Released 14^th December 2023

  New

1. Users are now able to select and import multiple text files at once¹.
2. A "Reapply rules" button has been added to the Loading tool.

  Information

1. The text files must have the same number of columns and the use of a template is recommended.

  Improved

1. The "Visualize Timing" tool now starts at the first firing event. 
2. The messaging of what data has been imported from BlastIQ has been improved.
3. Refined filtering for AVM workflow.

  Fixed

1. Issues with displaying design and hole deviation traces were rectified.
2. When clipping to surface topography in the Exclusion area tool, the safety factor was being applied twice which was causing a size mismatch between the calculated horizontal distance and the created polygon.  
3. Some .dxf files were not importing into SHOTPlus™ due to hidden vertices¹.
4. Some .tif files were causing an error and not saving in a SHOTPlus™ file.
5. The profile tool was not honouring minimum strata length defined in the strata rules.
6. The "Blaster Printout" had a black background instead of a white background.
7. When importing profile traces and marking strata, file size was increasing rapidly.
8. Some users were triggering an error when trying to re-activate their license seat.
9. A premature view refresh call was causing an "Invalid strata surfaces" dialog box to appear upon opening a file.

  Information

1. Hidden vertices are displayed in SHOTPlus™ so surfaces may appear differently to other software packages.

Released 1^st December 2023

  Improved

1. WebGen™ encoding reports have been updated to auto-populate some fields.
2. The print function in Row View now allows non-row objects to be printed.
3. Some licensing calls were updated to improve handling.
4. The Time Envelope report now includes Minimum Scaled Distance (MSD) calculations for each monitoring point.

  Fixed

1. The "Edit Loading" button was not selectable when displaying adjusted design data. 
2. Strata were not displaying as expected in loading view and hole history.
3. Some loading parameter values were misaligned in the hole design history table.

Released 17^th November 2023

  Important

  Graphics Performance

Some users with Intel™ graphics cards have been experiencing unexpected crashes of the software while using Section View or the Profile Tool. This most often occurs when there are multiple windows open and updates to the display being rendered.

For more information on this issue, please refer to this article.

 New

1. Users can now update an existing blast using IREDES files. Please refer to the knowledge base article for important information about how the tool interprets hole status.

  Improved

1. Updated nomenclature for vibration and airblast modelling scaling laws to align with industry standards.
2. Minor changes have been made to WebGen™ encoding reports.
3. Some licensing calls were updated to improve handling.
4. Changes were made to loading sheet report to improve readability.
5. Text file export templates will now remember user selections for including headers or applying to selected items.

  Fixed

1. Some minor UI issues were rectified.
2. Quantities Summary was not updating after bulk loading factors changes.
3. Quantities Report was not updating after adjusting loading via the hole table.
4. Users were triggering an error when using the Print (New) function causing incomplete plans to print.
5. Loading factors were not being applied when using the Edit Hole dialog.
6. Row and hole counter was not incrementing as expected when using the row tool.
7. The "Extended firing data with cosines" option is now available in the Export menu.
8. The grade RL line was displaying incorrectly on the hole diagram.
9. Strata were sometimes not displaying correctly in the Loading view.
10. Some users were having issues licensing SHOTPlus™ for the first time.

Released 19^th October 2023

  Important

  Update to Graphical Charging Rules behaviour

SHOTPlus™ has updated the Graphical Charging Rule interface to provide more defined behaviour at the intersection between ranges.

What does this mean for users:

• Existing rule sets will be converted to honor the new behaviour when opened in SHOTPlus™ Surface versions 6.17.1 or later.
• The new format betters reflects the way deck lengths are applied to blastholes and as a result, the deck length at the beginning of each range has been reduced by 100 mm.

Detailed information of these changes can be found in this Knowledge Base Article: 

Graphical Charging Rules - Changes to Graphical Charging Rules

  Fixed

1. Users were unable to import plans from BlastIQ™ when there was a hole type or tolerance mismatch.
2. When using the "Move objects onto surface" tool, changes to hole co-ordinates were not retained.
3. When marking strata in the Profile Logging tool, reading positions were not being captured in the table.
4. The transform co-ordinates tool was not applying changes that the user has entered.

Released 28^th September 2023

  Improved

1. When opening the BlastIQ™ Export Plan, Import Plan, or Blast Management dialogs, the plan name is now updated to align with the current plan name in BlastIQ™.
2. BlastIQ™ Export Plan dialog improvements:
   1. Only sites with a valid 'BlastIQ™ Blast Control' licence are shown.
   2. SHOTPlus™ will prevent users from exporting plans with names that duplicate those already present in BlastIQ™.
3. BlastIQ™ Import plan dialog improvements:
   1. Only sites with a valid 'BlastIQ™ Blast Control' licence are shown.
   2. Filtering improved.
   3. When working on a plan that has been exported to BlastIQ™ the plan name filter will be pre-filled.
   4. Users are now presented with a list of the current plans associated with a BlastIQ™ site, based on the selected filters.¹
   5. SHOTPlus™ will update the plan list asynchronously as the filters are adjusted.
4. BlastIQ™ 'Move Holes Between Plans dialog' updated to enable text filtering.
5. BlastIQ™ 'Import Fired Hole Positions' updated to enable text filtering and specific blast selection.
6. 'Visibility' and 'Results' windows in the Volume Overview tool are now permanent windows.
7. BlastIQ™ Licence checks are now done in asynchronously while using SHOTPlus™.
8. Horizontal indicator added to Profile Logging Tool.

 Information

1. Only the first 200 blasts are displayed by default. If the desired blast is not shown, adjusting the filters will update the list.

