Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Getting Started 2
2.1 Downloading Vantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 Installing Vantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.3 Starting in Vantage for the first time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4 Vantage layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.4.1 Projects Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4.2 3D Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4.3 Information Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4.4 Properties Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4.5 Services Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3 Creating a Vantage project 16

3.1 Empty Vantage project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.2 Config based Vantage project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4 Loading events 21
4.1 Local IMS Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2 Remote IMS Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

5 Configs 28
5.1 Downsync configs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

6 Vantage Components 31
6.1 Vantage Project ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.2 Folder ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.3 Lines ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6.3.1 Decimate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6.4 Site ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.5 Plane ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.5.1 Edit Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.5.2 Create Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.5.3 View from top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.6 Box ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.6.1 Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.6.2 Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6.6.3 Create Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6.6.4 Create Poly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.6.5 Edit Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.6.6 Move along axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.6.7 View from top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6.6.8 Fill with points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6.7 Polygon ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6.7.1 View from top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.7.2 Fill with points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.7.3 Edit Poly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.8 Ellipsoid ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.9 Mesh ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
6.9.1 Event Gridding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
6.9.2 Delete Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6.9.3 Mesh Data Column ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6.9.4 Mesh Data ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
 6.10 Production ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6.11 Events ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
6.11.1 Manage Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
6.11.2 Update and Refresh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6.11.3 Add Filtered Subset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6.12 Filtered subsets ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
6.12.1 Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
6.12.2 Colour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.12.3 Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.13 Points ( ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

7 Event filtering 67
7.1 Temporal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.2 Parameter-based . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.3 Spatial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

8 Clustering 78
8.1 Single link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.2 K-means . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
8.3 Statistical Flaring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
8.4 Grid based . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

9 Viewpoints 84
9.1 Project Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
9.2 Component Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

10 Charts 87
10.1 Managing Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
10.2 Chart Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
10.2.1 Time History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
10.2.2 Size Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
10.2.3 Log (Energy) vs Log (Potency) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

11 Options 92

12 Help 94

References 94
Vantage User Guide

1 Introduction
IMS Vantage is a visualization and analysis toolkit used to explore and understand micro-seismicity both spatially and
temporally within a 3D volume of rock, such as a mine (e.g. Figure 1). Its intuitive user interface is designed to quickly
get you started while still enabling you to delve deeper when necessary. It allows for integration with the rest of the
IMS seismic system, including IMS Trace and IMS Database Server.

Figure 1: This figure highlights some of the visualization and analysis capabilities of IMS Vantage

A few notable features include:

• Seamless integration with the IMS seismic system, including seismic databases via IMS Database Server.
• Visualization options including contours, isosurfaces and hyperstreamlines.
• Time histories of seismicity together with other user data such as blasting/production
• Filtering events spatially, by time or by using event parameters.
• Advanced cluster analysis of seismicity.
• Export analysis results to spreadsheets importables.
• Animation of seismicity together with mine plans, contours and isosurfaces.
• All analyses are quantified with the relevant statistics.
• Unique integration ability for users who also have IMS Trace or IMS Database Server. In particular, users who
have IMS Database Server visible to their local network, need not use classical EVP/EVS files to update their
event sets, but do so directly over an HTTP connection.

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2 Getting Started
2.1 Downloading Vantage
IMS currently caters for both 32-bit (“i386”) and 64-bit (“amd64”) operating systems under Windows and Linux. The
relevant installers can be found on the IMS website at http://www.imseismology.org/download-vantage/. Note
that no Mac installers currently exist, but may become available in the future.

Figure 2: Vantage download website (http://www.imseismology.org/download-vantage/)

2.2 Installing Vantage

Execute the Vantage installer downloaded in sub-section 2.1, triggering the welcome screen (Figure 3). In Linux, you
may need to ensure that the installer file’s permissions allow executing as a program. Click the “Next” button to begin
the installation process.

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Figure 3: Vantage installation welcome screen.

Note that under a Windows operating system, it will warn of an untrusted source security message.
The following dialog outlines the License Agreement (Figure 4) and should be read carefully. Accept the terms by
checking the box and click “Next” to continue the installation (as shown in Figure 4).

Figure 4: Vantage installation license agreement page

The following dialog (Figure 5) allows you to choose a directory into which IMS Vantage will be installed. A
option to create a desktop icon and add a shortcut in the start menu, can also be selected here. Click the “Next” button
to continue the installation.

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Figure 5: Vantage installation directory selection, icon and shortcut creation page

To start the installation process, click the “Install” button on the next dialog (Figure 6). Figure 7 shows an example
of the progress of the installation that is then shown.

Figure 6: Vantage installation summary page

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Figure 7: Vantage installation progress page

Once the installation process has completed, a dialog, as shown in Figure 8 will appear. IMS Vantage will, by
default, launch after the installation in complete and the “Finish” button is selected, to disable this behaviour, deselect
the check-box in this final dialog.

