Studio 3 Latest Information

Studio 3 Release Notes	New in this Release	Datamine & Vista
Studio 3 Background	Installation Issues	Studio 3 Key Features

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Studio 3 Current and Previous Release Notes

Version 14 of Studio 3 includes the following new features:

(Contact your local Datamine representative for more information and release dates for your area)

NEW Design Window Grid Arrow	Studio 3's 3D Grid facility has been further enhanced with the introduction of an arrow component. This feature allows you to position a 3D arrow symbol anywhere on your grid, oriented to a particular direction. As the arrow is linked to the grid on which it placed, it is possible to specify arrow directions in relation to either world or local coordinates. Using the same interface as the recently-introduced Plot Arrows facility (see your online Help for more details), there are several formatting options to ensure you get the right result.
NEW Data Object Manager Upgrade	Datamine implements the Data Object Manager utility within many core products, including Studio 3. This tool has been upgraded to provide additional table editing facilities in the data grid panel. Using this new toolset, which will be familiar to anyone with experience of Datamine's Table Editor, you can now view the contents of any data object in memory.
NEW MOD2XYZ Command	This release of Studio sees the introduction of a new command; MOD2XYZ will assign field values from a model to any file containing XYZ coordinate fields. This can be useful for: assigning a rocktype value from a block model to a drillhole file assigning an interpolated grade from a block model to a drillhole file so that it can be compared with the actual sample value. In this case the field in one of the files must be renamed first before the process is run.
NEW "To Excel" Loaded Data Option	The Loaded Data control bar has been enhanced to support a To Excel option. This is an excellent method for quickly transferring data sets with less than 65536 rows to Excel. Any object in memory can be transferred in this manner.
NEW VR Window Updates	The VR window has been the subject of several new features and enhancements with this release, including: Many of the functions of the Visualizer window have been migrated to the VR window. The way that objects are illuminated by default now matches Visualizer settings, and block model cell scaling factors are now consistent between these windows. In addition to this, a "Transparent All" option has been added to the Surface and Block Model context menus to perform a global opacity setting for all objects of a given type. The Environment Settings dialog now has a new Exaggerate option, allowing the VR window data to stretched by a specific amount, in a fixed direction. The VR window will also support any existing exaggeration settings in the Design window when the VR window is updated ("vro"). Surfaces can now be rendered with unlit surfaces. A new Sections toolbar has been added to the VR window to allow objects displayed as sections to be traversed using familiar controls. Using a similar configuration to the Plots window, you can now align sections to points, set default alignements, modify the section width, apply clipping and traverse backwards and forwards through all sections using desktop icons. More Navigation Controls are now available in VR including new pan, zoom and spin modes. You can now use a new context-menu Copy command to make copies of VR objects quickly and easily. This is particularly useful if you wish to render the same Design window data in several different ways, simultaneously. VR Block Models can now be viewed as transparent surfaces, rendered as an unlit object, displayed as a hull (outline) and can be viewed with a bounding box to show the full data extents (even if absent data isn't shown).
NEW Distance to EOH Drillhole Label	A useful feature has been added to the Plots window to show the distance from the section plane to the end of the hole. This option is now available via the Format Display dialog.
NEW Mining Power Pack and Office 2007	Mining Power Pack is a powerful utility available to Studio 3 users. It has been significantly enhanced in this release to take full advantage of Microsoft Office 2007 features, including the 'Ribbon' navigation system. All Office 2007 users will now be able to use a familiar environment to access Mining Power Pack's extensive range of reporting tools. For more information on Mining Power Pack, please refer to your dedicated online Help package.
NEW "Legend Swapping" Facility	The Sheets control bar has been enhanced to provide a Legend Column option for all overlays. Right-clicking a Design window overlay displays this new option. With it, you can elect to apply the currently associated legend to any data column in the underlying object. This allows you to quickly apply the existing legend to any data column.

Datamine and Vista

Datamine has an official statement relating to Microsoft Vista ® Support. Read it here.

Studio 3 Background

Datamine has, over the years, developed a broad range of products and tools for the mining industry, which are based on a variety of technologies and data handling strategies. Studio 3 represents a huge step change in the development history of the flagship product and has benefited from the merging of some of these products such that it has inherited:

The object model pioneered in Downhole Explorer.
Control and formatting of displayed data as used in Downhole Explorer.
Downhole Explorer's ability to load and display data which is not in the Datamine binary file format.
A virtual reality view of the world from InTouch.
A helpful and intuitive start page allows you to select a desktop layout (profile) that suits your way of working, as well as providing easy access to tools for creating and swapping between projects.
To help you to maximize your potential with Studio 3 the help system has been remodelled, and the tutorials have been rewritten to reflect the changes to the software and the changes necessary in ways of working.