  Fixed

1. Opening edit hole dialog was inadvertently changing the EBS in-hole timing in certain circumstances.
2. Holes added by BlastIQ™ field devices were resulting in exceptions when generating standard reports.
3. The incorrect activation licence expiry date was being shown on certain dialogs.
4. Changing the volume calculation mode was not working when the volume overview tool open was open.
5. Updating hole data via the Text Importer was causing SHOTPlus™ to become unresponsive.
6. MWD traces were not being imported correctly when not sorted in depth order.
7. Opening a file with resources outside of the currently selected region was causing an unhandled exception.
8. Importing loading rules with resources outside of the currently selected region was causing and unhandled exception.
9. Graphical hole view in the hole table was not updating when adjusting the design properties of a hole.
10. Selecting 'Refresh' button when selecting a licence was causing an error.
11. Strata definition rules were not correctly identifying negative values.
12. Profile Logging Tool indicator now tracks the values along the Y-axis.

Released 5^th September 2023

  Improved

1. BlastIQ™ Licencing
   1. Activations can now be released from within SHOTPlus™.¹
   2. On start-up SHOTPlus™ will warn users where the licence linked to an activation will expire within the next 30 days.
   3. SHOTPlus™ will now show the Activation and Licence expiry dates when renewing activations.
   4. Wording updated to reflect the change to 'seat' based licences.²

  Information

1. Select 'Help' > 'About' from the main menu and select 'Release Activation'. To release an activation, the user must be signed in to BlastIQ™. After release of an Activation, SHOTPlus™ will close all open instances.
2. For more information on the BlastIQ™ licencing model, see the Knowledge Base Article, here.

  Fixed

1. Licence expiry data in 'About' dialog was not updating when licence activation was renewed.
2. SHOTPlus™ was getting stuck in an unrecoverable loop during BlastIQ™ licencing process in certain situations.
3. Hole located on the vertex of Strata Surfaces were not being assigned intercepts.
4. An error was occurring when adding additional holes to a WebGen™ encoding path.
5. SHOTPlus™ was displaying an erroneous error when exporting plans with packaged explosive loading rules to BlastIQ™.
6. SHOTPlus™ was not correctly inferring partial Drill Data when exporting to BlastIQ™.
7. SHOTPlus™ was not correctly assigning properties defined in the 'Default Hole Properties' dialog during import.
8. Help > Activate BlastIQ™ Licence now correctly updated the User Interface based on the selected licence level.
9. SHOTPlus™ was not correctly consuming backfill decks in manually edited holes.
10. A rounding error was resulting in incorrect deck lengths in certain situations when using Graphical Charging Rules. 

Released 23^rd August 2023

  Fixed

1. Holes added by BlastIQ™ field devices were causing unhandled exceptions once imported into SHOTPlus.

Released 10^th August 2023

  Fixed

1. Some users were experiencing an error when exporting a blast which used profile loading rules to BlastIQ^TM.

Released 3^rd August 2023

  Fixed

1. Users were not able to select the correct point on polylines or polygons when editing.
2. Users were experiencing an error when updating hole design data where holes were created in a template.
3. 'Move holes to selected points' tool was not moving holes.

Released 2^nd August 2023

  New

1. 'Wet Sides' charging rules can now be exported to BlastIQ™.^{1, 2, 3}
2. Added the ability to export 'wet state' tolerances to BlastIQ™ for the application of wet charging rules.³
3. Detailed report which can be generated from the Time Envelope tool which includes:
   1. Time Window used.
   2. Distance to blast centriod from each monitoring point.
   3. Maximum Instantaneous Charge (MIC) for each monitoring point.
   4. MIC and Air Velocity for each monitoring point.
   5. Peak Particle Velocity (PPV) for each monitoring point.
4. Added the ability to set the 'Slice Direction' for holes to the bearing where the minimum perpendicular burden exists via the 'Profile Wizard'.

  Information

1. Wet sides loading rules can only be exported when using Graphical Charging Rules. For more information on Graphical Charging Rules, see the Knowledge Base Article, here.
2. To export wet sides loading rules, ensure 'Include Wet Sides Rules' is activated under 'Blast Properties' > 'BlastIQ Options' > 'Default export options'
3. Wet sides loading rules and wet state tolerances are only compatible with the following releases:
• BlastIQ™ Mobile UI/Host version 1.18.39 or greater.
• LOADPlus™ BlastIQ™ version 1.18.39 or greater.

  Improved

1. When using the measurement tool in secondary windows, the dimensions dialog now appears to give context around measurements.
2. The last five 'Tools' commands have been added to the right-click menu.
3. Sections of the Exclusion Area Tool are now collapsible to maximise the amount of visible screen area when using the tool.
4. Undo stack updated to allow up to 100 individual undos, or up to 100 MB of data.
5. Using the 'H' and 'V' keys when drawing a lasso now results in horizontal and vertical lines respectively.
6. Extended firing data with cosines can now be exported in imperial units where SHOTPlus™ display is set to 'Imperial'.
7. The following have been deprecated from individual charging rules:
   1. Horizon Tolerances.
   2. Weight Tolerances.
   3. Maximum Weight.
8. Volume Calculation Mode now adjusted via icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the SHOTPlus™ status bar.¹

  Information

1. For information on Volume Calculation Modes, see the Knowledge Base Article, here.

  Fixed

1. Manually loading adjustments were not being saved when applied via the 'Edit Hole' dialog.
2. Adjustments to hole bearing were not affecting 'Slice Direction' resulting in the incorrect burden being calculated in the 'Profile Wizard'.
3. Moving holes between BlastIQ™ plans where KPIs or Tags were not present was resulting in a 'Server not available' message which was preventing users from moving holes between plans.
4. Temperature measurements importing via the 'Text Importer' were not being saved with the SHOTPlus™ file.
5. 'Filter and Search' was not correctly filtering holes with a measured temperature.
6. Generating certain Reports was resulting in an error message.
7. Deleting holes with WebGen™ encoder links was resulting in an unhandled exception.
8. The reference of the applied Charging and Initiation Rule were not being updated in the Edit Hole Dialog when loading was adjusted.
9. Extra detonators included in LGF files were not being importing into SHOTPlus™ in all situations.
10. Graphical Charging Rules were displaying incorrectly in certain situations.
11. SHOTPlus™ was incorrectly adjusting charging rule deck lengths when exporting to BlastIQ™ in certain situations.