Figure 8: Vantage installation complete page

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2.3 Starting in Vantage for the first time

The splash screen (Figure 9), at startup, shows the progress of the Vantage modules being loaded.

Figure 9: Vantage splash screen which is displayed on loading.

The first time Vantage starts, it is required that the License Agreement (Figure 10) is read and all the terms are
agreed to.

Figure 10: Vantage License Agreement dialog. It is highly recommended that users read this agreement carefully.

Vantage should now load as seen in Figure 11. Balloon dialogs, that appear in the bottom-right of the status bar,
are used to notify the user of important information. The first balloon dialog recommends that you to customise your
user interface (UI) level. The purpose of the UI level is to ease users that are not experts into the Vantage interface.
Click on the balloon dialog (should the dialog have disappeared, an icon in the status bar can be clicked to re-open this

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notification). This opens the options tab, as seen in Figure 12. Drag the slider to your preferred user level based on the
features of Vantage you wish to utilise, then click “OK” to apply this setting. The UI level may be changed at any time
through “Tools” → “Options” → “Miscellaneous” → “User Interface” or alternatively via “Help” →”UI Level” (as
outlined in section 12).

Figure 11: Vantage application upon first loading with a dialog recommending the user to customise the UI level.

Figure 12: Options dialog for customising user UI level.

Vantage requires that updates to the software are made, these updates will include new features, but also potential
bug fixes. It is therefore recommended that the updates are made whenever they are available. Note that the availability

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of updates may depend on a correctly configured proxy server, and Vantage being set up to know about it. Any
available updates will appear via a balloon dialog from the status bar in the bottom right (Figure 13), click on this
dialog to perform any available application updates. Should this balloon dialog have disappeared, the icon in the status
bar can be clicked to re-open the notification. Updates may also be made by selecting “Help” →”Check for Updates”
in the menubar at the top.

Figure 13: Vantage showing that updates to the application are available.

The update dialog will appear with a list of available updates (e.g. Figure 14), click “Next” to continue and agree
to the terms in the subsequent dialogs.

Figure 14: List of available updates for Vantage.

After performing updates, Vantage needs to restart. If the restart is not done by manually closing Vantage and
reopening it, it may be performed at any stage through the balloon dialog (Figure 15). To perform the application
restart, click on the dialog. Vantage will restart and apply the new updates that you performed.

Figure 15: Balloon dialog after performing updates requesting a restart of Vantage, click this dialog to do so.

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2.4 Vantage layout

Vantage is made up of various windows, each with their own unique function. These windows can be moved and
manipulated as per user preference. The main windows used in Vantage include: “Projects”, “3D Window” and
“Information” windows (see Figure 16). Figure 16 also highlights the various bars used in Vantage (e.g. menu-,
tool- and status bars). Other notable and useful windows include the “Properties” and “Services” windows. All these
windows can be found via the “Window” menu in menubar. Windows can also be moved around the application as
per user preference. For more details about each of the windows and what they display see Subsections below.

Figure 16: Main windows used in Vantage.

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2.4.1 Projects Window

The “Projects” window is the main display of the hierarchical structure (tree view) of the components making up
the Vantage project (Figure 17). It is in this window that new components can be added to the project, components
imported from files, deleted from the project, renamed or set as visible or not in the 3D Window, for example. For
details of the types of components that can make up a Vantage project see section 6. Components that can be visualised
in the 3D environment can be set to visible or invisible using the checkbox alongside the component in the tree.

Figure 17: Example of a Projects window in Vantage.

The “Projects” window has a toolbar with access to some very useful tools. These tools are outlined below:
Open Vantage Project: This tool opens a file chooser to select a Vantage project to be opened.

Navigate to Viewpoint: This tool sets the perspective of the 3D environment to the saved Viewpoint of the currently
selected component in the tree.
Save Viewpoint: This saves the current Viewpoint of the 3D environment as the preferred Viewpoint for the cur-
rently selected component in the tree.

Delete: This deletes the currently selected component in the tree. A confirmation dialog will pop-up as per normal.
Properties: This opens the properties dialog of the currently selected component in the tree.

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2.4.2 3D Window
The “3D Window” visually displays, with the use of Java3D, components (set as visible) found in the “Projects”
window (Figure 18). The 3D environment can be navigated through using various mouse actions within the window,
as follows:
• To zoom in and out, scroll down and up respectively using the mouse-wheel (or click the mouse-wheel button
and move the mouse backwards and forwards respectively).
• To rotate the 3D environment, hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse in the direction you wish
to rotate.
• To move the viewpoint around without adjusting it’s orientation (within that plane), hold down the right mouse
button and move the mouse in the direction you wish to rotate.

