Chapter 8 Charting

When creating and manipulating charts within Opencontour, the user will have to familiarize themselves with Plotly Chart Studio. This integrated program allows users to create, edit, and share their chart data with others. This chapter is designed to give an overview of the relevant functions in Plotly Chart Studio with respect to a user's Opencontour project.

8.1 Charting Methods

Within Opencontour, there are currently four methods of producing a graph within Plotly:

Two Properties
Grade Tonnage Curve
Custom
Quick

This section will discuss how each of these charting functions differ from one another, and how a user can efficiently utilize them to plot their data.

8.1.1 Two Properties

The Two Properties charting method allows a user to plot two populated properties within their project against each other to see the trend between them. The resultant chart is always a scatter plot.

To access this method, simply click on the Create Charts button in the viewer, then click on the tab marked Two Properties. The window should look like this:

Two Properties Window

Two Properties Window

To input property data within these boxes, the user must type 'data.' before each of the properties themselves. For example, if they wanted to input silver as their 'X' property, they would have to type 'data.ag'.

For reference, here is what a chart might look like when plotting gold values versus their relative elevations:

Gold Grade vs. Elevation

Gold Grade vs. Elevation

NOTE: The axes and chart titles do not automatically populate for this chart and must be manually edited within Plotly Chart Studio. This will be covered more in-depth later this chapter.

8.1.2 Grade Tonnage Curve

The Grade Tonnage Curve charting method allows for the user to create their own grade tonnage curve or grade bins utilizing the data in their project.

To access this method, simply click on the Create Charts button in the viewer, then click on the tab marked Grade Tonnage Curve. The window should look like this:

Grade Tonnage Window

Grade Tonnage Window

There are 3 primary inputs that must be satisfied for this chart to populate correctly:

Grade: property that the grade tonnage curve or grade bins is based around (i.e. au, ag, cu, etc.)
Low: sets the minimum cutoff grade for the grade tonnage curve
Interval: sets the interval for cutoff grade displayed within the Plotly chart

Here is what a sample grade tonnage chart might look like for gold:

Grade Tonnage Chart

Grade Tonnage Chart

Here is what a grade bin chart would look like for the same data:

Grade Bin Chart

Grade Bin Chart

8.1.3 Custom Charts

The Custom charting feature allows the user to create their own personalized chart with multiple properties of their choosing.

To access this method, simply click on the Create Charts button in the viewer, then click on the tab marked Quick. The window should look like this:

Custom Charts Window

Custom Charts Window

This charting method allows for users to input up to 9 different properties or script expressions to display within a chart. This also requires that the user selects a grouping for each of these properties within the dropdown menu.

For example, if a user wanted to see total tons and ore tons grouped by the period that they were mined in, this is what the menu input would look like:

Custom Charts Window w/ Inputs

Custom Charts Window w/ Inputs

And this is what the chart would look like once plotted:

Custom Charts Example

Custom Charts Example

NOTE: The axes and chart titles do not automatically populate for this chart and must be manually edited within Plotly Chart Studio. This will be covered more in-depth later this chapter.

This charting window also allows users to save their own created chart template, or load in a pre-built template from Opencontour.

8.1.4 Quick Charts

The Quick charting feature allows for users to quickly create a chart by simply selecting one of the pre-built templates within Opencontour.

To access this method, simply click on the Create Charts button in the viewer, then click on the tab marked Quick. The window should look like this:

Quick Charts Window

Quick Charts Window

The table below details each of the quick charts that Opencontour currently offers:

Quick Chart Name	Description
OreWaste	Displays ore and waste by each period
GradeProfit	Displays comparison of grade to profit/ton of each block
Grades	Displays mined/processed ore for each year, along with their average mined/processed grade
TnsByPhase	Displays total tonnage mined in each phase
Costs	Displays total cost per period broken up by areas such as process, load, drill, blast, haul, etc.
CostPerTon	Displays total cost per year broken up by areas such as process, load, drill, blast, haul, etc.
MinedProcessTns	Displays mined/processed ore for each year, along with cumulative mined/processed tons
Destination	Displays routing destination of the ore
Stockpiles	Displays breakdown of mined, processed, and stockpile size by ROM type
Truckstudy	Displays how many truck hours are required for each period, blocked out in down, standby, productive, and non-productive time
TruckCount	Displays how many trucks are required for each period, blocked out in down, standby, productive, and non-productive time
Bench	Displays what elevation was mined during each period
Shovel	Displays total ore mined by shovel in each period
PhaseCashFlow	Displays costs and revenue for each phase, as well as cumulative cash flow and NPV
Cashflow	Displays cash flow for each period broken down by revenue, opex, capex, fixed mine/process, cumulative cash flow, and NPV
CashFlowByPhase	Displays cash flow as a line throughout each period

Here are several examples of what these charts look like when viewed:

Grades Quick Chart

Grades Quick Chart

MinedProcessTns Quick Chart

MinedProcessTns Quick Chart

Cashflow Quick Chart

Cashflow Quick Chart

8.2 Accessing Plotly Chart Studio

Though Opencontour does provide all the charting features as stated above, a user may want to customize their chart with their own color scheme, axes and chart titles, and other features that make it unique.

