplot Lookup File

This is specific to using Autoplot on geological sections. When displaying Bar Graphs or
Geology Boxes, the graph or box can be coloured with either a solid colour or a pattern. The
patterns available in Graphics are a bit limited so Autoplot allows you to use a real Plotting
lookup file instead of the Graphics fill options.

Lookup files can be created by using the Lookup File Editor.

5
However, if you do elect to use the same lookup file as the Graphics sectioning function does
(usually dholes.ssi), then Autoplot will convert the displayed patterns into plotting patterns,
creating a nearly exact copy of the pattern filling.

2. Plotting string information from the screen

Open the file soil1.str by dragging it into Graphics.

The file will be opened with the default styles in a layer of the same name.

Adjust the string display styles to reflect a range of colours suitable for hardcopy.

From the Display menu, select Hide strings, then By selection.

Select any strings that you do not wish to be in the final plot. e.g. string 1000 which
represents the soil sample locations and should not be plotted as a line.

You should now have an image on screen something like the following:

From the Display menu, select Point, then Markers, for string 1000 only.

From the Display menu, select Point, then Attributes, for string 1000 only with the field D1.

The display should be updated with the soil sample locations and grades displayed.

6
From the Plotting menu, select Autoplot, and then the selection box method as follows:

The selection box method allows you to select which portion of the display is to be output, the
scale is recalculated to fit the paper size chosen, in this case A3.

Apply the form and use the mouse to select a small area of the screen to plot.

7
Apply the following forms to define some title block comments and 100 unit solid line grid
spacing.

At this point the plot will be processed and the navigator will be updated with a file name
based on the active layer name. In this case, if the layer name is soil1.str the resultant file will
be soil1_str.dwf.

8
At this point Autoplot can behave in three ways based on the default settings.

Autoplot Action - This setting lets you perform some action on the plot file after processing is
complete. You can either send the plot directly to the Plot Driver, or to the Plot File Viewer or
do nothing.

If the Plot file viewer process starts, you can preview the file and even send it to a printer. In
this exercise we will simply preview the file in plot preview.

Double click the newly generated plot file soil1_str.dwf in the file navigator and it should start
the plot preview window with this file displayed.

Examine the plot and compare it with the display in graphics (Alt Tab) to see how accurately
the plot has been interpreted.

9
File-based plotting
Overview

With the File-based plotting module, you can produce high quality plots from data in string
files and note files. There is a high degree of flexibility in the images and maps that you can
produce.

1. Workflow for File-based plotting

.str files .not files

File Entity
(str, not, image)

image files
(jpg,gif,png,tif,bmp)

Map
Sheet Entities

Process map

.dwf files

.cf files

Plot Preview

Ready to
plot?

No

Edit/Change
plot entities

Yes

Save plot

Send to plotter

Finish

10
Before you produce a plot in Surpac you must first define a map. The map definition details
what is to be plotted. For example, details concerning the location, ID number and range of
the strings or note data are defined here.

Surpac not only needs to know where to find the data and what to plot, and it also needs to
know how to plot the data. An entity refers to the set of instructions that indicates to Surpac
Vision how to plot data. All entity definitions consist of smaller groups of instructions called
attributes.

An attribute provides information such as:

what is to be plotted (e.g. a line, symbol, text, point number etc.)

which fields of a string file to plot
where to plot data
how to plot text (e.g. height, angle)
which plotter pen to use

The number of attributes in a group depends on the type of images you are plotting. For
example, every entity definition contains the attribute pen number since a plotter uses a pen
for everything it plots. If, for example, you only want to plot a line, then attributes such as text
height and text angle will not be included in your entity definition.

In this section you will look at two examples to learn how to create the following maps:

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The above maps both contain the three types of entities that are possible in Surpac.

These are:

Sheet entities - presentation aspects e.g. grid, title block, border

String entities - physical features stored as strings
Note entities - tables printed from files containing text data

String and note entities are created and modified within Surpac.

Sheet entities are created and modified via the Sheet entities window interface and are stored
in a collection of files called sheets.ssi, borders.ssi, drwareas.ssi, grids.ssi, titles.ssi that
are in the \ssi\share\etc\plotting directory.

While designing entities can be a very complex process to support an extensive range of
presentation styles for data on the maps that are produced, they can also be very simple.

Some simple examples are a line, or a marker with the Z value of a point as a label.

As a beginner with the use of plot entities, it is best if you create simple entities first and, as
you become more proficient with plotting, you will find it becomes easier to create more
complex entities.

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2. Create an ore block plan

In this exercise you will generate a plot of some ore block strings kbb135.str using an
existing entity called ore block within an existing map definition called ore blocks. The entity
is made up of two operations, a line operation which draws a line around the ore block and a
string operation which plots a text description field at the centre of the ore block.

From the Plotting menu, select Entity, then Edit.

Choose ORE BLOCK from the list, and click Apply.

13
View the displayed Define a String Entity form which defines the ORE BLOCK entity.

This form contains a number of tabbed panes and time should be taken to become familiar
with all of the tabs on this form.

The mouse can be used to move between fields or a combination of tab or enter keys may be
used. The tab key jumps between scrolling regions whereas the enter key moves to the next
field within a scrolling region.

The principal thing to note in this form is the different categories of entity operations.

After reviewing the Define a String Entity form, choose Cancel to close the form without
making any changes.

14
From the Plotting menu, select Map, then Edit. Select the ORE BLOCKS map definition and
click Apply.

The form will now display the fields as shown below:

No changes are needed at this stage, so click Cancel.

From the Plotting menu, select Process, then Map.

Select ORE BLOCKS in the displayed table, then click Apply.

15
Enter the details as shown below and click Apply.

From the above form we can choose an appropriate sheet size, scale and orientation
based on the extents of the data. Note that on the right hand side of the form the
checkbox Display plot after processing has been ticked. This will open the map in
the plot preview window so you can view it before plotting.
A number of presentation features can be set in this form which will be discussed
later in this section. It is preferable at this stage to become accustomed with
generating a simple plot and then refining the details using the Re-present Last Plot
function.

The title block details can then be entered and a grid interval chosen. Apply these
forms and the plot will be generated. A plot file *.dwf is created based on the name of
the map definition, i.e. in this case the first processed map will be called
oreblocks.dwf with subsequent maps called oreblocks01.dwf, then
oreblocks02.dwf, oreblocks03 etc. Also, *.cf files are produced with the same
names as the *.dwf files.

The plotting window will open and the map will then be recalled in the Plot Preview editor for
viewing and simple editing.

Note that there are a number of editing tools as well as display tools available for use in this
form. You will now add some text to the plot.

16
From the Plot Preview window menu, select Create, then Text.

Select a point for the text to be displayed in the plot, fill in the form as shown below, then click
Apply.

If the text is badly placed or incorrectly sized then choose the edit Change or Move functions
on the Plot Preview menu. Select the text you wish to change and modify its attributes.

From the File menu, select Save, then Apply to overwrite the file.

More significant editing is possible by using a CAD package such as Autocad or Microstation.

17
3. Create a bore hole location plan.

This exercise will demonstrate the flexibility of the plotting module in more detail. The aim is
to create a number of entities and combine them into a newly created map.

The crest and toes strings of the pit are stored in pit1.str. The roads and crusher pad survey
are stored in site1.str.These features are represented on the map by lines. This is an
example of a line attribute. A line attribute joins all the points in a string and defines how the
line will look (e.g. a solid line, dashed line, etc.).

If you are new to entities in Surpac Vision you may find the following tip helpful in assisting
you to determine how you should create an entity to achieve a particular presentation style on
a map.

The first step when determining what an entity should contain is to draw, on a piece of paper,
how you want the data to be presented on your map.

The second step is to decompose the presentation style into the parts that are:

Drawn once for the string, e.g. string number at the beginning of the string. These are
known as String operations.
Drawn once for each point, e.g. markers, Z values, etc. These are known as Point
operations.
A line between the points. This is a Line operation.

The third step is to define the various operations in a new entity.

From the Plotting menu, select Entity, then New.

The first step in creating any entity is to give it a name. You should attempt to make your
entity name meaningful.

The second step in creating an entity is to indicate the data source. In this case the data is
coming from a string file.

Enter the parameters as shown below and choose Apply.

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The third step in creating an entity is to indicate the attribute type. In this case you are
creating a Line attribute. You should see the form below. Select the Line Operations tab and
tick the checkbox for Use line operation .

The final step in creating a line attribute is to describe how the line will look. There are seven
pre-defined line types which may be selected. Refer to the Online Help Manual for more
details on these line types.

The line attribute form is shown below. Enter the parameters as shown below and click Apply.