Figure 18: Example of a 3D window in Vantage.

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The coordinate system axes are overlayed in the bottom left-hand corner of the current viewpoint (and change as
you rotate the 3D environment). The azimuth and plunge angles of the viewpoint are also given here. Viewpoints along
certain axes (e.g. Looking North, Looking East etc.) can be quickly accessed by clicking on the letters alongside the
coordinate system axes.
The 3D Window also has it’s own toolbar containing tools specific to the 3D environment. These tools are outlined
below:

Zoom Extents (View Everything): This tool zooms the viewpoint to show every visible component in the 3D
environment in Plan View (see below).

Plan View: This tool changes set the viewpoint looking down on the 3D environment (along the up-down axis).

Section View (East): This tool changes set the viewpoint looking from the eastern direction of the 3D environment
(along the east-west axis).
Section View (North): This tool changes set the viewpoint looking from the northern direction of the 3D environ-
ment (along the north-south axis).
Set Center (Point of Rotation): This tool set the center of rotation, so that any subsequent rotation of the 3D
environment will rotate around this point.
3D View Navigator: This opens a dialog (see Figure 19) that can be used to navigate the 3D environment (ro-
tation/zooming) using buttons - this is particularly useful for fine navigation. In the dialog, the sliders can be
scrolled to rotated or zoom the 3D environment, but exact values can also be entered into the textfield.
Data Prober: This tool can be used to display information from a data containing component (e.g. Mesh, see
Subsection 6.9 for details on Mesh objects) in the 3D environment. Note that this engages the data probing
mode, which can be exited by clicking on “Exit” at the top-left of the 3D environment (or by reclicking the
toolbar button).
Point Picker: This tools engages the point picker mode, whereby multiple points in 3D space can be highlighted and
stored. Note that the point picker mode can be exited by clicking on “Exit” at the top-left of the 3D environment
(or by reclicking the toolbar button) and the previous point picked can be undone by clicking “Undo Last Pick”
here.
Length Calculator: This tool can be used to determine distances between two point in the 3D environment. A
start point (green dot) and endpoint (red dot) must be selected. The distance is then displayed in a text-box
alongside the endpoint. The distance is given in the distance unit of the Vantage project. To disengage the
Length Calculator mode, click the tool (now with “stop” overlayed on the icon) again.
Create Snapshot: Take screen-shots of the 3D environment to be saved as an image file.
/ Projection: Toggle between orthogonal and perspective projections. Orthogonal projection is a form of parallel
projection, where all the projection lines are orthogonal to the projection plane. Perspective projection can be
used to mirror how the eye sees, by the use of one or more vanishing points. A typical example is a set of train
tracks. When one looks down a stretch of tracks they appear to converge on the horizon, while in reality the rails
remain parallel.

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Figure 19: The 3D View Navigator dialog for navigating the 3D environment. A screenshot of the 3D environment can also be taken.

2.4.3 Information Window

The “Information” window displays details about the currently selected component in the “Projects” window or
selected events in the “3D Window”. For Filtered Subsets (see sub-section 6.12), the information window can also
display a legend for the colouring of the filtered events. For example, Figure 20 shows an information window of an
Events component (for details on an events component see sub-section 6.11).

Figure 20: Example of an information window of a Events component in Vantage.

Each information window is different for different types of components depending on the properties of the com-
ponent. Some component details displayed in the information window, are editable in the “Properties” window. Note
that some information displays (such as Point Picker mode or Mesh Data displays) may add additional buttons/options
to the toolbar inside the information display. For example for the case of Point Picker mode, this may allow the user to
save the current selection of points to a text file, or embed them as a points set inside a current open Vantage project.

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2.4.4 Properties Window

The “Properties” window outlines the properties of the components and provides a platform for editing certain pa-
rameters (note that grayed-out parameter fields are not editable). For example, the “Properties” window of a Site
component (for more details on a Site component see Subsection 6.4) is shown in Figure 21. When editing certain
parameters, parameter specific editing dialogs can be used by clicking on the “...” button on the right-hand side of
the parameter’s text-field (for example for the colour parameter, the colour palette dialog opens). If the “Properties”
window is not visible, it can be opened via the “Window” menu in menubar.

Figure 21: Example of a Properties window of a Site component in Vantage. Note that a description of the meaning of each field is
shown when the property is highlighted.

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2.4.5 Services Window

The “Services” window is used to manage the remote IMS Database Servers and databases that have been opened. For
more details on how this window is used see Subsection 4.2 on importing events from a Remote IMS Database on an
IMS Database Server. Figure 22 shows an example of the “Services” window, showing a remote IMS Database Server
with the name “DatabaseServerName” and address “ims.database.server.address.org” (port 8002).

