Program User Manual March 2021

Paradigm User Manual

Find training content online, with videos, at:

http://paradigm.igneous.tech
Index of Topics
Introduction
Paradigm – What is it?

Adjusting the Screen Layout Video

Options Panel (User Preference Settings)

Basic Program Navigation Video

Program Hot Keys

Blast Settings Panel

Hole Layout & Editing

Reading a Blast Pattern Video

Hole Layout Editor

Hole Grid Tool

Polygon Fill Tool

Line Fill Tool

Holes Along Lines

Evenly Distribute

Adjust Hole Burden

Hole Placement Editor

Hole Profile Editor

Create Blast Hole/Dummy Hole

Select Duplicates Video

Moving Holes

Measuring Distances Video

 Program User Manual March 2021

Selecting Objects
Select & De-Select Functions Video

Grouping Nodes

Line & Text Editing

Adding Text Annotation

Edit Text Offsets

Creating & Editing Lines

Offset Lines Tool

Line Through Holes Tool

Create In-Between Lines

Add Notes to Nodes

Hole Renaming

Contours to Lines

Blasthole Charging
Creating Charge Configurations Video

Assigning Charge Configurations

Pre-Split Designer

Adding & Deleting Primers

Non-Electric Sequencing & Timing

Surface Non-Electric Tie-In Video

Changing Surface Delays

Managing The Non-Electric Delay Series

Deck Timing Editor

Multi-Row Ties and Offsets (Non-electric)

Electronic Sequencing and Timing

Fixed Per-Hole Timing
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Fixed Per-Distance Timing

Instant Echelon Electronic Timing

Instant Radial Electronic Timing

Composite Electronic Timing Video

Contour Timing Video

Manual Electronic Timing

Branching & Programming Path

Managing Scenarios
Timing Scenarios Video

Charging Scenarios

Using Snapshots

Data Management
Creating a Node Library

Exporting Data

Importing Snapshot Data

Importing Charges

Importing Timing

Terrain Interactions
Hole X-Section

Importing Geometry

Minimum Burden Calculation & Heatmap

Set Up Front Face

Terrain Cross Section

Snap Holes to Terrain Surface

Create Build Plane

Printing & Reporting

 Program User Manual March 2021

Initiation Timing & Tie-Ins

Contours (Flyrock, Vibration, Timing)

Minimum Burden Report

Drill Log

Drill Accuracy Report

Charge Sheet

Programming Sheet

Reviewing Designs
Voronoi Heat Maps

Histogram Display of Attributes

Initiation Animation

Timing Contours

Interval Graph (Charge Weight per Interval)

Burden Relief

Pattern Statistics

Proximity Viewer

Modelling Tools (Paradigm Advanced)

Flyrock Modelling

Near-Field Vibration Modelling

Energy Distribution Modelling

Timing Optimiser (Sweetspot)

Fragmentation Modelling

Vibration Footprint Modelling

Seed Wave Modelling (Foresight)

Overpressure Modelling

Muckpile Footprint Modelling

Program User Manual March 2021
 Program User Manual March 2021

Paradigm – What is it?

Paradigm has been developed to create and visualise blast patterns either with or without terrains, to
facilitate rapid timing for patterns of any size and complexity, to review and compare different timing
scenarios, to rapidly apply charge configurations and charging scenarios, and to facilitate advanced
modelling of outcomes.

Paradigm operates in both 3D and 2D, and reads hole coordinate data from a range of third party files
including Excel (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm), comma separated files (*.csv), text files (*.xyz, *.hol), Iredes files
(*.xml), BlastPlan files (*.bpt), AutoCAD files (*.dwg, *.dxf), Wavefront files (*.obj), ShotPlus files
(*.spf), and BlastPlan files (*.bpt). In addition, Paradigm can import *.dxf, *.dwg, and *.xyz feature
lines, contour lines, and triangulated/mesh surfaces which can overlay a pattern of blastholes.
Paradigm also supports textured surfaces through*.obj files provided that the image textures are
.bmp, .jpg or .png formats (.tif formats are not currently supported).

With patterns and terrain surfaces, Paradigm determines minimum burden and various models use
that information to calculate maximum free-face flyrock range, peak overpressure levels, and even
muckpile footprints. The Damage Model also uses real terrains to compute heat maps which signal
areas of high and low stress intensity that may reflect either damage potential or fragmentation
potential.

It also enables users to create both regular and irregular blasthole patterns, add holes, remove holes,
move holes, and to edit hole properties such as length, diameter, sub-drill, inclination and bearing. It
also produces Voronoi heat maps to show spatial variability in any imported hole attribute and a range
of calculated attributes (depth, amount of water, temperature, flyrock range, hardness, powder
factor, charge weight, timing, etc).

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Adjusting the Screen Layout

The main work area, showing the hole pattern and tie-in details, is the central View Port. Surrounding
the View Port are various, dockable panels:

• Selection Panel to select single or multiple nodes in the View Port

• Node List showing a list of all nodes in the current session, and allowing users to change node
colour and visibility
• Attribute Panel presenting all attributes of the first-selected node, including editable and
calculated (non-editable) attributes.
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Panels can “float” on the main or secondary monitor or dock

Positioning
into specific locations. To dock a panel, click and drag its label
symbol
until the mouse arrow overlies and highlights a positioning
symbol. Panels can also be moved to, and float on a second
monitor to maximise the View Port working area. Highlighted
active position
point

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Options Panel
User-adjustable settings applied to all sessions.
Adjustments made here affect the next, and all
future, new sessions.

Language: User interface language, including

options of English, Spanish and Russian. After
changing the language preference, close and re-
start the program.

Auto Open Previous: Automatically loads the last

session when the program is opened.

Undo Queue Size: The number of Undo

operations that can be performed to return to a
previous session state.

DXF as Binary: The option to save dxf files in

binary or text format.

Units: Choice of metric or US units. While working

in the default units, data can also be imported in
the other units, and the program will immediately
convert the data to your default settings.

Ton Type: For US units, choice of US ton (2000 lb)

or Imperial ton (2240 lb).

Preferred PF Unit: Units of display for Powder Factor.

Auto Save Enabled: Saves backup file in the background at specified interval.

Open Auto Save File: Ability to open the Auto Save file after a program crash.

Grid Visible, Grid Size, Grid Units: Display Northing & Easting grid at specified intervals & units.

Viewport Text Line Height: The height of displayed text, in physical units (not font size).

Plan Scale Factor: The scale factor applied to holes in the Plan View viewport

Perspective Scale Factor: The scale factor applied to holes in the Perspective (3D) View viewport

Background Colour: The background colour for both Plan and Perspective views, and various section
view panels

Bearing Zero Angle: Bearing angle convention (typically with respect to North).

Radial Direction: Direction of positive bearing angle (clockwise or counter-clockwise).

Inclination Zero Axis: Inclination angle convention (with respect to vertical or horizontal).

Small Delay Increment: Small interval when increasing or decreasing the Fixed per-Hole electronic
delay time (numeric keypad +, or -).
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Large Delay Increment: Large interval when increasing or decreasing the Fixed per-Hole electronic
delay time (numeric keypad Ctrl+, or Ctrl-).

Branch Naming Policy: Name type when creating branches and programming path for electronic
initiation.

Default Delays: Node Library name containing preferred list of non-electric delays.

Default Explosives: Node Library name containing preferred list of explosive product options.

Default Charge Rules: Node Library name containing preferred list of pre-specified Charge Rules.

Default Geology Nodes: Node Library name containing preferred list of Geology descriptions.

Session Template: Paradigm .blst file containing a background terrain or cadastre to help in
georeferencing the session blast.

Logo Filepath: Specify the filepath for a company logo to be included on reports.

Back to Index

Blast Settings Panel

Available on Session Ribbon, used to define session settings.

Name: A blast name which will appear on all prinouts

Allow Duplicate Names: Where two or more blasts are

combined and holes in different patterns have the same name –
program can maintain names as read from the source file, or will
add a suffix to differentiate

Operator Name: An operator name which will appear on the

Plan Diagram printout in the top right hand corner.

Location: Session-specific text for use in Printouts

Blast Type: Session-specific text for use in Printouts

Blast Origin: Sets the camera’s view point, and is automatically derived as the pattern is either read
from a file, or created using any of the program’s pattern creation tools. To change the view point,
select one or more nodes and click the “Place Blast Origin to Selection” button, or the “Auto Center
Blast Origin” button. If rotation of the pattern is jerky, click one of these buttons to redirect camera
view and produce smooth rotation in the View Port.

Scaled Dist Exponent, n: The value of the exponent used in the vibration scaled distance equation for
estimation of peak vibration levels.

P-Wave Velocity: Used in Dynamic Damage Model and FragmentationModel. Refers to p-wave
velocity for intact specimen.

Non-Ideal Gas Constant: Used in Damage modelling and Pre-Split model.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Basic Program Navigation

After reading a blasthole pattern, the Nodes List Panel becomes populated with Hole ID information
and a vertical slide bar appears if there are more holes than can be displayed in the available space.
The holes will also appear in the main View Port. If you do not see any holes after reading from file,
click the “Fit Holes” button, or select a node and click “Fit Selected”.

Choose Plan View (2D) or 3D View by clicking one of the tabs at the top left of the View Port.

Plan View 3D View

Zoom In/Out using the mouse scroll wheel, or by dragging the orange zoom bar located at the top left
of the View Port. Instant Zoom with Fit Selected, Fit Holes, Fit All.

Pan using right click and drag.

Rotate using Alt right click and drag left/right in either Plan View or 3D View, or press the mouse scroll
wheel and drag in a sideways direction. Reset North to return view to North = Vertical upward.

Tumble in 3D view only using Alt right click and drag up/down, or depress the scroll wheel while
dragging up/down.

View Options to change gridline spacing (Plan View only),

show/hide pattern timing and ID text, and to display Sub-drill
Surface or bench floor surfaces (3D View only). Surface
Geometry and Line Geometry View Options only appear in the
pull-down menus if they exist in the session.

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Program Hot Keys

To display a list of all registered Program Hot Keys, click the Hotkeys button on the caption bar.

Delete: Delete selected nodes

Esc: De-activate the current tool
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Ctrl A: Select All holes

Shift Ctrl A: De-select everything
Ctrl D: Duplicate selected nodes
F: Zoom to fit selected nodes
Alt F: Centres the view to the cursor in 3D View
Shift F: Zoom to fit all visible holes
Ctrl F: Zoom to fit all visible nodes
Ctrl G: Group the selected nodes
Ctrl I: Inserts a dummy hole between selected nodes
Ctrl L: Activates the Measure Distance tool
Ctrl M: Allows selected nodes to be moved in the View Port. Hold “Shift” to snap, and “Ctrl”
to constrain axis of movement.
Ctrl N: Close the current session and create a new session
Ctrl O: Open a previously saved session file
Ctrl P: Creates a printable timing diagram pdf file from the current design
Q: Cycle between Select modes
Ctrl Q: Resets the selector to the default (Row Select)
Ctrl R: Adds proximity circles to selected holes
Shift Ctrl R: Removes proximity circles from the selected holes
Alt R: Removes all proximity circles
Ctrl S: Save the file
Ctrl Y: Redo the previous operation
Ctrl Z: Undo the previous operation
↑: Move selected nodes vertically UP on the screen. To move a discrete distance, click
the arrow beside the tool and choose step size. In Timing Mode, selects holes tied
upstream.
↓: Move selected nodes vertically DOWN on the screen. To move a discrete distance,
click the arrow beside the tool and choose step size. In Timing Mode, selects holes
tied downstream.
→: Move nodes RIGHT on the screen. To move a discrete distance, click the arrow beside
the tool and choose step size.
←: Move selected nodes LEFT on the screen. To move a discrete distance, click the arrow
beside the tool and choose or define step size.
Numeric keys 1 – 9: Set the current non-electric delay to the selected element number

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Hole Grid Tool

Create a regular pattern of holes using the Hole Grid Tool in the Hole
Creation section of the Editing Ribbon – click to open the Pattern Creator panel and a Pattern Preview,
then edit the settings.

Show Guide: Program draws “proximity

circles” around the red and yellow
survey points to help position the
pattern with respect to existing feature
lines or holes. Specify the circle radius in
the Guide Radius field.

Row Stagger: Tool to offset rows of

holes to form staggered pattern. Offset
amount is a fraction of the specified
spacing, most commonly 0.5.

Stagger Strategy: Offset can be alternating (offset applied to every second row) or accumulating
(offset applied to every row).

Naming Policy: Hole ID automatically assigned to each hole. If “None”, holes are numbered without
prefix, if “Alphabetic”, each row has a unique prefix and numbering starts from 01 for each row.

Start Row Offset: First row offset distance from red & yellow survey points.

Burden/Spacing: Distance between rows and holes respectively.

Rows/Holes: Number of parallel rows, and number of holes per row respectively.

Stretch: Tool to stretch burden and spacing to fit a defined area. When enabled, a blue “stretch” point
appears – click and drag the blue dot to stretch the burden dimension, or add more rows. Click and
drag the red point to stretch the spacing of holes, add more holes, or rotate the pattern about the
yellow point. Click and drag on the yellow dot moves the entire pattern without affecting orientation.

Flip Direction: Pattern generation starts at a line between red and yellow points and progresses to
one side. To change the side on which the pattern is generated, click this box.

Survey Point 1 & Survey Point 2: Two survey points used to define pattern orientation, representing
two holes in the same row of the pattern (e.g. obtained from GPS SatNav devices). Enter the
coordinates for the two holes into the Northing, Easting, Elevation fields in order to position the
pattern in local coordinates. The red dot ‘s coordinates are assigned to the first hole. The yellow dot’s
coordinates are used to define the direction of the row of holes when “Stretch” is not enabled, but
the coordinates of the last hole when “Stretch” is enabled.

Place Using Mouse: If the red and yellow survey dots, and the “ghost” pattern are not visible in the
ViewPort, click this button to attach them to the mouse. Click anywhere in the ViewPort to disengage
the pattern from the mouse.

Create Holes: Fix holes in the ViewPort. Until this button is clicked, holes remain as “ghosts”, or
previews, which disappear when the editor panel is closed.

Hole attributes such as Diameter, Length, and Sub-drill are specified by editing the settings in the
Attribute Panel.
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Holes, or groups of holes, can be moved in the View Port by highlighting then selecting the Move Tool.

Holes can be deleted by highlighting, then pressing the Del button or the Delete option in the Tools
section on the Session Ribbon.

Holes, or any other nodes, can be added to a pattern by selecting an existing hole or group of holes,
and then pressing Ctrl D (Duplicate). The duplicate holes directly overlay the selected holes, and the
program automatically highlights the duplicates so that they can be moved using the Move Tool.
Alternatively, single holes can be added using the Create Blast Hole tool on the Session Ribbon – after
clicking the icon, just move the mouse and left click to add a new blasthole.

If the Hole pattern was placed onto a terrain surface, it may be necessary to snap the hole collars to
the terrain surface. To do this, select all holes, then click the Hole Snap Tool that allows either the hole
collars or toes to be snapped to the nearest visible terrain surface, with various
options.

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Holes Along Lines

Accessed from the Editing
Ribbon, and used to place holes along, or offset
from, a line or polyline. Holes added with this tool
are added to whatever holes are already in the
session. Click the option to open the small panel
and note the options to either place holes at fixed
intervals along the line, or to place a fixed number
of holes between the line/polyline end points.
First and last holes are located at end points of the
line/polyline. Holes can be offset from the line – note positive and negative offset distances to change
the offset side.

Click “Create Holes” button to fix holes and note that all holes remain highlighted. Adjust attributes
like diameter, length, sub-drill in the Attribute Panel.

Use the Create Line Tool to create a line or polyline.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Poly Fill Tool

Accessed from the Editing
Ribbon, and used to place holes inside a polygon
with a specified burden, spacing and orientation.
Polygon does not need to be fully closed – create
using the Create Line Tool.

If red and yellow survey points are not visible,

click “Place Using Mouse” button and the preview
pattern becomes fixed to the mouse arrow. Left
click to anchor. Click and drag yellow survey point
to move the entire pattern, and the red survey
point to define row orientation. Alternatively,
type coordinates for each of the red and yellow
dots. Use Flip Direction if preview holes are not
visible.

Use the Guide Radius to place the row of holes a known distance from a line or reference hole, or
alternatively use the Start Row Offset. Offset distance is perpendicular to the line joining the red and
yellow survey points.

Adjust burden and spacing values, the row stagger factor (fraction of spacing dimension), and the
Stagger Strategy (Alternating applies stagger to every second row, Accumulating applies stagger factor
cumulatively to each row). Click the “Create Holes” button to fix the pattern. Close the panel to erase
the hole preview. Adjust hole attributes of diameter, length and sub-drill in the Attribute Panel.

Back to Index

Line Fill Tool

Available in the Hole Editing section
of the Editing Ribbon. The tool fills the space between two contour lines with holes at a
specified burden and spacing. It works best when the two lines are roughly the same length.
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Highlight the two lines, click the Line Fill Tool option, specify the desired burden and spacing,
and the tool will populate the area between the two lines in the best possible manner. The
light-coloured holes are “preview holes” which will disappear when the panel is closed – click
the “Create Holes” button to create holes. After clicking Create Holes, the added holes will
remain highlighted – adjust the diameter, length, inclination, and bearing as required in the
Attribute Panel.

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Evenly Distribute
Accessed from the Editing
Ribbon, and used to adjust spacing between a selected “row” of holes so that all holes are evenly-
spaced between the extremity holes in the selected group. The tool also
allows holes to be added or removed from the line, and the adjusted spacing
is displayed in the panel. Click the “Evenly Distribute Selected” button to
confirm the hole adjustments.

Note that this tool also aligns all holes between the extremity holes along a straight line – do not use
the tool if you wish to maintain curvature along the row of selected holes.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Adjust Hole Burden

Accessed from the Editing Ribbon,
and used to move a hole with respect to a terrain free face, with the direction
of movement defined in a variety of ways, including:

• the direction of maximum burden (Furthest),

• the direction of minimum burden (Nearest),
• the average direction of all minimum burdens along the charge
length (Average)
• an Explicit direction previously set in the Front Face Setup panel.

The Movement Method options include:

Manual Adjustment. Enter the Amount of movement you want (Nudge

Increment), and click either “Forward” or “Backward” to decrease or increase the burden respectively
by the specified amount. Paradigm effects the hole movement while attempting to fix the hole collar
to the terrain surface, and without change to the currently-specified inclination.

Collar Adjustment. Enter the Minimum Burden you want the selected hole(s) to have and click the
“Move to Min. Burden” button to move the collars of all holes to comply with the specified minimum
burden, while maintaining the currently-specified inclination.

Inclination Adjustment. Enter the Minimum Burden you want the selected hole(s) to have, the
inclination search range over which the program can seek a solution, and then click the “Incline to Min
Burden” burden. The toe of the hole will be moved without change to the collar location.

In all cases, the direction in which holes are moved is controlled by the Direction Setting in the Shared
Settings, and the hole toe may be either fixed, or allowed to vary as the movement occurs, according
to the “Preserve Toe” setting.

The same functionality is also available, in a more interactive manner, on the Hole X-Section panel,
enabling users to see all the minimum burden distances along the length of the blast hole.

Back to Index

Hole Placement Editor

Used to snap hole collars or toes to a surface or Build Plane,
or to interactively adjust hole collars and/or toes. Accessed
from the Editing Ribbon.

Terrain Snapping
Depending on the terrain Opacity attribute setting, hole collars may not be visible in plan or 3D view
if there is even a small discrepancy between hole collar elevation and the terrain elevation at that
point.
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Select holes for snap, select Point to Snap (Toe or Collar), Direction to Snap
(Up, Down, or Auto), the Search Axis (vertical or along the hole axis), and
your preference in relation to the toe of the hole (maintain Elevation, Fixed
toe, or Off). The “Preserve Toe” options affect how the length of the hole will
change as a result of the snap process. To remove ambiguity as regards the
surface to which holes are snapped, make only the target surface visible.
Click “Perform Snap” to move selected holes to the snap surface.

If the “Consider Sub-drill” box is ticked, the snap point for the hole toes is
located one sub-drill distance from the bottom of each selected hole.

