RPMGlobal has released an update to its Parametric Design suite of software products, that is tailored to the underground metals space: Strategic Design Optimizer (SDO). SDO is an innovative design application that combines the complex task of strategic optimized stope and development design into a single, coherent automated process.
According to RPMGlobal, SDO is unique in that it uses parametric design principles, combined with several leading optimization algorithms, in a single user experience. SDO combines both stope and development optimization into one package, allowing customers to generate, change and update designs on the fly.
An intelligent workflow guides the user through the entire process and has been developed using the combined industry knowledge and experience of RPMGlobal and its customers.
As a standalone strategic design package, SDO can work with any existing design tools and is also offered as a fully integrated end-to-end enterprise solution as part of RPMGlobal’s Underground Metals Solution.
“The new solution stayed true to the company’s philosophy of creating new products that fundamentally challenged the status quo of how the industry operates,” Paul Beesley, RPMGlobal’s chief technology officer, said in a release. “SDO reflects RPMGlobal’s large investment in our expanding design portfolio announced last year, which is underpinned by a strong drive to accelerate innovation in this area of mine planning.”
“The design part of the mine planning process has been largely left out of the industry’s march towards automation, with existing solutions merely bolting on more functionality to their existing tools,” Beesley added. “We have worked closely with miners to bring this unique offering to the market and remain proud to be leading the development of innovative design technologies that provide a step-change in mine design.”
SDO builds on the strengths of the industry-standard Mineable Shape Optimizer (MSO) by adding a new visual user interface that automatically manages the large volumes of data generated for the resulting stoping scenarios.
Whereas existing solutions still rely on the user manually drawing every part of the mine design, with every change requiring the user to redraw the design, the underlying principle of SDO is that design changes to one segment are automatically rippled through to any other affected segments, making the necessary design updates.
RPMGlobal’s fully integrated Development Optimizer automatically generates the first pass underground development network of crosscuts, footwall drives and connecting declines for the selected strategic stoping scenarios and, through its use of parametric techniques, allows for changes to be made and reflected faster than ever before.
Beesley also added that RPMGlobal’s design solutions are already transforming how the industry thinks and approaches this critical stage of mine planning.
“At RPMGlobal, we are passionate about providing truly innovative solutions that allow for real change in the mining industry and our increased investment in our design and scheduling suite reflects that commitment,” Beesley concluded.
“SDO is the mining industry’s equivalent of what the spreadsheet did for financial modelling when it replaced double entry bookkeeping. This latest release comes at a very exciting time for the company and is a strong indicator of what lays ahead for our design and scheduling solutions.”
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)