Figure 22: Example of an Services window in Vantage - showing a remote IMS Database Server.

You are now ready to begin working in Vantage!

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3 Creating a Vantage project

This section outlines how to create a new Vantage project. To create a new Vantage project with settings configured
and components populated (e.g. mine plans) from local config files, see Subsection 3.2 below.

3.1 Empty Vantage project

To create an new empty Vantage project, click “File” in the menubar, select “New” → “Project” (Figure 23).

Figure 23: Creating a new empty project in Vantage

This should pop-up a wizard as shown in figure 24. Choose a directory and name for this project and click “Next”.

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Figure 24: Setting a project directory and name.

Details of the native mine settings used by the IMS are stored and associated with a network. Search for and
select a network for this Vantage project (Figure 25), alternatively use the default network or uncheck the box to use
a network for this project. Should the list of possible networks not be populated or the network you are looking for is
not listed here, you may need to synchronise your local configs from a database server (for more details see section 5).
Otherwise, please contact support@imseismology.org.

Figure 25: Choosing a network.

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Finally, configure the project settings (coordinate system, unit of measurement and time zone) appropriate to your
system (Figure 26). Click “Finish” to complete the process.

Figure 26: Project settings

This will create an empty Vantage project as seen in Figure27.

Figure 27: New empty Vantage project titled “example”

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3.2 Config based Vantage project

In order to create a new config based Vantage project populated with components (e.g. mine plans and sensor sites)
from local configuration files (configs), click “File”→“New” → “Project (configs based)” - shown in Figure 28.

Figure 28: Creating a new config based Vantage project.

Ensure that local configs are available and up-to-date for this function (for details on how to sync configs see section
5) - an error message will warn you should this not be the case (Figure 29).

Figure 29: Config files to create the Vantage project were not found.

Much like the new empty project wizard in Subsection 3.1, a new config based project wizard will appear, but
without the final dialog for system settings (as these details will be collected from the configs). Follow the instructions
outlined in Subsection 3.1 and after completing the wizard, a new Vantage project will be created and populated with
mine plans and sites from available configs (Figure 30). In the “Projects” window, the created “example” Vantage
project with two sub-directories, “Plans” and “Sensor Sites”, can be seen in in Figure 30. The content of these folders
is explored by clicking on the triangle next to the folder - this expands the tree view.

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Figure 30: Config based Vantage project titled “example” with populated mine plans and sensor sites loaded from the configs.

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4 Loading events
Vantage supports various ways to load events, i.e. using an IMS Database or importing either .evp or .evs files. In this
section, only loading events via an IMS Database is covered.

4.1 Local IMS Database

Events can be loaded directly from an available IMS Database found locally on a computer. Right-click on the project
node in the “Projects” window or any folder within the project (should you wish to import the events into that folder)
and select “Import” (or select the import button in the toolbar, ) then choose → “Events” → “Local IMS Database”
(as shown in Figure 31).

Figure 31: Loading events from a database found locally on the computer.

Use the file chooser dialog to navigate to the local directory containing the IMS Database and select it. A dialog,
requesting a time range over which to import events from the database, will appear (Figure 32). This time range is
determined by counting back the specified number of days from current time.

Figure 32: Event time range dialog.

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Click “OK” to load the events. The created Events component is now visible in the Projects window, as shown in
Figure 33. For more details on an Events component, see Subsection 6.11.

Figure 33: Events component created after importing from a IMS Database.

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4.2 Remote IMS Database

Events can be imported directly from an IMS Database Server (Synapse Server). To do so in Vantage, the following
steps need to be taken:
Vantage will need to be configured the first time this functionality is used and will require additional plugins. The
plugins are installed by selecting “Tools” → “Plugins” via the menubar (Figure 34).

Figure 34: Plugins option in the Tools section of the menubar

Select the “Available Plugins” tab and in the search bar type “remote”. The following plugins should be listed:
• IMS Remote Config API (REST)

• IMS Remote Config API

• IMS Remote Database API
• IMS Remote Config GUI

• IMS Remote Database GUI

Check all the plugins and click “Install” (Figure 35).

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Figure 35: Remote plugins needed to be installed.

Click “Next” (Figure 36a), accept the license agreement, click “Install” (Figure 36b) and then “Continue” to
perform the installation (Figure 36c). Finally click “Finish” to complete the process.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 36: Series of dialogs to navigate through to install the remote plugins.

The final step required before loading seismic events is to setup the remote database server. Note that if any other
IMS software packages already have an IMS Database Server added, this server’s details will be available in Vantage
as this information is shared between the software packages. A IMS Database Server can be added, in two ways, as
follows:
Open the “Services” window via “Window”→ “Services” in the menubar.
• Should the IMS Database Server be on the same local area network (LAN), the server could be located automat-
ically by right-clicking on “Servers” and select “Detect Servers” (as shown in the menu of Figure 37).

