Interpolator

December 2006

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 0
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 Copyright © 2006 Surpac Minex Group Pty Ltd (A Gemcom Company). All rights
reserved.

This software and documentation is proprietary to Surpac Minex Group Pty Ltd.

Surpac Minex Group Pty Ltd publishes this documentation for the sole use of Surpac
licenses. Without written permission you may not sell, reproduce, store in a retrieval system,
or transmit any part of the documentation. For such permission, or to obtain extra copies
please contact your local Surpac Minex Group Office.

Surpac Minex Group Pty Ltd

Level 8 190 St Georges Terrace
Perth, Western Australia 6000
Telephone: (08) 94201383
Fax: (08) 94201350

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this manual, we assume no
responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damage resulting
from the use of the information contained herein.

All brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of there respective
companies.

About This Manual

This manual has been designed to provide a practical guide to the many uses of the software.
The applications contained within this manual are by no means exhaustive as the possible
uses of the software are only limited by the user’s imagination. However, it will give new users
a starting point and existing users a good overview by demonstrating how to use many of the
functions in Surpac Vision. If you have any difficulties or questions while working through this
manual feel free to contact your local Surpac Minex Group Office.

Contributors

Rowdy Bristol
Phil Jackson

Surpac Minex Group

Perth, Western Australia

Product
Surpac Vision v5.2

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1
Requirements ............................................................................................................................ 1
Objectives .................................................................................................................................. 1
Workflow .................................................................................................................................... 1
Understanding Interpolator Concepts........................................................................................ 2
Before Running Interpolator ...................................................................................................... 4
Running Interpolator .................................................................................................................. 9

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 Introduction
Interpolator is a module which provides advanced geostatistical functionality such as multi-
element, multi-zone estimation, as well as kriging neighbourhood analysis.

This document is designed to help you to understand the basic concepts of Interpolator, as
well as the set of steps to perform an Interpolator run. Future versions of this tutorial will
cover the functionality of kriging neighbourhood analysis.

More detailed training information is available within the software and from your local Surpac
Minex Group Support Office. When the software has been installed you can see additional
training resources and help documentation in the Help menu.

Additional resources are available for detailed training on all aspects of Surpac Vision. Your
local Surpac Minex Support Office will also have access to additional training aids and can
help you with advice on your particular training needs.

Visit www.surpac.com to locate your nearest Support Office.

Requirements
Prior to proceeding with this tutorial, you should have:

1. Installed Surpac Vision v5.2-E or later.

2. A good understanding of basic Surpac concepts.
3. A good understanding of all Surpac Block modelling concepts, especially the
estimation process for ordinary kriging.
4. A good understanding of geostatistical concepts.

If you do not have all of these, it is highly recommended that you read and work through all
exercises in the Surpac Introduction, Block Modelling, and Geostatistics tutorials.

Objectives
By working through this document, you should be able to:

• Understand Interpolator concepts

• View a sample data set associated with an Interpolator run
• Setup, modify, and validate Interpolator parameters
• Perform an Interpolator run
• View output values from Interpolator

Workflow
1. Create string files with data values for each zone
2. Create block model
3. Create block model constraints for each zone
4. Create *.ipar parameter files
5. Validate input parameters
6. Run Interpolator
7. Review output

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 1
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 Understanding Interpolator Concepts
Overview

This chapter describes how to use the online help to review conceptual information about
Interpolator.

Requirements

Prior to performing the exercises in this chapter, you should:

• Have installed v5.2-E from the CD.

• Have an HTML browser installed, such as Internet Explorer.

1. Reviewing information in the online help

Start Surpac

From the Help menu, select Table of Contents.

From the online help Table of Contents, select Block Model, then Interpolator.

From the Interpolator menu, select Overview and review the information presented.

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 2
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 From the Interpolator menu, select Setup and review the information presented.

On the Setup page, scroll down to the links detailing each of the tabs on the Interpolator form:

Click each of these links, and review the information on each page.

Click each of the remaining Interpolator items in the Table of Contents, and review the
information on each page.

Summary

You should now understand the concepts and basic functionality of Interpolator.

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 3
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 Before Running Interpolator
Overview

This chapter will describe viewing the data in this tutorial, as well as the setup and validation
steps that should be performed prior to running Interpolator.

Requirements

Prior to performing the exercises in this chapter, you should be familiar with the Interpolator
concepts in the online help.

1. Viewing data

Set the current working directory to the location of the data set, such as:

C:/surpacminex/surpac_v5.2-e/demo_data/tutorials/interpolator

Drag and drop the file sanitised.mdl from the navigator to open the model.

Open the Block model profile.

From the Display menu, select Display model.

Enter the information as shown below, and click Apply.

Drag and drop ore_zone1.con from the navigator into graphics.

You will see the blocks falling inside this constraint.

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 4
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 Drag and drop ore_comp_int_zone1.str from the navigator into graphics.

Display the string file data as markers and turn block model faces off.

You should now see the composites which will be used to estimate blocks within this
constraint.

From the Block model menubar, select Constraints, then Remove all graphical
constraints.

You will see the entire model redisplayed.

Repeat the previous steps with each of the constraints to familiarise yourself with each
constraint and data set.

