What is PerfectDig?

PerfectDig is intuitive software for evaluating and supporting design conformance. It is designed to foster real time decision making by comparing as builts with designs in the field or in the office.

Two PerfectDig applications have been designed to allow sites to work in different ways.

PerfectDig Field works with ‘real time’ data from an I-Site 8800, 8810 or 8820 laser scanner. A ruggedised tablet has an easy to use interface for immediately comparing mining to design in the field.  

PerfectDig Office uses existing image data (laser scans, surfaces, airborne lidar point clouds or UAV data) and compares this with the mine design on an office PC.

How does PerfectDig work?

PerfectDig takes 3D image data and compares it with a mine design to generate pictures that clearly show areas of conformance, underdig and overdig. The result is augmented reality for the mining industry.

What does augmented reality mean?

The pictures produced by PerfectDig use a photograph - the current reality - augmented with various overlays to provide extra information.

Typically these show areas of conformance, underdig and overdig. The user can turn on additional layers to display underdig and overdig volumes, and how the design surface looks in-situ.

This approach of overlaying extra information in its correct spatial location on an image or a display is known as augmented reality.

What input formats are accepted?

PerfectDig Field requires input data from an I-Site laser scanner in order to facilitate near real time processing.

PerfectDig Office accepts image data such as laser scans, existing surfaces, airborne lidar point clouds or UAV data.

The mine design must be in .00t, .dxf or .dwg format for both PerfectDig Field and Office.

What steps are involved for using PerfectDig Field?

Drive to the area of interest and scan the area. The PerfectDig software communicates with the I-Site laser scanner and GPS.  

PerfectDig automatically registers the scan data to the design by using existing reference data of the surrounding area. If this is not available, a scan taken from two or more overlapping locations will register the data.

PerfectDig automatically processes the scene, and generates high quality conformance layer imagery. This allows users to see problem areas at a glance.

Cross-sections, distance to design and two-point distance queries can be made in the vehicle or in the office.

The intuitive wizard interface readily creates conformance reports.

Scenes and conformance reports can be uploaded to PerfectDig Online through a single click (on the tablet) in the vehicle (subject to internet connectivity) or in the office.

What equipment do I need to use PerfectDig?

PerfectDig Field requires an I-Site 8800, 8810 or 8820 laser scanner and GPS connection. The tablet is included in the PerfectDig Field package.

For safe, in-vehicle operation, the standard I-Site vehicle mount is recommended. Using PerfectDig Field with tripod setup is also possible.  

PerfectDig Office uses existing image data from various sources, and is designed to be run on a desktop PC.

How does the software know what my mine design is?

The design is specified when creating a PerfectDig scene, either by importing a .00t, .dxf or .dwg file or using a design stored in the software.

How long does it take to do a comparison using PerfectDig Field?

The scene is ready for viewing in 5 minutes. Where greater accuracy is desired, users may perform a higher resolution scan. This results in a corresponding increase in time; 10 minutes is typical.

What tools are available to compare the mine design to excavation?

Tools in PerfectDig include cross-section, blockline and distance to design options to help users easily measure and report volumes, depth and width of areas of non conformance.

What type of mine can PerfectDig be used in?

Any type of mine where there are exposed excavation surfaces, including dredging operations.

How do I generate conformance reports?

The conformance report wizard is launched from within PerfectDig, and guides users through the process of specifying the input (design, blocklines and as-built data) and defining the area of interest. The report preview allows users to further annotate report sections.

The report may then be published directly to PerfectDig Online through a single click, or saved to a PDF.

How do I share data with stakeholders that don’t have PerfectDig?

PerfectDig Online enables scenes and reports to be published online. These are hosted on a secure server and available to an unlimited number of internal users.  

The scenes hosted on PerfectDig Online maintain the same interactive views. Cross-sections can be queried through a web browser. Snapshot links allow the exact view of a scene to be shared through a short link suitable for email or SMS.