Volume 16, Number 10 November 2000

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in th
a newsletter for MineSight® users

Texturing Surfaces in MineSight®

Figure 2 (surface
without texture)
Figure 1 (surface with texture)

A very cool new tool has been added to MineSight®

that enables you to ‘drape’ a .jpg picture image onto a
surface, adding a sense of realism. This means you could
‘drape’ an aerial photograph or a geologic map onto
your project’s topography (Figures 1 & 2)!
Images can be attached to a surface, much like
‘wallpaper’ on your wall. This new feature can only
be used for display purposes. Since it is not a
MineSight® object, it cannot be used to determine
cut/fill volumes, etc.
The Texture Surface Tool is found on the TOOLS
menu in MineSight®. To use this new tool in your
MineSight® session, you must have a .jpg file with
dimensions similar to the surface on which you want
(continued on page 3)
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IN THIS ISSUE
2000 Training Schedule
Chile..................................................9
Tucson............................................9
Current Affairs
“Removing Duplicate Faces from
MS2 Geometry Objects”...............................5
D i re c t o r y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
“Texturing Surfaces in MineSight®”.....................1
Tips................................................................................6
Tips from Tech Support
“A Quick Way to Code Your Model
Below a DTM Surface”..................................7
Trade Shows..............................................................10
Training Spotlight......................................8
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MineSight® in th Foreground
(Texturing Surfaces in MineSight® continued from front page)
to drape it. You need to know the dimensions of your
image, as well as the area that image is supposed to
cover. Of course, the closer the image lines up with
your surface, the more believable the result will be!
Start with a surface, topography, for example
(Figure 2, front page). Scan your aerial photo or
geologic map, and save it in jpeg (.jpg) file format.
Figure 3 illustrates your .jpg file as the flat picture
image it is.
Figure 3
Using this new tool, the flat picture can be
‘draped’ onto a 3-D surface. (Beware! Figure 3 is
for illustrative purposes only since the image is not a
MineSight® object.)
To use the new Texture Surface Tool, you must
first “Add” the jpg file to make it available. Use
the Add button to add your .jpg image to the list
(Figure 4). If you’ve added one or more that you’d
like deleted from the list, highlight that .jpg image
and click the Remove button. To properly place the
.jpg image on your surface you will need to supply
dimension information.
Be sure the .jpg you want to drape onto the surface
is selected (highlighted). To match the picture as
closely as possible to your 3-D surface, you will need
to figure out the location and coordinates of the origin
November 2000
Figure 4
of your surface as well as that of the .jpg image.
If your surface (e.g., topography) is oriented North-
South, the origin is typically the southwest corner. In
MineSight®, click on the lower left hand corner and
the Easting and Northing coordinates will be listed
along the bottom of the viewer screen.
Next, you will need to know the pixel size in both
the east-west and north-south directions. That is, the
number of pixels in the east-west direction relative to
the east-west distance along your surface, and the same
information in the north-south direction. The pixel
information is generally available in whatever software
you are using to view your .jpg files. For example,
if you are viewing the .jpg in Netscape Navigator,
that information is listed across both the window Title
bar and can also be found under Go, “JPEG image
1084x834 pixels”. Divide the distance by the number
of pixels in each of the orthogonal directions.
(continued on page 4)
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MineSight® in the Foreground
(Texturing Surfaces in MineSight® continued from page 3)
This results in the X and Y Pixel Size. This is at least a
place to start the placement of the image on your surface.
Use an azimuth if the surface is skewed, rotated,
or if the origin is not in the lower left hand
(southwest) corner. For example, you might use 90º
for azimuth if the origin is located in the upper left
hand corner (northwest corner).
Then, click the “Texture Surface” button, select the
surface you want to texture, and Voilá! (Figure 5).
Remember, texturing is transient. You must reattach
the image after you have closed and then reopened
November 2000
the surface. When images are read in, they are kept in
memory until you exit MineSight®. If you update the
.jpg image file in your project directory, MineSight®
will not automatically update the texture map. You
must remove the image from the Texture Surface Tool
list and add it again. Data that was imported first will
not change until it is re-imported.
This new tool makes for a very effective
presentation! Many thanks to Penny Hobbie at
AngloGold for generously allowing us to use their data
in this article.
Figure 5
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