To do this, they will need to access Plotly Chart Studio from Opencontour. To access Plotly Chart Studio, simply click the button labeled Edit Chart that is displayed in the bottom right corner of every generated chart within Opencontour.

Edit Chart Button

Edit Chart Button

Clicking this button should re-direct the user to a page that looks like this:

Plotly Chart Studio Main Window

Plotly Chart Studio Main Window

8.3 Creating a Plotly Account

After navigating to this window, the user should then click the Create Account button in the top right corner of the screen. Though an account is not required to access Plotly Chart Studio, it does give the user access to features such as saving work, exporting files, and creating a unique theme within Plotly.

NOTE: When creating an account, Plotly will give multiple plans for the user to choose from. The free, Open-Source plan is more than sufficient to use for one's Opencontour project.

When creating an account, Plotly will ask for the following information:

First Name
Last Name
Organization Name
Role
Organization Email
Username
Password

Once this information has been entered, Plotly will send a verification email to the provided email address. Be sure to click on the link in the email to verify the account.

8.4 Plotly Chart Studio Functions Overview

This section will outline each of the functions offered in Plotly Chart Studio to assist in manipulating chart data.

8.4.1 Structure

Traces

The Traces section contains each variable in the chart with the following parameters to edit:

Chart Type
Axis Variable Assignment
Axes Being Used (and their names)

You can also add new traces to an existing chart using the +Trace button.

Traces Bar

Traces Bar

Subplots

Boundaries:
- Allows you to format size of each axis as well as how much room chart takes up in window
X Anchor:
- Gives option to anchor the labels to a given Y or other axis
Y Anchor:
- Gives option to anchor the labels to a given X or other axis

Subplots Bar

Subplots Bar

Transform

The Transform bar gives the user 4 options to uniquely manipulate data:

Filter: allows user to filter data out of a trace
Split: allows user to create multiple traces from a single source trace
Aggregate: allows user to summarize a trace using function such as “average” or “minimum”
Sort: allows user to sort a trace to control marker overlay or line connection order

Transform Bar

Transform Bar

8.4.2 Theme

Choose

Choose allows a user to select a built-in or imported theme to use in their plotly project NOTE: To use a personal or shared theme requires a paid membership

Choose Bar

Choose Bar

Create

Create allows the user to create and share their own themes. However, this is a paid feature only.

8.4.3 Style

General

Defaults:
- Allows user to change background/chart colors, text size/font, number formatting, etc.
Title:
- Allows user to change title description, font, color, positioning, etc.
Modebar:
- The mode bar is located in upper-right hand corner of every plotly graph, which allows users to interact with it in various ways
- This option allows the user to customize its orientation and colors
Size and Margins:
- Allows user to customize extents and margins of project view
Interactions:
- Allows users to select different options for dragging, clicking, and hovering functionalities
Meta Text:
- Allows user to refer to custom data in any text fields of editor

General Bar

General Bar

Traces

For each trace in Traces, user can edit the following properties:

Name
Legend (Legend Group)
Display Type (Lines, Points, Text, etc.)
Bar Grouping and Stylization
Points (color, size, style, etc.)
Hover/Tooltip
More

Traces Bar

Traces Bar

Axes

Axes allows for editing of following axis features:

Titles, font, color
Range/Type
Lines (Axis Lines, Zero Line, Grid Lines)
Tick Labels / Tick Markers
Range Slider
Spike Lines

Axes Bar

Axes Bar

Legend

Legend allows for editing of following legend features:

Text Size/Color
Legend Box Width/Color
Positioning (Horizontal/Vertical)
Orientation

Legend Bar

Legend Bar

8.4.4 Annotate

Text

Text allows the user to create and position text and arrows to highlight certain aspects of their data. Add additional annotations by selecting the +Annotation button.

Text Bar

Text Bar

Shapes

Shapes allows the user to add shapes to highlight certain aspects of their data. Add additional shapes by pressing the +Shape button.

Shape Bar

Shape Bar

Images

Images allows the user to customize charts with their own logos or images. Add additional images by pressing the +Image button.

Image Bar

Image Bar

8.4.5 Analyze

Curve Fitting

Curve Fitting allows the user to fit a curve to their dataset. They can choose between basic pre-built functions (linear, quadratic, exponential, etc.) and inputting a custom function.

Curve Fitting Bar

Curve Fitting Bar

Moving Average

Moving Average allows the user to input a moving average line into their data. This function is only compatible with scatter and line charts.

Moving Average Bar

Moving Average Bar

8.4.6 Export

Image

Image allows the user to save an image of their chart as a PNG, PDF, SVG, or EPS file.

Image Bar

Image Bar

HTML

HTML allows the user to save an HTML or Zip Archive file of their project.

HTML Bar

HTML Bar

8.4.7 JSON

Tree

Tree displays a JSON editor that allows you to manipulate all previously mentioned functions.

Tree Bar

Tree Bar

8.5 Tutorial Project Part 6: Creating Charts

This part of the project will outline how the user can access the Create Charts module to view their scheduled and scripted mine plan.

8.5.1 Schedule Quick Charting

Once scripting is completed, exit the module. Then, navigate over to the Create Charts module
Click on the Quick tab. It will look something like this: