The Advanced Blast Firing Sequence Design functionality in GEOVIA Surpac™ 6.7.1 allows users to graphically tie, untie and edit blast holes in a given blast pattern so that the blast holes can be fired as per a desired sequence. This feature enables increased flexibility and customizability when designing a firing sequence, which means users can combine different, multi-directional blast patterns and watch these patterns come to life via the animation slider. Additionally, users can edit inter-hole delays to adjust the amount of explosives being fired at a given time to minimize vibrations. The feature also makes it easy to examine the firing angle using the animation slider, and prepare a firing plan for Autoplot.
Here are some important features of the Advanced Firing Sequence Designer Panel, in particular how to tie/untie blast holes and customize your firing sequence.
1. Click on the Firing Sequence tab and select Advanced firing sequence designer.
2. To tie holes: In the Advanced Firing Sequence Designer panel, select the menu Tie holes. 
You will be prompted to select a start hole and end hole along the direction of propagation of shock wave. The start hole is set as the initiation hole. All the holes whose perpendicular offset from the line (that connects the start & end holes) is less than a given tolerance (by default it is 0.01) are considered to be tied on the firing row with a nominated inter-hole delay detonator between each hole. The data structure stores the relationship as parent-child. A parent hole can have multiple children holes, but a child hole cannot have multiple parent holes. And, the initiation hole is the super parent of all the holes.
3. To untie holes: In the Advanced Firing Sequence Designer panel, select the menu Untie holes. 
You will be prompted to select the start hole and the hole to be untied. The two holes will be untied from each other if they are connected together. This process would leave those holes in a dangling state previously connected to the hole that we just untied. As we don’t want any hole in the sequence to be in a dangling state, all holes must have their super parent as the initiation hole. This process will also untie all the holes that are in a dangling state in order to keep the sequence in a valid state. Untie all holes will untie all the tied holes and reset the initiation hole.
4. Validate firing sequence: This checks if the initiation point is defined and if the sequence has/doesn’t have any dangling holes. It also lists the holes that are not currently tied.
5. Display firing sequence: This allows us to display the detonation time (in milliseconds) below each hole and the inter hole delay (in milliseconds) below the line connecting the two holes. It also draws an arrow between holes (if there is a delay between the two holes) along the direction of propagation of shockwave.
6. Firing sequence generation template: There are three templates (Diagonal pattern, V-shaped pattern and Centre-lift pattern) available as a tick box to generate a firing sequence. The customized firing sequence is available in addition to these templates.
- Diagonal pattern: Click and drag the diagonal line and a diagonal firing pattern is generated automatically as per the regular/zigzag option that we have selected.
- V-shaped pattern: Define the apex base line and diagonal lines to generate the V-firing pattern automatically.
- Center-lift pattern: Define the center line and a center-lift firing pattern will be generated automatically.
Watch this video and learn how to use the Advanced Firing Sequence panel in the Surpac 6.7.1 Drill & Blast Module.
To learn more about the Advanced Blast Firing Sequence or Surpac 6.7.1, contact GEOVIA.Surpac.Support@3ds.com or GEOVIA.Surpac@3ds.com
Looking for more Surpac Tips & Tricks? Check out these past posts on How to model a fault in Surpac and Understanding Surpac’s approach to validation of solid model.
Be sure to check back next week for more Product Tips & Tricks.
Anant Khangaonker
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