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• Alternatively, an IMS Database can be added manually. Right click on “Servers” and select “Add new IMS
Database Server” (Figure 37).

Figure 37: Adding a new IMS Database Server in Vantage.

In the wizard dialog (Figure 38a), add a description (display name) for the database server and click “Next”. Figure
38b shows the next wizard dialog in which the database server details need to be filled in. Provide the database server’s
address and port number and then click “Finish”. Please contact support@imseismology.org if these details are not
known.

(a) (b)

Figure 38: New IMS Database Server wizard dialogs.

Events are imported from the database server by right-clicking on the project node in the Projects window or any
folder within the project (should you want to import the events into that folder) and select “Import”, or select the
import button in the toolbar ( ), then choose→ “Events” → “Remote IMS Database” (option shown in shown in
Figure 39).

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Figure 39: Importing events from a remote IMS Database on an IMS Database Server.

In the subsequent dialog, find the IMS Database under the IMS Database Server that you just added and click “OK”
(Figure 40).

Figure 40: Selecting a IMS Database from the available IMS Database Servers from which to import events.

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Another dialog, requesting a time range over which to import events from the database, will appear (Figure 32).
This time range is determined from a certain number of days from current time. Click “OK” to load the events. An
Events component will be created in the Projects window, similarly as shown in Figure 33.

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5 Configs
Configuration files, or config files, are used to store the core information of a mine in one single, shared place on a IMS
Database Server. The config files store important information, e.g. mine plans and site/sensor information, that can be
used to automatically populate a new Vantage project with this information (see Subsection 3.2). A copy of the configs
is stored on the computer running Vantage, reducing the overhead of accessing files over the network. It is, however,
important to have an up-to-date copy of the configs, therefore it is recommended that configs are down-synced through
an IMS Database Server in Vantage.

5.1 Downsync configs

A remote IMS Database Server is required to downsync configs. To confirm if a remote IMS Database server is
available, refer to the “Services” window. If no servers are listed under “Servers” (like “DatabaseServerName”
shown in Figure 41), follow the procedure described in Subsection 4.2 to add a new remote IMS Database Server. Once
an IMS Database Server appears under “Servers” in the “Services” window, the configs files can be down-synced as
follows:
Click on “Tools” → “Downsync configs from” → and select the IMS Database Server from this list (as shown in
Figure 41).

Figure 41: How to downsync config files from an IMS Database Server in Vantage.

All the configs that require updating can be checked in the “Config Synchronisation Settings” dialog (Figure 42).
The items listed under “Network” are mine specific, while the “Global” items are more general. The click “OK” to
initiate the process.

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Figure 42: Dialog for setting which config files to sync from the IMS Database Server.

A progress bar will appear in the statusbar indicating that the config files are busy syncing from the server (as
shown in Figure 43).

Figure 43: Progress bar in the statusbar indicating that config files are busy downsyncing from the IMS Database Server.

Alternatively, one can right-click on the IMS Database Server in the “Services” window and select “Downsync
Configs” (shown in Figure 44) to simply downsync configs just for that associated network (denoted as “Networks”
in Figure 42).

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Figure 44: How to downsync config files from an IMS Database Server in Vantage via the “Services” window.

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6 Vantage Components
All Vantage components share some common actions (if you right-click on them) that can be applied to most of them,
namely, “Show All”, “Hide All”, “Properties”, “Delete” and “Rename”. These actions are outlined as follows:
Show All: This action sets the component (and each component under it) to visible in the 3D environment.
Hide All: This action sets the component (and each component under it) to invisible in the 3D environment.
Properties: Opens a dialog detailing all the properties of the component. The common properties of multiple
components, all of the same type, can be viewed together when selected together (using the SHIFT or CTRL
keys). These properties can equivalently be seen in the “Properties” window (outlined in Subsection 2.4.4).
Delete: This action removes the component from the project. A warning dialog will appear to confirm that the
component should be deleted. This action cannot be undone, so deleting important components should be done
carefully.
Rename: This action pops-up a dialog with a text field for a new name to be entered and then renames the component
to the name provided.
Another common action that can be performed on most visual component is the “Export” function:
Export: This is used to export the details of the component to file. Each component has it’s own file format to which
it exports. This action opens a dialog for the user to select a directory into which the file will be saved.
Furthermore, many Vantage components that are displayed in the 3D environment have some shared visual properties,
namely: transparency, base colour, line width and line pattern. These properties are outlined below:
Transparency This property sets how much light an objects lets through. Transparency values range from 0.0 to 1.0,
with 0.0 not all allowing any light to pass though the object (completely opaque) and 1.0 allowing all light to
pass through it (completely transparent).
Colour This represents the colour the object will appear as in the 3D environment. It is defined by an red, green and
blue values ranging between 0 and 255, but can also be set using custom colour palette.
Width The line width property sets the thickness of the lines of the object (with values ranging from 0.1 to 10.0).
Pattern This property sets the type of line from the following options: solid, dotted, dashed, dash-dot.
The above visual properties can be quickly changed when a node is selected in the tree using the visual toolbar, shown
in Figure 45, by either clicking on or mouse-wheeling on the appropriate box. Note that only the visual properties
that can be changed for a certain component will be shown in the visual toolbar, for example in Figure 45 a Polygon
component is selected (see Subsection 6.7 for more details on Polygons) and the line pattern property is grayed-out as
this visual property can’t be set for a Polygon component.