Interactive
Allows users to move the collar or toe of a hole interactively, with the Hole X Section panel open.
Select the Edit Collar preference to move the hole collar (toe remains fixed) using a click and drag, or
Edit Collar to move the hole without changing its inclination. Movements will occur in the bearing
direction for each hole selected. Where a line of holes has been selected, the bearing for each of the
selected holes can be made perpendicular to a virtual line joining the holes by clicking the “Bearing
From Selected Holes” button.

Hole Inclination for either a single hole or a group of holes can be adjusted to a specified value by
typing the value into the “Inclination” field, and then clicking the “Apply Inclination” button. Such
changes to holes’ inclination are made in the direction of bearing of each hole.

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Hole Profile Editor

Available in the Hole Editing section of the Editing ribbon, and
used to assign a surveyed profile to a hole. A surveyed profile,
for example from a Boretrack device, can be imported as a polyline in dxf format
(exported from Boretrack devices), or a representative profile can be manually
constructed from a line created in the View Port using the Create Line tool.

Click the Hole Profile Editor tool to open the Hole Profile Editor panel. With this panel
open, and at least one line selected, users can convert a line, straight or with any
shape, to a blasthole by clicking the “Convert Lines to Holes” button.

Any hole can be converted to a line using the “Hole to Line” tool, and can then be edited using the
Edit Line tool, and converted back to a hole.

To assign a line to a hole, select both the line and the hole and then click the “Apply Bent Hole Shapes”
button. The selected hole will assume the profile of the line maintaining its diameter and charge rule.
If the “Maintain Collar” option is enabled, the hole maintains its original collar location, otherwise the
hole is re-located to assume the coordinates of the line.

Any selected hole or group of holes can be assigned random bending by clicking the “Simulate
Deviation” button. This tool applies an offset to the toe coordinate of the hole(s), and applies bending
with parabolic curvature, using the equation 𝑇𝑜𝑒 𝑂𝑓𝑓𝑠𝑒𝑡 = 𝑎 × 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑡 𝐷𝑒𝑝𝑡ℎ2, where the value of the
 Program User Manual March 2021

coefficient, a, is specified in the input field labelled “Deviation”. If the “Randomize Direction” box is
enabled, the direction of deviation of the toe offset for each hole is chosen randomly. When disabled,
the direction of deviation is defined by the hole direction in the Attribute Panel.

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Moving Nodes
Click the Move Tool on the Session Ribbon to move objects
you have already selected in the ViewPort or Node List, such as holes,
feature lines, receivers, etc. Move can be applied to objects in either Plan or
3D view mode – in 3D mode the move tool has three directions of
orthogonal movement. The Move Tool allows translational movement, not
rotational.

With the Move Tool selected, highlighting one or more objects in the View
Port Plan View displays the dual-axis Move Icon located at the centre of
selection. To move purely East-West, left click and drag the red arrow. To move purely North-South,
left click and drag the blue arrow. Holding Ctrl while dragging the yellow dot constrains movement to
either horizontal or vertical screen directions. To move freely in any direction, left click and drag the
yellow dot on the icon. The distance moved is displayed in the Status bar at the very bottom of the
screen, as well as in the View Port while the tool is being dragged.

The Move tool will snap to points if the Shift key is pressed while dragging. When the tool is activated,
Paradigm constructs a list of candidate points to snap to, and then projects them into screenspace and
discards those which are not displayed in either Plan or 3D View. It then sorts by screen depth and
discards any that are exactly behind others in screen space (so a perfectly vertical hole will only ever
have the collar as a snap point in plan view for example). The list of points is searched whenever the
mouse is moved to see if there is a snap candidate within range, hardcoded to a radius of 30 pixels.

The Move Tool can also be constrained to move in discrete steps. Click the
small arrow below the tool icon in the Session ribbon to activate discrete
steps, and select the desired step size.

Small, discrete movements of objects can also be made by selecting the

object and using one of the keyboard Up, Down, Left, Right arrows. The
discrete step can be set by clicking the pull down arrow below the Move
Tool.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Reading a Blast Pattern

Blast hole coordinates and other hole
attributes can be read from third party
software in formats including Excel (*.xls,
*.xlsx, *.xlsm), comma separated
variables (*.csv), text (*.txt, *.hol),
ShotPlus5 (*.spf), BlastPlan (*.bpt), and
AutoCAD (*.dxf, and *.dwg). By default,
coordinate data for the blastholes is
assumed to be in Easting/Northing
format, but Latitude/Longitude format is
also supported if the “Use Lat/Long” box
is ticked.

Coordinate data within Paradigm is always

displayed in N/E format. When the input data is in Lat/Long
format, the program requires further guidance in relation to the
conversion factors to be used. The program can either select the
format automatically, or users can select the desired conversion
from an exhaustive list by clicking the combo box adjacent to the
Auto Convert tick box. Auto Convert selects the conversion
parameters based on the UTM zone for the first data point in the
file. The conversion used for the coordinate transformation is
saved in the Blast Settings panel, and in the field adjacent to the Auto Convert tick box.

File – Open is used to read and display new blasthole pattern. Overwrites existing session data.

File – Import is used to overlay new information like feature or contour lines, new hole attributes,
timing, charging etc on existing data, without loss of data in the current session.

File – Extend is used to add or alter information such as new attributes to the existing pattern, and to
add holes if new ones are found in the file. It will not delete holes already in the session.

To read blasthole data from an Excel or csv file with columns of data in any order:

• Select File – Open or Import, or Extend (*.xlsx, *.csv), open the selected file
• Left click the first data cell (do not click the Indicates units for
data to be read
column label) in each requested column
(program shows the number of entries in Indicates no of
points in file
each column). Indicates next attribute

• Select the appropriate units using the units

button adjacent to each column of
requested data. If the specified units are not as per the Options setting, the values are
automatically converted during the read process.
• After each selection, program auto-advances to show next required column.
• If a column of data is missing in the Excel file, simply click the next button in Paradigm and
then the first data cell in the appropriate Excel column. Missing attributes can be assigned in
the Attribute Panel after data import.
• When all data columns have been identified, click the “Import Data” button.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Note that the hole property “Length” refers to the total length of the hole,
including sub-drill. The hole property “Sub-drill” is used by the program to
calculate the volume of each hole, equal to Burden x Spacing x (Hole
length-Subdrill), and Powder Factor. In the example, the length of 11.1
metres and subdrill of 1.1 metres indicates a bench height of 10 metres.

To assign a value for a missing column of data to all holes (e.g. hole
diameter), Ctrl-A to select all holes in the View Port. In the Attribute panel,
first choose the appropriate units (you can assign data in any units and
the program will transform them into the default units specified in the
Options panel), then type the value into the appropriate cell. Click in the
View Port away from the holes to de-select holes, or click the Clear
Selection in the Selection panel.

Back to Index

Hole Layout Editor

The Hole Layout Editor allows users to define a local
coordinate system, and to easily adjust hole position to achieve a more consistent spacing or
burden. The tool is found in the Hole Editing section of the Editing Ribbon.

The Layout Editor panel requires two actions from the user:

• Load Coordinate System. Click, and then define the

direction of the local E-W axis by selecting two holes
which best define the desired direction. If a line of
holes is selected, the program will use the first and
last to define the E-W Direction.

• Load Selected Holes. Select all the holes for which a

coordinate transformation is required, then click this
button to open a table presenting the transformed
N,E coordinates.

The table of transformed Easting (X) and Northing (Y) values

can be edited directly to move individual holes in either of the
local Northing or Easting directions. The table can present the
transformed coordinates in either World Coordinates, or Custom Coordinates in which case the first-
selected hole defines the (0,0) point.

The transformed coordinates are only available in the table in the Layout Editor and are lost once
the pane is closed.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Select Duplicates
Identifies multiple input of coordinates for the same
hole.

Click Select Duplicates on the Session Ribbon after data input – multiple instances will be highlighted
in both the Node List and the View Port. If holes are located within one hole diameter of each other
they will be considered as duplicates.

Delete one or other of the duplicates to avoid later confusion.

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Measuring Distances
Distances are measured in the View Port by selecting Measure
Distance from the Session Ribbon. The Measure Distance tool works a little
differently in Plan and 3D Views.

In Plan View, left click and drag creates the dimension line, and displays the
distance on the Status Bar and beside the measurement arrow, with the start
and end points of the measurements at the same elevation. Dimension line
appears from the first click point to the mouse arrow tip as the mouse is
moved. Release the left button to terminate the dimension line. The distance
is displayed as text along the measurement line.

Shift left click and drag snaps the start and end points to nearby holes. Ctrl left click and drag constrains
the direction of measure to either horizontal or vertical on the monitor screen. The next mouse click
causes dimension line and distance text to disappear.

Press the Enter key after releasing the mouse button to retain the
measurement line and create a new Measure Node. The node has
attributes in the Attribute Panel that allow you to customise the
appearance of the measurement in the View Port. The “Show Ring”
option creates a circle centred on the start point and with radius
equal to the length of the line. The Reverse button interchanges
the start and end points of the line. To delete a retained measurement line, find the node at the
bottom of the Node List, highlight it, and press the Delete button on your keyboard, or click the “X”
Delete button on the Session Ribbon.

For a line of specified length, first create a measure node from the desired start location and then edit
the length in the Distance attribute in the Attribute Panel. The end point will be moved to create a line
of exact length, and the displayed text will be updated.

In 3D View, distance measurements will be made at the elevation of the first mouse click, unless the
Ctrl key is held down during dragging, in which case the start and end points snap to the nearest
surface. In these cases, the Status Bar will show both plan and slant (direct)
distance.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Press Esc key to de-select the Measure Distance function, or click the icon to toggle off.

Note: Normal Select function is disabled while the Distance measure tool is active.

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Create Blast Hole/Dummy Hole

These tools are used to add either a blast hole or a dummy hole (connection points allowing multiple
delays between two holes) to a pattern. If a Blast Hole is added, it is considered part of the blasting
inventory and will be included in the Table of Statistics as just one more blast hole which can be
charged with explosives and included in all modelling.

If a Dummy Hole is added, this is used only for the purposes of adjusting timing – it cannot be charged
with explosives, and its presence is used to maintain timing consistency along a row, or a convenient
connection point for surface timing assignment. Dummy Holes can also be added during tie-ins in
which the delay between holes is a fixed interval (as opposed to delays based on the separation
distance between the holes). Select the two holes between which a Dummy Hole connection point is
required, and click the Insert Dummy
tool on the Timing Ribbon.

Dummy Holes are also used on occasions as reference points, e.g. the location of a nearby receptor,
or piece of mining equipment.

Click the desired tool and then click anywhere in the View Port – a Blast Hole or a Dummy Hole is
added at each mouse click, at the tip of the mouse arrow. Click the tool again to turn off the tool.
Added holes assume default settings for diameter, length, inclination and bearing. These values can
be adjusted in the Attributes panel after the holes are created.

Holes can also be added using Ctrl D (Duplicate) after selecting one or more holes in an existing
pattern. With this method, the duplicate holes are created exactly overlying the original holes – left
click to highlight, then turn on Move Tool to drag to a new location. Holes so added carry the same
attributes of diameter, length, inclination and bearing as the original holes from which they were
copied.

The size and colour attributes for Dummy Holes can be edited in the
Attributes List. Dummy holes can also be used as receiver locations at
which estimates of vibration or overpressure are required. In these
instances, it can also be very useful to provide a Name to the Dummy
Hole.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Select & De-Select Functions

Selection tools are found in the Selection Panel. Individual holes, groups of holes,
and rows of holes can be selected to enable charge configuration assignment, non-
electric tie-in, electronic timing assignment, or editing of attributes. Clicking on
one of the holes, contour lines, or receivers either in the Holes Panel, or in the
View Port, highlights the element in both the View Port and the Node List, and
attributes are displayed in the Attributes Panel. In the case of multiple selections,
the displayed attributes are those of the first hole in the selection.

Hole Selection
Select Single Hole. Left click the hole in either the View Port or in the Node List

Select Multiple Holes Manually:

1. Shift left click in the View Port or Ctrl left click in the Node List
2. Click on one hole, followed by Shift left click on another hole in the Node List selects all holes
between the two clicks
3. “Box Selection” or “Polygon Selection” selects included holes
4. Select “Line Selection”, left click, drag the cursor over a line of holes, adjust the width of the
selection catchment zone with the mouse scroll wheel

Select Row. Select “Row Selection”, move mouse arrow to start hole in row, left click and drag a small
distance in the direction of the row to automatically select all holes in the row

Select Multiple Rows. Repeat “Select Row” above, with Shift key depressed

Select All Holes. Click “Select All Holes”, or Hot Key Ctrl-A

Select All Holes within a Group. In the Holes Panel, highlight group name, right
click, select either children (selects all holes within the highlighted group) or
siblings (selects all holes within the same group when a hole has been selected)

De-Select All Holes. Left click away from a hole, or click “Clear Selection”, or
right click in Node List and select “Drop Selection”

De-Select Some Holes. Ctrl-left click (single hole), Ctrl-left click and drag (all holes from click point to
end of row)

Select all holes with the same charge configuration. From Charge Rule Editor, select charging rule from
list then click “Select Holes with Charging Rule”

Cycling between Select Options. Hot Key Q

Selection by Attribute
 Program User Manual March 2021

Tool found in Session ribbon, and allows users to select groups of holes according to specific attributes,
within specified ranges. Selection rules can be selected using standard
logic expressions of less than, equal to, greater than. By default,
selection is limited to visible holes, though this restriction can be
removed by disabling the “Visible” option in the Selection Tool panel.

Multiple criteria can be used to define the selection, using any

combination of available attributes. Custom attributes specified
during File – Open, or imported using Import Data, will be listed
amongst the available attributes. To remove a selection criterion, click the red button to the right
of the attribute in the selection tool panel.

Delay Selection/Hole Selection after Non-Electric Tie-in

Select Row. To select a row of holes after tie-in, enable “Ignore Ties” tick box then as per above

Select With Current Delay. Useful once a pattern has been partially or fully tied-in. Current delay is the
Active Delay displayed on the Timing Ribbon

Select all holes in the branch. Double click any hole in the initiation branch (non-electric tie-ins only)

Select Up. Selects Upstream delays from a highlighted hole or group of holes which have been tied
using non-electric delays. Highlights holes back to the first branch-point

Select Down. Selects Downstream delays from a highlighted hole or group of holes which have been
tied using non-electric delays. Highlights all holes downstream

Select Initiation Path. First select a hole, then click this function to show the full initiation path from
the initiation point.

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Grouping Nodes
It is often beneficial to group nodes to help identify and
select members. For example, holes of the same diameter,
holes with the same Charge Rule, holes used in fragmentation or flyrock modelling, or contour lines
with a particular significance. Once grouped, the colour of each member of the group can be changed
to help identify them.

Group Selected. To group a number of holes, first

highlight them, then select Session – Group, or
simply press Ctrl G. In the Node List, the selected
holes become highlighted, and when grouped,
they are slightly offset to the right in the node list, and
appear as children to a parent which is given a default name like “Group1”. Select the group name in
the node list and note that the attributes for that group are displayed in the Attribute List. Simply edit
the Name to make differentitation between groups easier.
 Program User Manual March 2021

To quickly highlight all members of a group, right click the group name in the Node
List and select the option Select All Children. If one of the group members is already
highlighted, select all others with a right click and Select Siblings.

Ungroup Selected. To remove grouping, highlight the group name in the Node List,
right click, select Ungroup Selected. This does not delete the members – it only
removes grouping from the members.

Drop Selection. Used to de-select a group of nodes (alternatively, Clear Selection in the Selection
Panel, or simply click in the View Port away from any node).

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Adding Text Annotation

Available in the Tools Ribbon, and also the Editing Ribbon.
After clicking this icon, simply left click in the ViewPort at the position where the text is required to be
displayed. By default, the program enters the text “Empty Annotation”, adds an Annotation Node to
the Node List, and displays the Attribute list for the text. To create new text, click in the Text field in
the Attribute Panel and overwrite the existing text. Text can include line
feeds to create multi-line text entries. Once the desired text has been
entered, click Set Text. To move the text to another location in the View
Port, highlight the Annotation Node in the Node List, then click the
Move Tool. To delete the text, select the Annotation Node either in the
View Port or the Node List and press the Del key, or click the Delete icon
on the Ribbon. Adjust the text size, colour and orientation using the Line
Height, Colour, and Bearing tools in the Attribute Panel. By default, new
text is added with the same size and orientation as the previous text.

Text added to the ViewPort is included in the printouts if the “Print Annotations” option in the Print
Preferences Panel is enabled. To hide text in the printout, de-select the “Print Annotations” option.
Text annotation is also available in the Editing ribbon.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Edit Text Offsets

Text associated with selected
holes, including firing times, initiation time, and hole ID, can be adjusted for orientation and offset
using this tool located on the Editing Ribbon. Highlight the holes then click the Edit Text Offsets tool.
The selected holes will be displayed with a central, coloured dot which indicates
the offset coordinates. Offsets can be typed into the Positional Offset fields
(Easting and Northing offsets), or the offsets can
be moved by a click and drag on any of the central dots. A small delay
is likely to occur after a click and drag operation before all dots move
and the text is re-located. Orientation is adjusted using the orange
slider bar adjacent to the Angular Offset label, or by directly typing the bearing.

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Line Through Holes

This section explains how new lines can be
created to pass through a group of selected
holes. When used with the Offset Lines tool, and the Holes Along Line Tool, it can be a quick way to
create a line of holes parallel to, and offset from, an existing line of blast holes.

Available in Line Tools section of Editing Ribbon. Select the group of holes (e.g. front or back row), and
then click the tool icon. The line will start at the first selected hole and continue to the last selected
hole, with a vertex at each intermediate hole. The new node will appear at the bottom of the Node
List.

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Add Notes to Nodes

Explanatory notes can be added to a selected node, and
will appear in the Attribute list for that node.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Contours to Lines
Available on the Editing Ribbon, and used to
convert calculated contours to line nodes.

For any calculated contour, e.g. flyrock footprint, vibration footprint,

muckpile footprint, click this tool to create a new node, or series of
nodes, which will appear at the bottom of the Node List.

When using the tool, ensure that the only visible contours in the View Port are the calculated contours
derived from modelling. Converting the modelled contours to lines means that lengthy calculation
times to re-generate the contours can be avoided, and the newly-created nodes can be made visible
or not from the Node List, at any time.

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Hole Renaming
Available on Editing Ribbon.

Name Prefix: When enabled allows all hole IDs to the same prefix before the actual hole number.
The prefix could, for example, be a blast number.

Row Identifier: When enabled allows each row of holes to have its own
alphabetical prefix, with the “Letter Count” being the number of alphabetical
characters in the identifier. Row Start Letter is the letter locator in the English
alphabet, 1 = A, 5 = E, etc.

Numeric Identifier: defines Numeral Count (e.g. A-1, or A-01), and the Hole
Start number for the row

Select a line or group of holes, define the desired naming protocol, and click
the Rename Selected Holes button

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Displaying & Adjusting Hole Text

Hole text includes surface initiation time, firing time and hole ID, and can be
displayed or hidden via the View Options tab located at the top left side of the View
Port. Hole text size as displayed in the View Port is adjusted either through the
Options panel (permanent adjustment) or from the + and – View Text
buttons on the Session Ribbon.

The Hole Text offset and orientation can be adjusted for a single hole, a group of holes, or for all holes
using the Edit Text Offsets function on the Editing Ribbon.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Creating & Editing Lines

Create Line

Available in the Editing Ribbon. After clicking the Create Line Tool icon, left click in the ViewPort at the
position where the first point of the line is to be drawn and displayed. Add as many vertices as you
require by subsequent mouse clicks and terminate the process with a right click. Where a terrain
surface is present, the vertices assume the elevation of the nearest visible terrain under the cursor.

The program creates and adds a Line Node to the Node List, and
displays the Attribute list for the line. Feature lines can only be added
if at least one blasthole exists in the session.

Lines can be assigned a name by typing into the “Name” field in the
Attribute Panel. To move the line to another location in the ViewPort,
highlight the Line Node in the Node List, then activate the Move Tool.
To delete the line, select the Line Node and press the Del key, or click
the Delete Icon on the Ribbon. Ctrl D creates a duplicate of the line, perfectly overlying the original
line.