You are asked to nominate a priority for this entity. This is common to all entity
definitions and is a way of controlling overwriting on plots. Overwriting is controlled in
two ways:
o lines can be made to 'break' around text and symbols on a plot
o where text or symbols may overwrite on a plot, some may be clashed off
All lines, symbols and text in entity definitions are assigned priorities in the range 0 to
125. Different rules apply for priorities less than or equal to 100 and for those over
100.
A line will break around a symbol if:
o its priority is less than the symbol
o its priority is equal to the symbol and the priority is less than or equal to 100
A line will overwrite a symbol if:
o its priority is greater than the symbol
o its priority is equal to the symbol and the priority is greater than 100
A line will never clash a symbol off the plot and all lines of any priority cross without
effect.

19
 A symbol will clash another symbol off the plot if:
o it has higher priority or,
o it has the same priority, less than or equal to 100 and is the first symbol
processed in preparing the map.
Two symbols with the same priority greater than 100 will overwrite.
Look back to the start of this section at the map you are creating and you will notice
that the words Crusher Pad appear in the centre of the pad outline. This data is
stored in the D1 field of string 100 in the site1.str file. Although this description is
stored for every point in this string, you only want to plot it once for the entire string.
Therefore this is an example of a string attribute. A string attribute defines something
that you only want to plot once for each string or segment.

From the Plotting menu, select Entity, then New. Enter the entity name CRUSHER as
shown below then click Apply.

20
Here you input what you want to plot. For the entity you are going to produce, the attribute
type is field because you wish to plot the value from a field. See the Online Help Manual for a
list of attribute types. The description is stored in the D1 field, so this is the field you wish to
plot.

Since the data is not numeric, the number of decimals is not applicable. Input is not required
for either the Notation or Symbol, as you did not specify these as your attribute type.

Input where you want the entity to plot. You want to plot the entity at the centroid of the string,
as the pad is an irregular shape.

This entity is being plotted at the actual data point and so the Direction is none.

The Text Height is expressed in millimetres. The Text Angle is expressed in degrees and
there are three methods of defining this angle. Refer to your Online Help Manual for more
detail on Text Angle definition. Finally, you may nominate the Justification both horizontally
(Horiz. Just.) and vertically (Vert. Just.).

The last part of the form allows you to nominate the Pen number and Priority. Enter the
parameters as shown below and click Apply.

21
The last entity that needs to be created is for plotting the bore locations, the site names and
the planned depth. The location (Y, X and Z coordinates) of the bore is stored in the string file
bor1.str. The attributes for site name and planned depth are stored in the D1 and D2 fields
of this file.

Since you will be plotting data for every point in the string file, this is a point attribute. A point
attribute defines something to be plotted at each point in a string file.

From the Plotting menu, select Entity, then New. Enter name as Bore and type as Point.

22
Enter the number and type of operations as shown below.

Remember that first you have to describe what you want to plot. In this case you want to plot
a cross to represent the bore location. Thus the Attribute Type is symbol.

The String File Field, # Decimal Places and Notation inputs can be ignored but you will need
to specify the symbol you want to use, in this case a + (cross).

Now you also need to indicate where you want the cross to be plotted. It is logical to plot the
cross at the hole location, so accept the default values here.

You then need to nominate how big the symbol will be. In this case it will be the same size as
the text or 3mm.

Finally nominate the Pen number and Priority.

23
Selecting tab 2 with the mouse reveals the next point attributes form.

Click the checkbox for Use point operations, then enter the parameters as shown below:

This time you will be plotting a value from a field, so the Attribute Type is 'field'. The field you
wish to plot is D1.

Specify the Direction as an angle and nominate an Angle from Point of 0 degrees.

Nominating a Dist from point of 10 will have the effect of plotting the text such that the centre
of the text is 10mm directly above the centre of the cross (see diagram on following page).

Specifying a Text Angle of 0 degrees Absolute has the effect of plotting the text parallel with
the bottom of the paper.

Absolute angle refers to the angle relative to the plotting sheet. Relative angle means the
angle is interpreted relative to the direction of the string. By using a bearing, the angle is
measured clockwise from North (or the reference direction).

Nominate the Pen Number and Priority and select the next tab (ie. tab 3) with the mouse to
display the third point operation field.

24
You are presented with the third point operation form as shown below. Notice that the D2 field
(planned depth) will be plotted at an angle of 180 degrees, with distance from point of 10
placing it 10 mm directly below the marker.