(a) (b)

Figure 45: The visual toolbar used to quickly change visual properties of a selected component. In (b) the line width property is
being changed using the visual toolbar.

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6.1 Vantage Project ( )

The Vantage Project component is the root of every Vantage project. From here: the properties of the project can be
changed (time zone, coordinate system and unit of measurement), the seismic parameters can be changed, viewpoints
for the project can be saved and loaded (see Subsection 9.1), the toolbox of filters used in spatial event filtering accessed
(see Subsection 7.3), and the creation of new, or importing from file, of components directly under the project node.
Since a Project component is the root node of a Vantage project, it can only be made by creating a new Vantage Project
(for detail see section 3). Note, the Project component cannot be deleted or renamed.

6.2 Folder ( )
The Folder component is the simplest component in Vantage and is used to organise other components in a Vantage
project. A Folder component only has one property - its name. That having been said, the Folder component provides
an extremely useful mechanism to create new components, except the new components will be created underneath the
Folder, instead of underneath the Project node if created via the Project component.
To create a new Folder, either underneath the Project component or underneath another Folder, right-click on the
component, select “New” → “Folder” (as shown in Figure 46).

Figure 46: Creating a new Folder component under the Project node.

A dialog will appear with requesting the user to input a name for the new Folder. Type the desired name into the
textbox and click “OK” (Figure 47).

Figure 47: Dialog to provide a name for a new Folder component.

A new Folder component will be created in the appropriate location in the “Projects” window tree with the name
provided (Figure 48).

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Figure 48: Highlighting the new Folder component named “ExampleFolder” created in the Projects window.

6.3 Lines ( )
Lines components represent a collection of line segments that together outline certain structures. They are mainly used
to display mine plans, but can also be used for geological structures like faults and dykes. New Lines components
cannot be created in Vantage, but rather imported from file in various formats, including; Pnt Lines (ASCII or Binary),
CAD (.dxf or .dwg) or Surpac Lines (str), see Figure 49.

Figure 49: Outlining the importing of Lines components and the various formats in which this can be done.

6.3.1 Decimate
One important action that can be performed on Lines components is decimation. Decimation is the reduction of the
line segment count - a simple form, but lossy form of compression. This is roughly done by merging approximately co-
linear line segments. This can greatly improve performance in Vantage when using Lines components with extremely
high line segment counts. To do this, right-click on a Lines component as select “Decimate” (Figure 50). This will
pop up a dialog to fill in the distance resolution over which to decimate the line segments (as seen in Figure 51).

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Figure 50: Highlighting how to perform decimation on a Lines component.

Figure 51: Dialog to set the distance resolution over which to perform decimation.

6.4 Site ( )
Site components are used to indicate the location of seismic sensors. Site components are often loaded in Vantage
automatically when creating config-based Vantage projects. These components are loaded using data found in the
config files (for more details see Subsection 3.2). Site component properties include a position in 3D space, velocities
for both P-waves (v p ) and S-waves (vs ), and display properties.
To make a new Site component, right-click on a Folder, select “New” → “Site” (Figure 52).

Figure 52: Creating a new Site component under the Folder named “ExampleFolder”.

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A dialog will appear, like the one shown in Figure 53, in order to fill in details about the new Site component.
Provide a display name, site ID number, network ID number, velocities for both P-waves (v p ) and S-waves (vs ) and a
location. Conveniently, the location of the new Site can be selected in the “3D Window” by clicking on the “From
Viewer” button. This engages a mode to select a point, indicated by a pink circle, in the 3D environment. The x, y and
z coordinates for the new Site’s location will be populated from the values of the point picked in this mode (Figure 53).
Alternatively, these values can be inputted manually as per normal.

Figure 53: New Site dialog where the details of the new Site component can be entered. The position picker tool is also highlighted
here where the position of the new Site component in the 3D environment can be picked using the “From Viewer” button.

