Introduction to Central and 4.0 New Features (Remote Roundup 2021)

​Join us to see how Central can improve your workflows today!

Overview

Video Transcript

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(upbeat music)

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<v Stephen>So, yeah. Thank you for joining me.</v>

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This is a presentation on Central.

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My name is Stephen Donovan.

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I’m the Central Technical Specialist

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here in North America for Seequent.

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And what I’m going to do is just take you through

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a very brief introduction to Central,

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with a focus on the features from 4.0.

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So as I said before, my name is Stephen Donovan.

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I’m the Central Technical Specialist here at Seequent.

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I do have a background in geoscience,

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firstly, working as a geophysicist for Fugro

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and then as a geologist with BHP.

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Throughout my career,

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I was constantly struggling with data management

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and figuring out where the best source of this truth

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would be, who’s got the latest version of the model,

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and it’s been a passion of mine

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to sort of improve the technology that we use

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to try and make this a seamless experience

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and work together as a team.

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And that’s what Central is really all about.

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So Central itself, it’s a cloud-based data management

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and model management system that allows you and your team

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to work from a single source of truth.

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It’s not just about the technical aspect though,

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of having geologists and geophysicists

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and other geo scientists working on holistic model,

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but also about bringing the team together.

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And through Central,

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you can connect through with third parties, reviewers,

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and other stakeholders

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that need to be kept up to date with your model.

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So it’s really a two-piece solution.

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One is the technology side

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and having access to the latest version of that data.

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Being able to converge and control your models,

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but also about communicating those changes.

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And of course, we’re not just working in silos

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whenever we’re creating a model it’s for a business purpose,

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and we need to be able to communicate

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those technical findings.

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So how does Central actually work?

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Well, as I mentioned before,

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Central is a cloud hosting solution.

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It’s hosted on Microsoft Azure’s servers

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and it’s administrated by us.

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The way that we access that

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is through three different gateways,

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the first of which there is our modeling applications.

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So the desktop apps that you’re used to

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such as Leapfrog and a Oasis montaj.

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We have an API that connects to Central,

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so that as we’re doing our modeling work

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and we get to a position where we’re ready to share

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some results, we can then publish that to Central.

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The application they’re in the middle

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called the Central Browser

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is another standalone desktop application

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that links to Central,

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and it’s really a place where you can review

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model revisions, be able to collaborate with your team

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by commenting on models, attaching files,

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and extracting data as you need it.

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And then finally, the third piece to this puzzle

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is the Central Portal.

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So that’s the web application

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that can be accessed through any web browser.

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And it’s a place where you would administrate your projects

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and user access to be able to send

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and receive notifications,

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upload any of the data to the data room.

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And again, we can visualize and annotate our models

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through the Central Portal.

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So what I’m going to do now

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is just jump straight into a practical demonstration

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and I’m going to start with the Central Portal

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and web visualization.

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So here we are in the Central Portal,

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and I’ve just launched up Google Chrome here.

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And I’m viewing a model

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that’s already being published to Central.

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So this is a new feature of Central 4.0, web-base.

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And what it means is that we can bring on other team members

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or non-technical people

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to communicate our modeling decisions

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without them having to download another piece of software,

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another application.

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The real power is through comments.

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So I can open my comments up here on the right-hand side.

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And I can an add a comment to this model

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if I wanted to review a particular drill hole

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or a section here.

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In addition to just being able to add comments

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like in, I had to mention particular colleagues,

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which is then going to send them a notification

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to bring them directly into the loop.

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But you can see here,

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I’ve already got this comments panel open.

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I’ve got a few comments that I’ve been made

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onto this particular model revision in the cloud.

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I can simply click on the thumbnail

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associated with that comment to load up those same objects

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that that person had loaded at the time.

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And then I can reply to that

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to keep the conversation in the one place.

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So it’s really about keeping the conversation and the data

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all in the same location in the cloud

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so that we can easily review each other’s work

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and keep that discussion going.

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I could even copy this URL if I wanted to

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and send it to a colleague

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if I wanted to link them directly into this place,

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in web-base.