Released 11^th July 2023

  Improved

1. Improved warning messages, regarding BlastIQ™ functionality, that are displayed when exporting a plan.¹
2. Enabled setting the profile slice for a hole with measurements within the profile wizard.
3. Analytics view now evaluates hole state based on the Drill Adjusted Design Length, where Drill Adjusted Design Length is enabled.
4. Redundant 'Backbreak' and 'Sidebreak' values shown in the Markout Wizard have been deprecated.
5. Top of Deck and Weight Loading Accuracy Analytics View windows are now evaluated based on Hole Type Tolerances.
6. 24 Intercepts now available by default for SHOTPlus™ Premier users.

  Information

1. Rules that are not supported for re-application in the field are now referred to as Type 2 charging rules For more information, see the Knowledge Base Article, here.

  Fixed

1. Visibility Manager behaviour was not consistent when the manager was not fully visible.
2. When loading a Loading Rule file, the user interface was not updating to show the rules in all cases.
3. 'Place new rule below the currently selected rule' setting was not correctly positioning new rules.
4. Adjust Intervals tool was not adjusting intervals correctly when using the Maximum Instantaneous Charge setting.
5. Lasso tool was not drawn on-screen when off-axis in the volume overview tool.
6. Not selecting a Hole Type for additional holes added by an i-kon™ Logger II import was causing a null reference exception.
7. Fixed a spelling error in the BlastIQ™ licencing dialog.
8. Grade RL was not persisting when adding holes in certain situations.
9. Wet State Tolerance was incorrectly set to 0.1 minimum value.
10. Edit opening point dialog was not opening in certain situations.
11. SHOTPlus™ was getting stuck in an infinite loop on the BlastIQ™ export dialog.
12. Removing Boretrack data from holes was not re-setting the measurements for a hole.
13. Holes were incorrectly shown as 'Overdrilled' in Hole Depth Variance View when the Measured and Design length were equal.

Released 15^th June 2023

  Fixed

1. SHOTPlus™ was not honouring existing Product Key based licences.

Released 15^th June 2023

  New

1. Added Volume Calculation 'modes' that can be adjusted to improve performance when working with SHOTPlus™ files with a large amount of holes.¹
2. Added the ability to copy BlastIQ™ Tags and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) when copying holes between plans using BlastIQ™.

  Information

1. For more information of Volume Calculation Modes in SHOTPlus™ see Knowledge Base Article, here.

  Improved

1. The Exclusion Area Tool now calculates the charge mass of decoupled explosives based on the package dimensions, rather than the blasthole dimensions.
2. Improved the 3D distance calculation between blastholes and registered Face surfaces.
3. Hole depth range is now a condition for Graphical Charging Rules.
4. Blasthole labelling in SHOTPlus™ Standard improved to align with SHOTPlus™ Professional.
5. When adding surface harness wire; users are now warned when the limit of an existing EBS lead-in is exceeded.
6. 'Set Blast Orientation' and 'Reset Orientation' added to the select tool right-click menu.
7. Improved placement of Blastholes when using the 'Add holes' tool and rotated off-axis.¹
8. Blast bounds tool ( Tools > General functions > Create blast bounds) improved:
   1. Tool can now be used to generate a blast boundary at the Hole Collar, Hole Grade, or Hole Toe level.
   2. Offset from holes can now be differential in inter-row and intra-row directions.
   3. Tool can now apply smoothing to reflect realistic dig lines.
9. Volume Overview (View > Volume overview) Improved:
   1. Added the ability to view hole volumes at different stages:
      1. Design.²
      2. Updated Design.³
      3. Drilled.⁴
   2. Updated Visibility Manager.
   3. Added 'Results Manager'.
   4. Repositioned 'Selected Volume' to Results Manager.
   5. Added the ability to limit volume to 'user defined boundaries'.⁶
10. Updated 'Design' volume to align with BlastIQ™ definition.²
11. Removed 'Actual' volume.⁷
12. Added 'Adjusted Design' volume.³
13. Added 'Drilled volume.⁴

  Information

1. When adding blastholes to a plan, it is recommended users first reset the orientation (View > Reset orientation) to ensure the application is in Bird's-eye view. When adding blastholes, in a 'Drill from bench surface' configuration, with a registered bench surface, and viewing in birds eye view, blastholes may not be located under the user's cursor.
2. Reflects the volume of a hole, based on design parameters.
3. Reflects the volume of a hole, based on all available measurements. If no measurements are available for a hole, Updated Design volume will be equal to Design volume.
4. Reflects the volume of a hole, based on Drill Data. If no drill data is available for a hole, drilled volume will be 0.
5. For more information on state volumes in SHOTPlus™ see Knowledge Base Article, here.
6. The tool uses the 'Blast bounds' and 'Blast bounds (toe)' layers to clip, or expand the volume of holes on the boundary of the blast. Not available when using the 'Design hole dimension' volume calculation method. This setting will affect volumes reported for holes in other areas of the application, but will not affect volumes reported in BlastIQ™.
7. Replaced by 'Updated Design' and 'Drilled' volume.

