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A uxiliary files associated with your MineSight® installation and project contain valuable information that can be manipulated by the advanced user. This article will

examine some of these files found in your MineSight project and install directories, as well as the vgalusr8.vr file.

First, let’s look at the files in your MineSight project.

MineSight Compass Project FileIf you run MineSight Compass (MSCompass), you will have an MSCompass Project File in your project directory. The Project File is created or opened from the MSCompass File menu as shown in Figure 1.

This file does several things. First, it associates a Project Control File (PCF) with MSCompass. In fact, the name of the Project File will be based on the PCF name and suffixed with “prj” (e.g., samp.prj). Procedures run by MSCompass will operate on the data files defined in the PCF. You can have multiple MSCompass Project Files, but only one can be attached to MSCompass at a time.

Secondly, this file contains all the dialog settings associated with the MSCompass dialog.

Third, and most importantly, all the procedure panel and multi-run responses are stored in the Project File. If you provide the Project File to another user or Mintec Technical Support person, they can quickly see exactly your procedure and multi-run responses.

_msresources\Procedures.prcThis file stores customized procedure shortcuts that are executable directly from MineSight 3-D (MS3D) and listed under the MineSight menu as shown in Figure 2.

The list of procedures is managed from MSCompass by clicking on the Edit button under MineSight Procedures on the Menu page. The procedures in the list can be added, deleted, labeled, or grouped into submenus from the MineSight Procedure Selector dialog shown in Figure 3.

_msresources\dialogs.ptf file and _msresources\settings This file and folder live under your project directory. Historically the dialogs.ptf file was used to store settings from all the dialogs in MS3D. This included such things as geometry sets used for

coding, cursor definitions, blast pattern editor settings, and the pit expansion tool setup. Dialog settings for new tools and some existing tools are now in the settings folder. Although the settings folder looks empty when viewed from the MS3D Data Manager (Figure 4), if you open up the settings folder in Microsoft® Windows Explorer, you may notice some XML files – these are the newer and more robust way MineSight stores parameters and settings. Do not delete the settings folder or any of its files. Otherwise, you’ll lose important data including geometry sets and the last state of the Pit Expansion dialog that allows you to continue expanding.

Files in Your MineSight Project1

Figure 2. Procedure shortcuts in MS3D

MineSight® Auxiliary Files

Figure 1. Creating a new Project File in MSCompass

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msAudit.txtThis is a text file that’s updated every time MS3D performs an operation on your project or MSCompass runs a procedure (Figure 5). msAudit.txt tracks each user who opened the project, the version of MS3D that was run, and the time and function performed on the project data. Every message sent to the MS3D Message Window is also included in msAudit.txt. Additionally, some functions (e.g., model coding, or true thickness) also output computational details to the file:

_msresources\project settings.msrThis file contains all the settings specified in the MS3D | File | Project Settings dialog (Figure 6). If for some reason you need to reset your project extents, you can do so by deleting this file. However, all the other project settings will revert to their default values.

6/2/2009 15:35:4 User: gwylde

Started MS3D 4.60-02 (Build 81)

6/2/2009 16:50:5 Started MineSight Compass from ms3d

6/2/2009 16:50:10 Running procedure pitres.dat

Figure 5. Snippet of msAudit.txt file

_msresource\msCache.txt This is an optional file containing a list of the files in your project and their types. Activate the file by toggling Load project from cache file on Startup from the Properties page of the MS3D | File | Project Settings dialog (Figure 7). This option allows MS3D to quickly open your project by referencing the listed files rather than opening each and every file inside the project to determine its type.

Figure 3. Defining MS3Dprocedure shortcuts in theMSCompass MineSightProcedure Selector

Figure 4. The settings folder looks empty in the MS3D Data Manager, but it actually contains dialog settings in XML format

Figure 6. The MS3D Project Settings dialog

Figure 7. Option to load your project from a cache file in the MS3D Project Settings dialog

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gravity, default burden (ring spacing), rig types, charge types, and primer types. See the documentation inside the rd_Default.txt file for editing instructions.

Finally, the vgalusr8.vr file conveniently stores a list of your recently opened projects, as well as your MS3D right-click popup menu. It also tracks window locations necessary for MS3D and MSCompass dialogs to open with their previous size and location.

vgalusr8.vr MS3D and MSCompass will first look for your vgalusr8.vr file in the location specified by your HOME environment variable. If this location is not found, then the location defined by the combination of the HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH is searched. HOMEDRIVE defines the drive and HOMEPATH the path relative to HOMEDRIVE. If vgalusr8.vr is still not found, it is searched for in the Microsoft® Windows Operating System directory.

Your MineSight install folder also contains some useful files. This is the folder pointed to by the %MEDEXE% environment variable.

fill_pattern.txt This file contains a selected subset of standard geologic map symbol patterns as per the U.S. Geological Survey’s standards and guidelines. These fill patterns are accessed via MS3D material or object properties and applied to polygons and surface faces (Figure 8). Using a text editor, you can create

and customize your own patterns following the instructions included in the file. For example, if you want to change how “Dolomitic Sandstone (614)” looks, you can edit this section in the file and change it. Alternatively, you could use this pattern as the basis for a new fill type. Note that MS3D will look first for the fill_pattern.txt file in your project _msresources folder and then in the directory defined by the MEDEXE environment variable (your installation folder).

geomap.gmThis file contains the default line and symbol definitions used by the MS3D Geomap tool. This file is not editable. However, you can use this file as a basis for a customized line/symbol file using the Geomap Editor located under the Geo Tools menu in MS3D. Your custom symbols will be saved to a new geomap file.

rd_Default.txt This file is used with the MS3D Ring Design tool and can be edited with a text editor. The parameters defined in the file appear as options in the tool. A wide variety of parameters are pre-defined, or you can define your own. Parameters include such items as: rock types with an associated specific

Files in Your Install Folder2

Figure 8. Fill Pattern selector accessed from the Material or Object Properties on the Surfaces and Polylines pages

3 Vgalusr8.vr Files