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So if you’re familiar with Leapfrog,

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the interface here might look quite familiar to you.

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We have our projects tree up on the left-hand side here

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where I can choose additional data

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to add into my scene view, to help tell that story.

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I also have a few extra tools in web-base

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such as being able to slice a model.

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And then I can always change

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some of these slicing parameters,

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maybe make that a little bit thicker,

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and step through the model

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with the usual keyboard shortcuts.

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So web visualization can be accessed in a few ways.

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You can either send a link, as I mentioned before,

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or I’d mentioned, if you were tagged in a comment,

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you’d receive an email and an in-app notification.

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So our notifications panel has been improved

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and its access through the portal with this bell icon here.

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And you can see I’ve got a few notifications.

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Any of these relating to a comment,

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I can simply click on that

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and it’s going to take me to the project

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that that comment relates to.

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And again, straight into the web visualization.

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If I was to head back into the projects panel

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inside of the portal,

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this is where I can see all of the projects

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that I’ve got access to.

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So I could search for a project that I’m interested in,

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head into the project space by clicking on the tile.

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And here on the Overview page,

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I can see a succinct history of the various revisions

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that model has been through.

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And again, if I was interested

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in any of these particular revisions,

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say this resource branch revision,

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and I want it to visualize some of that data quickly,

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I could just click on the ID from the Overview page.

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And again, it’s taking me back into web visualization

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where I can choose some objects to live up.

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So that’s web visualization.

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It’s a great place for bringing your team members on board

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to a conversation,

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collaborating with them through notifications and comments,

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but a lot of you wanted to do

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a bit more of a thorough review of your model revisions,

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well then that’s when the Central Browser comes into play.

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It’s that second desktop application I showed you

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on the slide.

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And I’ll just launch that now.

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So here we are in the Central Browser,

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and you can see I’ve got quite a bit more metadata

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around each of these project revisions.

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If we look on the left-hand side here,

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I can see how a model has evolved throughout time

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from its first revision of the bottom of this tree,

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all the way to its most recent revision at the top.

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And as I highlight over any of these revisions,

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you’ll see the details panel updates

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here on the right-hand side

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where I can see each individual object

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that’s being published along with that revision.

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And again, I can interrogate some more of the metadata

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inside of that.

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So say I was interested in the number of drill holes

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in this revision, I can click on the assay table,

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have a look at the number of drill holes

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and the total length of drawing.

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I can also visualize our data in the Central Browser

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and add comments,

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but if you were wanting to consume some information

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directly from the browser, you can do that too,

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such as if you had a customer of your geological model,

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that wanted to be kept up to date with the latest version,

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they could subscribe to that project

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to receive the notifications

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and then come into the Central Browser

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and simply right click

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on some of these geological modeling objects

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and export those.

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We can export into a variety of formats as well,

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including common mining formats, DXF data mining files.

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So that’s the communication piece

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and being able to review the model history,

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but a lot of us on the call now

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are probably more technically minded

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in the actual modeling space itself.

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So you’re wondering how does it interact with Leapfrog?

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So let me launch Leapfrog Geo here.

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And again,

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I’ve got a project open where I can see the project history,

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the full revisions here,

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and I’ve got the most recent version of this model

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downloaded and opened.

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So those annotations that my colleagues were making

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in web visualization or through the Central Browser,

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they don’t just get stuck into a database

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and not used.

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I, as a modeler, could review those comments up here

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in the top right panel

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and I can to load up again, any of these scenes.

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So for instance,

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Jenina here is asking to review a thickness

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of a particular modeling object.

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I could click on the thumbnail associated with that comment

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load all those objects,

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and then they’re going to be loaded up in Leapfrog Geo

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with that geo tag placed exactly where the conversation

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that I was referring to.

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So I can come into Leapfrog Geo,

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make any necessary edits that I need to the model,

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hop back onto the Central Project tab,

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and then reply to that comment to mark it off as complete

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or continue that discussion and tag someone else

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that needs to action something with that model.

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So it really is this 360 sort of feedback loop

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with your modeling, your technical team,

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and your non-technical sort of managers and reviewers

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to be able to be kept up to date

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with how a model is progressing,

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where the latest versions coming in,

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and having these conversations attached

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to those modeling revisions.

