Drill Blocks
Drill blocks allow a single blast’s drilling to be split into multiple independently-scheduled segments. Each block can have its own start date, assigned drill rigs, and per-drill penetration rates.
Screenshot coming soon
Why Split Drilling into Blocks?
In practice, a large blast may be drilled in stages for several reasons:
- Different sections of the pattern drilled by different rigs
- Scheduled around equipment maintenance windows
- Phased to allow partial loading to begin early
- Sequential blocks when rig availability is limited
Creating Blocks
- Right-click a blast name in the DRILLING section of the Gantt chart
- Select Split Drill
- The blast is divided into two blocks (A and B) with a 50/50 metre allocation
- Each block inherits the blast’s assigned drills and uses the equipment default penetration rates
To add more blocks after the initial split, right-click again and select Add Block.
Block Properties
Each block has the following properties:
| Property |
Description |
| Label |
Letter identifier (A, B, C, …) |
| Drill Start |
Start date for this block |
| Start Time |
Start time of day (e.g., “06:00”) |
| Drill Days |
Automatically calculated from metres and rates |
| Metres |
Drill metres allocated to this block |
| Assigned Drills |
Which drill rigs are assigned to this block |
| Drill Rates |
Per-drill penetration rates in m/hr |
Editing Blocks
Click the pencil icon on a block sub-row, or right-click and select Edit Block, to open the block editor. The editor allows you to:
- Change the start date and time
- Adjust the metres allocation (the editor shows remaining metres available)
- Assign or unassign drill rigs via checkboxes
- Set per-drill penetration rates (m/hr)
- See a live preview of the calculated drill days based on current settings
Screenshot coming soon
How Drill Days Are Calculated
The number of drilling days for a block is based on the total metres, assigned rigs, and effective operating hours:
- Effective hours per day = Rig Hours x Availability x Utilisation
- Metres per day = Sum of (each assigned drill’s penetration rate x effective hours)
- Drill days = Metres allocated to the block / metres per day (rounded up)
Example: With default settings (24 hours x 0.85 availability x 0.75 utilisation = 15.3 effective hours) and a single drill at 20 m/hr, one rig produces about 306 m/day.
How Blocks Affect the Blast Schedule
When blocks are modified, the parent blast automatically updates:
- Drill start is set to the earliest block start date
- Drill days spans from the earliest start to the latest block end
- Assigned drills is the combined set of all drills across all blocks
Dependency Awareness
The dependency engine uses the latest-ending block to determine when drilling is considered complete. This affects:
- When loading can start (based on the “Drill % for Load” threshold)
- When the blast can fire (based on the “Drill % for Blast” threshold)
- Maintenance warnings, which are checked per-block against each block’s specific drill assignments
Dependency connectors on the Gantt chart anchor to the last-ending block’s row.
Gantt Display
Block sub-rows appear in the DRILLING section with:
- An indented blast name prefixed with the block label:
[A] S4_226_410_V1
- Independent drill bars that can be dragged individually
- Per-block assigned drill IDs and metres shown in the Info column
Merging Blocks
To return to a single-schedule blast:
- Right-click the blast name in the DRILLING section
- Select Merge Blocks
This combines all blocks back into a single drilling schedule:
- The drill start is set to the earliest block start
- Drill days are recalculated from the total metres using effective hours
- All drill assignments from every block are combined