A Site component will be created in tree, as shown in Figure (under the Folder “ExampleFolder” in this example).
Notice that the site ID is displayed as the component’s display name (and also as the Site label in the 3D environment).
This can be changed via the properties of the Site component. This can be done either via selecting the Site component
with the “Properties” window open (Figure 54) or by right-clicking on the Site component and selecting “Properties”
- the latter option will pop-up a properties dialog (Figure 55), a changing the Site label to “Site name” for the display
name.

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Figure 54: Changing the display label for a Site component via the “Properties” window.

Figure 55: Changing the display label for a Site component using the properties dialog.

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6.5 Plane ( )
Plane components are used to define a rectangular surface in 3D. A plane is defined by it’s center, strike, dip, rake,
strike-span and dip-span. For details on strike, dip and rake, see Figure 56 (for more formal definitions of strike, dip and
rake see Aki and Richards, 2002). Strike-span represents the length of the rectangular surface in the strike direction,
and similarly for dip-span, the length of the rectangular surface in the dip direction. They can be thought of as simply
the length and width of the rectangular surface.

Figure 56: Series of successive images highlighting the rotations strike, dip and rake, respectively, applied to a plane. Each light
blue plane is the before and dark blue plane after rotations. Rotation directions are indicated with red arrows.

To create a new Plane component, either underneath the Project component or underneath another Folder, right-
click on the component, select “New” → “Plane” (as shown in Figure 57).

Figure 57: Creating a new Plane component under the Folder named ExampleFolder.

A dialog will appear with requesting the user to input a name for the new Plane. Type the desired name into the
textbox and click “OK” (Figure 58).

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Figure 58: Providing a name for a new Plane component.

A new Plane component will be created in the appropriate location in the “Projects” window tree (underneath the
“ExampleFolder” Folder component in this example) with the provided name (Figure 59). The “Properties” window
is shown here to highlight the properties of a Plane component, as mentioned above.

Figure 59: The new Plane component named “ExamplePlane” created in the Projects window, underneath the Folder “Example-
Folder”, and shown visually in the 3D Window.

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6.5.1 Edit Plane

The size and position of a plane can be edited visually in the “3D Window” by right-clicking on the Plane component
(in the “Projects” window) and selecting “Edit Plane” (Figure 60).

Figure 60: Engaging editing mode used to change the shape of a Plane component.

This will engage the Plane editing mode in the “3D Window, where the corners of the plane (highlighted as red
boxes) can be dragged to reshape the plane (Figure 61). This mode can be exited by clicking on “Exit” at the top-left
of the 3D environment.

Figure 61: Changing the shape of a Plane component by dragging one of the corners. Note that the coordinates of the new corner
position are given (in South-West-Down coordinate system).

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6.5.2 Create Mesh

A useful action that can be performed on a Plane is creating a Mesh component from a plane (for more details on Mesh
components, see Subsection 6.9). To do this right-click on a Plane component, and select “Create Mesh” as shown in
Figure 62.

Figure 62: Creating a Mesh component from the shape of a Plane component.

This will pop-up a dialog like the one in Figure 63. Fill in the details of the name and cell resolution of the Mesh
component and click “OK”. A Mesh object will be created in “Projects” window with the provided name.

Figure 63: Dialog to provide details for new Mesh component to be created based on the shape of a Plane component.

The resulting Mesh can be seen in Figure 64 (note that the display mode for the mesh has been set to Line here, for
more details about this see Subsection 6.9).

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Figure 64: Newly created Mesh component based on the Plane shape shown in the 3D environment.

6.5.3 View from top

Another useful action that can be performed on a Plane is to view the shape from above. To do this right-click on a
Plane component and select “View from top” (Figure 65). This will change the viewpoint in the “3D Window” to
focus on the Plane from a viewpoint directly above it (shown in Figure 66).

Figure 65: Action to view a Plane component from above.

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Figure 66: Viewing a Plane component from above in the “3D Window”.

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6.6 Box ( )
A Box component is very similar to a Plane, as they share similar properties and actions, but the major difference is
that a Box Component additionally has hanging wall and footwall properties that ensures that the Box component now
occupies 3D volume. The hanging wall and footwall properties represent the length of the body of the box above and
below the central plane respectively.
To create a new Box component, either underneath the Project component or underneath another Folder, right-click
on the component, select “New” → “Box” (as shown in Figure 67).

Figure 67: Creating a new Box component under the Folder named ExampleFolder.

A dialog will appear with requesting the user to input a name for the new Box. Type the desired name into the
textbox and click “OK” (Figure 68).

Figure 68: Providing a name for a new Box component.

A new Box component will be created in the appropriate location in the “Projects” window tree (underneath the
“ExampleFolder” in this example) with the provided name (Figure 69). The “Properties” window is shown here to
highlight the properties of a Box component, as mentioned above.

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Figure 69: The new Box component named “ExampleBox” created in the Projects window, underneath the Folder “Example-
Folder”, and shown visually in the 3D Window.

