SEPTEMBER 2009

A
uxiliary fles associated with your MineSight installaton
and project contain valuable informaton that can be
manipulated by the advanced user. This artcle will
examine some of these fles found in your MineSight project
and install directories, as well as the vgalusr8.vr fle.
First, lets look at the fles in your MineSight project.
MineSight Compass Project File
If you run MineSight Compass (MSCompass), you will have an
MSCompass Project File in your project directory. The Project
File is created or opened from the MSCompass File menu as
shown in Figure 1.
This fle does several things. First, it associates a Project Control File
(PCF) with MSCompass. In fact, the name of the Project File will
be based on the PCF name and sufxed with prj (e.g., samp.
prj). Procedures run by MSCompass will operate on the data fles
defned in the PCF. You can have multple MSCompass Project Files,
but only one can be atached to MSCompass at a tme.
Secondly, this fle contains all the dialog setngs associated with
the MSCompass dialog.
Third, and most importantly, all the procedure panel and mult-run
responses are stored in the Project File. If you provide the Project
File to another user or Mintec Technical Support person, they can
quickly see exactly your procedure and mult-run responses.
_msresources\Procedures.prc
This fle stores customized procedure shortcuts that are
executable directly from MineSight 3-D (MS3D) and listed
under the MineSight menu as shown in Figure 2.
The list of procedures is managed from MSCompass by
clicking on the Edit buton under MineSight Procedures on
the Menu page. The procedures in the list can be added,
deleted, labeled, or grouped into submenus from the
MineSight Procedure Selector dialog shown in Figure 3.
_msresources\dialogs.ptf fle and
_msresources\settings
This fle and folder live under your project directory. Historically
the dialogs.pt fle was used to store setngs from all the dialogs
in MS3D. This included such things as geometry sets used for
coding, cursor defnitons, blast patern editor setngs, and
the pit expansion tool setup. Dialog setngs for new tools and
some existng tools are now in the setngs folder. Although
the setngs folder looks empty when viewed from the MS3D
Data Manager (Figure 4), if you open up the setngs folder in
Microsof Windows Explorer, you may notce some XML fles
these are the newer and more robust way MineSight stores
parameters and setngs. Do not delete the setngs folder or
any of its fles. Otherwise, youll lose important data including
geometry sets and the last state of the Pit Expansion dialog
that allows you to contnue expanding.
Files in Your MineSight Project
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Figure 2. Procedure shortcuts in MS3D
MineSight

Auxiliary Files
Figure 1. Creatng a new Project File in MSCompass
SEPTEMBER 2009
msAudit.txt
This is a text fle thats updated every tme MS3D performs an
operaton on your project or MSCompass runs a procedure
(Figure 5). msAudit.txt tracks each user who opened the
project, the version of MS3D that was run, and the tme and
functon performed on the project data. Every message sent
to the MS3D Message Window is also included in msAudit.
txt. Additonally, some functons (e.g., model coding, or
true thickness) also output computatonal details to the fle:

_msresources\project settings.msr
This fle contains all the setngs specifed in the MS3D | File
| Project Setngs dialog (Figure 6). If for some reason you
need to reset your project extents, you can do so by deletng
this fle. However, all the other project setngs will revert to
their default values.
6/2/2009 15:35:4 User: gwylde
Started MS3D 4.60-02 (Build 81)
6/2/2009 16:50:5 Started MineSight
Compass from ms3d
6/2/2009 16:50:10 Running procedure
pitres.dat
Figure 5. Snippet of msAudit.txt fle
_msresource\msCache.txt
This is an optonal fle containing a list of the fles in your project and
their types. Actvate the fle by toggling Load project from cache fle
on Startup from the Propertes page of the MS3D | File | Project
Setngs dialog (Figure 7). This opton allows MS3D to quickly open
your project by referencing the listed fles rather than opening each
and every fle inside the project to determine its type.
Figure 3. Defning MS3D
procedure shortcuts in the
MSCompass MineSight
Procedure Selector
Figure 4. The setngs folder
looks empty in the MS3D Data
Manager, but it actually contains
dialog setngs in XML format
Figure 6. The MS3D Project Setngs dialog
Figure 7. Opton to load your project from a cache fle in the
MS3D Project Setngs dialog
SEPTEMBER 2009
gravity, default burden (ring spacing), rig types, charge types,
and primer types. See the documentaton inside the rd_
Default.txt fle for editng instructons.
Finally, the vgalusr8.vr fle conveniently stores a list of your
recently opened projects, as well as your MS3D right-click popup
menu. It also tracks window locatons necessary for MS3D and
MSCompass dialogs to open with their previous size and locaton.
vgalusr8.vr
MS3D and MSCompass will frst look for your vgalusr8.vr fle
in the locaton specifed by your HOME environment variable.
If this locaton is not found, then the locaton defned by
the combinaton of the HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH is
searched. HOMEDRIVE defnes the drive and HOMEPATH
the path relatve to HOMEDRIVE. If vgalusr8.vr is stll
not found, it is searched for in the Microsof Windows
Operatng System directory.
Your MineSight install folder also contains some useful fles. This
is the folder pointed to by the %MEDEXE% environment variable.
fll_pattern.txt
This fle contains a selected subset of standard geologic map
symbol paterns as per the U.S. Geological Surveys standards
and guidelines. These fll paterns are accessed via MS3D
material or object propertes and applied to polygons and
surface faces (Figure 8). Using a text editor, you can create
and customize your own paterns following the instructons
included in the fle. For example, if you want to change how
Dolomitc Sandstone (614) looks, you can edit this secton
in the fle and change it. Alternatvely, you could use this
patern as the basis for a new fll type. Note that MS3D will
look frst for the fll_pattern.txt fle in your project
_msresources folder and then in the directory defned by
the MEDEXE environment variable (your installaton folder).
geomap.gm
This fle contains the default line and symbol defnitons used by
the MS3D Geomap tool. This fle is not editable. However, you
can use this fle as a basis for a customized line/symbol fle using
the Geomap Editor located under the Geo Tools menu in MS3D.
Your custom symbols will be saved to a new geomap fle.
rd_Default.txt
This fle is used with the MS3D Ring Design tool and can be
edited with a text editor. The parameters defned in the fle
appear as optons in the tool. A wide variety of parameters
are pre-defned, or you can defne your own. Parameters
include such items as: rock types with an associated specifc
Files in Your Install Folder
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Figure 8. Fill Patern selector accessed from the Material or
Object Propertes on the Surfaces and Polylines pages
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Vgalusr8.vr Files