  Fixed

1. Graphical Charging Rules were not capturing all hole depths due to rounding of hole lengths for display.
2. Quantities Report not being updated when Loading Rule reapplication triggered due to text import.
3. Grade R.L. was not being updated when the design properties of a hole were updated.
4. Design blasthole length was not being updated correctly when the 'drill to' properties of a hole were updated.
5. Users were not prevented from entering a Grade elevation that was above the Collar elevation.
6. Holes with a Drill Adjusted Design Length were not correctly being assigned a Backfill deck in all situations.
7. Existing EBS lead-ins were changing from Logger II to Logger I when opening the EBS logging report.
8. Deleting a WebGen™ encoding sequence between two holes was deleting the exiting Encoder lead-in.
9. 'Import Carlson DRL Files' menu option missing from the Professional version of SHOTPlus™.
10. Importing TruPulse hole devaition data was incorrectly changing the 'Drill to' settings for measured holes.
11. Slice direction of measured holes was not being updated correctly based on measured data.
12. Burden indicators in the profile wizard were being projected beyond the measured face surface.

Released 1^st June 2023

  Fixed

1. WebGen™ Primers were not being shown in the EBS Logging Report.

Released 30^th May 2023

  New

1. Added support for TruPulse hole deviation data via the Hole Deviation Tool

  Improved

1. Exclusion Area Tool resized to fit to reduce blank space.

  Fixed

1. MSW Calculation was giving error under certain conditions.
2. Vibration monitoring points were removed from the Time Window if removed and then re-added to the plan.
3. Moving any entity using the 'Move Copy Entities' tool was causing a null reference exception.

Released 8^th May 2023

  Fixed

1. Exception would occur when saving files that had null values for some properties.

Released 26^th April 2023

  New

1. Addition of new plan level Hole Type specific loading Tolerances.
   1. Absolute Overweight.
   2. Absolute Underweight.
   3. Percentage Overweight.
   4. Percentage Underweight.
   5. Absolute Understemmed.
   6. Absolute Overstemmed.

  Information

1. These new loading tolerances will be exported to BlastIQ™ and can be visualised in BlastIQ™ Insights. However, notifications in BlastIQ™ Mobile will not yet be affected by these tolerances and will still be based on the plan level tolerances defined in BlastIQ™ Admin Portal.

  Improved

1. Tolerances User Interface added to 'Blast Properties' > 'Tolerances'.
2. Tolerances User Interface split into:
   1. Drilling Tolerances.
   2. Hole State Tolerances.
   3. Loading Tolerances.
3. Tolerances data entry improved to enable bulk action for multiple hole types.
4. Updated warning message when exporting plans to BlastIQ™ sites of type 'Quarry'.

  Fixed

1. Validation error shown incorrectly when importing measurements using the text importer.
2. Validation error when exporting Graphical Loading Rules to BlastIQ™.
3. In certain circumstances backfill decks added to holes were of an incorrect length.
4. An unhanded error was occurring when attempting to update SHOTPlus™ with multiple applications instances open.
5. Grade RL indicator was being removed from hole diagrams after loading was applied.
6. Drill Data tab in the Text Importer was not being disabled when importing 3D points or polylines.

Released 12^th April 2023

  New

1. SHOTPlus™ now allows multiple Profile Charging Rules to be defined.¹
2. Profile Charging Rules can now be assigned per Charging Rule.¹
3. Graphical Charging Rules can now have a 'Minimum Hole Length'.²

  Information

1. Multiple Profile Charging Rules, and the ability to assign a Profile Charging Rule per charging rule is only available when using Graphical Charging Rules. More information on Graphical Charging Rules, can be found here.
2. Minimum hole length is set per charging rule, within the 'Edit charging rule' dialog, by selecting the 'Min hole depth' button.

  Improved

1. The logic for Profile Charging Rules has been clarified via user interface improvements, and aligned with Strata Definition rules.¹
2. The logic for Strata Definition Rules has been clarified via user interface improvements.¹
3. Profile Log indicator now shows when turned on, regardless of visibility of Hole ID.
4. Minimum deck length for all Profile Alternatives is now a global setting.²
5. Lead-in indicator for WebGen™ 100 and WebGen™ 200 initiation designed changed to BID.
6. 'Profile Loading Alternative' dialog renames 'Profile Charging Rules'.
7. Users will now be given the option to choose another licencing option when failing to licence SHOTPlus™ with a BlastIQ™ Licence.
8. 'Layer' property can now be imported for Polylines via the Text Importer.
9. New loading icon added the the 'Survey Assessment'.
10. When importing new blastholes via the text importer, users can import Collar Coordinates only.³

  Information

1. Previously the logic for Profile Charging Rules and Strata Definition was not aligned. In certain circumstances this resulted in decks being positioned incorrectly when using Profile Charging Rules.
2. The Minimum deck length for all rules will override the minimum deck length for Profile Charging Rules. This can be adjusted via 'Edit' > 'Blast Properties' > 'Loading rules' and adjusting the 'Minimum deck length for all rules'.
3. The remaining, required, blasthole properties will be inferred from the 'Default Design Data' dialog.

  Fixed

1. In certain circumstances the Exclusion Area Tool was calculating an incorrect Horizontal Distance.
2. Editing multiple holes via the edit dialog tool was causing the Hole Track of all selected holes to be projected to a single point.
3. An exception was occurring when connection multiple holes for a WebGen™ 100 or WebGen™ 200 blast.

Released 3^rd April 2023

  Fixed

1. Unhandled exception related to Face Surface burden calculation was preventing some files from being saved.

Released 28^th March 2023

  Important

This upgrade will include changes affecting backward file compatibility.

SHOTPlus™ has undergone a refactor of it’s blasthole data structure. This work was undertaken to improve integration between SHOTPlus™ and BlastIQ™ to better align the information presented to users when comparing blast design information as well as blast outcomes within the BlastIQ™ ecosystem.

