Table Plots

Relates to all versions

Table Plots

Table Plots provide a strong visual tool for reporting a wide range of information. Common usages
include displaying strip ratio, area disturbed and end date mined.
Table plots are made by grouping together nodes on your database and creating 2D outlines of the
solids associated with that group. You can then display data on each polygon.
For that reason, before you create a Table Plot you will need to create Plotting Polygons. To house
these polygons, create a solid field on your table.
The example below demonstrates a common method for storing polygons: a field for a Roof Polygon, a
Floor Polygon and a Plotting Polygon.

To access Table Plots, right click on your table, click Setup, then Table Plots.

Creating Plotting Polygons

To create polygons to use in your Table Plots, right click the header "Table Plots" then select Generate
Plotting Polygons.

You will then be presented with a page with inputs and outputs that determine your final polygon. Each
of these will be explained below.

Scan Range

Set the range of nodes from your table that will be used to create polygons.

Horizon Expression                                                                       

If you want to create separate polygons based on a horizon (e.g. a bench or seam level), enter an
expression here. Otherwise leave it as "". To explain further, suppose you have a Block X with Seams A, B and C.

If you leave your Horizon Expression blank you will create a single polygon for the block that will be
written to each node within Block X.

If your Horizon Expression is "Text(Seam)" then a separate polygon will be generated for each seam
within Block X. Nodes within Block X, Seam A will receive the Seam A polygon, Seam B nodes will
receive the Seam B polygon and so forth.

Block Expression

Similar to the Horizon Expression, use this input to group your nodes together. If you want a separate
polygon for each block, then you will group your nodes from your highest level down to the block level.

To create an expression, click on the icon at the right hand side of the Block Expression input. Next,
select the levels that make up the unique identification of each Block.

If you wish to create polygons for each strip, then you would only select the Pit and Strip levels to
generate your Grouping Expression.

Input Solid Fields

As explained earlier, the polygons generated here are 2D outlines of the solids associated with each
group as defined by our Horizon and Block grouping expressions. Here you can select which solids are
used to create your polygon.

Polygon Z Level

Choose from: Maximum Z, Minimum Z or 0.0. These options determine the Z level of the resulting
polygon.

To give an example. These are our starting solids in plan view. As you can see, they are cut with a
layback (each block is a trapezoid rather than a rectangle).

This is the result of creating a Table Plot displaying the maximum Z value of each block, with polygons
created using the Maximum Z input.

This is the result of creating a Table Plot displaying the minimum Z value of each block, with polygons
created using the Minimum Z input. These polygons also used Reverse Group Order (explained below)
which is the reason they are a different shape than the above.

You can see that these two plots do not perfectly overlay due to the layback of the solids. However, a
subset of our solids shows that the roof and floor of each block is successfully captured by the plots.

Finally, the "0.0" option outputs the same polygons as the Maximum Z option at a Z-level of 0. This will
generate a flat Table Plot which can be easier to read information from.

Z Offset

This input allows you to alter the Z level of your polygons once they have been drawn. Enter a positive
number to increase the polygon Z level and a negative number to decrease.

Filter Distance

This option refers to how the polygons are drawn by Spry. This input filters out points that are close
together. Increasing the value of the filter will result in polygons that are drawn quicker but potentially at the loss of accuracy in replicating the solids they are based on.

Output Range

Use this input to filter which nodes on your table will receive the polygons created. Generally this range
will be the same as the Scan Range.

Output Solid Fields

Choose the field on your table where the resulting polygons will be stored.
Using our example fields, the polygon generator would be run three times over the same solids,
mapping a different Polygon Z Level option with its corresponding Output Solid field.

Output Node(s)

Choose which nodes in your group (defined by your Grouping and Horizon Expressions) will have the
output polygons written to the table. For example, when creating Roof Polygons you could select First
Node so that only the uppermost bench/seam node on each block had the roof polygon written to it.

Group Order

After finalising your inputs and outputs, click Next. Presented is a list of your nodes in the Scan Range
formatted by your Grouping Expression. If you have a Horizon Expression it will not be represented in
the grouping here.

The Group Order determines how overlapping solids are dealt with when creating polygons.

