RPMGlobal says it has released an update to its Parametric Design suite of software products specifically tailored to the underground metals space.

Strategic Design Optimiser (SDO) is an innovative design application that combines the complex tasks of strategic optimised stope and development design into a single, coherent automated process, it says.

The intelligent workflow included in the product guides the user through the entire process. This workflow has been developed using the combined industry knowledge and experience of RPMGlobal and its customers.

“SDO is unique in that it uses parametric design principles, combined with several leading optimisation algorithms, in a single user experience,” RPMGlobal says. “SDO uniquely combines both the stope and development optimisation into one package allowing customers to generate, change and update designs on the fly.”

As a standalone strategic design package, SDO can work seamlessly 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.

Paul Beesley, RPMGlobal’s Chief Technology Officer, said: “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.

“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.”

While the industry has accelerated its uptake of automation, Beesley said the design part of the mine planning process had been largely left out, with existing solutions simply bolting on more functionality to existing tools.

“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,” he said.

SDO builds on the strengths of the Mineable Shape Optimiser by adding a new visual, user interface that automatically manages the large volumes of data generated for resultant stoping scenarios, RPMGlobal says.

Current solutions still rely on the user manually drawing every part of the mine design. Every single change then requires the user to redraw again and again. What usually happens then is the changes simply do not get done, and, with each iteration, it deviates further from the truth.

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, the company says.

RPMGlobal’s fully integrated Development Optimiser 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 says 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.

“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.”