What does this mean for users:

• Existing files, saved in versions prior to SHOTPlus™ Beta 6.14.1, will still open in newer versions moving forward.
• Existing files, saved in the newer SHOTPlus™ Beta 6.14.1 and onwards, will no longer be compatible with prior versions.
• Existing Text Import and Text Export Templates using superseded terminology for data fields will link to data fields with new terminology on first use.

Due to the above compatibility issues it is recommended that updates of for SHOTPlus™ are completed ASAP for all users.

Detailed information of these changes can be found in this Knowledge Base Article:

SHOTPlus™ Blasthole Refactor

General information on the Beta 6.14 upgrades can be found in these release notes:

6.14.1 SHOTPlus™ Beta Release Notes

6.14.2 SHOTPlus™ Beta Release Notes

  Fixed

• In the "Profile Wizard", the "Step down burdens" were not showing to the grade level of some holes. 
• The "Profile Wizard" was incorrectly displaying items on the hole schematic.
• Holes added to rows, were being added in the incorrect location in certain situations.

  Improved

• The "Profile Wizard" tool has a few improvements:
  • "Best Available" information is used for the hole.  This does not replace the hole deviation track if available.
  • The tool now handles holes that have no "Grade RL" value.
  • Improved the look of the hole schematic by removing the toe point cross

Released 24^th March 2023

  Important

This upgrade will include changes affecting backwards compatibility.

SHOTPlus™ has undergone a refactor of it’s blasthole data structure. This work was undertaken to improve integration between SHOTPlus™ and BlastIQ™ to better align the information presented to users when comparing blast design information as well as blast outcomes within the BlastIQ™ ecosystem.

What does this mean for users:

• Existing files, saved in versions prior to SHOTPlus™ Beta 6.14.1, will still open in newer versions moving forward.
• Existing files, saved in the newer SHOTPlus™ Beta 6.14.1 and onwards, will no longer be compatible with prior versions.
• Existing Text Import and Text Export Templates using superseded terminology for data fields will link to data fields with new terminology on first use.

Due to the above compatibility issues it is recommended that updates of for SHOTPlus™ are completed ASAP for all users.

Detailed information of these changes can be found in this Knowledge Base Article:

SHOTPlus™ Blasthole Refactor

General information on the Beta 6.14 upgrades can be found in these release notes:

6.14.1 SHOTPlus™ Beta Release Notes

  Fixed

• A minor bug with the text importer had become critical with the latest blasthole refactor changes. Users were not able to import point clouds via the text importer. This has been resolved. 

Released 23^rd March 2023

  Important

This upgrade will include changes affecting backwards compatibility.

SHOTPlus™ has undergone a refactor of it’s blasthole data structure. This work was undertaken to improve integration between SHOTPlus™ and BlastIQ™ to better align the information presented to users when comparing blast design information as well as blast outcomes within the BlastIQ™ ecosystem.

What does this mean for users:

• Existing files, saved in versions prior to SHOTPlus™ Beta 6.14.1, will still open in newer versions moving forward.
• Existing files, saved in the newer SHOTPlus™ Beta 6.14.1 and onwards, will no longer be compatible with prior versions.
• Existing Text Import and Text Export Templates using superseded terminology for data fields will link to data fields with new terminology on first use.

Due to the above compatibility issues it is recommended that updates of for SHOTPlus™ are completed ASAP for all users.

Detailed information of these changes can be found in this Knowledge Base Article: SHOTPlus™ Blasthole Refactor

  New

• A blasthole data and terminology restructure has been undertaken to rationalise Design/Drill/Measurements data. The new blasthole data structure is designed to also improve integration between SHOTPlus™ and BlastIQ™. 
  • • More properties can now be stored against blastholes¹. 
    • "Actual" terminology has been removed for blasthole data².
    • "Drilled" terminology has been introduced and standardised.
    • "Measured" terminology has been introduced and standardised.
    • Introduction of "Surveyed Collar" properties.
    • Introduction of "Adjusted Design Length"³. 
    • Design hole properties can be nullable when holes are imported from BlastIQ™⁴.
• A new "Tolerances" section has been added to the "Blast Properties" settings. 
  • • Added checkbox to enable or disable, the ability to calculate tolerances using "Adjusted Design Length"³.
• Added a "Survey Assessment" workflow
  • • Users can capture plan and face views of their survey data to add to a "Survey Assessment" report. 
    • The output report will gives users a print out showing the captured images with a useful summary of survey data points⁵.
• New "Exclusion Area Tool" features:
  • • Added "Exclusion Area Tool" page to "Blast Properties". Users can define template default values to be used in the tool⁶.
    • Added "Calculation Details" when using "Blast Properties" and "Measured (where available)" for charge weight basis⁷.

  Information

1. 1. More information can be found here: SHOTPlus™ Blasthole Refactor
   2. The "Actual" terminology was previously used to describe information about holes that generally came from field data sources. It did not accurately allow for delineation of drilling and measurement data which comes from drilling operations and blasthole QAQC respectively. Additionally this missing delineation meant that some inferences had to be made about data origins when synchronising with BlastIQ™. Properties that used to be considered "Actuals" are now more accurately delineated into the "Drilled" and "Measurements" categories. "Actual Loading" properties still exist.
   3. "Adjusted Design Length" is a calculated length between new drilled or measured collar coordinates to the design toe. Backfills and redrills are calculated using this length and relevant tolerances applied. Users can view this property in the "Edit Hole" dialog or "Design History" > "Parameter Changes".
   4. In some situations, holes from BlastIQ™ may not contain "Design" properties e.g. when holes are created in the field on BlastIQ™ Mobile. SHOTPlus™ now aligns with this capability to have null "Design" properties and describes the hole from Drilled and Measured properties. However, if holes are imported via the "Text Importer", or created in SHOTPlus™, these must still have a minimum set of "Design" properties to describe the hole.
   5. Summary details include:
      • • "Count of data points" based on Data Type.
        • "Total No. Face Points".
        • "Face Point Density".
        • "Min/Max Distances Between Face Points".
        • "Interval" distances.
   6. Default values that can be defined:
      • • Flyrock Calculation Inputs.
          • Constants for - "Face bursts", "Cratering", "Stemming Ejection".
          • "Cratering Dispersion Angle".
          • "Direction of Throw".
        • "Markout" options.
          • "Safety Factor".
        • "Constant Radius" inputs
          • "Maximum Horizontal Distance"
          • "Maximum Vertical Distance"
   7. The new details dialog will list all holes and the burden distance, as well as stemming used for the flyrock distances calculation. It will also show which holes have "Actual Loaded" charge decks that were used for the calculation, indicated by the "Is Measured" field. 