As can be seen in the preview window below, the centre of the text is exactly 10mm from the
centre of the point marker, making the distance between the centres of the two text fields
20mm.

Complete the form as shown below and click Apply.

25
You have now created all the String and Point entities for your map.

The last entity that needs to be created is a note entity. Note entities allow files of text data to
be incorporated into a plot in various positions. Most modules in SURPAC that produce a
printed output have a note format. These files have a '.not' file output name.

The text you are using was created in a spreadsheet and saved as a text file called bor1.not.

From the Plotting menu, select Entity, then New and enter the name Bore(NOT), select
Entity type of note and click Apply.

You are now presented with the form to enter the note attributes. Enter the parameters as
shown below and click Apply.

The note may be positioned relative to any of the four corners of the plotting sheet. Once you
have specified the corner, you then need to nominate the X and Y offsets and the horizontal
and vertical justification.

26
Now that you have finished creating all of the entities for the map, you need to create the map.

From the Plotting menu, select Map, then New and enter the name of the map as BORE
PLAN. Click Apply.

You are now presented with the map definition form. This form allows you to nominate the
entities to be plotted, and to nominate which string or note files and string ranges to use.

Enter the data for the first line by filling in the details and then pressing the TAB key at
Segment range to display a new line. Alternatively, use a right mouse click in this cell to add a
new row.

The second entity has been specified above as solid line/PN2. The /PN2 means to use pen 2,
instead of pen1 as specified in the entity definition. This means the ramp will appear in a
different colour in the output depending on how pen 2 is set up physically on your output
device.

Other attributes that may be changed in this way are:

text height /HTnn (nn = height in millimetres)

text angle /ANnn (nn= angle in degrees)
priority /PRnnn (nnn=priority 0 to 125)
scale of fill /SCnnn (nn= scale of hatching)

These are modifiers and will help to avoid having to create hundreds of entity definitions.

Note that when you are defining a note entity there is no need to define a string range.

Press the TAB key at the end of each row of inputs to progress to the next line.

As you use Surpac Vision, you will build up a library of Map and Entity definitions. Map and
entity definitions are stored in a file called library.plt located in the \share\etc\plotting
directory on your hard disk drive.

27
You should make regular backups of this file as it often represents considerable effort taken
to define the customised maps and entities. As you build your library, you will be less likely to
be creating new maps and entities, and more likely to be modifying existing map and entity
definitions.

Click Apply on the Define a Map form. You are now ready to process your map.

From the Plotting menu, select Process, then Map and enter your Map Name as BORE
PLAN.

After applying the form, Surpac begins to process your map.

The next form you are presented with is the Plot Presentation Parameters form. Enter the
parameters as shown below and click Apply.

28
For the purposes of this exercise, it is worth noting the maximum scale that will fit on each of
the sheet sizes. Compare this with the minimum and maximum coordinates of your data files,
which are written on the right hand side of this form. In this case, the appropriate scale for the
map is 1:1000.

The next form allows you to enter lines of text for the title block. Type Bore Hole Location
Plan as shown below and click Apply.

You are then prompted to enter the grid spacing and grid type. Enter a grid spacing of 100 in
both the X and Y directions. Line type is full lines for solid lines.

When processing is complete, look in your message window which will indicate where your
results are stored. You may now preview this plot. If it isn't automatically displayed already,
drag the file bore_plan.dwf into graphics.

Alternatively, from the File menu, select Open, then Plotting window. From the File menu
in the plotting window, select Open. The most recently created plot file is shown as the
default. Click Apply.

29
Your map is displayed on screen as shown below. Try windowing in on some of the text to
see how lines 'break' around text.

The final step in producing a map is to produce a hard copy plot.

From the File menu, select Print plot file and choose Apply to process the default map
name.

The plot driver function converts the *.dwf file into a file that your plotter recognises simply by
selecting your plotter. Select the plot device you wish to use.

30
4. Send plot to printer

There are three ways you can plot from Surpac in the Plot Driver form:

Use the Windows Drivers (ideal for any windows printer)

Use the Surpac Drivers and copy to the communications port or network port (best
with UNIX or DOS)
Use the Surpac Drivers and copy to the Windows spooler (best for most plotters in
Windows)

Windows Driver

The plot drivers paper sizes should be larger than \share\etc\plotting\sheets.ssi paper sizes.
You are reliant on the drivers setting.

