The latest release of XPAC, the mine scheduling application from mining software providers RungePincockMinarco (RPM), has been launched this week at the Coaltrans Asia conference in Bali. The new release includes the key productivity feature of seamless integration with Maptek’s popular geological design software Vulcan, delivering on RPM’s strategy of enabling streamlined design and planning workflow to clients. The latest XPAC also includes improved Stage Plan creation and visualisation, enabled through the integration with Vulcan, as well as performance improvements to the stage plan animation interface.
Alun Philips, RPM’s Product Manager said “In talking with our clients, they told us they would like to see XPAC integrated more tightly with today’s top design tools. Our integration strategy is all about enabling our clients to choose their preferred design tool without compromising on the scheduling power, reliability and functionality they are used to in XPAC. XPAC now directly accepts Vulcan files with no need for conversion. This seamless combination of our market leading products delivers the capabilities of Vulcan’s mine design package and the robust schedules produced from XPAC without compromise.”
Philips explained, “Stage Plans can now be produced by XPAC directly from grids, without any file conversion between the software. These plans provide a key interface between long, medium and short-term schedules and enables planners to easily visualise the mine status and validate the practicality of mine plans. The latest XPAC release empowers more effective communication of mining plans to management or production staff for any period in the schedule.”
Commenting on other improvements in the latest release Philips stated, “These new features run faster than ever before. The performance improvement means smoother navigation of Stage Plan animations and better 3D visuals when multiple activities are taking place simultaneously. As a result all of the workflows within the package run faster which makes for a better user experience.”