  Improved

• The Edit Hole dialog has been re-designed to suit the new blasthole data structure¹.
• The Text Importer and Exporter has been updated to match the new blasthole data structure¹. 
  • • Added "Drill Data" tab which contains fields to match the new "Drill data" properties.
    • Updated Measurements tab with deprecated fields removed, and new fields added^2,3.
    • Added validation for minimum required fields when importing drilled data to ensure consistency when synchronising data to BlastIQ™⁴. 
    • If the minimum sets of drill data fields are not imported a warning message will appear. The user has the ability to continue, with the caveat that some fields will be inferred for export to BlastIQ™.
    • Added validation to check drill data being imported is for holes that already exist in the plan or is a re-drill of an existing hole.
• "Hole Table" has been updated to match the new blasthole data structure.
  • • "Drill Adjusted Design Length" has been added to the "Hole Data" tab.
    • "Actual Length" has been renamed "Measured Length".
• Other improvements on SHOTPlus™ and BlastIQ™ integration with the following:
  • • Consistency of charging rules when using "Loading Tables" and hole length intervals are not defined⁵. 
    • Added validation when exporting plan with inferred drill data to BlastIQ™. A new warning has been added when this occurs⁶.
    • Added validation when exporting plan with inferred design data to BlastIQ™. A new warning has been added when this occurs⁷.
    • Improved warning message when BlastIQ™ site has invalid Blast Control License.
• "Exclusions Area Tool" has been improved.
  • • "Exclusion Zone Tool" has been renamed to "Exclusion Area Tool" for consistency of terminology across regions. 
    • Users can now enter a different flyrock "k" factor for each flyrock mode i.e. face bursts, cratering, stemming ejection.
    • The minimum burden calculation is now much more accurate and is based on charge deck position⁸.
    • More charge deck types are considered for the flyrock calculations.
      • • Air decks that are contiguous with explosive decks are now considered as explosive decks for the purposes of the calculations⁹.
        • Decoupled explosives are treated as fully coupled explosive decks¹⁰.
    • The polygon markout logic has been improved when using the "Manual Entries" as a calculation method¹¹. 
• A new warning has been added when exporting "Charging" or "Initiation" rules to quarry type sites. This is to alert the user that the dynamic rules aren't supported, however the loading design that exists already will still be exported.
• Ability to import design holes using toe centric coordinate data¹².
• "Clear Actuals" has been removed from Edit Hole dialog, and moved to "Tools > Holes > Clear Actuals".
• Additional options have been added to "Clear Actuals"¹³.
• The 3D distance calculation used in the "Profile Wizard" and print out reports has been improved¹⁴.
• SHOTPlus™ will update the setting to use "Adjusted Design Length" calculations for backfills/re-drills based on the same imported setting from the BlastIQ™ site.
• The expanded/collapsed state of the each group in the "Filter and Search", "Visibility Manager" views will be saved and displayed again on restart of the application. 

 Information

1. 1. More information can be found here: SHOTPlus™ Blasthole Refactor
   2. The Measurements tab has had some deprecated properties removed. "Actual Length" is now named "Measured Length". "Is Redrilled" has been removed as "Redrilled of" exists.
   3. The new "Surveyed Collar" X/Y/Z data fields have been added for importing. 
   4. Validation logic is as follows:
      • Checks the minimum sets of drill data fields to be imported together. 
        

        • "Drilled Collar X", "Drilled Collar Y", "Drilled Collar Z", "Drilled Length", "Drilled Angle", "Drilled Bearing"; OR

        • "Drilled Collar Z", "Drilled Collar Y", "Drilled Collar Z", "Drilled Toe X", "Drilled Toe Y", "Drilled Toe Z".

