The underground layers are the individual layers or levels on which the mine operates. They can be configured in the Admin→Configuration tab of IMS.

Configuration

A valid configuration requires a full site layer and at least one normal layer. The full site layer is a view of the entire underground mine and so would encompass all of the layers within the mine. A normal layer is a particular layer within the mine, e.g. level 10. Each underground level requires its own separate DXF file in addition to the DXF file for the full site.

To configure the underground layers go to the Overview in IMS and select the Admin tab. Note that your user account must have manager-level access to be able to see and use this tab.

When adding a new Feature Layer, extra fields related specifically to underground layers will only appear for supported underground file formats (currently files with a .DXF extension).   To view these extra fields, either drag & drop a DXF file into the marked area or click on it to open the file selector and pick a DXF file.

For each underground layer, several properties can be configured.

• Display name
• File type 
• DXF file
• Transform
• Offset (optional)
• Hide & disable

IMPORTANT NOTE: IMS underground configuration may involve complex technical and/or internal elements.  Please contact FTP Solutions for assistance if required.

Display name

The display name is the name of the layer displayed in the Map Layers centre panel. Each underground layer is part of a “Mine Layout” structure configured in IMS. The Display Name must match a layer name from the Mine Layout structure, or in the case of the full-site layer, the name of the overall Mine Layout.

File Type

To add a new underground layer you must have a DXF file representing that layer as that is the only file format supported by IMS for underground layers at the current time.

DXF File

The DXF file is a representation of a layer or level of your mine. Ideally, for IMS to work well with your mine site, you will need to have one full-site file which shows the entire mine and one file per layer of the mine.

IMS only supports the DXF file format for the underground layers at the current time as that is a common file format exportable from mine management tools.

Transform

A transform of some kind is required in order for IMS to correctly position and display the underground layer in the world. The DXF file format usually contains geographic coordinates that are specific to your mine site - e.g. eastings and northings - and these coordinates need to be converted (transformed) to the global coordinate system which IMS uses (EPSG:4326).

IMS supports either WKT transforms or proj transforms. The transform must convert from the coordinate system that your DXF file is encoded with into EPSG:4326. If the transform has invalid syntax then the underground layer will fail to save; however, if the transform is simply wrong then your underground layer might save correctly but show in the wrong place in the IMS map.

Offset

A vertical offset in metres can be applied to the DXF files you upload. This could be necessary if the coordinates in the DXF files are encoded relative to an arbitrary vertical reference point within the mine. That is to say that an altitude of 0 metres might not be the surface but in fact some distance below ground.

If that is the case, then an offset can be applied here to correct the altitude of the layers relative to "the ellipsoid" (i.e. the theoretical geometrically symmetrical representation of the earth). The value is assumed to be negative as the reference point is assumed to be below the EPSG:4326 ellipsoid. So entering a value of “500” will cause IMS to vertically displace the DXF files 500 metres down. 
If your reference point is above the ellipsoid then enter the value with a negative sign to indicate that.

Hide & Disable

The layer can also be hidden & disabled. This is intended to be a temporary measure whilst you are configuring a layer and perhaps don't have all of the necessary details. Rather than uploading the DXF file a second time you can simply leave the layer in-place but set it to be hidden & disabled so users can't see or use it for the time being.

After configuring the layers

Once the full-site layer and each underground layer has been configured then you should have a saved list of layers similar to the below example.

These layers are now available for use in the map view.

Using underground layers

On first load, IMS will show the surface of your mine site in the map view. The list of underground layers can be found under the Map Layers panel on the map.

Click on the Map Layers and it will expand to show the available layers including the underground layers.

You can navigate to one of the underground layers of your mine by double-clicking on one of the entries in the underground layers list. This will fly the map view to the specific layer of the mine that you double-clicked on. The same applies to the full site layer.

To return to the surface view of the mine you can click the Home button

Whilst showing an underground layer you can switch the view from Top to Side and vice versa using the controls on the underground layers list.

Additionally, the “eye” icon on each layer can be used to toggle the visibility of that layer without flying the view to the layer. This can be useful if you want to view several layers at once.

Whilst viewing one or more layers you can pan around it by clicking and dragging on it; or if you hold the ctrl button and click and drag, you can rotate the camera around the layer to get a different perspective of it.

TIP: Point to a spot inside the rectangular plane shown underneath each level, before holding Ctrl+Click+drag to 'orbit' (rotate around) the level.