Edit Line
To edit the line, first select the line in the Node List, or by a left click in the View Port, then click the
“Edit Line” icon in the Ribbon. Clicking “Edit Line” without first selecting the line in the Node List results
in the program selecting the most recently-added line by default. Once the line has been selected and
the Edit Line tool activated, all of the line vertices will be displayed, with the starting point being a
diamond and all other vertices being circular dots. To move one of
the vertices, left click over the point and note its colour changes to
red. Now click and drag the red vertex to a new location.

Multiple points can be selected using the Shift key.

To add new vertices to the line, select the line in the Node List,
activate the Edit Line tool, then hold down the Ctrl key while Click on anchor
point to highlight
hovering the mouse over the line – a new vertex will appear and
move along the line with the mouse arrow, and can be anchored
by a left mouse click.

Convert between a poly-line and a closed polygon using the “Polys” tick box, and note that the small
graphic changes accordingly.

The Invert button reverses the start and end points of the poly-line.

To create the bounding polygon for an entire blast hole pattern, simply click the “Create Blast Polygon”
icon on the ribbon. The bounding polygon generally passes through the perimeter holes in the pattern,
and does not assume overbreak. To adjust the polygon shape, highlight the node in Node List, then
click the “Edit Line Tool” icon and add, remove, or move handles or vertices as appropriate.

Groups of feature lines can be merged into a single feature to lessen the number of nodes in the Node
List. First select the lines, either by a left click in the ViewPort or the Node List, then click the “Merge
 Program User Manual March 2021

Selected Lines” icon in the ribbon. Merged lines can also be “un-merged” using the “Split Lines”
function, though the original line colours are lost.

Convert any calculated contour (e.g. flyrock, vibration footprint, muckpile footprint, timing contours)
to lines by first generating the contours, then click Contours to Lines to avoid having to regenerate the
contours at a later time.

Lines added to the ViewPort are included in the printouts if the “Print Annotations” box is ticked in
the Visibility Control Options in the Session Printout Preferences panel. To hide all lines in the printout,
de-select the Print Annotations option.

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Offset Lines Tool

Located in the Line Tools section of the Editing
Ribbon and used to create a second line offset
a user-specified distance from a selected line. To change the
offset direction, change the offset distance from a positive value
to a negative value.

Note. Difficulties can be experienced if the selected line has Offset line
sharply convex angles.

Selected line
Back to Index for offset

Create In-Between Lines

Available in the Line Tools section on the Editing
Ribbon. The tool was developed to help transition from an irregular line of free-face holes to
a straight line of holes by creating an intermediate line, or multiple lines according to the
Count value, along which new holes can be drilled (see Holes Along Lines). The tool therefore
morphs an irregular polyline to a straight
line over the distance separating the two
lines, and morphs an irregular line of
holes to a straight line of holes.
The two lines can be either automatically
selected, or the user can select them if
there are more than two lines in the
 Program User Manual March 2021

node list. If a regular pattern has already been created behind the free face, the straight line
for the In-Between Lines tool can be created using the Line Through Holes tool – simply
highlight the line of holes and click the tool.

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Creating Charge Configurations

Charging Rules are found on the Session ribbon. Overwrite in
“Name” input field to rename highlighted charging rule.

A default charge configuration is assigned to

holes during input. Alternative/additional
configurations can be created for either bulk
explosive products or decoupled products
including cartridge products, packaged
products and pre-split products. Charging Sub-drill
indicator

Rules recognise fixed length sections, fixed

weight sections, variable length sections,
fixed percentage sections, and packaged
product sections. Packaged product sections require specification of both charge length and weight,
from which the program computes effective density. Sections can be explosive, stemming, or air, and
rules can involve single explosive columns, columns with multiple charge types (base charge, column
charge), or multi-deck charges.

If all that is required is to create a non-electric or electronic initiation design, it is not necessary to
change charge configurations. Primer locations are also specified here, and a small graphic displays
the charge configuration for a selected hole, or the first selected hole in a group of holes in the pattern.

The concept of fixed or variable length/weight sections is best considered in the light of how a group
of holes of variable length (e.g. due to irregular floor elevation) would normally be charged. Variable
length holes need to have at least one variable length section to ensure that the full length of all holes
is charged. When a section of explosive is added, users have the option to specify cartridge product
by enabling the “Is Packaged” option and then specifying the diameter of the cartridge. If unticked,
the explosive will be assumed to be bulk, with charge diameter equal to the hole diameter.

Variable Length Sections: any section (explosive, stemming or air) whose length is variable in holes
of different lengths. Typically this would be the explosive column in simple configurations with only
collar stemming and a single charge column. Overwrite with new name if required.

Fixed Length Sections: any section (explosive, stemming or air) whose length is to be fixed in holes
of different lengths. Type desired length into input field “Length” and select units. Overwrite with new
name if required.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Fixed Weight Sections: typically an explosive base charge or perhaps a fixed size of charge used in
buffer holes. First select the weight units, then type desired weight into input field “Weight”.
Overwrite with new name if required.

Percentage Length Sections: can apply to stemming, air, or explosive, commonly used in “short”
holes where normal stemming lengths are considered too long, and the preferred charging is in terms
of x% stemming, (100-x)% charge. Type desired percentage in the “Percentage” field, and overwrite
with new name if required.

Packaged Product Sections: used to specify

sections where both length and weight are fixed.
Once the user specifies the explosive type, length,
and weight, the program calculates an effective
diameter and displays the charge as being
decoupled in the charge configuration graphic in the
Charge Rule Editor, for the highlighted hole in the
ViewPort.

To add a new section to the charge configuration,

click the Create New Section button and select the
type of section to be added. The top-down sequence of sections in the Section Rules List reflects the
top-down appearance of the various sections in the blast hole.

To remove a section from the Charge Decks list, highlight the section, right click, select Delete
Highlighted Sections.

To add a new section to the Charge Decks list, click

the Create New Section button below the section
rules list, then choose the type of deck required from
the list.

To copy a group of charge rules, highlight them in

the Section Rules list, click Duplicate Highlighted
Sections, and then

To change the vertical order of sections in the hole,

click and drag the section to its desired location in
the Section Rules List. The order of sections can not
be changed by a click and drag on the charge configuration graphic.

To create a new Charge Configuration, or to delete an unwanted charge configuration, click the
appropriate button at the bottom of the Charge Rules list. Any number of charging rules can be created
and assigned.

Warning. If a hole or a deck does not have a primer assigned it will not be able to receive
timing during either non-electric tie-in or electronic timing operations. This may affect
fragmentation model calculations.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Assigning Charge Configurations

All holes are automatically assigned charges using a default Charging Rule during input.

1. Select the group of holes (See Select Functions) to be charged,

2. Click the Charging Rule combo box in the Attributes Panel,
highlight and left click to assign the desired Charging Rule

To confirm charge assignment:

1. Click 3D View then rotate/tumble/pan/zoom to see different

charge configurations in different holes, or
2. Highlight holes and check “Charging Rule” and “Explosive
Weight” in Attribute Panel, or
3. With the Charging Rules panel open, select the hole in the View
Port and see the graphic appear at the right hand side of the panel.

If holes are of different length, the explosive weight displayed in the Attributes Panel will vary from
hole to hole for holes with Variable Length charges.

Useful Tip: Hole colour can be changed to

quickly identify groups of holes with the same
charge rule. All holes with the same charge rule
can be quickly identified from within the Charge Rules
Editor by highlighting the rule and clicking the Select Holes with Charging Rule button. To highlight
them in pattern, click the colour bar adjacent to the label “Colour” in the Attribute Panel, and choose
a new hole colour.

Note: Not all explosive sections require a primer, but each deck (one or more explosive sections
delimited with a stemming column) in a hole must have at least one primer (See Adding & Deleting
Primers).

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Pre-Split Designer
To help design an appropriate charge load and blast hole spacing
for a successful pre-split wall.

For mining applications, objective is to adjust the

diameter and length of continuous pre-split product so
that both of the “speedo” needles are in their respective
green zones. The upper “speedo” dial indicates when
the borehole pressure is within 20% of the specified UCS
of the rock mass (ideal zone for mining applications).
The lower “speedo” dial indicates when the spacing of
the holes is appropriate for the specified length,
diameter and weight of pre-split charge. Where the
application calls for minimum damage around the pre-
split holes (e.g. dimension stone blasting), the upper
“speedo” dial will usually be in the yellow zone,
indicating a borehole pressure lower than the UCS of the
rock mass. In all cases, the lower dial should be in the
green zone, indicating a spacing appropriate for the specified charging.

Type the appropriate values in each white input field – pre-split holes may, or may not, have stemming
as part of their charge configuration. Values required to be specified include the rock properties
(determines the borehole pressure required in each hole), the hole properties, the explosive
properties, and the length of hole dedicated to stemming or a section without charge.

The red zones in the “speedo” dials indicate aggressive design, i.e. higher-than-ideal borehole
pressures or wider-than-ideal hole spacings. The yellow zones indicate conservative design. The green
zones indicate the “ideal” conditions for normal mining operations (not necessarily for construction
or dimension stone applications).

The “speedo” dials can be adjusted by:

• Typing a new value in the field adjacent to the orange slider bars, or
• Click and rag the upper slider bars, or
• Click and drag the “speedo” needles.

Once the speedo dials have been adjusted appropriately (i.e. so that the estimated ideal hole spacing
is equal to the spacing in the pre-split hole layout), click the “Create Pre-Split Charge FRule” button to
automatically generate the charge rule.

Use the “Set Ideal” button to determine both the ideal (for mining) charging and hole spacing.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Adding & Deleting Primers

Primers are added and deleted in the Charge Rules Editor, and changes affect all holes to which the
charging rule are assigned. To make a change to a single hole or group of holes, create a charge rule
specially for that hole/group of holes. Multiple primers in the same column will have the same firing
time abd different primers in the same column cannot have different firing times.

Adding Primers. Primers can be added by

selecting the “Primers” tab in the Charge Rule
Editor, and then clicking the “Create New
Primer” button. By default, new primers are
added first to charge sections which do not
already have a primer, and then as backup
primers to already-primed charge sections. If a
primer is incorrectly assigned, highlight it in the
primer list, then select the appropriate charge section from the Reference Section dropdown list.
Depth to primers can be specified either as distance from top of the charge section or from the bottom
of the charge section.

Note. Primer position can also be changed by click and drag on the primer icon in the graphic.
The charging graphic at the right of the panel only appears if one or more holes are selected.

Deleting Primers. To delete a primer, highlight the unwanted primer in the list of primers and click the
Delete Primer button. The deleted primer will disappear from the charging graphic.

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Managing Multiple Charging Scenarios

A Paradigm file may have any number of charging configurations
associated with a single blast pattern, in the same way that it may contain
any number of timing scenarios. A Charge Scenario is simply a different application of a set of Charge
Rules, where the holes, or subsets of holes, in a pattern are charged differently. For example, a buffer
row hole could be charged in one scenario with simply bulk explosive and stemming, but in an
alternative scenario with a reduced charge and an air deck.

Once you have assigned a series of charge rules to a blast pattern, the charging can be saved as a
Charge Scenario. But you may wish to compare one scenario with another (e.g. different wall control
options or different fragmentation options), so Paradigm allows you to define and save multiple
charge scenarios for the pattern, in a very similar way to which multiple timing scenarios can be
defined and saved.
 Program User Manual March 2021

To create a New Charging Scenario after assigning charge rules to all holes:

• Click the arrow next to the displayed Charge Scenario Name (if
no scenarios have yet been assigned, the display will say “<No
charging scenario active>”
• Select “Create Charging Scenario” to save the current scenario
• Create new charging rules and apply as required to hole groups
or rows, then click Create Charging Scenarios again to save the new scenario.

It is a good idea to name your charging scenarios so that the differences between them are obvious
without having to review all the different charge rules. Charging Scenarios are independent of Timing
Scenarios, and a single Paradigm file may contain any number of charge scenarios and timing
scenarios.

Note. It is not necessary to create or save a Charge Scenario if you are only working with a single
charging option. The scenario manager is only required when you wish to compare multiple
charge design options for the same blast pattern.

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Surface Non-Electric Tie-In

With a blasthole pattern in the View Port, select Timing on
the main menu. If no timing scenarios exist, or if the current
timing scenario is electronic, no surface tie-lines are
displayed. Click the arrow adjacent to “<No Timing Scenario
Active>”, and then click “Create Fixed Per-Hole Scenario” in the Non-Electric Scenarios group. Delays
from the Default Delays library will be displayed. Program
includes non-electric delay series for Austin, Dyno, Enaex,
Maxam, and Orica, selected from a pull-down list by
clicking the small arrow to the right of the displayed delay
series.

Note: Paradigm does not require the user to specify the Initiation Point(s) (IPs). IPs are deduced
by Paradigm as the hole(s) for which no incoming delay has been assigned, but for which an
out-going delay has been assigned. Each IP is identified by a symbol, and patterns may have multiple
IPs:

Set Active Delay. Left click a delay in the ribbon, or use numeric Active delay

Hot Keys (1 = first delay, 2 = second delay, etc)

Tying a Line of Holes. Select a line or polyline of holes (See Select Tools), and
press the space bar, or click Tie Selected on the Timing Ribbon. Initiation
direction follows the same sequence as hole selection.

Auto-Tying Holes. Before selecting holes, enable Auto-Tie on Selection in the Selection
Panel. As holes are selected, they will also be tied – order of selection determines
direction of tie. Remember to turn off this function once tie-in is completed.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Multi-Row Tie. Used for repetitive tying of branches to a defined Control Row.

1. Select Control Row (See Select Tools), (1) (2) (3)

with Auto-Tie on Selection disabled
2. Set Active Delay as appropriate for the
Control Row then press the space bar or
click the “Tie Selected” button on the
Click & drag
Timing Ribbon along branch

3. Click Multi-Row Tie on Timing ribbon and

select a new Active Delay appropriate for
the branches
4. While the Control Row holes are still
highlighted, move the mouse arrow to
any of the highlighted holes, left click and
drag a small distance in the direction of
the branches to instantly tie all branches

Back to Index

Managing Timing Scenarios

Paradigm permits multiple Timing Scenarios to be
specified for any blasthole pattern, and saved in
the one file. Timing scenarios can be non-electric,
electronic, or any combination of each. Any
number of scenarios can be saved within the one
file. In the adjacent image, note that the user has
created two totally independent timing scenarios -
one Non-Electric Timing Scenario (Fixed Per-Hole
Timing1) and one Electronic Scenario (Radial
Timing 1).

To create a new Timing Scenario:

• Click the Pull Down list in the Timing

Scenario panel in the Timing Ribbon
• Click the appropriate Create action for a
new non-electric or electronic timing scenario

To delete an unwanted Timing Scenario:

• Click the Manage Timing Scenarios tool in the Timing Ribbon to see a list of all currently-
defined Timing Scenarios
• Click and highlight the unwanted Timing Scenario
• Click the Delete button at the bottom of the scenario list.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Note that the opportunity exists to have

multiple primers in the same explosive section,
with different assigned timing, i.e. where
secondary primers are added as backup units.
This is achieved via the Intra-Deck Primer Delay
setting. Different timing is applied to multiple
primers in the same explosive section by
specifying a Primer Time Offset in the Timing
Scenario Manager, or in the Deck Timing Editor,
and can be viewed and confirmed in the Deck
Timing Editor panel. The primer offset times are
scenario-specific. Offset times can be either
positive (specified offset time is added to
successive primers from uppermost to
lowermost), or negative (reverse order).

Back to Index

Changing Surface Delays

Changes can be made in bulk (e.g. all 25 ms delays changed to 17 ms delays), in groups, or singly.
Delays can be changed or removed.

To change a single instance of a delay:

• Select the two holes at either end of the delay

• Select the new Active Delay
• Click Tie Selected on the Timing Ribbon

Or:

• Select a single hole

• Select the new Active Delay
• Click Replace Upstream Ties, or Replace Downstream Ties to replace a single delay in the
implied direction

To change all delays within a group of selected holes:

• Select the group (See Select Functions)
• Select the new Active Delay
• Click Tie Selected on the Timing Ribbon

Note: To change a delay between two holes, both holes must be selected

Or:
 Program User Manual March 2021

• Select a hole
• Click Select Up or Select Down in the Selection Panel (selects all holes in implied direction)
• Select the new Active Delay
• Select Tie Selected on the Timing Ribbon

Note: Select Up selects upstream holes only back to the first branch point

To change ALL instances of one delay to another delay:

• Set the Active Delay to the existing delay which you want to replace
• Click Select with Current Delay in the Selection Panel
• Set the Active Delay to the new delay
• Click Tie Selected on the Timing Ribbon

To remove delays between holes:

• Select the holes defining all delays

• Click Un-tie Selected

Or:

• Select a single hole

• Click Un-tie Upstream, or Un-tie Downstream to remove the delay in the implied direction (if
the chosen hole has multiple upstream or downstream connections, all will be removed)

Back to Index

Managing The Non-Electric Delay Series

Multiple delay series are provided during installation – series
files for Austin, Dyno, Enaex, Maxam, and Orica. To view the
series, click the Node Library option on the Session Ribbon.

One of these series can be set as the Default Delays Series in

Session – Options, Library Settings.

To change between series, at any time click the pull down in

the Tie-in Actions section of the Timing Ribbon, and simply
click the preferred series. The displayed delays change
instantly as a new series is selected.

To change an attribute of the delay (e.g. its symbol or

colour):
 Program User Manual March 2021

• Click Manage Delays in the Timing Ribbon

• Select the delay from the list
• Make appropriate changes to Colour, Draw Icon, or Delay Time.

To remove a delay from the series, select it from the list, then click
“Delete Delay”.

To add a new delay to the series, click “Create Delay”, then adjust its
attributes as required.

To change the order of appearance of a delay in the series, click and

drag upwards or downwards.

Back to Index

Creating a Node Library

Node Libraries allow users to create and save frequently
used nodes including non-electric delays and explosive
products, as well as other nodes including charging rules,
explosive types, sensitive receivers, geology types,
feature lines, and even topographical surfaces. A Node
Library file can be created for each different area of the
mine, or for different mines. They exist as files with the
standard Paradigm file extension (*.blst) and the folder
can be found by clicking the Library Actions button, and
selecting the “Explore to Highlighted Library”. They are created by:

• Click Node Library in the Session ribbon

• Click the “Library Actions” button and choose “Create New Library” to open the Explorer File
Navigator.
• Select a place to save the active file, and give it an appropriate name.

The above action creates a blank library file. To add nodes (delay series, explosives, geology, charge
rules, feature lines, receivers, etc) to the file from the active session:

• Select the Node Type (Delays, Explosives, Charge

Rules, Geometry, Receivers, Geology)
• Select and highlight the library file into which you
want to save the node
• Highlight all the displayed nodes in the Current
Session list to be transferred to the library
• Click the Left Arrow located between the two node
lists

New content may be added to any Library file at any time. Having created the library file, it is saved
automatically and will be available for all future sessions. Multiple libraries can be created, perhaps
 Program User Manual March 2021

using products from different suppliers, or for Charge Rules applicable for different sections of the pit,
and the Node Library can contain any number of Library files.

To recall any node from the library to the current design session, click the Node Library icon, select
the library from which to recall the node, select the Node Type, then select and highlight the desired
node from the library list. Transfer this node from the library to the current session, or vice versa, by
clicking the direction arrow.

Back to Index

Deck Timing Editor

Holes are automatically assigned explosives and a primer when they
are read from an xlsx, xls, xyz file. However, the type of detonator
associated with the primers is not defined until the user chooses an
initiation scenario – non-electric or electronic.

Non-Electric Scenarios
By default, holes are assigned a 500 ms down-hole delay in non-
electric scenarios, and additional primers in the same explosive
section are assigned the same firing time. Alternative primer timing
is assigned to selected holes.

• First, select the holes to which delay times are to be edited (Ctrl-A to select all holes).
• Click Deck Timing Editor from the Timing Ribbon to open the Deck Timing Editor panel.
• To change the down-hole delay time, edit the field “Down Hole Delay”.
• To change the delay time between different decks in the same hole, edit the field “Inter-Deck
Delay”.
• To change the delay time between primers located within the same deck, edit the field “Intra-
Deck Primer Delay”. For instantaneous firing of all primers in the same deck, Intra-Deck Primer
Delay = 0 ms. When the second primer is used as a back-up, Intra-Deck Primer Delay ≠ 0 ms.