   5. When using "Loading Tables" in charging rules, SHOTPlus™ will apply charge calculations to holes even if the hole length falls outside of the table length ranges. It does so by increasing or decreasing the nominated variable deck to suit the length of hole. However, this calculation for holes outside of the table range was not persistent in BlastIQ™ Mobile. This improvement now allows BlastIQ™ Mobile to behave the same as SHOTPlus™.
   6. When exporting plans to BlastIQ™, if there are missing drilled properties to describe a complete drilled hole geometry, SHOTPlus™ will infer them from the "Best Available" properties. A warning has been added to alert the user when this occurs. 
   7. When exporting plans to BlastIQ™, if there are missing design properties to describe a complete design hole geometry, SHOTPlus™ will inferred them from the "Best Available" fields from "Measured" or "Drill data". A warning has been added to alert the user when this occurs. 
   8. The exclusion markout polygon when using the "Blast Properties" method is based on a calculated burden for each hole. Previously the minimum burden calculation for face bursts and cratering was calculated from the entire length of hole, to vertices on the face surface. The calculation is now based on charge deck positions along the hole.
   9. As an increased safety factor consideration, air decks that are sharing common borders to explosive decks are now modelled as explosive decks for the purpose of the maximum potential flyrock calculation. The greater of the above or below immediately adjacent explosive bulk deck will be used to assign a charge mass/m to the air deck. 
   10. As an increased safety factor consideration, decoupled explosive charges, such as packaged presplits, will be modelled as fully coupled explosive decks. The charge mass/m will be recalculated from the density of the packaged product, and the volume of the deck where the packaged explosive is placed.
   11. Previously, when using the "Manual Entries" calculation method, the cratering exclusion polygon around any hole were trimmed inappropriately in the scenario where the potential face burst maximum distance was greater than the potential cratering maximum distance. This does not truly reflect the multidirectional potential for flyrock travel from cratering. The cratering exclusion polygons will now never be trimmed to better represent the true directional potential.
   12. To import toe centric coordinates for design holes, the following fields are required:
       • "Hole ID", "Toe X", "Toe Y", "Toe Z", "Angle (collar down)", "Bearing (collar down)", "Length".
   13. "Clear Actuals" now has the following options:
       • "Comments".
       • "Measured Length (formerly dip length)".
       • "Water Measurement".
       • "Temperature".
       • "Abandoned".
       • "Not Drilled".
       • "Measured Diameter".
       • "Measured Collar".
       • "Drill Data".
       • "Actual Loading".
       • "Select All (to clear all actuals from hole)".
   14. The 3D distance in the "Profile Wizard" and print outs previously calculated distances from a point along the hole to the nearest vertex of the face surface. The new calculation now makes this comparison to the closest position on the face surface itself. 

  Fixed

• When users attempted to import drill holes using toe centric coordinates, the imported holes would incorrectly interpret the toe coordinate data as collar coordinates¹. 
• Holes that were marked as "Not Drilled" or "Abandoned" were displayed in the "Analytics View" window even if the checkboxes to show these holes was turned off.
• The "Save Recovery File" time interval in "Program Settings" > "General" dialog was not obeyed. 
• Sometimes when using profile loading rules, continuous loading decks with the same product types were not merging. Editing loading decks and manually merging decks was also not working. This has been fixed. 
• When using the text importer, the preview window would not stay focused on user's horizontal scroll position. After each new column field was mapped, the preview window would  'jump' to the left, this has been fixed. 
• The "Test Rules" functionality in "Edit Loading Rules" was limiting the "Hole Types" and "Material Types" that could be tested. The maximum allowable is now 24.
• Loading comments from BlastIQ™ Mobile were not displaying in SHOTPlus™ unless the hole also had "Drilled" or "Measured" data in the import. 
• There was inconsistency in how the "Move/Copy Entities" functionality worked. 
• The "Profile Logging" dialog was not scaling the X axis correctly in the hole trace graph, causing a single loaded trace to appear hard to distinguish.
• "Monte Carlo"/"AVM" predictions were not working for plans that had holes marked as "Not Drilled", when it is should be allowed. 
• An error was being thrown when importing data that has the "Depth to Water" value = the hole length, this scenario was not handled properly. 
• The "Profile Tool" report was not printing all the necessary pages for each hole when the burden table was too long.
• The "Drill Variance (elev)" view in "Analytics View" was not highlighting holes when the variance was exactly the value used for comparison.
• "Wet Sides" rule was not applying properly in some situations

  Information

1. 1. Importing drill hole with toe centric data was never supported in the SHOTPlus™ system. In addition to fixing the bug, toe centric data import for drill holes is now supported.  

Released 21^rd March 2023

  Fixed

1. Unhandled exception when running resection report.
2. Unhandled exception when importing Pulsar data via laser wizard

Released 28^th February 2023

  Fixed

1. Grade RL input in "Edit Hole" was incorrectly handled when using Imperial display units.
2. When printing the "Row View " report, sometimes an unhandled error would occur.

Released 13^th February 2023

  Improved

1. Add the ability to submit AVM™ predictions for Vibration and Airblast based on the following loading states¹:
   
   1. Design - Prediction based on design charging and initiation information.
   2. Updated Design - Prediction based on Updated Design charging and initiation information where present.²
   3. Actual and Design - Prediction based on Actual charging and initiation information.^3,4
2. Filter and search option 'Incomplete Actuals' has been added to allow users to search for holes that do not have the required information to be submitted as an 'Actual'.
3. Added menu option to clear profile logging from multiple holes.⁵

  Information

1. 1. Loading state is selecting via a dialog when submitting a blast for prediction.
   2. Where a hole submitted does not have an Updated Design, the design will be used instead.
   3. Where a hole summitted does not have the required 'Actual' information the Updated Design (first preference) or Design (second preference) will be used.
   4. The 'Actual' information required to submit an AVM™ job based on actuals is:
      1. Actual Charge Weight for all recorded decks in a hole;
      2. Surface initiation; and
      3. Actual Initiation Time for all recorded decks in a hole. Actual initiation times can be sourced from BlastIQ™ for pyrotechnic initiators, or i-kon™ Loggers for i-kon™ initiators.
   5. Tools > Holes > Clear Profile Logging.

  Fixed

1. Time Envelope View was not scaling correctly when initiation times were adjusted with Time Window open.
2. AVM™ Modelling domain needed to be selected after each import from BlastIQ™.
3. Renaming a hole in SHOTPlus™ using the hole renaming tool was not renaming the hole correctly in BlastIQ™.
4. The loading tool was incorrectly applying a loading design to holes marked as 'Not Drilled' in certain situations.
5. Actual decks recorded in BlastIQ™ were being displayed incorrectly in certain circumstances.
6. An unhandled exception was occurring when viewing 'Actual' charge information where holes had a recorded booster only.
7. Inputting a delay for a surface EBS connection, when SHOTPlus™ was displaying imperial units, was resulting in the incorrect time being added.
8. Unhandled exception was occurring when exporting a profile log and an exported profile log file was already open.
9. Generating a custom report from the Profile Wizard was causing an unhandled exception.
10. Profile Logging Tool was incorrectly showing erroneous data points.
11. Negative profile values were not being shown in the Profile Logging Tool.
12. Generating a surface with 'Include in Surface' option selected was generating an unhandled exception in certain circumstances.
13. Importing logged detonators from an i-kon™ logger was not correctly populating the 'Actual' loading for a hole.