The main areas of change are listed below. Follow the hyperlinks if you require more detail.

The Project File

The User Interface

Data Types

Data Objects

New View Types

Formatting the Display

Plotting

Design Window and Wireframes

Scripting and Macros

Obsolete and Replaced Commands and Features

Key Features

The Studio 3 Project File

The new Studio 3 Project File supports and maintains all the features and controls of earlier Studio versions as well as incorporating the functionality of Downhole Explorer and InTouch documents. Studio 3 can save and restore project settings, automatically load data into memory and display it using format selections and legends saved from a previous session.
Changing between projects is much easier than before; it no longer requires Studio to be closed.
Selected data maybe saved in the project file and there is an option to save all the data in the project file as an archive.

Enhanced User Interface

Studio 3 has several pre-set desktop configurations (profiles) that can be selected on startup to enable you to get started quickly. Custom configurations can also be saved and reused.
Studio 3 provides many options for customizing the working environment to make best use of the work space available, and to show only those features that are required.
The interface provides greater control and flexibility with many ways to view data and more intuitive interactive controls.
The interface is completely context sensitive. Whatever the view, only the relevant controls, menus and commands are available.

Data Types

Not only can Studio 3 work with native Datamine binary format files but it can also now load and display many other data types.
Uses a new data object model to make data selection and formatting more intuitive.
Multiple models can now be loaded into memory and each can formatted using different settings and legends.
Studio 3 works with single-precision files by default, but can run in extended-precision mode. Future versions will be extended-precision only.

The Studio 3 help file will tell you all you need to know about data types and how they are used in Studio.

Data Objects

All 3D data are loaded into memory in Studio 3 as objects. Each file is loaded as a separate object.
Objects are displayed as one or more overlays, which can be formatted independently, in any of the data viewing windows.
Interaction with, and selection of, loaded data is by whole object, by default, although filter arguments may be used to select parts of an object.
An object can be split into smaller component objects using an attribute or a logical argument. Studio 3 also allows objects of the same type (i.e. points, strings etc.) to be combined into a single object.
Studio 3 used the concept of a current object, to distinguish the object to be modified, when more than one object of the same type are loaded.

Viewing Data

Not only does Studio 3 have more ways to view data than ever before but the established ways have been enhanced too. The Design Window view can be rotated, panned and zoomed dynamically using the shift key in conjunction with the mouse.
Improved rendering improves redrawing rates and 3D visualization in the Visualizer.
The new virtual reality (VR) window encourages navigation inside data and provides the tools to examine and interrogate the data. Surfaces in the VR window can be rendered with photographic textures to create a near-realistic immersion experience.
Everyday objects such as trees, trucks and offices can be added to the virtual world and animations can be created to simulate the real-world operating situation.

Formatting the Display

Formatting the display of data in the Design Window is object based. The same dialog is used in all windows and formatting is more flexible.
Studio 3 incorporates a new Legend Manager which can be used to create and manage legends within the project and for use across numerous projects.
Drawing order can be changed in Design Window.

Plotting

Data in memory (objects) are accessible to all windows including the Plots window; this results in much tighter integration of the plotting function.
Log and Table windows provide improved insight into drillhole data.

Design Window and Wireframes

All data visible in the Design window are formatted representations of objects which can be selected and modified individually.
Many of the interactive wireframe editing commands have been rewritten, including the commands for moving and copying.
Verify has also been rewritten with a dialog that allows the specification of a number of key criteria.
There is new command, Decimate, which reduces the number of faces and vertices in a wireframe according to user-specified criteria.
Boolean functions for wireframes have been rewritten and improved. All wireframes are discrete objects and the source objects to any Boolean function are retained.

Scripting and Macros

A new data object model has been implemented in Studio 3 to make all aspects of the program available for customization and automation.
The new scripting model provides the means for Data Selection, Data Formatting and Data Manipulation.
Studio 3 provides a tool, the script converter, which performs most of the work necessary to convert a Studio 2 script such that it will run in Studio 3.
Macros continue to run as in Studio 2, except where individual commands have changed or been deemed obsolete.

Obsolete and Replaced Commands and Features

The automatic loading and formatting of data of the new Studio 3 project file has rendered most of the functionality provided by the Datamine Command Language (CL) redundant. CL is not supported in Studio 3.
The Format Display dialog used by the Design and Plots windows has replaced many Design window commands.
All the Design window commands and processes that had, in previous versions, been ear-marked for future obsolescence, are now obsolete. This is a complete list of the replaced and obsolete commands.