Electronic Scenarios
The Deck Timing Editor for electronic timing scenarios differs from that for non-
electric scenarios only in that there is no Down-Hole Delay field. Primers within
a single deck can be programmed to fire instantaneously (Intra-Deck Primer
Delay = 0 ms), or as a back-up (Intra-Deck Primer Delay ≠ 0 ms).

Note: For both non-electric and electronic initiation scenarios, the depth
of the primer, as well as the number of primers in each explosive deck,
are specified and edited using the Charging Rules. To change the in-hole
initiation sequence of decks (e.g. from initiation starting at the bottom deck to
initiation starting at the top deck), click the “Reverse Deck Delays” button.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Multi-Row Ties and Offsets (Fixed Per-Hole Delays)

Common examples include V initiation, Centre-Lift initiation (Drop cut, Sump blast), and Zipper
initiation. Multi-Row Tie allows large numbers of holes to be tied-in very quickly.

V Initiation from front row

1. Select the holes from the preferred starting hole to one end of the front row (Row Select)
2. Set the Active Delay and Click the Multi-Row Tie icon
3. Click and drag along any branch to tie all branches
4. Use the Box Select or Polygon select to Un-Tie the delays which extend beyond the planned
centreline
5. Select the holes on the other side of the starting hole to the other end of the front row
6. With Multi-Row Tie still active, click and drag along any of the branches on the other side of
the V
7. Set the Active Delay for the desired time between holes in the front row, and press the space
bar (or click Tie Selected on the Timing Ribbon)
8. Re-select the front row holes on the other side of the start hole and press the space bar (or
click Tie Selected on the Timing Ribbon)
9. Insert an offset delay on one side of the starting hole
10. Enable Auto-Tie on Selection, select the appropriate Active Delay, and complete tie-in for all
remaining un-tied holes

(1) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7, 8, 9) (10) (10)

Centre-Lift Initiation

1. Select the desired Control Row delay time as the Active Delay
2. Select the holes from the preferred starting hole to one end of the Control Row, and press the
Space bar or click “Tie Holes”
3. Set the Active Delay for the branches, and Click the Multi-Tow Tie icon
4. Click and drag along any branch to tie all branches on both sides of the Control Row
5. Use the Box Select or Polygon select to Un-Tie the delays which extend beyond the planned
centreline
6. Repeat the above steps to tie the holes on the other side of the starting point.
7. Select the row of holes parallel to and adjacent to the Control Row (Ignore Ties enabled)
8. Set the Active Delay to the desired Control Row Offset Delay, select the row of holes parallel
to and adjacent to the Control Row (Ignore Ties enabled) and click Replace Upstream Ties.
 Program User Manual March 2021

9. Insert an offset delay on one side of the starting hole

10. Enable Auto-Tie on Selection, select the appropriate Active Delay, and complete tie-in for all
holes

(1) (2) (4) (5) (5) (6) (8) (9, 10)

Zipper Initiation

1. Select the Control Row holes from the end hole of an internal row
2. Set the Active Delay for the branches and Click the Multi-Tow Tie icon
3. Click and drag along any branch to tie all branches on one side only of the Control Row
4. Select the row of holes parallel to and adjacent to the Control Row on the other side from the
tied-in
5. With Multi-Row Tie still active, click and drag along any of the branches running away from
the highlighted row
6. Set the Active Delay for the desired time along the Zipper Row (keeping the starting row
highlighted)
7. Click and drag from the second row of highlighted holes towards the first highlighted row to
tie the first leg of the Zipper
8. Re-highlight the first row of holes and then click and drag along any branch towards the
second row of highlighted holes to the tie the second leg of the Zipper.
9. Enable Auto-Tie on Selection, select the appropriate Active Delay, and complete tie-in for all
remaining untied holes
(1) (3) (4, 5) (7) (8) (9)

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Electronic Fixed Per-Hole Timing

Two options exist for creating fixed per-hole electronic timing, i.e. where the delay interval between
adjacent holes is constant, irrespective of the distance between them.

Converting an Existing Non-Electric Timing Scenario

Any existing non-electric tie-in can be converted to an electronic initiation

by clicking Manage Timing Scenario button in the Timing Ribbon, choosing
the desired non-electric initiation scenario, and then clicking the Scenario
is Electronic tick box option. No change occurs in the visualisation of the
timing scenario or the tie-lines.

Alternatively:

Click the small arrow adjacent to the displayed Tie-In

Scenario and select “Create Fixed Per-Hole Scenario”
from the list of electronic scenarios in the drop down
menu.

The Timing Ribbon displays a scroll wheel for specifying the desired interval. Input any desired interval
(by typing directly into the field, or by using the scroll-wheel arrows) and follow
the same procedure as is used for non-electric timing. The program will assign
colour tie-lines based on the colours of the nearest non-electric delay in the
default delay series.

Adjusting the Delay Interval:

Increment the delay interval by:

• using the up scroll-wheel arrow adjacent to the Electronic

Delay field,
• pressing the “+” key on the numeric keypad
• typing directly into the Electronic Delay field.

The “+” and “-“ key actions will increment by the Small Delay Increment Interval setting in the
Preferences panel. Ctrl + increments the interval by the Large Delay Increment Interval setting also
found in the Preferences Panel. Clicking the down arrow, pressing “-”, or Ctrl – decrements the interval
in the same manner.

If the deck contains multiple primers, by default the program will apply the same timing to each primer
in the same deck, i.e. all primers in the same deck will be programmed to fire simultaneously. To have
different times for multiple primers in the same deck, use the Deck Timing Editor.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Electronic Fixed Per-Distance Timing

An alternative to the Fixed Per-Hole timing is the
Fixed Per-Distance electronic timing where the delay
interval between adjacent holes is dependent on the
separation distance between the holes, and the delay
interval is simply the distance multiplied by the relief
factor in ms/m, or ms/ft. After selecting this option,
notice how the ribbon now displays a number of
timing relief options in either ms/m or ms/ft
depending on the units preferences selected. New delay values can be created by clicking on the
Manage Distance Tie option and then clicking the “Create Distance Tie” button.

The user also has the opportunity to assign timing

based on the holes’ collar, toe, or centre-of-hole
separation distance available available as
“Location” options in the Timing Scenario
Manager panel.

If the deck contains multiple primers, by default

the program will apply the same timing to each primer in the same deck, i.e. all primers in the same
deck will be programmed to fire simultaneously. To have different times for multiple primers in the
same deck, use the Deck Timing Editor.

If the deck contains multiple primers, by default the program will apply the same timing to each primer
in the same deck, i.e. all primers in the same deck will be programmed to fire simultaneously. To have
different times for multiple primers in the same deck, use the Deck Timing Editor.

Back to Index

Instant Echelon Electronic Timing

Click the arrow adjacent to the name of the current
Timing Scenario, and select Create Echelon Timing
Scenario to create a new Timing Scenario in addition
to any previous scenarios. A new Timing Tool will
appear on the Ribbon.

Click Directional Timing Tool in the Spatial Timing

Actions box in the Timing ribbon. Click and drag anywhere in
the View Port to specify the direction of desired rock
movement. The pattern will automatically be displayed as a
Heat Map showing the Timing Contours, with an arrow
attached to the first-firing hole. The arrow represents the direction of first rock movement as
specified. Firing Times can be displayed for each hole by selecting “Show Initiation Times” from the
View Options drop box. Activate the Timing Contours Heat Map for more detail.
 Program User Manual March 2021

After specifying the direction of

desired movement, adjust the
timing settings – click Spatial
Timing Editor and edit the
settings. Timing relief can be
adjusted, without affecting the
direction of movement, by
Direction of desired
adjusting the “Directional movement

Relief” setting. With the Timing

Contours Heat Map active, only
the times corresponding to the
different colours will change.

Click and drag the orange bar

adjacent to the “Bearing” label to provide an alternative means of adjusting the direction of first
movement, or simply enter a Bearing into the input field adjacent to the orange bar. Open the Charge
Weight per Interval graph and/or the Timing Contours and see instant updates.

The user also has the opportunity to assign timing

based on the holes’ collar, toe, or centre-of-hole
separation distance available available as “Location”
options in the Timing Scenario Manager panel.

Back to Index

Instant Radial Electronic Timing

Click the arrow adjacent to the name of the current Timing
Scenario, and select Create Radial Timing Scenario to create a
new Timing Scenario in addition to any previous scenarios.

Note that, in Plan View, a

timing symbol comprising a
pair of orthogonal axes with arrow heads appears within the blasthole
pattern. Notice also that at the intersection of the arrows there is a
yellow coloured dot, and associated with the long axis there is a solid
yellow arrow head. There are also two other yellow, active handles
which change the relief times (ms/m or ms/ft) settings in the
respective directions – click and drag the small diamonds along the respective axes to adjust relief
time.
 Program User Manual March 2021

The yellow dot represents the zero time point for the vector-based
radial timing, and can be dragged to any point in the View Port,
even outside the pattern of holes. To snap the zero time point to a
blasthole, hold the Shift key down, then click and drag the yellow
dot to the desired starting hole.

Orientating the Tool

In the first method of orientation, the alignment of the Primary

(long) and Secondary (short) axes can be adjusted by a click and
drag on the solid yellow arrow head, rotating both axes about the
central yellow dot. Reassignment of the hole firing times occurs
automatically as the timing tool is moved or rotated.

In the second method of orientation, users can first select either

one, or two holes in the pattern, and then click the Place
& Align Radial icon in the ribbon. The tool will then
automatically snap to the first-clicked hole and the
primary axis arrow will be oriented to point to the second-selected hole.

In the third method of orientation, the Directional Timing Tool is used to define the direction
in which the primary axis points, and the radial timing tool snaps to the point used to define
the direction of movement.

Displaying Times or Contours

While moving or rotating the radial timing icon, timing contours or the timing heat map, or any of the
Initiation Review Tools (Interval Graph, Burden Relief, Initiation Animation) can also be activated to
provide immediate visualisation of the new timing assignment. If the pattern is very large, there can
be a noticeable delay between dragging the mouse and re-calculating the new heat map or timing
contours.

To change the holes’ firing times, click the Spatial Timing

Editor and select the Radial Electronic Timing scenario as the
Active Scenario. Edit any of the six parameters displayed –
Primary Axis Delay (ms/m), Secondary Axis Delay (ms/m),
Offset Delays for the primary and secondary axes, start time,
or the desired direction of rock movement.

The Radial Timing Tool can create an electronic V initiation by

moving the tool close to a front row hole, a diamond shaped
centre-lift by moving it near an interior hole, or an echelon
initiation by moving it to, or beyond, one of the extremity
holes of the front row. The tool does not have be located
over, or be associated with, any particular hole. The program
chooses the starting hole based upon the relief values specified for the two axes, usually the hole
closest to the central yellow dot.

Firing times of individual holes can be assigned in either of two ways. In both ways, the program first
calculates the perpendicular distances of the hole from both the Primary and Secondary axes, and
then multiplies the distances by the ms/m delay times specified by the user in the Timing Scenario
Manager. This provides a time Tp in the Primary Axis direction, and a time Ts in the Secondary axis
 Program User Manual March 2021

direction. With the Radial Interpolation unselected, the time for each hole is calculated as the sum
Tp+Ts, and the resulting timing contours are diamond-shaped as illustrated by the diamond-shaped
polygon around the central yellow dot. With the Radial Interpolation option selected, the time for
each hole is calculated as √𝑇𝑝2 + 𝑇𝑠2 , and the timing contours are ellipsoidal-shaped also as illustrated
by the ellipse drawn around the central yellow dot. The sequence can be inverted, or reversed, by
clicking the “Invert” option.

To ensure that holes on opposite sides of the Primary and Secondary Axes are not firing at the same
time, users may define an offset to either the Primary or Secondary Axes, or both. Additionally, users
may have different relief factors on each side of the axes (Enable Split Axis Relief).

Start time can be adjusted from the assigned time by simply entering the desired time in the Start
Time field. Appropriate adjustments are then made to all holes to maintain the specified timing
sequence.

The user also has the opportunity to assign timing based on the holes’ collar, toe, or centre-of-hole
separation distance available as “Location” options in the Timing Scenario Manager panel.

Back to Index

Composite Electronic Timing

Composite Timing is an electronic vector timing tool that allows patterns of holes to be sub-divided
into groups to which independent timing can be applied using any of Paradigm’s electronic timing
tools. The steps involved are:

1. Select the Create Composite Timing Scenario option from the Timing Scenarios pull-down list
to open the Composite Timing panel in the Timing ribbon. Program will display the message
“<No Timing Sets>”.
2. Define the first Timing Set by highlighting a group of holes using
any of the hole selection functions, clicking the pull down list in
the Composite Timing ribbon panel, and then selecting the
desired type of timing scenario you wish to apply to that group of
holes. The selected timing scenario is applied only to the holes in that timing set.
3. Repeat Step 2 for each different group of holes in your pattern. Any combination of timing
type (Fixed Per-Hole, Fixed Per-Distance, Directional, Radial, Manual) can be assigned to the
different sets, and any number of timing sets can be created.
 Program User Manual March 2021

To see the holes assigned to each Timing Set, click the Use Set Colour icon
in the Composite Timing panel in the Timing Ribbon. This automatically
assigns a different colour to the Voronoi cells associated with each hole
in the set. It also allows users to immediately see if any holes
have not been assigned to a set. To move a hole into a set (or
from one set to another), first select the new set from the pull
down list in the Composite Timing panel of the ribbon, then
select the hole or group of holes to be reassigned, then click the
Add Selected Holes to Set icon. Note, this does not change the
holes’ grouping in the Node list, only their timing set.

Note that the Spatial Timing

Actions panel in the ribbon
applies to the active Timing Set. To adjust the different relief factors
associated with the active set, simply click the Spatial Timing Editor icon.

Once all holes have been assigned to a timing set, check to the message “All holes
timed” in the Timing Scenario panel in the ribbon.

Synchronising/Phasing Timing Sets

This allows initiation to transfer smoothly between adjacent sets. It is most easily achieved by first
ensuring that the View Option Show Detonation Times is activated, and the Spatial Timing Editor panel
has been opened. Once appropriate timing has been assigned to the first timing set, select the
adjacent timing set from the pull down list in the Composite Timing panel in the ribbon, and adjust
the Start Time for that set so that the initiation sequence transitions smoothly from the first timing
set to the second. Repeat this procedure until the appropriate Start Time has been defined for each
Timing Set. Use the Initiation Animation tool to confirm the desired initiation sequence.

The user also has the opportunity to assign timing based on the holes’ collar, toe, or centre-of-hole
separation distance available as “Location” options in the Timing Scenario Manager panel.

Back to Index

Contour Electronic Timing

Contour timing is another vector-based timing method which
allows users to draw any desired timing contour line, or a series
of contour lines spaced throughout the pattern, and
Line 2
Paradigm will assign the timing to comply with those Line 1
Line 3
contours. The shape of different timing contour
lines can vary throughout the pattern, and Paradigm
will morph the initiation front to comply with all Line 4
specified contour lines.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Create a Contour Timing Scenario by clicking the option in the Create Electronic Scenarios list.

The desired timing contour lines are drawn using the Line Draw Tool. To register the lines as timing
contour lines, first open the Timing Scenario Manager and highlight the Contour Timing scenario
previously created. Highlight the first line in the
Node list then click the Add Front Using Selected
Line button. Add all other lines successively to the
timing contour line list shown to the right of the
Timing Scenario Manager panel. In the input fields
adjacent to each line, specify the time which you
want to associate with that line. It may be useful, for
example, to measure the distance between
successive contour lines and multiply that distance
by the desired ms/m or ms/ft relief time you wish to
apply to the blast.

To confirm that the program has successfully morphed the initiation front to each assigned contour
line, activate the Timing Contours Tool.

The user also has the opportunity to assign timing based on the holes’ collar, toe, or centre-of-hole
separation distance available as “Location” options in the Timing Scenario Manager panel.

Line 2
Line 3
Line 1

Line 4

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Manual Electronic Timing

Vector-based timing scenarios sometimes require a
little manual fine tuning, for example adding time to the
back one or more rows of blastholes. After completing
any vector-based timing assignment, click the small
arrow beside the displayed Timing Scenario and choose
Convert to Manual Scenario from the drop down menu.
The Manual Timing Editor will appear on the Timing
Ribbon. Individual holes, or groups of holes, can now
have timing assigned manually, or have a fixed
increment applied to existing timing.

For example, to add 100 ms to the firing times of the last 2

rows of holes, select & highlight those 2 rows of holes then
click the Manual Timing Editor. The Editor displays the
Initiation Time for the first-selected hole in the group (1072
ms in the example shown).

To overwrite a hole’s displayed time, click the Absolute Edits

box and simply type a new time. All selected holes will be
assigned this firing time (great for pre-split timing!). Select
holes one-by-one for individual hole timing.

To increment the firing time of all selected holes by the same fixed time, add the desired
increment (positive or negative) to the displayed Initiation Time and type this value into the
input field (e.g. for the example above, 1172 will increment the firing times of all selected holes by
100 ms, and typing 972 will decrement the firing times of all holes by 100 ms), making sure that the
“Absolute Edits” tick box is not ticked. Note that in this mode, the program does not assign the
specified time to all holes, but instead adjusts the firing time of every selected hole by the difference
between the original time and edited time.

To remove all timing from the selected holes, click the Remove Timing button.

If the Convert to Manual Scenario is applied to a non-electric timing scenario, the program removes
the tie-lines and assigns the previous non-electric surface initiation times to all holes (i.e. it removes
the timing provided by the down-hole delay). Converted timing can be reverted to the original non-
electric scenario using Undo.

The user also has the opportunity to assign timing based on the holes’ collar, toe, or centre-of-hole
separation distance available as “Location” options in the Timing Scenario Manager panel.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Branching Manager
Allows users to specify the surface bus wire layout, branching, and programming path for electronic
initiation.

The bus wire and branching plan is defined by selecting holes in the same sequence with which the
programmers will walk the shot , using any of the standard Select Holes functions, and remembering
that the sequence of selection of holes is important. Users can break
the path at any stage to create a new branch. And branches can be
named or numbered. To create a branch, select the holes in the desired
sequence, Click the Branching Manager icon in the Timing ribbon, and
then click the Create Branch button. To make the different branches
easily identifiable, select different colours for each one. Holes can
added to, or removed from the branches using the Add Selected Holes
or Remove Selected Holes buttons. While selecting holes, a hole count
is displayed on the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen, and the
number of holes and detonators in each branch is displayed in the
Branching Manager panel.

Programming paths can be printed using the Print facility on the Session ribbon.

Back to Index

Initiation Animation
• Click the option Initiation Animation on the Timing Ribbon
• Click and drag the coloured Timeline bar, or
• Place the mouser cursor in the orange scroll bar area, and move the mouse scroll wheel, or
• Click the Play button on the Playback Controls (select the pay-back speed that best suits your
analysis), or
• Enter a time into the input field adjacent to the
Timeline bar.
 Program User Manual March 2021

With non-electric initiation animation, the Voronoi cells associated with each hole become highlighted
first with yellow shading (signifying initiation of the surface delay), and then with red (signifying the
detonation of the first down-hole delay). With electronic initiation animation, the Voronoi cells only
turn red to show charge detonation times. Where the hole contains multiple decks, the Voronoi Cell
shading changes to other colours, with each colour signifying the detonation of a
new deck.

If a hole or deck does not have a primer assigned, it will appear as an un-detonated
charge during initiation animation, and in the Initiation Timing heat map.

Back to Index

Timing Contours
• Presented as a series of iso-time lines with arrow heads
indicating direction of rock movement (arrow heads are small
and a high zoom factor may be required to see them clearly)
• Click the option Timing Contours on the Timing Ribbon
• Adjust Contour Interval ranges
• Adjust colour legend as desired

Timing contours are lost when the Timing Contours panel is closed. To
make the contours permanent, click the Contours to Lines tool on the
Editing Ribbon, in which case all visible contours will be converted to
permanent lines and will appear, appropriately named, in the Node List.