There are many features in plot drivers that can adversely affect the quality of the plot for
Surpac Vision. The most notable is 'Fit to Page' which will distort the scale in the x and y
directions.

When you are ready to plot, select Print plot file, to bring up the Plotting form.

Click Apply to bring up the Plotter Drivers form as shown below:

31
Surpac Driver

The Surpac Vision drivers translate the plot commands native to the plotters own language.

The hardcopy result colours are true to rgb (red, blue, green palette) scales and the thickness
of the text is controllable. The Surpac Vision driver creates a resultant file (*.dwf).

You have two options with this file, you can either 'plot now' through the plot command or
save it to be batch printed later. The plot command is stored in the \share\etc\default.ssi.

There are two types of system commands using the Surpac Vision drivers. The first is to use
the Copy command, which will only work within the DOS environment. UNIX systems also
use a similar line printing command specific to their particular operating system.

See the Online Help Manual for more details.

or to send via a Windows spooler.

32
The spooler option is better as it uses the features of the Windows printer manager to
optimise the sending of the data.

Summary

You should now be familiar with the following:

Maps and Map definitions

Entities
String Entity definitions
o Line attributes
o String attributes
o Point attributes
Note Entity definitions
Processing a Map
Plotting a Map

If you are unclear on any of the above it would be advisable to review this section before
continuing.

Next we will learn how to import and export maps and entities from other computers.

33
Importing/Exporting Maps and Entities
Overview

To prepare Surpac Vision for the next set of exercises we need to load the maps and entities
that will be used in the tutorial.

This section will give a broad overview of the functionality of the following:

Importing Map and Entity Definitions

Exporting Map and Entity Definitions
Listing Map and Entity Definitions

1. Importing Map and Entity Definitions

We will now import an existing set of entities and maps into Surpac Vision.

From the Plotting menu, select Entity, then Import from binary file.

Enter the entity.txt filename as shown below and Apply the form.

Note: There is a known issue in Surpac Vision V5.2 concerning the import and export menus
for Map entities. The menus are mislabelled as Import from Text file, when it should read
Import from Binary file. The same applies with the Export to Text file menu item which
should read Export to Binary file. Do NOT try to edit these files with a text editor.

Most of these entities are already loaded in the file which stores the map and entity definitions,
(C:\SurpacMinex\Surpac_V5.1\ share\plotting\library.plt). If you try to add an entity that
already exists in the library, Surpac will beep to indicate that it already has these entities.

A log file will also be generated to list the entities loaded.

34
From the Plotting menu, select Map, then Import from text file. Enter the map name as
shown below and Apply the form.

Note: There is a known issue in Surpac Vision V5.2 concerning the import and export menus
for Map entities. The menus are mislabelled as Import from Text file, when it should read
Import from Binary file. The same applies with the Export to Text file menu item which
should read Export to Binary file. Do NOT try to edit these files with a text editor.

Again, Surpac will beep if it already has these maps. In this case, rename or delete the
existing map definitions with the names section view, plan view and/or legend.

These files were previously created using the Export to a text file function.

2. Export Map and Entity Definition

We will now look at how to export Map and Entity Definitions from Surpac Vision. The entities
will be unloaded to a file which can then be loaded onto another computer.

From the Plotting menu, select Entity, then Export to text file. Enter the file name as shown
below.

You can either choose which entities to unload by filling in the list, or unload all entities using
an asterisk (*).

The entities will be unloaded to a file which can then be loaded onto another computer.

From the Plotting menu, select Map, then Export to text file. Enter the text file name as
shown below and Apply the form.

You can either choose which maps to unload by filling in the list, or unload all maps using an
asterisk (*).

35
The maps will be unloaded to a file that can be loaded onto another computer.
To find out which entities are already stored in your system you can use a function called
Report. The next section will show how this is done.

3. Creating a list of Map and Entity Definitions

We will now look at creating a report listing current Map and Entity Definitions.

From the Plotting menu, select Entity, then Report. Enter the file name as shown below and
Apply the form.

You can either choose which entities to report by filling in the list, or report all entities using an
asterisk (*).

From the Plotting menu, select Map, then Report. Enter the file name as shown below and
Apply the form.

You can either choose which maps to report by filling in the list, or report all maps using an
asterisk (*).

Both of these .rpt files can be viewed in Notepad, in Context or in any other text editor.

36
Summary

You should now be familiar with the following:

Importing Map and Entity Definitions

Exporting Map and Entity Definitions
Listing of Map and Entity Definitions

We will now use the imported maps and entities to create plan and section maps.

