Announcing the release of Micromine 2016 Beta Build 781 for public Beta testing

Micromine 2016 is quickly nearing completion, with the official launch less than one month away. In preparation for the final release we are pleased to announce Micromine 2016 Beta Build 781.

Our Beta testers have done an excellent job of testing early versions of Micromine 2016, and now it’s your turn: as a registered ALF user of Micromine this is your chance to use and test Micromine 2016 Beta before its launch in mid-May.

To obtain your copy, simply visit one of the following servers:

	FTP	Cloud
Server	Download	Download
Username	mmbeta
Password	cru882	Mm~Beta0216
Best for	Oceania	Rest of the world

Tell us what you think

Please tell us about your experiences with Micromine 2016 Beta, both good and bad. Send us a smile or a frown from the Micromine menu bar, create a new topic on our forum, or contact your local support office. The more we hear from you the better Micromine 2016 will be.

Sandbox your data

Please don’t use critical data with Micromine 2016 Beta. For safety we recommend working on a temporary copy of your project data until we release the final version of Micromine 2016.

What’s new

Here are some highlights of Micromine 2016 Beta:

Common

Application

• Full Windows 10 compatibility
• New web-based help documentation, with built-in help for offline use
• New dynamic field expressions can be used anywhere you would use a file field as input
• New expression-based calculator
• New File | Fields | Extract for extracting and aggregating data
• New customisable keyboard shortcuts
  
  

Projects

• New: Project | Open displays a sortable list of projects and their metadata
• New Project Manager (File | Project | Manage) gathers project management tools in one place
  
  

File Editor

• New Hide Unfiltered Records option (via Use Filtered Records toolbar button or Filter menu)
  
  

Vizex

• New 3D PDF output produces interactive PDFs with layer control and interactive rotate, pan, zoom, measure etc.
  
  

Display

• New: Drag-and-drop supported file types into Vizex from outside of Micromine
• New Project Explorer pane provides direct access to project files; drag files directly into Vizex
• New layer groups: Load a form set folder or multiple Vizex Forms as a group; add or remove layers from groups in the Display pane
• New Select toolbar combines commonly-used search and selection tools, including:
  • New Quick Find Drillholes (requires Exploration module)
  • New Quick Find Wireframes (requires Wireframing module)
  • New interactive select point inside/outside polygon toolbar buttons

• New 3D Shaded (Solid) wireframe draw style caps ends of wireframes where they intersect the clipping plane
• New Auto block model draw style
• New Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP) display option for Vizex Point layer
• New: Drape an image or grid onto a Vizex grid surface
• New: Hold Shift key to automatically open a section in a new window
• Improved workflow for Vizex Section tools: define a section by clicking as well as dragging
• Direct colour assignment from a file field for many Vizex types
  
  

Editing

• New Vizex smart Snap to Object mode reduces the need to change snap modes while editing
• New Vizex Interactive Rotate Strings tool complements the existing menu-based version
• New Strings | Polygon Grade Estimate function, with menu and interactive versions
• New Strings | Polygon Assign function, with menu and interactive versions
• New String | Utilities | Coalesce function and corresponding toolbar button for intelligently joining multiple strings (requires Exploration or Mining module)
• New Validate Strings option for identifying string problems prior to using them in other processes
  
  

Plot Editor

• New: Annotations can now be placed directly into a plot layout
• New: Labels can now be superimposed over hatches in a plot legend

Exploration

Drillholes

• New interactive Drillhole Log, a Vizex-like display with many page layout controls and interactive intersection calculations
• New interactive Drillhole Planning tools including using an existing hole as a template, and designing straight or curved from-collar and from-target designs
  • Create collar and survey files from planned drillhole strings
  • Save Drillholes As and Copy Drillholes to Active Layer functions on Selection menu

• New Drillhole | Database | Filter options
• New Vizex Quick Find Drillholes option
• New Vizex String | Utilities | Coalesce option
  
  

DTMs

• Enhanced DTM Assign now supports dipping and vertical surfaces
  New chart axis formatting options provide better control over axis labelling and scaling
• Enhanced Cross Validation now supports IDW, incorporates all search parameters, and displays results in Vizex
• Q-Q plot now also supports P-P (probability-probability) mode
• Semi-variogram map palette can now be displayed on the chart as a colour bar with value tics
• Improved Stereonet now includes Fisher distribution, pole group definition, raw alpha/beta input

Charting, Statistics and Geostatistics

Wireframing

• New Wireframe Grade Tonnage Material Types reporting, for reporting against complex hierarchical material groups
• New Wireframe | Generate Strings | Edges function
• New Vizex Quick Find Wireframes option

Resource Estimation

• New Block Model Assign assigns attributes of rotated and/or sub-blocked models to a target file
• Enhanced: Indicator and multiple indicator kriging dialogs are now combined into one
• Improved support for rotated block models (e.g. DTM | Generate Z Values; Statistical Block Model)
• Improved: Statistical Block Modelling function can now write declustered weights back into input file

Mining

• New Vizex String | Utilities | Coalesce option
• New Drillhole | Database | Filter options

Surface

• New inclined pit strings option: the entire pit, or any number of benches within it, can now be inclined
• New Create Mining Blocks option for quickly dividing a solid into blocks for open pit scheduling
• New: Auto Build Pit quickly creates a pit for evaluation design issues and haul road openings
• New Auto Re-align Pit Strings option adjusts multiple benches in a single operation
• New Extend Blastholes to Wireframe option

Underground

• New Create Floor Wireframe builds a floor wireframe from underground sidewalls, even when they overlap at different mine levels
• New: Ring Design now incorporates decked charging
• New Sidewall to Centreline creates the median line between a pair of sidewall strings
• New Sidewall Centreline Offsets calculates distance between centreline and each sidewall
• Improved: Simplify String now includes ability to lock selected points

Pit Optimisation

• New Pit Optimiser reporting and charting tools: Display and report your results directly within Micromine
• Significant Pit Optimiser workflow and user interface overhaul; now divided into separate Setup, Optimise, Analyse dialogs

Scheduler

• New: Scheduler is now divided into separate long-term (production) and short-term (activity) schedulers
• New: Optimised long-term schedule output based on industry-standard mathematical solvers; choose from inbuilt or external solver engines
• New Quick Filter for only showing tasks (wireframes) of interest
• Improved process for importing mining blocks into the scheduler: use an attribute to name and organise task groups

Stratigraphic Modelling

• Improved: Interburden is now optional, making it easy to model a sequence of consecutive lithologies
• New: Implicit Modelling Structural Trend incorporates a locally varying structural trend in the modelling process
• New Implicit Model Output File option saves a mathematical implicit model for later reuse
• New Output Implicit Model option renders a mathematical model as a wireframe or assigns model values to existing points
• Improved handling of soft boundaries in Lithology Modelling; codes not marked as Include or Exclude are now marked as Ignore

Implicit Modelling

You can see the full list by viewing the Micromine 2016 Beta start page (via Help | Show Start Page), and get all of the detail from the Micromine 2016 What’s New document.

Regards,

Frank Bilki

Technical Product Manager—Micromine

On behalf of the Micromine team