Note. Changing the Contour Interval changes the number of timing

contours displayed on the blast pattern, but does not change the
time values associated with the colour legend – these are controlled only
by the number of different colour bars, and the total duration of the blast.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Charge Weight per Delay (Interval Graph)

Click the option Interval Graph on the Timing Ribbon

• Select the Graph Mode – Deck Window or Step Window (see descriptions below)
• Type desired interval into input field labelled “Graph Interval”
• Click inside the graph area to see readout of charge weight per selected interval at the cursor
tip, or at the time specified next to “Graph Time”.
• Click on any bar in the graphic to highlight the contributing holes in the View Port. The ID of
the deck in each highlighted hole is displayed in the bottom right corner of the graph panel.
• Click and drag either of the orange handles below the graph to zoom, or alternatively type
start and end times into the fields “Start Time” and “End Time”.

Graph Cursor

Graph Mode
The Step Window involves moving a window of user-defined width
(Graph Interval) to create a series of non-overlapping, contiguous
windows covering the complete period of detonation of the blast. All decks included in the window
are counted and their charge weights are aggregated.

The Deck Window involves the same size of window, but it moves consecutively to each nominal deck
firing time to create a series of overlapping, non-contiguous intervals within which a hole count is
made and charge weights are aggregated. The Deck Window is considered to align better with the
USBM RI 8507 Guidelines, and tends to yield higher aggregated charge weights.

The concepts are presented graphically below.

 Program User Manual March 2021

Step Windowing Deck Windowing

Firing Times
Aggregation windows

Note the buttons at the bottom right side of the panel.

Run Delay Scatter Simulations. Click this button and specify the delay
scatter factor you wish to emulate, and the number of simulations you
want to conduct (can be lengthy). Program automatically returns the
worst-case outcome (max charge weight per interval). Create a timing
scenario with this timing by clicking the “Assign Timing” button.

Max. Weight per Interval Timing Solver. Click this button if you want
the program to create timing, based on the active timing scenario, that is
constrained to minimise the weight of explosive detonating per user-
specified time interval. If the user specifies a Max Weight which is smaller
than the weight in any single hole, then the program effectively generates
single deck timing. Clicking Generate Timing finds a solution and creates a
new Timing Scenario.

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Burden Relief
Provides an assessment of the relief time (an indicator of
freedom of movement of the rock mass), on a hole-by-hole
basis, and is controlled by the timing sequence of the blast. The tool provides shading to the
DeLournay triangles which are automatically derived when the pattern is created. The different
colours represent different ms/m of burden relief throughout the pattern, with the associated legend
showing the relief times for different colours. Different Timing Scenarios can produce very different
Burden Relief images. Users can adjust colours and scale to suit (see Heat Maps).
 Program User Manual March 2021

The burden relief at any particular location within the pattern is obtained by moving the mouse to
that location and noting the value reported under the label “Burden Relief Under Cursor”.

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Pattern Statistics
Select Statistics from the Session Ribbon

Panel presents a summary of general pattern statistics, including number of

holes, number of each type of surface delay, blast volume, surface area,
weight of each type of explosive specified, number of un-tied holes, etc. The
displayed statistics are specific to the active timing scenario.

The displayed statistics can relate either to the

entire pattern, or can be limited to a selected
group of holes by selecting “Use Selected
Holes” from the pull down menu.

The number of holes which do not have a firing time assigned will be
highlighted in red next to “Untimed Hole Count”, and holes which have no
charge assigned will be highlighted in red next to “Uncharged Hole Count”.
 Program User Manual March 2021

The Statistics Table can be included, in its entirety, in printouts from the
“Create...” button in the Session Printout Preferences.

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Proximity Viewer
The Proximity Viewer tool is available on the Session Ribbon, in the Front Face
section, and has been created to allow users to look in 3D at the placement and
separation of charges in holes which may be either bent, of drilled with different angles of inclination.
In either of those circumstances, explosive charges in different holes may come too close together to
guarantee independent detonation, resulting in “sympathetic detonation” in which the assigned
delays between the charges are effectively bypassed, or cooperation between charges to create a
flyrock incident from free-face holes. Minimum charge proximity can also help avoid incidents of
detonator failure by dynamic precompression of the detonator shell.

In either Plan or 3D view, select

the group of holes that you
wish to check for proximity
between charges, then click the
Proximity Viewer icon. A new
window will open, with 3D
manipulation available to
rotate or tumble the group of
selected holes. Non-selected
holes in the camera’s view will
be faintly visible, but will be
completely removed from the view if the “Hide non-Loaded Holes” option box is enabled.

Note in the above image that each hole has a light green outline. To remove this outline, first click the
“Load Selected” button to register the holes of interest, then click the “Clear Selection” button above
the Node List. The holes “loaded” into memory will remain, but the green shading will disappear.

In the top left of the new window appears a panel which dictates the display of information, and this
panel can docked beside the 3D View and Plan View panels if preferred. Measurements are made
between charge sections, so selected holes must first have been assigned a Charge Rule.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Step Length: This determines the interval along each column of explosive at which the program
measures the minimum proximity to a nearby charge. The proximity measurements are marked by
lines resembling steps in a ladder.

Min. Dist.: Users may exempt some charges from the proximity check by specifying a minimum
separation distance. Separation distances less than this value will not be considered in the checks.
Where charges are programmed for simultaneous initiation, for example, the check may not be
appropriate.

Max. Dist.: To minimise clutter of the screen, users can specify a maximum separation distance
beyond which there is not considered to be any risk. Separation distances greater than this distance
will not be displayed in the Viewer.

Danger Dist.: This defines the minimum acceptable separation distance between charges, below
which an undesirable outcome is likely to occur. The program provides no assistance as to what this
minimum separation distance should be. Separation distances between charge sections which are less
than the Min Dist value will be highlighted as red lines.

Ideal Dist.: This defines the ideal minimum separation distance between charges, and distances equal
to, or greater than this distance will be coloured blue. If no blue lines are visible, the Ideal Dist. value
may be less than the Max Dist.

Load Offending Holes: This allows all holes in the pattern, in which separation distances between
nearby charges is less than the Max. Dist., to be selected and displayed. The search which is initiated
upon clicking this button considers all holes in the pattern, not just the selected holes.

Hovering the mouse over one of the measurement lines displays the length of
that line, representing the separation distance at that location within the
charge column.

Clicking the “Generate Proximity Report” button creates a multi-page pdf

report which considers all pairs of holes separately, showing charge
separation distances at all points along the charge columns where the separation distance is greater
than Max. Dist.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Voronoi Cell Heat Maps

Paradigm automatically creates contiguous cells for
each hole in a pattern, derived from automatic
Delaunay triangulation (Voronoi cells). These cells are assigned colours according to selected
attributes, including calculated attributes (e.g. flyrock,
powder factor) and any type of other imported
attribute. The heatmap provides graphic
representation of spatial variability in any hole
attribute.

Access by clicking Heat Map on the Session Ribbon

Click the dropdown arrow and choose an Attribute to

map

To adjust the Min/Max ranges:

• Disable Auto Determine Min/Max, and type the preferred range in the input fields

To change a colour range:

• Move the mouse arrow to hover over the
colour circle, and note the change in colour in
the bottom right corner of the panel.
• Move the mouse arrow to the left from the
colour circle and down to the colour
rectangle, making sure the mouse arrow does
not pass over another colour circle
• Left click to open the colour palette and select
the preferred colour

To change the number of ranges:

• To add a key, right click any of the colour bars and select “Create Key”
• To delete a key, right click any of the colour circles and select “Delete Key”

After adding a range, deleting a range, or changing the min/max levels, right click any colour bar and
select “Distribute keys evenly”.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Histogram Displays
As an alternative to presenting variability in hole attributes
in the Voronoi Heat Map, users can view the variability as a histogram graph, available on the Session
Ribbon. The same list of display attributes will be available as is available in the Voronoi Heat Map –
simply select the attribute from the pull-down list and the
histogram will appear. The graph is inter-active. Hover the
mouse over a cell and a readout will appear showing the
data relevant to that cell. Left click over a cell highlights the
holes in the pattern contributing to the cell. Click on any
histogram bar to select and highlight in the View Port all
holes contributing to the bar.

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Exporting Data
Paradigm allows export of the following data, in the units selected in
Options:

• CSV file, user-configurable from a complete list of hole attributes

including firing times and charging details
• Pattern data in dxf, including all the visible geometry in the session
View Port (e.g. terrain contours or flyrock contours). Each data
group in Paradigm is exported as a separate entity. Data are
exported in binary or text format according to the Options setting
• Electronic Logger export for Austin and Davey Bickford electronic
initiation systems
• Iredes file for intelligent drill rigs
• BlastPlan, for sharing of hole coordinate, charging and timing data

Coordinates can be exported in Lat/Long format once a projection plane is

defined in the Blast Settings panel. All conversions of Northing/Easting to
and from Lat/Long are based on WGS84.

Screen images are captured using the Windows Snip Tool.

 Program User Manual March 2021

Export to CSV
This export facility allows users to customise the exporting of blasthole
information to third party programs such as Excel by selecting desired
attributes from the list of all possible attributes. Once all hole properties
have been selected, users can save the selection as a template for future
export of exactly the same hole-by-hole information.

The order in which the columns of data will be created in the csv file can be
adjusted using a left click and drag action. Click on the Attribute name in the
list and drag up or down in the list, and note that the program draws a
polyline in the left margin showing the source and
final destination for the selected attribute. Simply
release the mouse button at the appropriate
insertion point. When dragging, do not move the
mouse arrow anywhere to the left side of the tick
boxes – keep the mouse arrow within the text string
area.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Import Snapshot Data

Hole coordinates and attributes can be imported to create snapshot images of
blast hole patterns at various stages of development. Snapshots are useful when
comparing, for example, as-designed and as-implemented designs.

Importing hole attribute data from third party files relies on unique Hole
ID in the import file being consistent with Hole ID in the existing session.
When importing such data, the first column of data to be specified is the
Hole ID column, after which columns of data are selected in the same
way as the original session hole data were specified.

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Import Charging Data

Importing hole-by-hole charge information relies on unique Hole ID in the import file
being consistent with Hole ID in the existing session. When importing such data, the
first column of data to be specified is the Hole ID column, after which columns of
data are selected by clicking on the first data entry in the requested column of data
(do not click the column heading), in the same way as the original session hole data
were specified. The facility supports data exported from the
Maptek Vulcan Blast Logic module. The imported charges are
automatically assigned to a new Charge Scenario with a name
derived from the Excel file from which the data were imported.

Caution. Prior to importing charges, make sure that all

product types have been defined on the Explosive
Types tab in the Charge Rules. An undefined explosive product will result in
holes being assigned a null explosive type with a zero charge weight.

Hole-by-hole charging data follow the format of Material, Length, Start

Depth, and Weight for each separate deck within the blasthole. All material
contained within each blasthole must be defined as explosives, stemming,
or air. Where the material is an explosive, the program seeks a product
name which it can match to the product list in the Charge Rules, from which
the program derives density, relative weight strength, and velocity of
detonation. In the case of stemming, the material weight can be set to any
value, including text, but it must not be left blank.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Import Timing
Importing hole-by-hole timing information relies on unique Hole ID in the import file
being consistent with Hole ID in the existing session. When importing such data, the
first column of data to be specified is the Hole ID column, after which columns of
data are selected by clicking on the first data entry in the requested column of data
(do not click the column heading), in the same way as the original session hole data were specified.

Firing times for up to 5 decks per blast hole can be imported from Excel
(xlsx, xls, csv) files. Imported timing will be assumed to be electronic.

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Using Snapshots
Accessed via the Session Ribbon, representing different stages in development and
implementation of a blast pattern. A snapshot stores blasthole attributes, which allows the user to
“bookmark” different configurations of the blast hole layouts. Most hole attributes are stored by a
snapshot including hole position, length, diameter, inclination, colour and visibility. These snapshots
can be used, for example, to store the as-designed and as-surveyed blast hole locations and lengths.

Typically users will either open a file, or create a blast pattern with design coordinates, and then assign
charging and timing (possibly creating multiple timing and charging scenarios). At some stage later,
the pattern is drilled and the designer will receive actual coordinates for each hole either from
surveyors or the drill’s GPS navigation system. Implementation differences will typically include collar
coordinate locations and hole depths.

After creating the design blast hole layout, click the small arrow to the right of the <No Snapshot
Active> button and select the option “Import into new Snapshot”. This will
open the panel “Import Snapshot Options”. If the “Create Snapshot for
current state” option is ticked, a snapshot of the current pattern will
automatically be recorded and assigned a default name, and the user is
prompted for a name to be applied to the new snapshot. Then click
“Next” to open the File Explorer to select the .xlsx, .xyz, or .csv file
containing the new hole data (e.g. as-drilled coordinates and hole
lengths) for the next snapshot.

Importantly, the program will not be creating a new pattern, but will
rather be assigning new attributes to the holes in the existing pattern. Of
course, sometimes the as-drilled pattern contains a different hole count
(greater or lesser) from the as-designed pattern, so if needed, Paradigm
will create more holes but it will not delete holes. Holes which only exist
in one snapshot will have only one set of attributes.

After importing the new snapshot data, use the Snapshot Manager to
assign appropriate names to the snapshots.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Each hole always has an ID, and it is this which allows newly imported
attributes to be correctly assigned to existing holes. For example, if a
hole in the design snapshot has the ID “A-017”, then the real
coordinates for that hole will be found in the imported file associated
with a hole of the same name. If the file being imported contains
duplicate hole ID’s (e.g. if two patterns are merged), the snapshot data
will sequentially associate data in the existing session with new data
being imported. That is, if there are two holes called A01, then the first
instance in the imported file is matched to the first instance in the
session, and the second instance in the imported file is matched to the
second instance in the session.

The process of importing data for the new snapshot is the same as
reading data using the Open or Import command.

Once the new attributes are imported, the View Port will change to display the second snapshot,
named according to what was specified in the Import Snapshot Options panel above. Two snapshots
will now exist and users may switch from one to the other by clicking the arrow next to the active
snapshot and choosing from the snapshot list. Switching between snapshots shows the differences
between them in terms of hole locations and hole count.

Snapshots contain attribute information for the holes

that are present when the snapshot is taken. To save
any changes made after a snapshot has been taken,
either create a new snapshot (Create Current
Snapshot), or update the existing snapshot to which
changes were made. To update an existing snapshot
click Manage Snapshots, select the snapshot to be
updated, then click either “Snapshot all holes” or “Snapshot selected holes” depending on whether
the updated snapshot is to include hole data from all the holes in the session, or just the selected
holes. Clicking this will replace any hole attribute data in the snapshot with whatever attribute data is
active for the holes in the current session.

Paradigm also provides some basic error analysis for hole collar location, available through the
“Snapshot Errors” tool on the Session ribbon in the Snapshots section. The graph in this panel shows
collar (or Toe) errors, in Easting and Northing directions, for each hole in the pattern, and is interactive.
The size of the circles can be adjusted using the Scale Factor, and red circles represent non-compliant
 Program User Manual March 2021

holes (error greater than Error Tolerance), and grey circles represent compliant holes. Clicking on a
circle in the Snapshot Errors panel highlights that hole in the View Port, and vice versa.

Consider Elevation: Highlighted holes in the Snapshot Errors panel are either solid red, or solid grey.
If the elevation error for a selected hole is greater than the Error Tolerance, the circle will be displayed
as solid red, otherwise it will be solid grey. The analysis of errors can be conducted either including or
excluding elevation errors, depending on the state of the “Consider Elevation” tick box. When
unticked, the program ignores errors due to differences in elevation (appropriate state for collar
analysis), and when ticked, includes elevational differences in error calculation (appropriate for toe
analysis).

Hide Within: The inner pink circle in the error graph represents the compliance zone (holes with error
within the specified Error Tolerance. Compliant holes can be hidden in the graph by ticking the “Hide
Within” option box, and the scale of the graph can be adjusted by specifying a “Max. Radius”. The
Statistics section of the panel provides a summary of the basic error statistics.

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Importing Geometry
The Import Data function allows overlay of contour lines or triangulated/mesh
surfaces on a blast pattern in dxf, dwg, or obj formats. Importing data does not
result in any existing data being lost, discarded, or overwritten by the program.

Once imported, contour lines or triangulation surfaces are

made visible by default. Line data overlying a pattern may
interfere with the selection of blastholes when using a left
mouse click. To hide imported geometry data, and simplify
blasthole selection, go to View Options – Surface Geometry
or Line Geometry and deselect the display option. Each of the
geometry options will only be displayed in the drop down list
if the active file contains that geometry type. Alternatively, if
there are only some nodes you want to hide, highlight the ones you don’t wish to
see, then de-select the Visible option in the Attribute List.
 Program User Manual March 2021

When importing dxf data like contour lines, the user is prompted to help the program interpret the
data correctly. Click the arrows next to each data type in the Dxf Settings
panel and select the option which defines the type of data you wish to
import.

Paradigm uses multiple light sources, automatically located, to provide

good contrast and clear view of triangulated/mesh
surfaces, without excessive shadows. If an imported
terrain appears too dark and unclear, click the “Flip
Mesh Normals” button on the Editing Ribbon. Having performed this operation once
in the session, it should never have to be repeated for that file, after saving.

When reading terrain surface files in .obj format, it may also be necessary to specify the Texture
Filepath in the Attribute panel. The Texture (i.e. the photograph overlay) file format must be either
.png or .jpg.

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Snap Holes to Terrain Surface

Available on Editing Ribbon.
Snaps hole collars or toes to
the nearest visible terrain surface, with the option to snap to a surface above or below, or for the
program to determine the nearest surface. If holes have been previously drilled
to a known elevation, it may also be desirable to enable the “Preserve Toe
Elevation” option, in which case the hole lengths will be automatically
adjusted.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Create Build Plane

Available in Hole Editing
section on Editing Ribbon, and used to create a
surface which can then be used for pattern
placement, or to define the drill-to limits for a pattern
of holes. Very useful for creating holes of varying
length for a ramp, or for drilling holes to a set
elevation, for example. Clicking this tool immediately
places a Construction Node in the Node List and View
Port, opens the Construction Plane Placement panel, activates the Move
Tool, and displays the Attribute List for the default Construction Plane.

To move the entire plane:

• click and drag the yellow dot of the Move Tool, or

• enter coordinates for the start and end of the ramp, or
• use either the “Place Using Mouse” button in the Construction Plane Placement panel or the
“Place Plane Tool” button in the Attribute List.

To change the bearing of the plane:

• click and drag the red dot, or

• click and drag the orange Bearing bar in the Attribute List, or
• enter coordinates for the start and end of the ramp.

To change the length of the plane:

• enter the desired value into the Length field in the Attribute list, or
• click and drag the red survey dot to the desired end point, then click “Stretch to End Point”
button in the placement panel.

To change the gradient, or dip, of the plane:

• enter the value as a percentage into the “Gradient” field in the Attribute List (a negative value
indicates a plane dipping downwards from yellow dot to red dot), or
• adjust the elevation coordinate of either the red or yellow dot.

The gradient of the plane is expressed as a percentage next to the “Gradient” field in the Attribute
List, and as degrees adjacent to the “Inclination” field.

When locating the red and yellow dots, if the Ctrl key is depressed during the move, the survey point
snaps to the nearest surface.

The cross-fall of the plane is also editable in the Attribute list. Use the 3D View mode to confirm the
correct direction of fall/camber.

Use the Hole Snap Tool to snap either hole collars or hole toes to the build plane. With the Direction
to Snap set to Auto, Snap Point set to Toe, and “Preserve Toe Elevation” de-selected, short holes will
be lengthened until they touch the plane, and long holes will be shortened to just touch the plane.
Only selected holes directly above the plane will be affected.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Before Snap

After Snap

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Terrain Cross Section Views

Available on Session ribbon, and used to create
section views through imported terrain surfaces. The
tool requires an imported surface terrain model, not contour lines.

Define the section line using the Measure Distance Tool or by creating a Damage Plane – in both of
these ways the exact width of the section being created is known. Press Enter after drawing the
measure distance line to lock it to the ViewPort and to make it appear in the Node List.

Post-blast Pre-blast

Select the Measure Distance line in the Node list then click the Terrain X-Section tool in the General
section of the Session ribbon. The intersection of all visible surfaces will be displayed on the X-Section
graph, along with the surface names. Note that the cross-section does not include blastholes.
 Program User Manual March 2021

To create a section view which includes both Heat Map Visible: ON Heat Map Visible: OFF

terrain intersection and blastholes, use the

Damage Plane and, if preferred, turn off the
heat map visible option, leaving only
blastholes and the terrain intersection. Only
holes contained within the damage node
rectangular prism will be displayed. Note that
the terrain intersection lines are also
displayed in the 3D View.

