Our recent release of GEOVIA Surpac 6.8 includes major new functionality to support the ever-increasing use of drones and other sensing equipment that capture point cloud survey data in the mining environment.
This represents a major step towards our vision of the 3DEXPERIENCE Mine and ultimately, autonomous mining. Surpac now has the ability to import massive point clouds, clean and then mesh the data for processing and use within the survey and design processes.
Drone surveys and underground scanning equipment are changing the way mining companies see their mine, giving the ability to access a near real-time view of the terrain and development progress.
This semi-autonomous equipment is making previously inaccessible areas such as stope cavities and over the edge of the pit wall visible in high precision detail without the safety risk of putting a surveyor in danger.
Beyond the visual value, point clouds obtained from these scans can also aid in monitoring of underground tunnel wall movement and detecting pit wall instability, confirming development heading, and various other applications.
These scanning systems very quickly amass vast amounts of point cloud data, so big that many packages are limited in the size and speed of being able to handle them.
Surpac 6.8 uses unique technology to effectively handle any point cloud you can throw at it, by progressively loading just enough point cloud data at just the right precision you need to the scene at any one time making point cloud navigation super fast.
Very soon we will be connecting Surpac to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, Dassault Systèmes’ business platform for the future, thus enabling mining data to be shared across the enterprise and to other stakeholders inside and outside your mining business.
Point cloud data is a key component of this, our vision for the 3DEXPERIENCE Mine, thus enabling the creation of a 3D virtual representation of the mine that will help machines and software make decisions autonomously. The possibilities are endless and we hope to see you on the journey with us towards autonomous mining.
If you haven’t already, you can upgrade to Surpac 6.8 at no cost to GEOVIA maintained customers by downloading it from 3DS Support. Contact your local Dassault Systèmes office or email GEOVIA.Support@3ds.com should you have any further questions.
You might also be interested in viewing my recent presentation at a GEOVIA User Conference on this subject.
Andy Mulholland
Latest posts by Andy Mulholland (see all)
- Mining in the cloud: disruptive innovation - October 31, 2017
- The Value of Point Clouds in Mining - June 23, 2017
- Dassault Systèmes and Alford Mining Systems to develop Stope Optimizer - June 19, 2017
