RANGER S.A.S 3D (Survey Analysis Software) QUICK START USER MANUAL INTRODUCTION This document is designed to provide a step by step guide showing how easy it is to import and manipulate raw survey data in the RANGER S.A.S 3D software package. The combination of illustrations and comments will thoroughly walk the user through the basic steps needed to kick start the survey analysis of a drill hole. Familiarisation with the Range Checking tool will be covered, allowing the user to eliminate invalid survey points that have been altered by magnetic interferences. The user will be shown how RANGER S.A.S 3D allows survey plots that are usually rendered useless due to magnetic interference to be transformed using complex mathematical algorithms to recreate the actual path of a drill hole. STEP1 PROCESS STARTING WITH SAS 3D Select the RANGER S.A.S 3D tab from the start menu. This will open RANGER S.A.S 3D to the following screen: Figure 1 Start up screen
STEP 2 CREATE NEW SAS SURVEY Before importing raw survey data, a new survey document needs to be created. 1. Click the CREATE NEW SAS SURVEY button or go to the main program toolbar and select FILE >> CREATE NEW SAS SURVEY. The Screen will look like this: Figure 2 Blank New Survey
STEP 3 IMPORTING SURVEY DATA When a new SAS survey is created, the desired survey data has to be imported. The survey data is imported as a XML file only and only Ranger Explorer survey data can be imported. 1. To import existing survey data, select the button or go to File and select Import Survey Data as shown below: Figure 3 Importing a survey through the main menu strip 2. Ensure that the survey file being imported is in the xml format. Make sure only surveys created by the ranger explorer tool are imported and viewed by RANGER S.A.S 3D. Surveys created by any other surveying gear other than that of Ranger Survey Systems cannot be viewed using RANGER S.A.S 3D.
The Import Run Data window will open showing the user information about the survey data. The colour and position parameters of the starting and target point can be made before the data is imported. The window also allows a choice of line colour for the 3D imaging of the survey hole. Figure 4 Import Run Data 3. Press the button to accept the survey data and to view it in SAS 3D.
4. The data will automatically load into the Survey Data Grid. The Survey Name has to be entered by the user into the Survey Name textbox located in the S.A.S Survey Details panel as shown below: Figure 5 SAS Survey Details For demonstration purposes the Survey Name entered in the above example was chosen as Default Survey Name and does not represent what the Survey Name should be. 5. Figure 6 illustrates what the screen will look like after data is imported. The Survey Data Grid should contain all survey point details while the visual representation of those points will offer a range of six different graphical representations of the survey hole. Figure 8 illustrates the full screen graphical capability of the software. Figure 6 Survey Screen after importing valid data
STEP 4 BASIC DATA ANALYSIS The user can select individual points or all of the survey points within the Survey Data Grid and have them shown respectively on the graphical representations as seen in Figure 7. Figure 7 Random survey point selection 1. To select numerous survey points in the data grid and have them displayed accordingly on any of the graphical representations hold down the Ctrl key and Left click with the mouse on the survey point you wish to select. The selected survey points will be highlighted in the graph as shown in Figure 8. If all survey points wish to be selected and displayed on the graph, click inside the Survey Data Grid and press Ctrl + A. This will select all the survey points within the survey hole as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 8 Multiple survey point selection on 3D Graph Figure 9 Full screen 3D plot of survey hole with all points highlighted in Survey Data Grid.
2. In the same way that survey points can be selected in the data grid and displayed in the graphical view, the user can select a particular point on the graphical representation and left click it. Immediately that survey point will be highlighted for the user in the survey data grid for quick and easy analysis. Figure 10 illustrates this feature. Figure 10 Selection of point on Graph 3. If a survey point is not desired or is corrupt and needs to be removed, the user can do so manually by excluding it from the valid data by deselecting it from the Display Shot check box. Deselecting a point or a number of points from the Survey Data Grid also removes that data from all the graphical representations of the survey hole. The arrows in Figure 11 illustrate how points removed in the data grid are displayed as black survey points in the graphical representation of Figure 12 if all survey points are selected in the data grid.
Figure 11 Removed survey points from grid Figure 12 Removed survey points from graph 4. The range checking method can also be used to remove unwanted survey points depending on the validity of the survey data. Although more time consuming, this method allows the user to set up a tolerance range for Magnetic Intensity, Gravitational Intensity and Magnetic Dip data values, leaving the software to automatically remove invalid survey points from the survey hole. This method is discussed in more detail in the RANGER S.A.S 3D: Magnetic Disturbance Elimination section of this document.
RANGER S.A.S 3D (Survey Analysis Software) MAGNETIC DISTURBANCE ELIMINATION INTRODUCTION This section of the document is designed to provide a step by step guide showing how easy it is to eliminate magnetic field disturbances sometimes encountered while surveying a drill hole. RANGER S.A.S 3D software allows for invalid survey points that have been altered by magnetic interference to be extracted from the final survey plot. With the help of RANGER S.A.S 3D software survey plots that are usually rendered useless due to magnetic interference can now be transformed using complex mathematical algorithms to recreate the actual path of a drill hole. STEP1 PROCESS Import the raw survey data (affected by magnetic interference) as already shown in the quick start section of this document. Figure 13: Imported Survey Data
Figure 14: 3D view of plotted survey hole with magnetic interference Figure 15: All survey points selected and seen on 3D Graph.
STEP2 Select Settings in the Survey Data Grid by either clicking the button or by pressing Tools and then Range Checking. This will open up the Range Checking window needed to eliminate corrupted survey points. Figure 16: Settings window
STEP3 Make sure that Enable Range Checking tick box is ticked. Enter the known local values for GVI, MGI and MDI together with the acceptable tolerances. Click APPLY button to accept changes and select OK to exit to the main page. STEP4 Figure 17: Range Checking Make sure you press Update button on the Survey Data Grid (as shown by the red arrow in Figure 18). After you return to the main screen, you will notice the 3D representation now shows the actual path of the survey hole without the effects of magnetic interference. Figure 18: Survey data grid and 3D image after range checking.
By left clicking anywhere inside the Survey Data Grid and pressing Ctrl + A to select all the survey points, the user is able to see all the corresponding points from the data grid on the graphical representation of the survey hole. Figure 19: Survey 3D image of true survey hole path and extracted interference points. All survey points with unacceptable MGI readings in the data grid are highlighted YELLOW, all survey points with unacceptable MDI readings are highlighted BLUE and all survey points with unacceptable GVI readings are highlighted RED. Survey points that contain invalid survey data are removed from having any influence on the new survey hole direction, with Figure 19 showing that the removed points can still be viewed on the 3D graph with each invalid survey point being coloured YELLOW, BLUE or RED. All valid survey points are coloured WHITE. STEP5 To get a different view of how the range checking eliminates magnetic interference, select the Plan View of Hole image by clicking on the button. Figure 8 shows the plan of the hole before range checking while Figure 9 shows the hole after range checking with the eliminated points.
Figure 20: Plan view of survey hole before range checking Valid survey points Eliminated points STEP6 Figure 21: Plan view of survey after range checking (yellow, blue and red points are corrupted). Comparing the two drill hole survey plots you can see that there is approximately a twenty degree deviation in the direction of the survey hole between the raw survey data and the data produced from range checking using the RANGER S.A.S 3D software.
Figure 22: Plan of Hole with Range Checking. Figure 23: Plan of Hole with NO RANGER SAS 3D Range Checking.