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Set Up Front Face

Available on Session Ribbon. Defines the front-row blastholes for use in Flyrock
Model and Overpressure Model. First, select all front-row holes then click “Setup
Front Face” to open the Front Face Setup panel. Click the
“Actions” button and then the “Use Selection” option to
define the selected holes as front-row holes. Minimum
Burden calculations will be restricted to these holes only.

Set Hole Directions. Note that after selection, direction

arrows are displayed from the collar of each hole – these
arrows define the expected direction of rock projection and by default are drawn parallel to the
bearing for each hole. To change the direction, select “From Contour” in which case the program aligns
the arrows to be perpendicular to a line or polyline representing the free
face (Select the line by clicking the Face Contour button, then click the
“From Contour” button). Instead of a face contour line, you can use the
Blast Polygon, in which case the hole direction is set to be normal to the
nearest side of the polygon

Alternatively, select set directions from Average Burden Samples, in

which case they are aligned according to the average direction of the
minimum burden lines. Select all face holes prior to selecting the preferred Set Hole Directions option.

Alternatively, the directions for individual holes can be set by a click and drag on the individual
direction arrows.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Set Min. Burden. Minimum burden values can be manually input for each free-face hole, or can be
assigned through various calculations by the program. Select “Set Min Burden from Contour” if you
have a contour line defining the crest line, for example from face profiling tools, and then choose the
appropriate contour line from the Node List using the Contour Line
selector.

Alternatively, select “Apply Computed Min. Burden from Terrain”,

in which case the smallest burden, computed along the length of
all explosive columns, will be assigned as the Min Burden attribute
for all free-face holes. This may be the appropriate value for
estimating the maximum free-face flyrock range, for example.

Alternatively, select “Apply Computed Average Burden from Terrain”, in which case the average of the
smallest burdens computed at set intervals along the length of all explosive columns, will be assigned
as the Min Burden attribute for all free-face holes. This may be the appropriate value for calculating
the Muckpile Footprint, for example.

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Minimum Burden: Calculation & Heatmap

Available in the Sessions Ribbon, and provides an opportunity to individually analyse and view the
minimum burden on each front row hole of a blast fired with a free face. The tools require the
presence of a triangulation surface representing the free face and a group of charged holes defined
by the user as “front row” blastholes.

Select all, or a group of, front row holes, then click “Burden
Heatmap” to open the Burden Heatmap panel. The minimum
burden for each highlighted hole will be displayed in the panel. To
see the 3D Burden Heatmap, first assign the selected holes as front
row holes by clicking the “Actions” button and, with the front row
holes highlighted, click the “Use Selected” option. Additional holes
can be added at any stage by selecting them, and then clicking the
“Add Selected” option. Front-row hole assignment done here will
carry through to the Overpressure Model and the Flyrock Model.

Note that in this panel the user can define the Danger, Warning, and Excessive burden values – these
values will control the heatmap colours – red being zones where the minimum burden is less than the
danger value, yellow is for areas where minimum burden is less than the warning value, green for
areas where minimum burden is greater
than the warning value, and purple for
areas where the minimum burden is
greater than the Excessive Distance. The
coloured circle beside each hole name
indicates the minimum burden status
for each hole. To see the heatmap,
simply select the 3D View.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Note. By default, the heatmap opacity is the same as that for the terrain. The minimum burden
heatmap will be more clearly viewed by clicking the “Opaque Heatmap” box.

A view behind the terrain shows the

different lines constructed by the
program for purposes of calculating
the minimum burden at specified
intervals along the charge column.
Adjust the interval size using the “Step
Length” input field. These lines can
also be seen for selected, individual
holes by clicking the Hole X-Section
tool on the Ribbon. The colours of lines
are based on the measured minimum
burden – red is for burdens less than
the danger value, yellow is for burdens less than the warning value, and green is for burdens greater
than the warning value. Click and Drag inside the section graphic produces a Measure Distance line
and measure distance readout. To create a Hole X-Section report, see Minimum Burden Report.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Minimum Burden Report

Click the Generate Report button in the Hole X Section Panel to create a report consisting of section
views for all Front Row holes. The report creates a pdf file showing a section view for each front row
hole, together with a table compiling the minimum burden at each user-specified interval along the
charge. Each hole is a separate page within the minimum burden report.

In the Minimum Burden Report, note how rays are drawn at the specified”Step Size” intervals along
the charge column, towards the free face, represented by the thick brown line. The rays do not always
intersect the free face because the minimum burden is not always on the Hole X-Section plane. The
lighter coloured line near the free face represents the intersection of each minimum burden ray with
the free face, into or out of the plane of the paper and the cross section plane.

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 Program User Manual March 2021

Printing Initiation Timing & Tie-Ins

Available on Session ribbon, and used to produce paper
copies of initiation plan, accessory inventory, and
modelling contours. Printouts may be single or multi-page depending on the size of the blast. Click the
Print button to open the Printing Preferences panel.

View Port showing print area and Print Panel with display options
orientation (green rectangle)

A border is drawn around the blast pattern in the ViewPort, the size of which is adjusted by the user
in the Page Width setting in the panel. Page width is defined either in distance units in the Print Panel,
or by a click and drag on the yellow diamond handle in the corner of the page rectangle in the View
Port. To change the orientation of the plan on the paper, rotate the page by click and drag on the
orange adjuster bar adjacent to the Angle label, or by a click and drag on the yellow triangular handle
near to the tip of the page orientation arrow in the View Port. Whatever rotation is applied to the
paper, the compass symbol will reflect in the printout. The green arrow displayed inside the print area
in the ViewPort indicates the page orientation (top of page). To move the pattern on the paper, click
and drag the yellow dot at the end of the page orientation arrow. To adjust text orientation and
location with respect to the hole, use the Text Editor in the Hole Editing ribbon.

For printouts of large patterns spread over several pages, first

set up page 1, then click “Create – Plan Diagram”. The original
page outline remains (faded) and the second page can now be
adjusted for size and moved to overlap with the first page, or to
consider a completely separate section of the pattern.

Select the additional information you want printed (Grid, hole

ID, firing time, geometry, etc) then click Print. Each page in the
printout will be numbered. Print creates a pdf file – the printout
is not automatically queued to the printer.

To assist with the preparation of consistent printouts, after the

preferred format has been specified, click the Save icon and create a
Preset name. Presets are available from the Print Panel for all future
sessions.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Printing Contours
Contours, either constructed by Paradigm (e.g.
flyrock, vibration, initiation timing) or by the user
(imported geometry or user-constructed lines) will be printed if those geometry features are visible
nodes in the View Port. To make a computed contour a node, first create the contour with the
appropriate Paradigm model, then click the Contours to Lines tool found on the Editing ribbon.

Ensure that the “Contours” print option has been enabled, and all visible contours in the View Port
will be displayed in the print preview.

Back to Index

Print Drill Log

Available through the Print Tool on the Session Ribbon,
as a dedicated print page. From the Print Panel, click
“Create…” to create a new print page, then select “Drill Log” from the pull-down menu. The report
provides a table with rows presenting hole ID, Hole Diameter, Hole Angle and the Design Hole Depth.
A column of blank cells is included for on-the-bench operators to record actual hole length and actual
hole angle, as well as a comment relating to the hole condition.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Drill Accuracy Report

Available through the Print Tool on the Session Ribbon,
as a dedicated print page. From the Print Panel, click
“Create…” to create a new print page, then select “Drill Accuracy” from the pull-
down menu.

The program will create a pdf file displayed as an additional page in the report, but
actually containing as many pages as necessary to display the collar, toe, and
length errors for each hole. The errors are presented only in tabular format as
illustrated below. Shading is automatically applied according to the magnitude of
the error. Positive errors in length indicate long holes and negative errors indicate
short holes.

Back to Index

Print Charge Sheet

Available through the Print Tool on the Session Ribbon,
as a dedicated print page. From the Print Panel, click the
“Create…” button to create a new print page, then select “Charge Sheet” from the pull-down menu.
The report provides a table with rows presenting hole ID, and a range of additional optional columns.
Columns of blank cells are included for on-the-bench operators to record actual depths for each
loaded component (explosive, air, stemming), as well as a comment relating to the hole condition.

Where multiple pages are required, note that the page number appears in the bottom right corner of
each page to assist in keeping the sheets in order.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Print Programming Sheet

Available through the Print Tool on the Session Ribbon, as a
dedicated print page. From the Print Panel, click the “Create…” button to create a new print page,
then select “Programming Sheet” from the pull-down menu. The report provides a table with rows
presenting hole ID, deck number, depth to primer, and firing time for each deck in each hole. Separate
pages are generated for each timing/programming branch, and a summary of all branches is provided
at the top of the first sheet. Columns of blank cells are included for on-the-bench operators to record
a comment relating to potential issues associated with each detonator.

Where multiple pages are required, note that the page number appears in the bottom right corner of
each page to assist in keeping the sheets in order.

Back to Index

Paradigm Blast Modelling Tools

Blast modelling is an imprecise science due to the complexities and speed with which rock blasting
occurs. Paradigm’s modelling tools are a combination of mechanistic and empirical models, and users
are urged to apply engineering judgement, and site-specific blasting experience, to all results obtained
from the models. The models rely on best-available published trends and data, and do not claim to be
able to provide precise results in all rock types and for all rock blasting applications.

Flyrock Modelling
Flyrock Modelling is available from the Modelling Ribbon, and
includes both collar flyrock and free-face flyrock.
 Program User Manual March 2021

When the “Enable Flyrock” box is clicked, the

program will immediately display the selected Flyrock footprint

contours (Simple, Terrain, Selected) around the

blasthole pattern, taking the charging of all
holes into consideration. Clicking the “Enable
Flyrock” icon toggles all footprints on and off.

Simple Footprint: consist of two contours - the

“Flyrock Footprint”, or the area within which all
flyrock fragments will be contained, and the
“Safety Footprint”, calculated by applying the Safety footprint

specified Factor of Safety to the Flyrock

Footprint.

Terrain Footprint: calculates the intersection of the

3D flyrock shroud surface with the terrain (only active
if a terrain is present in the session).

Selected Footprint: a third flyrock footprint is

displayed for the selected hole or group of holes. In
3D View, this becomes a “shroud” showing the
volume within which all flyrock from the selected
holes will lie. The “Show Footprint for Selection”
option can be toggled on and off using the Shift R Hot
Key.

Free face flyrock footprints can only be displayed after the user has first identified the free face holes,
and after a minimum burden is assigned to each free face hole. If a terrain exists, the minimum burden
can be automatically calculated by the program, otherwise the user must manually assign a minimum
burden to each front row hole.

3D Flyrock
Shroud for
Selected Hole
Selected hole
footprint

Footprint for all

holes

Safety Footprint

The displayed polygon attributes are controlled in the Flyrock Model Settings panel.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Footprint Mode: Allows separate view of collar flyrock limits, free-face flyrock limits, or a combination
of both.

Points per Footprint: Affects the smoothness of each displayed

contour.

Face Angle: Defines the cone angle for material ejected from the face,
in the range 0 to 180 degrees with the axis of the cone defined in the
Setup Front Face panel.

Front Row Holes: The program calculates flyrock footprints for both
collar flyrock and free-face flyrock. Click the “Actions” button to select
the free face holes, or to assign an already-selected group of holes.

Face Contour: Where the free face is defined by a polyline, select that
line, click Set Hole Directions and select preferred option for
projection direction, then click Set Min Burden. Where no terrain
model is present to define minimum burden, users may manually
input the minimum burden for each hole (e.g. from a 2D profile) in the
Attribute Panel.

Safety Factor: A multiplier to be applied to the calculated flyrock

footprint to determine the Minimum Safe Distance for personnel clearance.

Draw Clearance Range: when ticked, the program displays an additional polygon representing the
user-specified personnel Clearance Range.

Clearance Range: the user-specified personnel clearance distance (no reference to flyrock model).

Shroud Slice Count: Affects the contour vertical interval when displaying the “shroud” for selected
holes or groups of holes.

Shroud Floor: Determines the depth above or below the hole collar to which the shroud will be drawn.
When creating the terrain footprint, make sure the Shroud Floor value is greater than the maximum
elevation difference between the hole collars and the terrain floor.

The flyrock contours can become very asymmetrical when they

include both free-face and collar flyrock, since the free-face Collar flyrock
contours are restricted to the area in front of the blast, and to footprint
an ejection cone angle and cone axis defined in the Flyrock
Settings panel (Ejection Angle). When the free-face projection
distances are greater than the collar projection distances, the
effects become clearly visible.

In 3D View, the intersection of

Free-face flyrock
the 3D shroud with the terrain is footprint
most clearly evident when the
terrain Opacity is set to 1.
Factor of Safety = 1.5
 Program User Manual March 2021

Hit Probability
Paradigm will provide a quantitative estimate of the probability of
one or more flyrock fragments, from collars and the free face, landing within a specified polygon, or
along a line, which can be useful when undertaking a Flyrock Risk
Assessment for equipment or structures inside the flyrock footprint. To
calculate the probability, first click the Hit Probability Manager button to
open the panel. Add a line or polygon to the panel by first highlighting that
node in the Node List, and then click the Add Probability Attributes button
at the bottom of the panel. The line will be added to the display list, together with the computed
probability of a flyrock hit. Note that the line will have a “Polys” attribute
in the Attribute Panel that identifies the line as either a closed polygon or
as a polyline. For closed polygons, the program displays the area within the
polygon, and the model calculates the probability of one or more fragments
landing within that area. For a polyline, the program displays the length of
the selected polyline and the model calculates the probability of one or more fragments landing within
a defined distance of the line.

Hit probability estimates for assets behind, or to the side of blasts, are determined by considering the
individual contributions of all holes within the blast pattern. Hit probability estimates for assets in
front of a free face are determined by considering the individual contributions of collar ejections from
all holes within the blast pattern, plus additional contributions from free-face holes. Estimates are
likely to be conservative (i.e. high) since the model assumes all fragments ejected have a size and
trajectory capable of striking the assets.

The calculations require repeated simulations using a Monte Carlo algorithm. Define the number of
repeat simulations in the Simulation Count box. Statistically significant probabilities should be possible
after 50 to 100 simulations. The greater the simulation count, the longer is the computation time.
Adjust the Conservativeness factor which has limits of 0.12 (optimistic) to 0.16 (conservative). Low
conservativeness produces a lower flyrock hit probability using more optimistic modelling.

Once a line or polygon is added to the Hit Probability Manager, and the probability attributes have
been assigned, the Hit Probability will also be displayed both in the Hit Probability Manager panel, and
in the Attribute Panel for that line or polygon. All probabilities are calculated on the basis of one or
more flyrock fragments landing within a defined area. Lines, representing high voltage mining
equipment cables for example, are broken into a series of contiguous elements whose width and
length are defined in the Attribute List for each node. The smaller the area elements, the better is the
estimate of hit probability, but the longer is the calculation time.
 Program User Manual March 2021

To remove the hit probability attribute from a line or polygon node, select the node in the Node List
and then click Ignore Probability button on the settings panel.

Flyrock Calculator
Click the Flyrock Calculator option in the Flyrock section of
the Modelling Ribbon to open the interactive Flyrock
Calculator. Enter the appropriate top-deck data into the cells, and the collar flyrock distance will be
displayed towards the bottom of the calculator, next to the labels “Collar Range” and “Face Range”. If
the specified Clearance Distance is less than the Safety Factor multiplied by the larger of the Collar
Range and the Face Range, the coloured cell at the
bottom of the panel will change from green
(Compliant) to red (Non-Compliant).

If charge configurations don’t involve air decks, de-

select the “Charge Has Air Section” option to make
use of the calculator easier. If enabled, the air deck
will always be presented as being between the top
of the explosive column and the bottom of
stemming. The position of the air deck (above,
within, or below the charge column) is not
considered to affect the maximum projection range.

Where a hole contains multiple decks, specify only the charge configuration for the uppermost deck.

Where the impact elevation is different from the launch elevation, enter the Elevation Difference in
the input field and the amount by which the flyrock contour (footprint) must be adjusted will be
displayed for both free-face projections and collar projections. A positive elevation difference
indicates an impact elevation lower than the launch elevation, and a negative value indicates an
impact elevation higher than the launch elevation.

Note that entering a value for the Elevation Difference does not change the footprint. To create
a new footprint, draw a new contour over the top of the calculated footprint and use the Offset
Lines tool in the Editing Ribbon to create a new footprint which accounts for the elevational difference.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Probability of Exceeding
The Flyrock Calculator calculates the maximum projection distance for a fragment of optimum size,
taking into account launch velocity and air drag. However, the probability that the optimum-sized
fragment will be projected at the optimum launch angle at the maximum projection velocity is very
low. This function calculates the probability that one or more rock fragments will be projected further
than a user-defined distance which is less than the maximum calculated projection distance, for a
single hole. The algorithm computes the maximum number of ejected fragments, and then considers
the probability for one or more of those fragments to exceed the “Exceed Distance”. For distances
greater than the calculated maximum projected distance, the probability will be zero. The calculations
take no account of any particular direction of projection.

Back to Index

Near-Field Vibration Modelling

Near-field vibration modelling is accessed from the Modelling
Ribbon, and requires the creation of a Vibration Intensity Node.

General
Two vibration models are available - a Basic Model (fast model) which utilises the Holmberg-Persson
equation to a selected group of holes anywhere within the pattern, and generates a heat map which
implies zones of intense fragmentation, damage, or stress. The Holmberg-Persson solution is a static
solution and therefore does not require initiation timing, or factors such as explosive VOD, to be
specified. The Advanced Model is a near-field, elemental seed wave model which takes into account
factors such as delay timing, delay scatter (initiation system), velocity of detonation of the charges,
location and number of initiation points in each hole, and the p-wave velocity of the rock. It is
therefore a fully dynamic model but is noticeably slower to run than the Basic Model. By default, the
Basic Model will be enabled, but this choice can be changed at will by the user.

The Near-Field Vibration Model can be used to create a heat map for a volume of material inside the
blast (relating more to fragmentation than damage), or to perimeter holes to examine the extent to
which surrounding rock (e.g. the pit wall) is likely to be impacted by the chosen design.

Section View Plan View

 Program User Manual March 2021

Caution. Both damage models are quite computationally intensive, especially if a fine
resolution has been specified. If too many holes are selected, calculation times can be long
and the time required to display the damage heat map can be excessive. It should not be necessary to
select large numbers of holes in order to undertake damage analysis, since the effects of holes
decrease exponentially with their distance from any specific point of interest.

Modelling requires the creation of a Heatmap Node, which will

appear in the Node List as a Vibration Intensity Plane node, and
which is a plane of any inclination between horizontal and
vertical located in the centre of a rectangular prism. A
heatmap of PPV variability is calculated, and displayed in
Damage Plane Heat Map
both the Plan and 3D Views. It can also be viewed in a calculation
volume
dedicated viewport by clicking the “Section View” option Move Tool
in the ribbon, for which only holes contained within the
rectangular prism are displayed. Click the “Create
Heatmap Node” and notice that the program
automatically inserts a new node, both in the Node List
and in the View Port which can be viewed in both plan and
3D modes. While it is highlighted in the Node List, the
properties of the node, including a name which can be edited by the user, are displayed in the
Attributes List. The Move Tool is also automatically applied to the Vibration Plane Node so that the
user can move the node to any desired location within the pattern (click and drag the Move Tool),
and/or adjust its orientation and inclination. The user can insert any number of damage nodes into a
session.

Adjusting the Vibration Plane

When the program creates and adds a Vibration Node to the pattern,
by default it has a vertical orientation and is located with the centre
of the rectangular prism located around the centre of the blasthole
pattern, but with the top of the rectangular prism aligned more or less
with the collars of the blasthole pattern. To change the dimensions of
the damage plane, either:

• Highlight the damage node in the Node List and adjust the
Length, Width, or Thickness attributes of the rectangular prism directly in the Attribute List,
or
• Click the Section View button to open a dedicated section view panel, and adjust the Length,
Width, or Thickness of the rectangular prism directly in that panel.

To evaluate factors such as explosive distribution and fragmentation uniformity

inside the pattern, the rectangular prism should be located inside the body of the
blasthole pattern. To evaluate the impact on the rock mass behind the blast hole
pattern, move the rectangular prism so that a portion of the prism extends beyond
the outer limit of the pattern.

