by Stuart Tierney | Aug 10, 2018 | Training |
We started making training videos about 12 months ago and feedback has been quite positive. At the last AGM, a suggestion came for a training programme aimed at new users to mXrap. The training videos are currently stored by app but a specific programme would help new users with a logical order for progressing through the training content.
We have made a new page for the Training Programme under the Training tab. The programme is structured in several user levels, from a basic introduction to General Analysis, moving through all the apps and finally to advanced app building tutorials. There are a few links to relevant blog posts and papers that will help users understand some of the analysis concepts. There are also exercise questions in each section for users to complete using their own data.
by Stuart Tierney | Jul 20, 2018 | Training |
Most users are probably aware of the Quick Reference Guide in the Cheat Sheets. It lists all the mXrap shortcuts and hotkeys but it is spread over a few pages and can be a bit tough to find what you’re looking for. Below is a one-page Quick Reference Guide for more of a visual lookup of the main controls. The controls for the new Annotations tool are not included but help for those controls is available in mXrap itself. Here is the PDF version of the one-page guide if you want to print a copy.
by Stuart Tierney | Jun 22, 2018 | Training |
You can now measure distances in any 3D view in mXrap (version 5.6.0 or later) with the ruler tool in the Annotations tab. The “Annotations tool” training video on the General and FAQ page goes through all the features and the operation. Most operations will probably be for the distance between two points, such as the event-to-survey distance below. You can also extend this to a multi-point ruler for measuring more complicated paths.
The controls are very similar to selection boxes. Control instructions are in the Annotations tab.
- Ctrl + Left-click to move/select point
- Ctrl + Right-click to rotate/cancel
- Space to insert a point
- Del to delete point
Other features include:
- Snap ruler to point or surface (crosshairs will turn from red to green when snapping)
- Point rounding – For selecting points on a grid or post-rounding
- User defined labels on vertices or segments
- Table of point coordinates, segment lengths, horizontal and vertical runs, trend and plunge
- Optional arrow head
- Save and load rulers
- Flatten points to the focal plane (view plane)
by Stuart Tierney | Jun 22, 2018 | Training |
There have been some interface changes made to the mXrap software in versions 5.6.6 or later. The right-hand-side controls have had a bit of a face-lift and now there are separate coloured tabs for exporting, selections, annotations and clipping.
The 3D Controls button has also been moved above the series window and the buttons in general have had some styling. We are planning some further changes to Clipping and looking at combining the dynamic clipping controls with the Clipping panel.
The eXport panel is where you can control the screen capturing and table exports. This tab can be “popped-out” to make it easier to export many tools at once. Please note the “eXport panel” training video has been updated on the General and FAQ page.
by Stuart Tierney | May 31, 2018 | Training |
If you have updated your software to 5.4.0 or higher, you may have noticed some changes to the Survey Import tool. The Survey Setup training video has been updated on the General and FAQ page. The main changes have been to support additional properties from DXF files.
DXF text
Text objects from DXF files can now be imported into mXrap and displayed in the 3D view. mXrap version 5.5.2 supports TEXT, ATEXT and MTEXT objects. Be aware that there are limits on the maximum number of texts that can be displayed and MTEXT (multi-line) objects will be converted to one line.
Below is an example of DXT text shown in the Monitoring application, in this case it can be handy for the control room operator to see where the exclusion areas are. You should start seeing more text series in 3D views, where you can adjust the size of the text and set to always face the 3D camera during rotation. This may include event magnitude labels, sensor ID’s etc.
For basic site surveys, you may want to separate your text files from your regular surfaces and lines content so you can turn them on/off independently. Otherwise when you tick a file from the list, all surface, line and text will be displayed together. You can control whether each survey displays its Surface, Line or Text content from the survey import tool.
DXF colours
The colours from DXF files can now be used in mXrap and this option will be enabled by default when you build the cache.
BE AWARE that the DXF colours may not suit the mXrap 3D view. Most mining software packages have a dark background and so DXF colours are often light. These colours may not work so well on the white background in mXrap. This is especially true for lines. White floor strings are quite common and will be invisible in mXrap. There are some auto-correct functions built into the DXF colours for this reason. You also still have the option to override the colour displayed as before.
