Datamine plugin

Overview

These plugins supports data formats used by the software package Datamine.

Supported File Types

The file types supported by these plugins are described in the table below.

FILE TYPE	EXTENSION	DATA TYPE
Point Files	".dm", ".asc", ".ddf", ".dat"	String data
String Files	".dm", ".asc", ".ddf", ".dat"	String data
Drillhole Files	".dm", ".asc", ".ddf", ".dat"	String data
Model Files	".dm", ".asc", ".ddf", ".dat"	String data
Wireframe Models	".dm", ".asc", ".ddf", ".dat"	3D Object data

Method

The following paragraphs describe the method used for reading and saving files using the Datamine plugins.

Reading

String Data

All Datamine points, string, drillhole, and model files are read in as String data. Each point in a point file is placed into the first segment of individual strings. String ID's are allocated based on the order in which the points occur in the file. If a COLOUR field is present for each point, then it is used to apply colour to each string created. Symbols are not yet supported for point files. All non-coordinate fields are placed into description fields of each point created. Point files associated with wireframe models are loaded in the same fashion.

Each string defined in a string file is loaded into the first segment of individual strings. String ID's are allocated based on the order in which the strings occur in the file. If a COLOUR field is present for each string, then it is used to apply colour to each string created. All non-coordinate fields are placed into description fields of each point created.

Drillhole and Model files are loaded in as multiple points in the first segment of string 1. Each point created from a drillhole file corresponds to the center of a drillhole sample. Each point created from a model file corresponds to the centroid of a block. All non-coordinate fields are placed into description fields of each point created.

3D Object Data

Datamine wireframe models are loaded in as 3D Object data. Wireframe models are loaded in by specifying the associated triangle file. The Datamine plugin expects the corresponding points file to exist in the same directory. For the Datamine plugin to identify the points file, both the triangle and the points file must follow a particular file naming convention.

A wireframe is constructed by matching a triangle file and a point file with a common base to their file names. The triangle and point files are indicated by the prefix or suffix of their file name. The Datamine plugins recognise a triangle and point file pair with the "tr" and "pt"

A triangle file is identified by either "tr" at the beginning or end, or "_t" at the end, of a filename. A point file is identified by either a "pt" at the beginning or end, or "_p" at the end, of a filename. To match a triangle file to a point file, they must have the same base name and extension. For example, a wireframe could consist of the following triangle/point file combinations - e.g.

pittr.dm, pitpt.dm
trsurface.dm, ptsurface.dm
tunnel_t.dm, tunnel_p.dm

A wireframe model is loaded into triobject 1. Triobjects are created based on grouping ID fields specified in the triangle file. The Datamine plugin supports the following grouping fields: GROUP, WFVALUE, SURFNAME, TID, and SID. If none of these grouping fields exists then the plugin attempts to use the COLOUR field for grouping. Trisolations are created based on the surface ID field called SURFACE. If this field is not present then all triangles in a triobject are placed into trisolation 1.

Saving

String Data

String data can be written out as Datamine point or string files. Datamine point files are created by exporting every point in every string into the file. Datamine string files are create by exporting each segment as a string in the file. Colour attributes are stored in a COLOUR field in string files.

3D Object Data

3D Object data is saved as a Datamine wireframe model. To create a wireframe model the associated triangle file is specified, which will be created along with its corresponding points file, in the same directory. The triobject ID corresponding to a triangle is stored in the grouping field GROUP. The trisolation ID corresponding to a triangle is stored in the surface field SURFACE. For compatability with older versions of Datamine an incrementing count of all trisolations is stored in the field WFVALUE. This basically means that triangles can be grouped via the WFVALUE field while ignoring the triobject ID. Colour attributes are stored in a COLOUR field in the triangle file.

Configuration

There is no specific configuration for the Datamine plugin.

The Datamine plugin has an associated default styles file named "datamine.ssi/mst", which resides in SSI_STYLES. This file can be reconfigured using Surpac's style editing tools.

Messages

The messages output by the Datamine plugin are listed below:

"Error opening file {filename}"
Displayed when an error occurs in opening a Datamine file.
"Error writing point {point index} to Datamine file {filename}"
Displayed when an error occurs writing a point to a Datamine file
"Error writing triangle {triangle index} to Datamine file {filename}"
Displayed when an error occurs writing a triangle to a Datamine file

Limitations

Writing Datamine binary files with a ".dm" extension is not currently supported. However there is support for writing text based files (".asc, ".ddf" and ".dat" extensions)

Surpac currently assigns colours to triobjects but not individual trisolations or triangles. Datamine has the capacity to colour wireframes at a more detailed level than this, therefore colour information may not be appropriately conserved when reading a Datamine wireframe model.