Note. The prism thickness serves only to define which holes will be displayed
on the heat map plane.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Adjusting the Vibration Plane Orientation/Inclination

To change the orientation of the damage plane click and drag the
orange bar adjacent to the Bearing label in either the Attribute list
or the Section View panel, or type the orientation directly into the
input field next to the orange bar. Adjust its inclination using the
Bearing and Inclination settings in the Attribute Panel. A vibration
plane can assume any orientation from vertical to horizontal. It may
be easier to use the Placement options of Section or Plan to quickly create either a vertical or
horizontal plane respectively.

Moving the Vibration Plane

Select the Vibration Plane from the Node List and then select the Move Tool. Move the Vibration Plane
node by click and drag on the yellow Move Tool vertex, or on any of the arrows (2 in Plan View, 3 in
3D View). Alternatively, move the plane by typing specific coordinates into the Coordinates attribute
fields in the Attribute List. The entered coordinates will be applied to the centre of the plan outline of
the rectangular prism. The Vibration Intensity Plane node is not directly selectable from the viewport
using the mouse.

Viewing the Vibration Plane Heat Map

As soon as the Vibration Plane Node is created the heat map is calculated. In the case of a vertical
plane (Section Placement), it is most easily viewed by switching to the 3D View in the View Port.
However, in this viewing mode the plane may be obscured by other holes. To see only those holes
included in the rectangular prism, click the Section View button in the Damage ribbon. This opens a
dedicated viewing panel which includes:

• A central View Port which can be manipulated in terms of pan and zoom in the usual way,
showing only those holes included in, or close to, the rectangular prism
• User control panel for Vibration Intensity Plane Settings, Rendering Control and Bench
Attributes
 Program User Manual March 2021

Note the black, horizontal lines in the above image of a vertical section plane – these represent the
intersection of the vertical plane with the drilling surface (defined by hole collar elevations) and the
sub-drill surface (defined by individual hole sub-drill attributes).

The Section View panel can be docked, for convenience, alongside the Plan view and 3D view panels
in the main View Port.

Heatmap Settings Panel – General Settings

Algorithm. Choices of Basic (Holmberg-Persson, static model),
Advanced (Seed wave, dynamic model) for near-field vibration, and
Energy for Energy Distribution.

PPV Under Cursor. For an inclined vibration plane, this provides a readout of the peak vibration level
at the mouse pointer. For a vertical damage plane, the readout is shown in the Section View below
the heatmap, or in this field if working in 3D View mode.

Apply Air Deck Adjustment. Where a hole within the calculation area contains an air deck, the
calculations must be modified, and require a little more calculation time. Tick this box if the specified
node contains holes with air decks.

Ignore Distant Holes. When ticked, this tells the program to ignore
calculations from holes further away than the Ignore Distance.
Advisable when the pattern includes a large number of holes, to reduce
calculation times.

Settings Panel – Basic Vibration Model

K. The vibration attenuation coefficient relating PPV to scaled distance

(square root scaling is assumed).

Scaled Dist. Exponent, n. The vibration attenuation exponent relating

PPV to scaled distance.
−n
 Dist 
= K  (Sc. Dist )
−n
PPV = K    (1)
 Wt 
 Program User Manual March 2021

Settings Panel – Advanced Vibration Model

Apply K Scatter. Stochastic variability in K as multiple firings of
the same charge weight produce different levels of PPV at the
same distance. Expressed as a percentage of Log K.

Apply Fire Time Scatter. Stochastic variability in delay firing

times, assumed to follow a Normal distribution, expressed as a
percentage of the nominal firing time.

P-wave Velocity. Velocity of propagation of shock waves in the

rock mass.

Active Seedwave. The Advanced Model is a seed wave model,

and this is the name of the seed wave specified by the user, and
being used by the model. To specify a new seed wave, click the
Seedwave tab at the top of this panel, or click the “Edit Seedwave”
button at the bottom of this panel. Import the seedwave (single
geophone waveform) from a csv or xlsx file using the Import
Seedwave button, and following the same procedure as for
reading blasthole data (see Importing Data). To help
derive an appropriate K value, specify the
coordinates for the shot hole (E, N, Elev), specify the
charge weight for the seed wave hole, and specify
the geophone (receiver) coordinates (E, N, Elev).
The program will provide a K value (K suggested)
that is consistent with the user-defined n Exponent,
distance and charge weight, but users can specify
any other value in the field, K. The model has a
default seed wave, though users are urged to collect
their own seed wave for site-specific
characteristics.

Section View
Clicking this button opens the Section View panel to assist with
the layout and dimensions of the node.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Rendering Control (Section View)

Resolution. This affects the distance between
calculation points and therefore the smoothness of the
heat map which is calculated. Decreasing this distance
will increase the calculation time, and may have little
effect on the heat map. By default, the heatmap
displays a smooth gradient between colours. To
change to discrete colour intervals, select Heatmap
Gradient on the settings panel, and de-select the
“Interpolated” display option.

Bench Attributes
These parameters are adjusted only when the
user wants to focus on wall damage rather
than on internal fragmentation. Each
parameter adjusts one of the geometrical
factors controlling the shape of the pit profile.

Show Bench. Enable this option when you

want to create an outline of the pit wall with
user-defined batter angle and berm width,
and to see the heat map’s extension beyond
the blast pattern area into the pit wall.

Auto Top. The program automatically assigns

the node elevation equal to the average of the collar elevations of all holes contained within the
heatmap calculation volume.

Berm Elevation. This determines the vertical height of the bench outline.
Toe Offset. This adjusts the centre-point of the Damage Plane (highlighted by the Move tool) from
the toe formed by the batter and the berm. To assist in placing the damage plane appropriately, so
that the back row hole is correctly located with respect to the toe line, the program draws a scale with
1 metre major ticks and ½ metre minor ticks anchored to the toe.

Berm Width. This adjusts the width of the berm, measured from the toe line.
Batter Angle. This is the angle of the bench face which can be adjusted by click and drag on the orange
bar, or by direct input into the text field.

Section Graph
 Program User Manual March 2021

These graphs are created to help quantify the heat maps and to provide a hard comparison between
different charging or timing scenarios, in terms of either
fragmentation or damage, in the rockmass behind and beneath
the pattern of blastholes. The comparison is facilitated through
the definition of the Reference PPV, which may be different
according to whether the focus is damage or fragmentation. Enter
the appropriate Reference PPV in the panel.

In the adjacent upper image, 90 to 100% of points in the rock wall

behind the blast have a PPV greater than the Reference PPV (2500
mm/s) until a distance of approximately 18 metres behind the toe
line of the underlying bench. In the adjacent lower image, 80 to
100% of points to a depth of 1 m below the underlying bench
elevation have a PPV greater than the Reference PPV (2500
mm/s), decreasing to zero at a depth of approximately 2.4 metres

Bench Graph
This presents Section Graphs for all Vibration Intensity Plane
nodes in the session, with the different nodes displayed in the list
at the left side of the panel. Users can switch between
nodes by simply clicking and highlighting a particular
node. By selecting multiple nodes (holding shift or Ctrl
keys while clicking), users can create overlays
representing Section Graphs for multiple vibration
heatmaps created in different sections of the same
pattern. Where different sections of the blast have been
charged, or sequenced, differently, the graphs are useful
to illustrate the impact of the design changes on the
adjacent rock mass.

Back to Index

Energy Distribution Modelling

Available from Modelling Ribbon within the Damage Model.

Requires a Damage Plane to first be created (vertical or

horizontal), for the user to locate the plane in the area of interest, at the most appropriate elevation,
 Program User Manual March 2021

and for the user to define the appropriate dimensions for the rectangular prism. Note that in Energy
Modelling, the thickness of the rectangular prism is irrelevant so this input field is disabled.

The Energy Model produces a heat map showing how energy density
varies throughout either a vertical or horizontal section drawn
anywhere inside or adjacent to a blast pattern. The energy units
reported by the model are the same as those for volmetric Powder
Factor (kg/m3 or lb/yd3). The heat maps look similar to the damage heatmaps, but do not require any
site-specific model parameters.

Vertical Energy Distribution Horizontal Energy Distribution

Note. The Energy Model does not use a seed wave, so the Seed Waves tab is not needed.
Adjustments to the Energy Heat Map are the same as those required for the Damage Heat Map.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Timing Optimiser (Sweetspot)

Timing Optimisation Modelling is available from the Modelling Ribbon, and can
be used only for electronic timing scenarios. The model identifies electronic timing which minimise
peak vibration levels, minimise perception, or maximise frequency at user-specified locations. Where
multiple locations are specified, the program identifies timing which minimises the aggregated
impacts. The optimised timing applies to the initiation sequence of the active timing scenario.

Receivers. These are locations at which a Seed Wave has been recorded, identified by name
and Easting/Northing coordinates as
inserted in the relevant fields. Create a
new Receiver by clicking the “Create New
Receiver” button at the bottom of the Receiver
List. Before simulations begin, each Receiver must
be assigned a seed wave unique to that receiver.

There may be several seed waves associated with

any one receiver – attach a name to each seed wave to make it instantly identifiable from others. Seed
waves are imported to the program from third
party files such as Excel, using the “Import
Seedwave” button located below the Seedwave
List on the Edit Receivers dialog box. Simply click
the top line of data in the column prompted by the
green symbol. The total number of points in the Data prompt

column of data is displayed adjacent to the prompt

line.

Caution. The seed wave that will be used in the simulations for each receiver is selected from
the pull down list adjacent to the label “Active Seed”. The highlighted seed wave in the Seed
Wave List is not necessarily the Active Seedwave.

To minimise the calculation time, minimise the seed wave start and end times using the T1 and T2
cursors. Click the drag the cursors, or type the times directly into the adjacent input fields. To see the
selected wave, de-select the “Show Full Wave” tick box below the waveform graph display.

Ensure that the charge weight fired to generate the seed wave has been entered in the input field
“Charge Weight”, and that the coordinates for the seed wave shot hole are correctly entered. Receiver
Distance” is automatically calculated by the program based on shot hole and receiver coordinates.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Enter the best estimate of the vibration attenuation exponent in the input field adjacent to the label
“n_Exponent”.

“Suggested” K values are displayed based on the PPV for each geophone exponent, the distance
between the shot hole and the receiver, and the entered charge weight. Users must enter the
preferred K values into the “Actual” input fields below each suggested K value.

Sweetspot Timing. Simulations are commenced from this

panel. Prior to commencing the optimisation search, check
that correct details have been entered into each white input
field. In particular ensure that the correct search range for each delay
type has been entered. Where multiple receivers are involved, integer
value weighting factors may be applied to each, effectively assigning
different degrees of “importance” to the vibration impacts at each site
(do not use fractional weighting factors). When all data input is
complete, click the “Run Simulation” button – a progress bar will
appear, along with an estimated time to completion.

Upon completion, program displays results in two sections – Bulk

Simulation Results and Detailed Analysis Results. Bulk Simulations
panel shows all timing combinations, and a summary of results including PPV, PVS (peak vector sum),
Frequency Index and Perception in separate columns, sorted initially in terms of PPV from lowest (top
of column) to highest (bottom of column). Clicking the label of any column will resort the results
according to the data in that column. Clicking the arrow beside the label will toggle the sort order
between ascending and descending. Clicking on any timing combination will initiate an immediate
recalculation using the displayed timing combination, and the results will be displayed in the Detailed
Analysis section.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Detailed Analysis involves 100 simulations of the

timing configuration highlighted in the Bulk
Simulations table, with a scatter factor applied to
each K factor and to each wave. The scatter factor
is defined in the input field labelled “Std Dev of K”
as a percentage of the (Log K) value. Clicking
another timing combination in the Bulk
Simulations section automatically initiates the
100 simulations for the new timing combination
and the new impacts are displayed in the Detailed
Analysis summary panel.

Assign the desired timing to the pattern by

clicking the “Use this timing combination” button. Assigning a new timing automatically creates a new
Timing Scenario in the Timing Scenario List on the Timing Ribbon.

To see the total variability in PPV for all the timing

combinations analysed, click the Variability tab in
the Bulk Simulations section of the panel. The
yellow cursor indicates where the chosen timing
combination lies in the total spectrum of PPV
outcomes.

Similarly, click the “Compliance”, “Composite

Wave” or “Variability” in the Detailed Analysis
section of the panel for more detailed information
and statistics for the chosen delay timing.

For access to the raw data associated with the Bulk

Simulations click the “Export Input and Bulk Output
Data” button, and the “Export Detailed Output
Data” button for raw data pertaining to the Detailed
Analysis. Data are exported to csv files and can be
saved to any convenient location.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Seed Wave Modelling (Foresight)

Available from the Modelling Ribbon for prediction of vibration level from
blasts at one or more receivers with either electronic or non-electric
initiation, utilising seed waves. For non-electric initiation, program will run
a user-specified number of repeat simulations in which the firing time of
each deck is varied according to a user-specified delay scatter. Each receiver
requires its own seed wave, added by clicking the Receiver icon. Model
output is the same as that for Sweetspot.

Log-K Deviation. Standard deviation of scatter on Scaled Distance graph for

single hole data. Commonly in the range of 5% (little scatter) to 10% (large
scatter).

Delay Scatter. Standard deviation of firing time scatter for delays. Field is
inactive if active timing scenario is electronic.

Propagation Velocity. P-wave propagation velocity between blast site and receiver.

Number of Simulations. Number of Monte Carlo simulations to be run to establish expected range of
PPV variability.

Advanced Settings. Allows user to specify parameter values for calculation of perception index.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Fragmentation Modelling
Fragmentation Modelling is available from the Modelling Ribbon, and can
be used for any pattern with either non-electric or electronic initiation.
Users have access to the Kuz Ram model (1983), the KCO Model (2005), the
the XpFrag Model (2017), and the BlastFrag model (proprietary, unpublished). Users are expected to
be familiar with the models and this manual will not delve into the nuances of the different models.

Because each model considers the blast hole pattern on a hole-by-hole basis, modelling can focus on
selected groups of holes, or the entire pattern. Patterns may contain multiple geological conditions,
but the models do not allow for layered geology. If users have developed multiple timing scenarios
and/or multiple charging scenarios, the models can be applied to any combination of timing and
charging scenarios, and overlay curves are generated to allow direct comparison of expected
fragmentation outcomes.

Geology Types. Allows users to define

different geological conditions to be assigned to
groups of holes within the pattern. Once
defined, the geology descriptions can be saved
to the Node Library for use in future modelling
sessions. Clicking this icon opens the Geology
Types panel for users to define those geological
descriptors used to estimate the Rock Factor
which is used by all of the available
fragmentation models. In the Name box, enter
the first geology name, then in the sections below, choose the options which best describe the geology
in terms of maximum block size (defined by joint spacing), rock strength (uniaxial compressive
strength) and density. If you have well-defined values, choose “Custom” and specify the Min/Max
range for each parameter. The graph to the right displays the in-situ block size distribution which is
assumed to be Log Normal. To adjust the slope of the curves, click the “Advanced” tab and drag the
B50 Adjuster bar. The grey curves display the limits of adjustment for the in-situ block size distribution
curves – in general, curves will tend to be close to the steeper grey curve at the right hand side of the
graph than to the other limit.

Note. The Optimum Timing figure displayed on the Advanced tab below the P-Wave Velocity
label is derived according to the correlation published by Cunningham, and based upon the
estimated p-wave velocity for the rock type. The estimated p-wave velocity is related to the user-
specified UCS for the rock mass, and can be adjusted by changing the p-Wave Scale Factor.

The options of “Fresh, Tight” and “Weathered, Open” refer to the joint condition. Where joints are
stained and the rock material is weathered, the efficiency of fragmentation can be reduced due to
the difficulty with which stress waves are transmitted between blocks, across open joints. Once mining
progresses below the upper weathered layer, users should specify joint condition as “Fresh, Tight”.

To create a second geology type, click the “New Geology Type” button and repeat the above process.

Close the panel once all the different geology conditions have been defined.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Assigning Geology to Blastholes. Geology is assigned to blastholes in the

same way that charges are assigned. As holes are read from .xls, .xlsx, or .csv
files, default geology is automatically assigned. To assign a new geology, simply
highlight the holes to which you wish to assign the new geology, go the
Attributes Panel, and select the Geology node from the drop-down list. To save
the geology as a node to the library, refer to the section Creating a Node
Library. Holes added to the pattern using the Create Blasthole tool do not have
a geology automatically assigned.

Fragmentation Analysis. Click this icon to open the Fragmentation Analysis

Panel. The Fragmentation Analysis panel includes a graph for the size distribution curves, a
Fragmentation Summary Table, and a series of selection boxes. Prior to any fragmentation curve being
displayed, the following must be satisfied:

• A specific timing scenario must be selected from the Timing Scenario selection box
• A specific charging scenario must be selected, from the Charging Scenario selection box
• A group of holes must be selected
• Geology must be assigned to all selected holes

Timing Scenario. Click the pull-down box

labelled “Timing Scenario” to display a list of all
timing scenarios in the file. Click to select the
scenario for which you want a fragmentation
prediction. Remember, you may wish to have a
number of timing scenarios so that you can
compare the fragmentation outcomes for each.

Charge Scenario. Click the pull-down box

labelled “Charge Scenario” to display a list of all
timing scenarios in the file. Click to select the
scenario for which you want a fragmentation
prediction. Remember, you may wish to have a
number of charge scenarios so that you can compare the fragmentation outcomes for each.

Fragmentation Algorithm. Click this pull-down box to choose between the options of BlastFrag
(proprietary, unpublished), KCO, or Kuz Ram (including contributions by Lilly).

Selecting Holes. If you have not already done it, go back to the View Port and highlight the group of
holes for which you want the fragmentation analysis (at least one hole must be selected).
 Program User Manual March 2021

Adding Fragmentation Curves to the Graph. Click “Add Selected” and the program calculates the
fragmentation curve for the selected holes and displays it on the graph. Click the “Add All Holes”
button and the program will conduct the fragmentation analysis for every hole in the pattern without
having to first select all holes. Click “Add Holes of Type” to conduct the analysis on all holes of the
selected geology type, irrespective of where they may be located in the blasthole pattern. After a
fragmentation curve has been displayed for a group of selected holes, the user may de-select that
group, select another group, and overlay the size distribution curve for the newly-selected group. To
change the minimum or
maximum size on the x-scale of
the graph, enter new values in the
boxes after the label “Display
Settings”. Multiple curves can be
displayed and for each curve, the
Summary Table provides a
summary of metrics associated
with each curve.

To help identify the different

groups of holes from which the different size distribution curves have been derived, first create and
name each group of holes using the Grouping function.

Adding Metrics to the Summary Table. Users can add

additional metrics to the table adjacent to the
fragmentation graph in the form of either the estimated
wt% passing a user-specified fragment size, or the fragment size for a user-specified wt% passing. In
the panel below the Summary Table, simply enter either the Fragment Size for which you want to
know the % Passing, or the % Passing for which you want to know the fragment size, then click the
associated “Add” button. The new metric will be added to the bottom of the Summary Table. Any
number of either metric can be added – you are not restricted to a single entry for either option.

Warning. If a hole in the group of holes selected for fragmentation analysis has not been
assigned a firing time, or a geology, the
program will not perform a fragmentation analysis,
and an exclamation mark will be displayed adjacent
to the line of buttons used to add new curves to the graph. A red exclamation mark signifies a global
failure (e.g. no holes have a charge, no holes have timing, or no holes have geology), and an orange
exclamation signifies that some holes are missing this information.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Model Calibration
Each of the four fragmentation models can be calibrated to provide a good fit,
for a particular geology and blast design, between a measured particle size
distribution and the predicted fragmentation curves. Data fitting first requires
selection of an appropriate geology from the Geology Types panel, and a full
description of the blast design from which the measured fragmentation data was obtained. Once the
parameter curves have been fitted to the measured data, the adjusted parameter values are assigned
to the specified geology. If added to the Node
Library (Geology), the fitted parameters will
be retained for future fragmentation
modelling with that geology and with different
blast designs.

