Blasthole Depth Script for Maptek Vulcan

The blasthole_depth_by_tri.lava script is intended to give the vertical distance between two surfaces at
a given point. The distance between surfaces is written to the point name. The script was written so
that you could use a pre-mining surface and a post mining surface in association with a layer
containing blast hole coordinates to get the blast hole depth plus sub-drill. Using this method, blast
patterns are automatically adjusted for ramps or other topographic variations.
To use the script follow these steps:
1.
Copy the file blasthole_depth_by_tri.lava into your working directory. Link here.
2.
Load the top and bottom triangulations along with the layer containing the blasthole
locations.
3.
Initiate the script by selecting the menu option: File > Lava and selecting the script
from the dropdown Script name field. Click OK.
4.
Follow the on-screen prompts to select the top triangulation surface.
5.
Next, select the bottom triangulation surface.
1.
If you inadvertently select the same triangulation twice you will be prompted to
try again to select the bottom triangulation. Click OK to close the Error panel and
select the bottom triangulation.
2.
If you have picked the bottom triangulation twice click OK to close the Error
panel and right click to cancel selecting triangulations. Click Cancel in the Sub-drill
Depth panel and start the script again.
6.
Once the triangulations have been selected, the Sub-drill Depth panel will appear.
Enter the depth of sub-drill in the panel and click OK.

Blasthole Depth Script - Sub-drill Depth panel

7.
Next you will be prompted to Select criteria to compare elevations. Select the layer or
group with the blasthole collar locations then select Cancel to stop selecting data.
8.
The blasthole points will now have a point name specified as the elevation difference
between the two triangulations plus the sub-drill. This number will be rounded to the nearest
integer.
9.
To review the blasthole depth we want to display the point name on screen. To do
this, select the menu option: Analyse > Label > Point Label.
10.
Select the Name radio button and click OK.
11.
Select the layer or group with the blasthole collar locations then select Cancel to stop
selecting data.
The blasthole depth is now labeled next to each collar location. The original elevation of each
blasthole has not been changed.
The Drill and Blast module in Maptek Vulcan has a similar functionality but this script cost significantly
less than the $5,000 Vulcan module.

Blast Hole Depth Script

When designing a blast, it is important to know how deep each of the blast holes should be. Vulcan
has an option in the Drill and Blast tools in the Open Pit menu, but what do you do if you dont
have this menu? The referenced script will allow the user to identify the distance from the hole
collar to a given elevation and output this value to the point name.
I first came up with the idea for this script when we were having trouble controlling the bench level
on each bench. The floor of the pit was becoming increasingly uneven and managements method of
solving the problem was to have the survey crew shoot in each collar, calculate the depth to the next
bench (plus sub drill) and mark it on the stake for that hole. I didnt want my friends on the survey
crew to take hours out of their day to write elevations on wooden stakes so I put together this little
script. Now they print the blast pattern with hole depth and give it to the driller, leaving them with
plenty of time to survey working faces for me .

The script is not totally automated. Before using the lava script you must register your blast hole
collars to the current topography. To register the hole collars to a surface triangulation:
1. Load the surface triangulation and blast hole collars layer into Envisage
2. Select the menu option Design > Object Edit > Register
3. Select the collar points by layer
4. Select a point in the layer and confirm the correct layer
5. In the String Registration panel select the 2D Registration radio button and the
Interpolate checkbox
6. Click OK
7. Cancel out of the option
Now that the collar points have been registered you are ready to run the script. Copy the script into
the current working directory.