Schedule Manipulation using Equipment source paths

Introduction

A Source Path is the primary set of source scheduling instructions for a particular piece of Equipment. They control which Table Leaves/Nodes are worked and in what order, as well as controlling the behaviour of equipment when it is unable to complete those defined instructions.

The power of Source Paths lies in their ability to be as broad or as specific as required. The simplest Source Path to schedule an entire mine is a single line whereas the most complex Source Path can have more lines than the total number of Leaves. Understanding how to control this flexibility is the focus of this article.

FAQ: How does the scheduling engine in Advance work in completing tasks.

To begin with, it is important to understand how Advance runs your source schedule. The schedule is run as follows

1. Generates a Task list based on Processes and their associated Source Quantities
2. Creates an ordered list of Tasks for each piece of Equipment based on the Source Path
3. Generates Dependencies and applies them to each Task
4. Simulation of the Task list from the Start till the End Date of your Scenario (this is much more complex than it is written but for our purposes is unimportant)
   
   

As mentioned in (1.), the ordered task list is determined by the equipment source path and the level structuring of the source table. Each line you append to the equipment source path (if relevant) unravels to a list of tasks. To see if an equipment path annotation has any tasks, you can hover on the line and a tooltip will appear as below:

An incorrectly annotated source path will show zero tasks in line 3 of the tooltip.

The tooltip will show,

• whether Allow Advance is “On” or “Off” for that line, turning it “ON” allows the equipment to search further down the task list if the first task is unavailable until it gets to an available one. The process is repeated once the task is completed, the equipment goes through the list again from the top. If Allow Advance is “Off” (this is the default) the equipment will complete the task in the task list order and will wait for an unavailable task when executing that task list. This is generally not ideal for underground scheduling but there are instances where this can apply.
  
  

Allow Advance command can be typed out with the below syntax

Allow Advance: On 

Or

You can Right click on the intended line and follow the below path:

It is important to remember that an inline command like Allow Advance affects all the lines below it until it comes to another command that cancels it.

• To see the full ordered task list you can use the “Preview” tab:

By clicking on a source path line, opening the Preview tab (to the right), and clicking update.

The order it has used to create the tasks list, by default, it will be from the Table structure. The table structure is as defined in the scenario Settings and nodes are populated following this structure when you import your development and your stopes.

FAQ: How can I control my schedule using the task order list without creating numerous dependencies?

To access the details and be able to edit Table positions you can access the source table Position editor here:

Once you are here you can inspect each of the Levels and  view the Positions ordering. This ordering will be as the nodes were created in the import process. If more nodes (say stopes) are imported this order may be incorrect if this order is used to control the schedule (common in room and pillar schedules).

FAQ: How can I edit the Node position Ordering for my source nodes?

If you desire to change the node Position ordering, you can access the “Re-Order Positions”

This will allow you to change the node ordering either Alphanumeric in either a descending or ascending Sort order.

If your Level positions cannot be sorted this way, one can use the “Manual Text list” option. You can then input the desired order in the editor, or you can copy the contents to excel or notepad for easier editing and paste it back to advance.

FAQ: I do not want to change my node order but want to manipulate the way a source path line(s) is executed by the equipment.

In this circumstance you can use the Insert order

Here you can move Levels and process up and down using the up and down arrows & also move unaffected Levels/Process to the Left so that they will follow the default order. For example:

will become

Notice how the Task unravel in the Preview changes. This can be useful when you don’t want to create a lot of dependencies for the tasks and use the equipment source paths to control the order in which tasks can be done.

This node order will be applied to all the lines below it until the equipment reaches a line that cancels the command.

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