37
Map of Drillhole Traces
Overview

In this section we will learn how to use previously created maps and entities to create plots in
both plan and section view.

1. Creating a Plan View Map of Drill Hole Data.

In this exercise we will create a plan map using existing maps and entities.

From the Plotting menu, select Process, then Map and click Apply.

Fill in the form as shown below and click Apply. Make sure to tick the check box Display plot
after processing on the right hand side of the form.

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Fill out the Title block definition and click Apply.

Fill out the grid definition form and click Apply.

The plot file will now appear on the screen in the Plotting Window.

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Section map of Drillhole data

1. Creating a section view map of Drill hole Data.

We will now create a cross section plot of drillhole data on the 6800mN section.

From the Plotting menu, select Process, then Map and fill out the form as shown below and
press Apply.

The following form will appear. Fill it out as shown and click Apply. Make sure to tick the
checkbox to Display plot after processing.

Note: The ZXA0 grid is used for a section view, as it plots the label mRL on the grids
ascending the page, and Eastings on the grids going to the left of the page. YXA0 plots N and
E on the grid labels.

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Fill in the Title Block form as shown below and click Apply.

Choose a grid with 50m intervals and full lines as shown below, then Apply the form.

The plot should be automatically displayed as follows. If not, drag the *.dwf file into Graphics,
or open the plotting window and open the file from there.

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Next we will use a different drawing area to plot the data, and lock the lower left hand
coordinates of the plot.

From the Plotting menu, select Process, then Last map.

At the Plot Presentation Parameters form, change the Drawing Area to VA1B and then set
Plot Orientation to Landscape Fixed. Then Apply the form.

The VA1B drawing area is a view used with an A1 sheet that plots at the bottom of the page.
It encompasses about of the bottom area, but leaves a space at the top for a narrow plan
view strip. We will see how to make our own drawing areas later.

The Landscape Fixed orientation locks down the lower left-hand corner of the map. As you
saw, when using the Landscape Centred orientation, the centre of the data is placed at the
centre of the map. For plotting a series of section maps, this would be OK if all the data for all
the sections had the exact same minimum and maximum data extents in elevation and
easting (or northing). However this is rarely the case, and it is also necessary to align the
upper (plan view) drawing area with the lower (section view) data. Therefore we must
establish a common easting value for the left edge of the drawing. We can do this with the
Landscape Fixed orientation.

Another benefit of the Landscape Fixed orientation is that if maps are to be viewed
physically overlaying one-another, such as on a light table, it is generally desirable to have all
the data aligned when the sheets are aligned. By specifying the coordinates of the lower left-
hand corner of the map, this can be done. The Landscape Fixed orientation is almost always
used when plotting a section view with a plan view strip at the top.

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Keep the same Title block as before and Apply the form as shown below:

Enter the reference points as shown below and press Apply.

Note: In the form below, the orientation is listed as NF. This is equivalent to Landscape
Fixed and may be ignored in this context.

Note: Since we are processing a section view map, "Y" on this form refers to the vertical
dimension of the plot, or its elevation.

Fill out the grid parameters as shown below, then click Apply.

If you ticked the Display after processing map check box, the plot will automatically be
displayed in the plotting window

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There are several items to take note of:

The different distances used for the X and Y grids.

The effect of the "Full Lines" and "Grid Crosses" type grids used.
The location of the data on the plot has been locked by specifying the lower left
corner of the map as 25mRL and 2300mE.
The use of the drawing area VA1B. This drawing area is pre-defined as being in the
bottom of an A1 sheet, leaving some room at the top for a plan view strip.

Summary

You should now be familiar with the following:

plotting string files in plan and section view

changing grid styles
changing plot orientations
changing drawing areas

Next we will create a plot with two drawing areas, displaying both a plan and section view at
once.

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Creating Multi-viewport Maps
Overview

This section will show how to use more than one drawing area on a plot. This enables us to
plot both plan and section views of the data on the same page. We will now look at:

Creating a plot with two drawing areas

Modifying an existing drawing area
Adding a third drawing area

1. Creating a plot with two drawing areas

We will now process the map again, combining the section file with a plan view strip at the top.
To do this we will enter two map names on the form.

From the Plotting menu, select Process, then Map. Fill out the form as shown below then
click Apply.

At the Plot Presentation Parameters form enter the data as shown below and click Apply.