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So that was a really brief overview of Central.

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I’d like to basically just summarize those key points here.

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The Central Portal, it’s really a team shared workspace

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that ties Seequent desktop applications

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with the cloud microservices,

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such as web visualizations and notifications

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to be able to connect teams together

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so we’re all on the same page.

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As you shared workspace, Central could be relied upon

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wherever you are in the world,

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which is very pertinent these days

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with this disconnected nature of how we’re all working.

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So whether you’re a modeler or a non-technical stakeholder,

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you can share the same view, discuss, and test scenarios

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to be able to make these confident decisions

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about your projects.

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So I’d really liked to encourage any questions

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that might come up or I can unmute you

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if you would like to have a discussion with me

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about any of these points I’ve just made.

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<v Ann>If anyone has questions,</v>

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feel free to type them in the question box.

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I am Ann Belanger. I work at Seequent.

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I am monitoring this if any questions come in.

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I guess in the meantime, Stephen,

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you know, everyone’s getting used to the…

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Not everyone,

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some people are still getting used to the cloud.

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How would you address any questions

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regarding security concerns of Central?

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<v Stephen>Yeah, but that’s a really good question,</v>

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and it’s one that comes up quite a bit.

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So of course, a lot of companies are migrating to the cloud,

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but there’s a very big concern,

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which is a good concern about data security.

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So like I mentioned before,

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Central is actually hosted on Microsoft Azure servers.

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So we do leverage of Microsoft’s best in industry

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data security practices.

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Servers themselves,

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only a select few people can access them.

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All of the data is sent encrypted

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and all of the data is owned by you.

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So none of the Seequent staff can access the data

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without you actually inviting us to that server.

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But if there are any other questions,

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follow up questions about data security,

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I’ve got a good document here

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with a frequently asked questions for our team managers,

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and I’ll be more than happy to send that on

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to anyone that’s interested.

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<v Ann>Well, that’s good to know.</v>

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Yeah. Good for a lot of different companies.

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And then do you have any suggestions on a specific workflow

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people should follow?

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And after this I see Alfonzo Rodriguez has a question,

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but first is there specific workflow

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people might follow with Central?

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<v Stephen>That’s a question too.</v>

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So there’s no specific set workflow that you should follow.

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What we’ve done with Central,

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is we’ve built a bunch of tools to enable you

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to sort of creatively come up with a workflow

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that works best for your team.

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So whether that’s splitting out a very large model

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into subsequent smaller parts,

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having different geologists working on separate domains,

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such as possibly like a structural model

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versus an alteration model,

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and then bringing it back together,

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we can facilitate any of these sorts of scenarios.

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But it’s really best if we can get onto a phone call

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basically to understand your current workflow,

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and we’d be more than happy

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to talk through some sort of recommended workflows

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from there.

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<v Ann>Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.</v>

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Like each company will sort of have something different

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that works for them.

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So again, anyone attending,

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if you have a question feel free to ask.

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Alfonso’s question is…

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Or feel free to type it in the question box on the right.

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So Alfonso’s question is,

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are there any issues for remote projects

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working on satellite connection?

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<v Stephen>That’s a great question.</v>

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So we do have clients working with satellite connections,

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and Central is built in such a way that

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it’s going to send the data in incremental chunks.

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So regardless of how strong your internet connection is

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or how much bandwidth you have,

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we’ll still be able to publish and download data.

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Although of course,

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the performance is completely dependent on the connection.

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So from a stability standpoint, it’s not an issue,

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but the performance will obviously degrade

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with the lower speeds that you have on site.

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But we do offer a month trials with Central.

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So if that’s a concern of yours,

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then by all means we can spin up trial and we can test this

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to see if it’s suitable for your working environment.

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<v Ann>Okay, great.</v>

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That’s all I can see for user questions.

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So I guess back to you, Stephen to sort of tie things up.

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<v Stephen>Yeah. Thank you.</v>

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Well, I guess if anyone wants to follow up,

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they are more than welcome.

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So thank you very much for attending.

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(upbeat music)