ThreeDify FlowPit FAQs

ThreeDify FlowPit FAQs

How fast is ThreeDify FlowPit compared to Whittle's Lerchs & Grossmann implementation?  We do not have exact numbers to compare as we do not have access to the Whittle's implementation. However, many of our customers have confirmed more than an order of magnitude speed-up over Whittle 3D/4D with medium size block models (with >2 million blocks).

Can I embed ThreeDify FlowPit as part of my own mining software?Yes, like most of our other software components, ThreeDify FlowPit is designed to be automation compatible COM server. It is also available as a C++ binary library. Source code license can also be negotiated.

Does ThreeDify FlowPit provide GUI front end?Yes, since Version 2.0. The new GUI front end allows user to enter block model parameters, define variable pit slopes and specify multi-pit generation parameters. It also provides post-processing capabilities including south-north and west-east cross sectional views, plan view contour plots, plan view phase pit outline plots as well as stripping ratio graphs.

Does ThreeDify FlowPit offer 4D capability?Yes with Version 2.0. Version 2.0 allows to specify multi-pit generation parameters for a single run. These include number of down-scale pits and down-scale factor for phase pit sequencing, and number of up-scale pits and up-scale factor for sensitivity analysis.

I understand the concept of phase pit. What is the up-scaled pit anyways?A up-scaled pit is an optimum pit obtained by up-scaling the original values of all ore blocks in the input block model. That is, a up-scaled pit does not actually exist, but it is very useful for testing the solution's sensitivity. If a large up-scale yields only a small profit gain with a large stripping ratio, then the solution is considered to be insensitive to the input block model. By definition, a up-scaled pit contains all phase pits plus the final pit.