It’s Tip Tuesday! Today’s post comes from Christina Ludwicki, one of our GEOVIA Knowledge Mining Consultants.
GEOVIA PCBC™ is used by virtually every major mining company involved in block caving who rely on its comprehensive functionality to assist with feasibility studies, design, and production management. Within PCBC, the Template Mixing depletion engine has been developed specifically to be used within a production schedule. Today we’ll discuss setting up the Template Mixing depletion engine and running a basic schedule.
To get started with Template Mixing, there are two main stages for setting up the Production Scheduler
- Creating a Template Mixing Advanced Profile
- Creating the Production Scheduler Microsoft Excel™ file
When creating a Template Mixing Advanced Profile, follow these steps:
- Select PCBC > Project > Advanced Profile to open the Block Caving Advanced Profile editor.
- Click “Generate” and select the Template Mixing (TM) Advanced Profile.
The profile will be generated with default values, which change based on project parameters. Suggested values for each parameter are found within the Comment column and parameters may be turned off by placing an exclamation mark (!) in front of the parameter keyword.
When creating the Production Scheduler Excel file, you’ll need a new Excel file that has “Prod” at the beginning of the file name (e.g. ProdTons_R1.xls).
From there, within the workbook, you’ll need to create an Input Sheet, which allows the Production Scheduler to understand the fundamentals of what is going into the scheduler.
To create an Input Sheet, follow these steps:
- Create a tab within the ‘ProdTons_R1.xls’ workbook called INPUT.
- Keywords entered together in column 1 will correspond to a number of parameters in column 2 (only for some keywords) and will vary depending on the scenario.
It is important to note that the two most crucial factors when using the Template Mixing Depletion engine include using the TEMPLATE_MIX keyword and the SLICEFILE keyword. TEMPLATE_MIX will direct the Production Scheduler to the appropriate advanced profile. SLICEFILE should be an unmixed slice file to ensure the file is not mixed twice.
With the Input Sheet complete, you then need to create a Table Sheet, which is used to define the main schedule input per period for the Production Schedule. It is added to define the tonnage target per period and the number of new draw points for the Production Scheduler.
To create a Table Sheet, follow these steps:
- Create a tab within the ‘ProdTons_R1.xls’ spreadsheet called TABLE.
- For this sheet to be used during the creation of the schedule, the TABLE keyword must be enabled on the INPUT sheet.
The final step is to create a Detail Sheet, which allows for additional control data to be used as inputs while creating the production schedule.
To create a Detail Sheet, follow these instructions.
- Create a tab within the ‘ProdTons_R1.xls’ spreadsheet called DETAIL. For this sheet to be used during the creation of the schedule, the DETAIL keyword must be enabled on the INPUT sheet.
Once you have created the Excel product file, you can proceed running the Production Scheduler using these steps:
- Use the path PCBC > Planning > Run Production Scheduler.
- A dialog box will pop up prompting whether it is desired to run spreadsheets from an advanced profile, which grants the ability to run multiple schedules at once. If a single schedule is to be produced, select “No”.
- When prompted to locate the ProdTons_R1.xls, which was created earlier, select “Save”.
For more details on running a Production Scheduler, including Input Sheet keywords, Table Sheet Column descriptions, and Detail sheet column descriptions and actions, visit the GEOVIA Support Center.
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