In the table below the label “Measured

Fragmentation Size Data”, enter the screen
sizes in the first column (millimetres or inches)
and the %passing value in the second column.
To enter a value into an empty cell, first click
the cell and note it turns blue. Click it a second
time and a cursor will appear and data can now
be entered. Alternatively, cut and paste values
from a spreadsheet. The percentage values
should be numbers between 0 and 100, not
fractions between 0 and 1. As each new pair of
Size and Wt% are entered, a dot will appear on
the adjacent graph at the specified coordinates. Enter all measured data before proceeding with the
curve fitting.

It will often be noted that the measured data points do not lie on the predicted fragmentation curve.
Three adjustments are possible for the BlastFrag and KCO models (3 parameter models), and two are
available for the Kuz-Ram Model and the XpFrag Model:

• Top Size Adjustment. Click and drag this yellow bar and note
that the maximum size of the curve will move left or right,
within limits. If greater adjustment is required than can be
achieved with this adjuster, go back to your Geology definition
and adjust the upper and lower estimates for the maximum in-situ block size, Bmax.
• Average Size Adjustment. Click and drag this middle yellow bar to move the predicted average
fragment size, d50, to the right or the left.
• Fines Adjustment. Click and drag the lower yellow bar to move the fines tail of the curve.

Make the above adjustments iteratively until you are satisfied that the predicted curve fits the
measured data as closely as possible. The Blastfrag, XpFrag, and KCO curves will normally display a
better fit to measured data than the Kuz-Ram curve, especially for those rocks that tend to produce
relatively large quantities of fines.
 Program User Manual March 2021

The choice of which fragmentation algorithm to use in later modelling may depend on which curve
best fits your measured data during calibration. Once the calibration is completed, simply save the
file, and save the geology to the Node Library for use in future modelling exercises - the adjusted
parameters will be saved with the geology file, and with the session file.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Vibration Footprint Model

Accessed from the Modelling Ribbon.

The Vibration Footprint Model allows contours of equal vibration amplitude (“iso-vibe” contours) to
be constructed in 360 degrees around a blast pattern with specific timing and charging scenarios. Two
models are available – one for which delay timing is ignored, and the other which includes the effects
of delay timing, based on the Scaled Charge Weight concept presented by Yang & Scovira. The Scaled
Charge Weight model is a variant of the seed wave model, but does not require a seed wave. Rather,
it requires trends which are established by recording and analysing seed waves from single blastholes
at a range of different distances from a single charge. Those trends relate to the duration of a single-
charge vibration wave at different distances as well as the conventional trend of amplitude
attenuation with distance (K and n parameters for standard square root charge weight scaling). An
additional parameter is required, referred to as the Windowing Constant, relating to the extent to
which vibration enhancement occurs when multiple vibration waves arrive at similar times.

Expected peak vibration levels are automatically calculated for every sensitive receiver

The footprint contours are derived for the active charging and timing scenarios.
To show the estimated iso-vibe contours, simply click the “Enable Contours”
button on the Modelling – Vibration Footprint toolbar. Important settings which
affect the vibration calculations and therefore the shape of the contours are
found in the “Settings” panel.

Basic Settings
These settings define the type of contours to be calculated, as well as the
relevant model parameters. Modelling involves both the prediction of PPV
at specific receivers, as well as the option to create contours of equal PPV.
For the prediction of PPV at one or more receivers, users must first create
one or more receivers (prediction points) using the Receivers tool in the
Seedwave Modelling section of the Modelling ribbon.

Algorithm. Three options are available – Without Timing, Consider Timing,

and Consider Screening.

The option “Without Timing” ignores any influence initiation timing, and uses the simple
scaled distance concept based on the hole with the minimum scaled distance to each receiver,
and the charge weight in that hole. The algorithim does not consider hole-to-hole vibration
interaction.

The option “Consider Timing” accounts for initiation timing by identifying interactions
between vibrations arriving at each receiver from different holes within a short time interval.
The interacting holes are identified, and become more and more numerous as the propagation
distance increases.

The option “Consider Screening” accounts for initiation timing in the same manner as the
“Consider Timing” option, but also accounts for any screening effect resulting from earlier-
firing blastholes in the line of propagation of vibrations from each hole to each receiver. The
interacting holes are identified and the screening holes are also identified.
 Program User Manual March 2021

K & n. The standard vibration attenuation parameters for the square-root charge weight scaling used
in vibration modelling. When using the “Without Timing” option, these values should be derived from
regression analysis of vibrations from full-scale blasts. When working with the “Consider Timing” and
“Consider Screening” options, these values should be derived from single hole tests in which vibration
waveforms and peak vibration levels are measured over a wide range of distances. The K value for the
“Without Timing” option will not be same as the K value for the other two options from single holes.

Advanced Settings. These settings are only relevant and available when
working with either the “Consider Timing” or “Consider Screening” modelling
options.

P Wave Velocity. Required by the model to calculate vibration arrival

times from every blasthole to each receiver.

Initial Pulse Width. The duration of the full vibration pulse from a
single hole, at a point very close to the blasthole, in milliseconds.

Pulse Broadening Rate. The rate at which the vibration pulse duration increases with
increasing propagation distance, usually derived by measuring the pulse width at multiple
distances and performing simple linear regression (provides both Initial pulse width and pulse
broadening rate).

Windowing Constant. Essentially a calibration term which affects the degree of

enhancement for vibration waves arriving close together at the receiver. The original author
found a value of 20 to provide predictions, and increasing the windowing constant decreases
the degree of enhancement.

Screening Coefficient. Only available when using “Consider Screening”. A value less than
unity used to calculate the amount of vibration reduction occurring as vibrations pass through
rock already fragmented by earlier-firing charges. Default value 0.9, and decreasing the value
increases the amplitude/screening effect.

Pre-Split Filtering. Pre-splits are widely considered to create a filter effect by virtue of the fracture
plane assumed to have formed along the pre-split line to the full depth of the pre-split holes. The filter
effect can specified as a percentage of PPV, typically around 30% for an effective pre-split, but 0% in
a poorly designed or executed pre-split. The filter effect is assumed to only occur within a “shadow”
distance (expected to be 2 to 3 times the pre-split hole depth) behind the pre-split line. Users must
first identify a line (not a line of holes) which represents the pre-split line, and then define the filter
percentage, and the falloff distance which is considered to be around 3 times the hole length.

Display Settings. These factors affect only the display of the modelling results.
Enable Contours. Click this box to toggle between turning the display of vibration contours
on/off.

Auto. Search Dist. Only visible if the Auto. Search Dist. is disabled. Defines the maximum
distance from blastholes up to which the program will search for the different contour
vibration levels. If you observe a missing contour, or sections of a contour, increase the value.

Resolution. This defines the approximate maximum distance between contour points, or the
number of contour points used to construct the contours. The lower this figure, the longer the
computation time.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Contours. Used to show more or fewer contour lines. Click this button to add
another PPV contour and type the desired PPV in the field. Click the colour bar
and choose the colour of choice for each contour. Contours can be deleted by
clicking the X button beside the displayed contour levels.

Consider Screening
Without Timing K = 270
K = 400

Figure 1. Vibration footprints for pattern with radial timing scenario. Note symmetry of contours “Without Timing” compared
with the “Consider Timing” algorithm (Initial pulse width 25 ms, Pulse broadening rate 1.8 ms/m, Windowing constant 20).
Note that the principal effect of timing in this case is to extend the contours in the direction V axis represented by the Timing
Contours.

PPV at Location Used to provide PPV calculations at visible Receivers.

Contributing Screening
holes holes

Contributing
holes

Dominant
hole

Figure 2. Dominant and contributing holes for 3 sensitive locations inserted as named Receivers.
 Program User Manual March 2021

The minimum requirements for receivers are the

Easting, Northing, and Elevation coordinates. No seed
wave is required for this model.

Basic and Advanced Settings. As per the Vibration

Footprint Settings described in the section above.

Dominant Hole. The Scaled Charge Weight concept presented by Yang and Scovira identifies that at
any location remote from a pattern of blastholes, there is one hole with the dominant contribution to
the PPV at that point (referred to as the dominant hole), and a series of other holes which contribute
to the PPV via an enhancement mechanism (the contributing holes). The dominant hole is the hole
with the minimum effective scaled distance (accounting for screening effects) to the highlighted
receiver, and is the hole with the greatest contribution to the peak vibration amplitude at that
receiver. Paradigm identifies the hole as a red dot in the view port, and for each blast there will be
only one Dominant Hole, and it is identified in all three of the algorithms. Also displayed are the
characteristics for that hole, including its actual charge weight, its contributing weight (different from
the actual weight only if the hole is screened by earlier-firing holes), the distance of the hole from the
selected receiver, the arrival time of the vibration from that hole, and the Total Contributing Charge
Weight obtained by summing the contributions of all holes which significantly contribute to the peak
vibration level at the nominated receiver, accounting for individual screening effects.

Contributing Holes. When using the “Consider Timing” and “Consider Screening” algorithms,
Paradigm also identifies all the significantly contributing holes and presents them in a highlighted
orange colour for the highlighted receiver. Holes which contribute a charge weight greater than 2% of
the dominant hole’s charge weight are considered significant. For multiple receivers, highlight one
and the program immediately identifies the dominant hole, and all contributing holes. For points close
to the pattern, there will be few contributing holes, and at extreme distances, all holes become
contributing holes.

Screening Holes. If the “Consider Screening” option has been selected, it will also highlight in green
all of the screening holes. Screening holes are specific to each contributing hole, and are those holes
firing before the contributing hole, and lying within a critical distance of the straight line path between
the contributing hole and the selected receiver.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Overpressure Modelling
Accessed through Modelling Ribbon.

The Overpressure Model is based upon the work reported by Richards and Moore, with adaptations.
The model is essentially a seed wave model, but uses a mathematical seed wave with shape factors
derived from bench geometry and charge design so that there is no need for users to first obtain an
overpressure seed wave. The use of a mathematical wavelet instead of a recorded seed wave is
possible due to the consistency of air as a propagation medium.

Four basic controls are provided to operate the model – Overpressure Settings, Enable Contours,
Overpressure at Location, and Show Overpressure Rings.

Overpressure Settings.
These are the site-specific overpressure model parameters. The model
can yield either location-specific overpressure levels, in decibels, or
contours in 360 degrees around the blast for specified decibel levels.

Each setting has an associated tool tip to explain its significance – simply
hover over the text and a tool tip will appear. As each setting is adjusted,
the elemental wave shape is re-calculated and the display is updated.

Speed of Sound. The default speed of sound in air used by the model is
345 m/s (1132 ft/s). It changes only slightly with temperature and
humidity, and is considered constant in this model.

dB Loss/Doubling. The rate at which overpressure levels decay with a

doubling of the distance of propagation, expressed in decibels. The ISEE
Blasters’ Handbook suggests 7.7 as a reasonable value for this parameter,
and theoretically it should never be less than 6. The value increases when substantial barriers exist
between the source and the receiver (dense bush, hills, pit walls, etc).

Wind Speed & Angle. Wind affects the isotropy of overpressure attenuation, with down-wind
attenuation rates decreasing and up-wind rates increasing relative to still-air conditions. The effect on
contour shape can be very significant, and users must specify both a wind speed and a wind direction.

Include Collar. The model considers two overpressure source – from the collar of each hole in the
pattern, and from the free face for each front-row blasthole. To include the Collar contributions, make
sure this box is ticked. Overpressure contours from blasthole collars are calculated in 360 degrees.

K Collar. This is the coefficient used to calibrate the model’s prediction according to a measured level,
usually behind the blast. According to Richards and Moore, the value commonly lies between 60 and
120 as per the tool tip.

Include Face. The model considers two overpressure source – from the collar of each hole in the
pattern, and from the free face for each front-row blasthole. To include the Free Face contributions,
make sure this box is ticked. Overpressure contours from free-face holes are calculated only in
directions forward of the free-face. When combined with Collar contributions, contours may become
very pronounced in front of the blast, depending on front row burden dimensions.

K Face. This is the coefficient used to calibrate the model’s prediction according to a measured level,
in front of the blast. According to Richards and Moore, the value commonly lies between 150 and 250
 Program User Manual March 2021

as per the tool tip, suggesting that the level from a free face are likely to be considerably higher than
those from the hole collars.

Front Row Holes. The user is required to identify the holes which are blasting to a free face. Highlight
the holes, click the Actions button and select the “User Selection” option. The program uses these
holes to identify whether the receivers are located in front of, or behind the free face – different
equations are used for free face and confined holes, in accordance with the work reported by Richards
and Moore. If you have used the Minimum Burden Heatmap, the front row holes will already be
assigned. If you assign them here, the assignment will carry through to the Minimum Burden Heatmap.

Front Row Burden. If contributions from the free face are to be included in the predictions or contours,
users must identify front row holes. Click this button to assign already-selected holes, or to select
holes. This is one of the most important controls over peak overpressure levels for locations in front
of a blast pattern. Increasing front row burden decreases peak overpressure levels from free-face
holes. Similarly, increasing stemming length decreases peak overpressure levels from confined holes
– stemming lengths are defined in the Charge Rules for the active Charge Scenario.

[-] Wavelet Settings. The elemental wave for overpressure modelling is a

mathematical wavelet, and shape parameters for this wavelet can be user-
adjusted to closely fit a measured wavelet from a single hole. Click the [-] symbol
adjacent to the heading to show or hide the parameters used to define the
wavelet shape. As parameter values are changed, the wavelet graphic will
respond to show the adjusted wavelet shape.

Beta. The ratio of the “half period” of the positive pulse to that of the negative pulse (assuming
polarity of microphone produces a first half period which is positive). Value is always greater
than or equal to 1, and a value like 1.5 is considered common.

A+/A- (z). This defines the absolute value of the ratio of the first (positive) half-period
amplitude to the amplitude of the second (negative) half period (assuming polarity of
microphone produces a positive first half period). Typically greater than or equal to 1.0, that
is, the first half-period amplitude is typically greater than the second half-period amplitude.

Period Coefficient. Relates the half period of the positive phase of the pulse to the cube root
of the mass of the charge. Richards & Moore suggest a range of 4 to 12 and an average value
of 7.

Display Rings For. Creates a series of circles, centred on each hole, representing the wave-front from
each hole after detonation of each hole’s charges. Applies when the “Show OP Rings” button on the
ribbon has been activated. Rings can be displayed for Selected Holes, All Front Row Holes, or for All
Holes in the pattern. The rings provide a graphic display of the extent of wave-front crowding resulting
from the geometry of drilling and the assigned delay timing.

Enable Contours. Click this option if you want to see contours of equal overpressure calculated in 360
degrees around the blasthole pattern. The Contours consider the explosive charge, stemming length
and timing of each hole, as well as the minimum burden for each front-row blasthole.

Auto. Search Dist. When ticked, the program will automatically search
radially at fixed angular intervals to find the intersection points of the
different contour levels. It can sometimes produce a discontinuous,
outermost contour. To overcome this, untick this option and specify a
maximum search distance.
 Program User Manual March 2021

Resolution. This defines the number of points in each of the calculated contours. A lower resolution
will result in a greater calculation time, and a smoother contour.

Contours. Specify the decibel values for each contour you want calculated. By
default, 5 contours will be calculated. To reduce the number, click the X
button adjacent to the contour you do not want. To increase the number, click
the “Add Contour” button. To change the contour level, simply click in the
value field and type a new value. Changes made here are saved with the
Session file.

Overpressure At Location
Program displays the estimated peak overpressure levels, in front of
blast and behind blast, at each visible receiver in the Node List.
Receivers can be Dummy Holes or Receivers specified in the Timing
Optimiser model. Users need to apply experience and engineering
judgement in deciding whether the peak levels at receivers will be closer to the levels estimated in
front of theblast, or behind the blast, since the model does not account for different attenuation rates
in different directions.

Tip. To import receivers while reading hole coordinates from .xls, .xlsx, or .csv files, add the
receivers as holes to the end of the file. After reading all the hole data and creating the pattern,
it should be obvious which holes are real blastholes and which holes are markers for receivers. Place
dummy holes over the top of the holes representing receiver markers, then delete those blastholes,
leaving a dummy hole at each receiver location.

Show OP. Rings

Used in conjunction with the Initiation
Animation Tool to show the wave radiation Initiation Animation Tool

pattern as a series of circles, with each

circle representing the sound wave from a Receiver
37 ms

particular hole as it propagates away from

the hole collar at the speed of sound in air.
These are termed the propagating wave- 12.5 ms

fronts. Click and drag the Initiation

Animation Timeline bar to see the
wavefronts appear at each hole collar and
then propagate away at the speed of sound.
The shape of the rings includes anisotropy due to wind, though such effects will typically be small and
almost unnoticeable unless the wind speed is very high.

If the animation terminates earlier than you

want, simply type a new Animation End Time
and the display time will be extended.

Of particular interest in this display is the extent to which wavefront crowding occurs in the direction
of a receiver – wavefront crowding indicates overpressure waves arriving at relatively small time
 Program User Manual March 2021

intervals, implying an increased probability of enhancement and elevated peak overpressure levels.
Wavefront crowding almost always occurs in the direction of initiation. In the example above,
initiation has been directed away from the receiver, resulting in greater separation of wavefronts and
lower peak overpressure levels. The expanding overpressure wavefronts are superimposed on the
standard initiation animation display.

Back to Index
 Program User Manual March 2021

Muckpile Footprint Modelling

Accessed through the Muckpile section of the Modelling ribbon, and
used to provide an estimate of the final footprint of the post-blast
muckpile. The model, based on published burden displacement studies, has been expanded to allow
for rolling and the forward momentum of displaced material after impact with the bench floor, since
video analysis demonstrates the importance of this factor.

The model requires that free face holes have been defined (see Front face Setup), minimum burden
values have been assigned to all free face holes (either calculated from the terrain if present, or
explicitly defined by the user in the Attribute Panel), and that timing has been assigned.

The model is best applied when files include a meshed or triangulated pre-blast terrain surface, from
which minimum burden has been calculated for all front row holes. The model will still provide an
estimated footprint in the absence of a terrain surface, but the calculations will rely on a user-defined
minimum burden for each free-face hole.

Muckpile Footprint Settings Panel. When calculating the final

muckpile footprint, the program takes into consideration the direction
of movement of the rock around each free-face hole, as defined in the
Direction Mode by the timing contours (direction of movement normal
to timing contours), the direction of average burden, or a user-defined
direction (explicit direction).

Information is also required concerning the burden for each free-face

hole, determined by the Burden Mode setting. Burden dimension
strongly affects burden movement velocity and therefore the muckpile
footprint.

The Throw Factor adjusts the burden velocity coefficient. The term
should be considered to be somewhat dependent on rock properties and
timing and may therefore vary between different sites.

The Friction parameter allows for fragment rolling after impact with the
bench floor, and is only visible if the Apply Rolling box is ticked. If no pre-
blast terrain surface is present, the bench floor is assumed to be at the
average vertical depth from the free-face hole collars to the end of the
holes, excluding sub-drill. By toggling the Apply Rolling tick box it is
possible to see the difference between the impact footprint and the final
footprint.

Initially, the muckpile footprint is drawn at the computed average floor elevation, and may therefore
be partially obscured by irregularities in the floor elevation. If the Terrain Projection box is enabled,
the footprint will be drawn draped over the terrain in front of the blast. However, if the Terrain
Projection option is enabled, but the terrain is smaller than the computed muckpile footprint, then
the footprint will not be fully visible.

The calculations do not take into consideration any type of barrier such as remnant broken rock from
previous blasting (e.g. to the right of the pattern in the adjacent image), or safety berms in front of
the shot. Remnant material in front of the face will be assumed to be solid rock in calculation of
minimum and average burden, and will therefore tend to under-estimate the extent of muckpile
 Program User Manual March 2021

projection. The footprint also does not try to account for flow of material over a lower bench in front
of the blast.

The model generates two footprints intended to provide an indication of min/max range based on
data fitting undertaken by the developers for a range of different blasts for which full pre- and post-
blast terrains, and precise survey and
charging details were available. The data
fitting (i.e. values for Throw Factor and
Friction) leading to these two footprints
is limited to limestone quarries and may
not apply universally to all rock types and
all timing scenarios.

In the adjacent image, the pink footprint

polygons represent the expected range
for the footprint and the blue line
represents the actual footprint derived
from the post-blast terrain image. The
pink lines radiating from each free-face blasthole indicate the projection directions and distances
associated with each hole, as defined by the Burden Mode and Direction Mode settings, and can be
displayed or hidden using the Draw Distances tick box.

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