The latest release of Leapfrog software has arrived and includes a plethora of new features. 2D Mesh Merging is one of the new features to arrive this October. This feature is available across all Leapfrog products including the new Leapfrog Geo 5.0, Leapfrog Works 3.0 and Leapfrog Energy 4.0.
Mesh operations have been expanded to allow merging of meshes with a height-based interpolation. 2D Mesh Merging provides the ability to easily combine open meshes. This new mesh operation is ideal for joining topographical surfaces together, for example, a pit design or detailed surveyed pit pickup into a pre-mining topographic surface. It could also be used for infrastructure corridors or staging building excavations.
This blog will walk you through the new 2D Mesh Merging functionality and the steps required to utilise this in your geological modelling workflows.
This new functionality improves upon previous workflows for the creation of Mined Geology models.
The outcomes of having an easily produced Mined Geology model are still the same, but now this workflow can be simplified to two simple steps.
Create a Merge Mesh 2D
This new feature is available as a mesh operation. Right-click on the Meshes folder and select Mesh Operations > Merge Meshes 2D:
This opens a display window, where you can select your desired meshes. Here, it is possible to specify the priority in which the input meshes will be used to create the final mesh.
The Detailed Mesh in this instance is the Pit Design. The Pit Design here has already been cut to topography. However, this doesn’t need to be the case, if the design includes above ground survey or planning information such as waste dumps or the ROM.
The Base Meshes is the original pre-mining topographic surface.
If you use more than one detailed mesh or base mesh, the meshes higher in the list will have higher priority over those lower down in the list.
The Buffer distance value determines the determines the zone in which the selected meshes are merged.
The Resolution can also be set and controls the resolution of the mesh within the buffer zone only. The mesh maintains the original resolution for the Detailed and Base Meshes. A smart default is generated for the buffer and resolution. This will vary depending on the size of the meshes being used as inputs. The default for this data is 3.5.
The result is a single mesh; merging the pit design and the original topography together.
Simple! No extracting vertices and re-creating meshes required anymore.
The added benefit is that this workflow is also dynamic, which means as your pit design is updated, all you need to do is reload the current pit design mesh, and your merged mesh updates as well.
The Detailed Mesh and the buffer you set can influence the final Merged Mesh. The Detailed Mesh is the priority mesh and the size of the buffer will determine how much of the Base Mesh is replaced with a new interpolant connecting the two or more meshes. A larger buffer will have a more gradual slope connecting the Detailed and Base Meshes.
Whereas a smaller buffer will result in a steeper slope connecting the two meshes. The more significant offset distance between the edge of the Detailed Mesh and the Base mesh then the sharper the connection.
If the Detailed mesh exists above the Base Mesh, then the resulting Merged Mesh will prioritise the Detailed Mesh and include the above ground detail.
Create a Mined Geology Model
Once you have generated your merged mesh, this surface can be used in any downstream workflows.
Right click Geological Models > New Geological Model.
Set the Base Lithology to None and the Model Extents to cover the new merged mesh.
Double click Lithologies in the Project Tree to populate the Mined and Unmined Lithologies.
It is now possible to use the newly created mesh within this model.
Right click Surface Chronology > New Deposit > From Surface.
Select the Merged Mesh and populate the First and Second Lithology as shown below.
The last step is to create the output volumes by activating the surface. Double click Surface Chronology and check the box next to the depositional surface.
The output volumes can then be used in the 3D scene.
This Mine Geology model can then be used in downstream workflows. Two popular workflows include;
- Visualising pit wall geology by using Leapfrog’s Combined Model functionality to combine the Geology and Mined Geology models.
- As a category for resource reporting in Leapfrog Edge.
2D Mesh Merging is one of many new features to come out in the latest versions of Leapfrog software; Leapfrog Geo 5.0, Leapfrog Works 3.0 and Leapfrog Energy 4.0. New features such as this are designed to help streamline your workflows and let you focus on what you do best – Geology!