Run String file Constraint

1 ore_comp_int_zone1.str ore_zone1.con
2 ore_comp_int_zone2.str ore_zone2.con
3 ore_comp_int_zone3.str ore_zone3.con
4 ore_comp_int_zone4.str ore_zone4.con
5 ore_comp_int_zone5.str ore_zone5.con

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 5
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 2. Setup

From the Block model menubar, select Interpolator, then Setup.

Enter the information as below, and Apply:

Note: Interpolator requires the name of a file with a *.ipar extension, which contains all
information required for an Interpolator “run”. In this case, we are telling Interpolator to use
the existing file sanitised.ipar, which contains a set of information for this data set. We will
modify a few parameters, which Setup will save to the output file modified.ipar. You may
use the same name for the input and output files, if you want to overwrite the original file with
some new data.

The *.ipar files are in text format, and can be viewed with any text editor. However, you
should only modify them through Interpolator, not a text editor.

On the next form, click each of the tabs and use the scroll bar at the bottom to review the
information.

For this example, we will change the descretisation parameters from

X: 1 Y: 4 Z: 4

to:

X: 1 Y: 2 Z: 2

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 6
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 Click the Interpolation Parameters tab.

Note that the descretisation parameters are set to: X: 1 Y: 4 Z: 4.

We will modify these to : X: 1 Y: 2 Z: 2 for each run.

Click in each of the fields, and modify them as shown below:

When you have made the changes, click Apply.

Note: This is done merely as an exercise to demonstrate how changes to the parameters
can be made and stored in a new *.ipar file. In this case, modified.ipar will contain the new
values for descretisation points in the Y and Z dimensions, as well as all other data previously
stored in sanitised.ipar.

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 7
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 3. Parameter validation

From the Block model menubar, select Interpolator, then Validate.

Select the Input file name of modified as below, and Apply:

The software will now verify that all information provided in modified.ipar is valid.

When completed, the message window will display:

Check modified.xls for validation results

Open the file in Excel to review the results.

If any errors are found, you will need to correct them before continuing. In this case, all
information is OK, so there is no need to do anything.

See the online reference manual for detailed information on the checks that are performed.

You must close the spreadsheet before performing any subsequent validation checks on this
*.ipar file.

Summary

You should now understand the type of data required for running Interpolator, as well as the
setup and validation steps that should be performed prior to running Interpolator.

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 8
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 Running Interpolator
Overview

This chapter will describe how to perform an Interpolator run, as well as view the output.

Requirements

Prior to performing the exercises in this chapter, you should be familiar with viewing the data
in this tutorial, as well as the setup and validation steps that should be performed prior to
running Interpolator.

1. Running Interpolator

Set the current working directory to the location of the data set, such as:

C:/surpacminex/surpac_v5.2-e/demo_data/tutorials/interpolator

Drag and drop the file sanitised.mdl from the navigator to open the model.

Open the Block model profile.

From the Block model menubar, select Interpolator, then Run.

Enter the information as below, and Apply:

Note: By using the same name for the input and output files, parameters in the original file
may be updated.

On the next form, review any information if desired, then click Apply.

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 9
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 The software will now execute each of the “runs” , as defined by the parameters. This may
take a minute or two depending on the speed of your computer.

Once it is completed, you will see a message in the message window indicating that the
model has been saved:

Model c:/surpacminex/surpac_v5.2-e/demo_data/tutorials/interpolator/sanitised.mdl
saved

and the block model will be closed.

2. Viewing output

You may optionally review the output by displaying the model and colouring it by an estimated
attribute within one or more constraints.

Drag and drop the file sanitised.mdl from the navigator to open the model.

From the Display menu, select Display model.

Enter the information as shown below, and click Apply.

Drag and drop ore_zone1.con (or any constraint) from the navigator into graphics.

You will see the blocks falling inside this constraint.

Next, we will colour the model by the attribute au_ok.

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 10
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 From the Display menu, select Colour model by attribute.

Select the Attribute to colour by as au_ok, then click the Scan button.

Enter the Ranges for colour selection as 0,5,0.5, then click the Tab key.

Enter the Legend title as Au_OK, and click Apply.

You should now see the model coloured by the values in the attribute au_ok:

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 11
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 Additionally, you may optionally review values for a block.

From the Attributes menu, select View attributes for one block.

Click any block.

The attribute values for the block will be displayed.

Click Apply when you are finished reviewing the data.

From the Block model menu, select Close.

Select Save and exit, then Apply the form.

Summary

You should now understand how to perform an Interpolator run, as well as view the output.

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 12
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete
 Summary
Upon completion of this tutorial you should:

Know how Interpolator works.

Understand how to set up and validate input parameters in a *.ipar file.
Perform an interpolator run.
Review output attribute values.

This document is designed to help you start using the Interpolator module. It is not designed
as a training aid and should not be considered as a substitute for training.

The Surpac Vision Tutorials, available from www.surpac.com/Tutorials.asp cover many

concepts in more detail.

Your local support office will also have access to additional training aids and can help you
with advice on your particular training needs.

Visit www.surpac.com to locate your nearest Support Office.

www.cadfamily.com EMail:cadserv21@hotmail.com 13
The document is for study only,if tort to your rights,please inform us,we will delete