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Note that these parameters will be applied to the section view map in Drawing Area VA1B.
Apply the same Title Block data.

Keep the same reference corner as before.

Enter the grid parameters as follows.

We are now ready to enter the Plotting Parameters for the Second Map.

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Change the drawing area to VA1T (a drawing area for the top of an A1 sheet) and make
certain the Title block field is blank for No title block.

You generally will want to show the entire area of influence for the section. These sections
were created using data 25m south and 25m north of the section line. Therefore when you
enter the reference corner for the plan view map for the 6800m N section, you will want to
lock the lower left corner of the map at 25m south of the section line, or 6800m 25m =
6775m. Note that this "Y" value is in plan view coordinates, not section coordinates (recall
that 25m RL was used on the map section view to lock the lower left coordinate of the section
drawing area).

Enter the reference corner coordinates as shown and press Apply.

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Enter the grid parameters as shown below and click Apply.

You will now see the map as shown, with the plan view at the top (in drawing Area VA1T) and
the section view at the bottom (in drawing area VA1B). Note that both are locked at 2300m E
so that they align properly.

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2. Modifying an existing drawing area

Note that the section line of 6800m N in the plan view is not centred vertically in the drawing
area. It is 25m north of the lower left hand corner of the VA1T drawing area (as we specified),
but it does not show the full 25m extent of the section to the top edge of the drawing area. We
will now go through an exercise to enlarge the drawing area VA1T so that it covers the extent
of the section (25m north and 25m south). Enlarging the plan view drawing area also requires
that the section view drawing area will be reduced in height.

From the Plotting menu, select Plotting sheet setup window. A new window will appear.

From the Drawing areas menu, choose Select and fill out the form as shown below.

Note that both drawing areas have been selected and both drawing areas will be displayed on
the screen.

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From the Drawing areas menu, select Properties.

This will display the dimensions of the drawing areas.

Refer to the above diagram to explain the construction of the drawing areas.

VA1T

Left = 0.6 This is the distance in from the left edge of the plotting sheet to extent of the
drawing area.

Right = 0.6 This is the distance in from the right edge of the plotting sheet to extent of the
drawing area.

Bottom = 47 This is the distance in from the bottom edge of the plotting sheet to extent of the
drawing area.

Top = 0.1 This is the distance in from the top edge of the plotting sheet to extent of the
drawing area.

VA1B
Left = 0.6 This is the distance in from the left edge of the plotting sheet to extent of the
drawing area.

Right = 0.6 This is the distance in from the right edge of the plotting sheet to extent of the
drawing area.

Bottom = 0.6 This is the distance in from the bottom edge of the plotting sheet to extent of the
drawing area.

Top = 10 This is the distance in from the top edge of the plotting sheet to extent of the
drawing area.

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To rescale the drawing areas you can either move the boxes manually or by choosing the
function.

From the Drawing areas menu, select Move or Properties.

Fill in the Properties form as follows and Press Apply.

From the Drawing areas menu, select Save, to save the modifications.

Now that we have changed the dimensions of the drawing areas, we can re-process the last
map.

Return to Surpac by clicking Apply. From the Plotting menu, select Process, then Last
map.

Run through all the forms, filling them out as previously shown in this section.

The resultant plot file should look like this:

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In the next exercise we will add a third drawing area to the map.

In doing this we will keep our existing drawing areas VA1T and VA1B, but copy them to new
drawing areas, called plan and sect and modify them. Then we will add a new drawing area
called LEGN (in the upper right hand corner of the sheet). We will use it to display some
legend data.

3. Adding a third drawing area

We will now create a third drawing area for the map which will hold notefile information.

From the Plotting menu, select Plotting sheet setup window.

From the Drawing area, select Copy, to copy the VA1T drawing area to a new drawing area
called Plan. Fill out the form as follows and click Apply.

Note the change in the right dimension from the sheet boundary. It has been changed to 17.
This will create room for the LEGN drawing area.

The new PLAN drawing area will appear on the screen. From the Drawing areas menu,
select Save, to save the drawing area.

Now repeat these steps for the VA1B drawing area.

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From the Drawing area, select Copy, to copy the VA1B drawing area to a new drawing area
called section by filling out the form as follows:

Note the change in the right dimension from the sheet boundary. It has been changed to
17cm to create room for the LEGN drawing area.

The new section drawing area will appear on the screen.

From the Drawing areas menu, select Save, to save the drawing area.