  Notification

SHOTPlus™ has recently undergone a refactor of it’s blasthole data structure. This work was undertaken to improve integration between SHOTPlus™ and BlastIQ™ and better align the information presented to users when comparing blast design information and blast outcomes within the BlastIQ™ ecosystem.

As a part of the refactor a number of changes have been made to clarify and standardise terminology used when importing and exporting data into and out of SHOTPlus™ via text file or from BlastIQ™. These changes include:

• Removal of ‘Actual’ terminology - ‘Actual’ was previously a mixed terminology used to define data that was sourced from a drill e.g. ‘Actual Collar X’, or was captured through a field measurement e.g. ‘Actual Length'.
• Standardisation of ‘Drilled’ - All data that has been recorded by a drilling system will now be defined as ‘Drill Data’, e.g. Drilled Length, Drilled Diameter, and Drilled Coordinates. Data imported into SHOTPlus™, via text import as Drill Data, will be exported to BlastIQ™ as having been recorded by a drilling system.
• Standardisation of ‘Measurements' - All data that has been recorded by a physical measurement will now be defined as ‘Measured’, e.g. Measured Length, and Measured Diameter. Data imported into SHOTPlus™ via text import as a Measurement will be exported to BlastIQ™ as having been recorded by a field device.
• Introduction of ‘Surveyed Collar’ - Surveyed collar has been added to the text importer for users who wish to import collar coordinates recorded by a GNSS device, but do not wish to have this data tagged as ‘Drilled’. This data does not integrate with BlastIQ™.
• Introduction of Adjusted Design Length - Where users are importing Drilled or Surveyed Collars, the Adjusted Design Length is the updated length required to reach the target toe position from the new collar position.

Due to the above changes compatibility of files generated or saved in newer versions of SHOTPlus™ may be impacted. What does this mean for you: Existing files, saved in previous versions of SHOTPlus™, will still open in newer versions of SHOTPlus™. Existing files, saved in the newer versions of SHOTPlus™, will no longer be compatible with older versions of SHOTPlus™.

Existing Text Import and Text Export Templates using superseded terminology for data fields will link to data fields with new terminology on first use. Due to the above compatibility issues it is recommended that updates of for SHOTPlus are completed ASAP for all users. The above changes will take affect in the following versions of SHOTPlus™:

1. SHOTPlus™ Beta version 6.14.1
2. SHOTPlus™ Production version 6.14.1

Released 18^th January 2023

  New

1. Ability to export profile data that exists in holes¹.
2. Ability to use a polygon to filter triangulation results based on view direction².

  Information

1. It is now possible to export hole profile data if it exists. To access, go to File > Export > Profile Logs... The option is disabled if there is no profile data against any hole.
2. In the Surface Manager, if a polygon is also selected, this can be used to filter output triangulation results. The filter logic can either be in plan (top down), or in the current view direction to filter.

  Improved

1. It is now possible to discard hole profile logs when multiple holes are selected.
2. The "Use Actual Holes Loading For Calculation" checkbox has been disabled when submitting AVM jobs¹.
3. Increased the "Screening parameter" to accept 2 decimal places in the MSW calculation dialog.
4. References to BlastIQ™ Classic or BlastIQ™ Quarry have been removed.
5. The "Quantities by Hole Type" quantities report has been improved:
   1. "Boosters" and "Initiating Systems" categories have been added.
   2. "Stemming" product summary now reports the number of holes and a volume in m³.
6. The Surface Manager tool has been improved:
   1. An information tool tip has been added to explain the "Use as Boundary" option.
   2. An information tool tip has been added to explain when to use "Best Fit". 
   3. "Use as Boundary" has been disabled if "Best Fit" triangulation is used².
   4. When a polygon has been selected, it can be used to filter points for triangulation in the users current view³.
7. The "Edit Raw Data" button has been re-enabled in the face station.

  Information

1. This checkbox was added before functionality to use actuals for AVM job submissions was fully implemented. 
2. "Best Fit" triangulation method should not be used with a polygon selected for "Use as Boundary", this could have led to undesirable results.
3. In the Surface Manager, users can create a surface with selected objects. If a polygon is also selected, this can be used to filter the input data used in the triangulation. The filter logic can either be in plan (top down), or in the current view direction to filter.

  Fixed

1. Sometimes the selection lasso can appear far from the extent of the data on screen. This has been fixed.
2. The "Expand Polygon" tool can sometimes cause overlapping points in the result. Where logical, this has been improved.
3. When importing design holes via the text importer, a message prompt alerts the user if incomplete design information is available. This message was appearing even if appropriate fields are mapped for import, this has been fixed.
4. When using surface and downhole combo detonators, the tie legend display was not printing correctly in the plan print out. 
5. When attempting to upload plans to BlastIQ™, if an i-kon™ resource exists in the upload that had a mismatched product region, an error would occur. This has been fixed. 
6.  After importing hole positions from BlastIQ™, toe points for some situations did not match.
7. Borders were not being printed when attempting to print a report on all rows in the "Row View".
8. The "Butt Check" tool was misidentifying holes even when outside search radius.
9. Hole Labels were not showing on opaque rendered surfaces.