The Group Order is applied between all meeting edges of polygons. That means if your Grouping
Expression goes to the Block level that the Group Order will be applied to the edge where strips meet
and the edge where blocks meet.

Typically, when creating polygons using the Maximum Z or 0.0 options, the default Group Order is what
you should use.

When creating floor polygons using the Minimum Z option, reverse the Group order. Bear in mind that
either option will generate a wider polygon from where the group order commences.

Note: The position of the polygons in these diagrams is not indicative of their final Z level.

Creating Table Plots

Now that you have generated at least one set of plotting polygons you can create a Table Plot.

Right click the header and select Add > New Table Plot. You will then be presented with the following
window.

Input

Range
Select the range of nodes that you want represented by the table plot. If you have not generated a
polygon for a node within the range set here, it will not appear in the table plot.

Grouping Expression

See above for an explanation of Grouping Expression. Best practice is to match your Grouping
Expression used here to the Grouping Expression used when creating your plotting polygons.

Output

Solid Field

Select the field that is storing the polygons you wish to use in the table plot. As demonstrated before,
polygons created from the Maximum Z of a solid can differ greatly from those created from the
Minimum Z of the same solid.

Output Mode
This option relates to the appearance of your plotting solids. Choose from Solid Fill or Outline.

Z Offset

Enter a positive number to increase the polygon Z level and a negative number to decrease.

Text Options

Value Type

Choose what type of information you're displaying on your Table Plot.

Value Expression

Use the expression editor to create the result you want to present. Remember that your Grouping
Expression has already aggregated values on your nodes. The expression for the block waste volume
is:

GetValue(WasteVolume)

And the expression for the block strip ratio is therefore:

SafeDivide(GetValue(WasteVolume),GetValue(CoalTonnes))

A more complex example is the expression used in the screenshot above. It utilises the NodesMax()
function to find a specific value from the grouped nodes.

Max(NodesMax(GetZCoordinate(CalculatedWasteRoofCentroid)),NodesMax(GetZCoordinate(CalculatedCoalRoofCentroid)))

In this instance, the expression finds the waste and coal centroid with the highest Z value, then uses the
higher of the two as the final output value.

Formatting Expression

All outputs must be in text form. The default formatting expression converts the value (as defined in
the previous step) into text.

Text(Value, "#,##0")

If you want to represent numbers as a percentage with a decimal place, the expression would be:

Text(Value, "0.0%")

Z Offset

Similar to previous uses of the Z Offset input, this has the effect of changing the Z level of your text.

Rotation

Enter the desired degrees of rotation for your text. This input uses the expression editor.

Text Align with View

Check this option if you want the text to rotate with the camera so that it always appears level.

Legend Options

Title

Set the title of your Legend.

Legend Location

Choose from the preset options. If you prefer to have no Legend displayed, select the option "None".

Legend Offset                                                                                 

If the preset options do not place your legend where you would like it, use the Legend Offset to change
the X coordinates of your legend . A positive number will push it to the right of the screen, and a
negative number to the left.

Remove Unused Entries

If there are brackets on your legend that do not have entries when the table plot is generated, checking
this option will prevent those brackets from being displayed on your legend.

Colours and Entries

It is recommended that whenever you create a new list of entries for a Table Plot that you use the Table
Plot Colour Wizard.

Select Start, End and Increment values as well as a Start and End colour and click accept to generate
entries.

By default, a Less than Minimum and Greater than Maximum entry will be generated. You can click into
each row to change its settings or you can use the bulk editor under the Wizard tool. Generally it is
easier to delete the entire list of entries and start again as opposed to using the bulk editor.

If you want to apply a different colour palette, select the rows you wish to alter then right click and
select Apply Colour Palette.

Generating Table Plots

You can select a Table Plot and click Generate Layer at the bottom of the input window. Alternatively
you can right click a folder containing several Table Plots and select Generate All Layers to generate
multiple plots at once.

Accessing Table Plots

Now that you have generated your Table Plots, you can access them two ways. First, open a scenario,
navigate to the Animation window and then check your Design Data tab (located by default at the
bottom-left of the screen).

Alternatively, open the Design window from the Project Explorer then access your Table Plots from the
Design Data window.

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