From the Drawing areas menu, choose Select and choose both of the drawing areas to
display on the screen.

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The drawing areas should appear as follows:

Now create a new Drawing area called LEGN.

From the Drawing areas menu, select New, and fill out the form as follows:

54
Now display all three drawing areas together on the screen. From the Drawing areas menu,
choose Select and fill out the following form.

The drawing areas should appear as follows:

Finally, we will process the map again.

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From the Plotting menu, select Process, then Map. Fill in the Plotting Process Form and
click Apply.

At the Plot Presentation Parameters form. Enter the following data and click Apply.

Note that these parameters will be applied to the section view map in Drawing Area section.

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 Apply the same Title Block data.

Keep the same reference corner as before.

Note: In the form below, the orientation is listed as NF. This is equivalent to Landscape
Fixed and may be ignored in this context.

Enter the grid parameters as follows.

Now enter the Plotting Parameters for the Second Map.

Change the drawing area to plan (a drawing area for the top of an A1 sheet) and make
certain the Title block is set to a "blank" for No title block.

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Fill out the form as shown below, then click Apply.

Enter the reference corner coordinates as shown and click Apply.

Enter the grid parameters as shown below and press Apply.

At the next form, enter a drawing area LEGN, Plot orientation NC, Grid N and title block N (no
grid or title block).

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After the map has finished processing, it will appear in the Plot Preview window. You will see
the map as shown below, with Drawing areas PLAN SECTION, and LEGN. Notice that only
a note entity was plotted in LEGN.

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Summary

You should be familiar with the following:

Creating a plot with two drawing areas

Modifying an existing drawing area
Adding a third drawing area

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Title Block Definitions
Overview

So far we have been using the NMA0 title block for all of the maps we have produced. In this
section we will learn how to make our own title block and to create advanced plots with
multiple drawing areas and a legend.

We will cover:

Creating a new title block

Creating new drawing areas
Recording a Macro to Graphically Orientate the Plot Area

1. Creating a New Title Block

In the next section we will go through some of the tools available to create and edit your own
customised title blocks. Below is the example we will create.

From the Plotting menu, select Plotting sheet setup window.

From the Title Blocks menu, select Copy.

We will make a copy of an existing title block as it will save us setting up new lines, prompt
items etc. In most cases this will be the easiest way to create a new title block as all items can
be altered using the property command.

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Fill in the form as shown below, then click Apply.

The only items you will need to type in are the new title ID and title description. Use the
browser for existing title ID, border ID and draw area ID. If you use the tab key you will find
that the X and Y size lines are updated automatically from the existing title information. Apply
this form and the new title block will appear.

From the Title block menu, select Snap grid, then Properties.

We will use this to help align items on our title block. Fill in the form as shown, and Apply to
create a snapping grid on 0.2cm spacings.

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Next, we will delete the existing title of "Surpac Minex Group" and insert the new text item
"BLUE SKY MINING" leaving enough room for the image of the company logo to the left.

From the Title Blocks menu, select Edit, then Delete item.

Click on the text Surpac Minex Group, and it will disappear.

From the Title Blocks menu, select Create, then Text.

Enter the information as shown below, and click Apply.

Note: By setting the priority of all title block items to the same high priority value (such as
124), nothing will be clashed off.

Next, we will add the company logo, stored in bluesky_logo.png to the left of the text.

From the Title Blocks menu, select Create, then Image.

Click and drag a roughly square-shaped area to the left of the text BLUE SKY MINING.

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Enter the information as shown below and click Apply.

For clarity, we will now turn the snap grid off.

From the Title Blocks menu, select Snap grid then Hide.

Save what you have done, then close the Plot From the Title Blocks menu, select Save.

Next, we will check the title box by creating a map which uses the BLUESKY title block.

Ensure you are viewing the main Surpac window by closing the Plotting sheet setup
window.

From the Plotting menu, select Map, then New.

Enter the map name BLUESKY_TEST, then Apply the form.

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Enter the following information, then Apply.

From the Plotting menu, select Process, then Map.

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Enter the following information on the forms as below and Apply each one.

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The plot and title block will be displayed in the Plot Preview window.

In addition to verifying that the title block is OK here, you should also send this plot to an
output device, such as a printer or plotter. In some cases there are slight differences in text
size and colouration depending on the plot driver you are using. Contact your local support
office if you have any problems.

Summary

You should be familiar with the following:

Adding a title block

Adding a logo to your title block

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