In a similar procedure, a new box can also be created to fit all the points currently visible in the 3D environment (this
option is shown in Figure 67). It can sometimes be useful to then create a Polygon from the new Box (see Subsection
6.6.4) that can be used for filtering (see section 7).
The following Subsections refers to the actions that can be performed on a Box component. These actions can be
accessed by right-clicking on the Box component (in the “Projects” window) and selected appropriately (see Figure
70).

Figure 70: Actions that can be performed on a Box component by rick-clicking on a Box.

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6.6.1 Clip
Box components have an very handy feature for viewing only the visual elements contained inside the box. This is
done using the clipping feature. To engage this mode, right click on a Box component, select “Clip” (see option listed
in Figure 70). As a result, only the visual components (or parts of them) that are contained within the box are shown in
the “3D Window” (Figure 71). Note that this mode sets the visibility of the Box to invisible, but the figure has the Box
visible to highlight this effect. This mode can be exited by clicking on “Exit” at the top-left of the 3D environment.

Figure 71: Clipping mode whereby only the visual components (or parts of them) that are contained within the box are shown in the
“3D Window”.

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6.6.2 Copy
The copy function on a Box component creates an identical component with “-copy” added to the Box’s name. This is
extremely useful for making safe changes to an object (as a backup copy has been made). To copy a Box component,
right-click on the Box and select “Copy” (option in the list shown in Figure 70), a new Box component will appear
alongside it in the tree (for example see Figure 72 - a copy of Box component “ExampleBox” was made creating
“ExampleBox-copy”).

Figure 72: Copying a Box component creates a new Box component with “-copy” added to its name.

6.6.3 Create Meshes

It is sometime useful to view cross-sections of boxes, which is where the “Create Meshes” feature comes in. This
action creates cross-sectional Mesh components (for details on Mesh components see 6.9) from the Box component at
various user-selected levels. It can be thought of as slicing up a box and at each slice creating a Mesh component. To
perform this function, right-click on a Box component and select “Create Meshes” (option in the list shown in Figure
70). A dialog will pop-up requesting the size of the cells in the meshes (it’s resolution) and spacing between meshes
(distance between “slices”) - as shown in Figure 73. Fill in the appropriate details and click “OK”.

Figure 73: Dialog for creating Meshes from a Box component. The size of the cells in the meshes and spacing between meshes
needed is to be provided here.

The Mesh components at the various levels are created in the tree in the “Projects” window and also displayed in
the “3D window” as these “slices” of the box (see Figure 74).

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Figure 74: Mesh component “slices” created from a Box component are shown in the “3D window” and in the tree in the “Projects”
window.

6.6.4 Create Poly

This is an extremely instrumental feature in Vantage, whereby a Polygon component (see Subsection 6.7) can be created
from a Box component. This is important because Polygons are used for spatial filtering (see Subsection 7.3) - a key
feature in Vantage. To do this, right-click on a Box component and select “Create Poly” (option in the list shown in
Figure 70). This will create a Polygon component (see the next Subsection, 6.7) in the tree in the “Projects” window
with the same name as the Box used to create the Polygon, but with “-poly” appended to the end of the name. This
Polygon will also be visible in the “3D Window” and should outline the box component used to create it (Figure 75).

Figure 75: Polygon created from a Box component is shown in the “3D window” and in the tree in the “Projects” window.

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6.6.5 Edit Box

Boxes can be edited in much the same way as Plane components (as outlined in Subsection 6.5) with further editable
corners to alter the extra properties (as shown in Figure 76). Note that the shape and position (strike-span, dip-span,
and center) are adjusted when using the draggable corners viewed from the top or bottom of the box, but the hanging
wall and footwall values are adjusted with the draggable corners when viewed from the side of the box.

Figure 76: Editing a Box component in the “3D Window”.

6.6.6 Move along axis

This tool is used to aid moving a Box component around the 3D environment. To access this function right click on
the Box component you’d like to move and select “Move along axis” (option in the list shown in Figure 70). This
will open a dialog, like the one show in Figure 77 below. Move the Box in the “Strike”, “Dip” and “Rake” directions
using the “+” and “-” buttons for each direction. Should to like to make larger increments with each click of the button,
increase the sensitivity value.

Figure 77: Dialog for moving a Box around the 3D environment.

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6.6.7 View from top

See Subsection 6.6.7 for equivalent details on viewing a Box component from directly above it.

6.6.8 Fill with points

This function will fill a Box component with Points (see Subsection for more details on Points components). To do
this, right click on a Box component, select “Fill with points” (see option listed in Figure 70). A dialog will pop-up
requesting a resolution to which the Points will be created - the distance between points (Figure 78).

Figure 78: Dialog to determine the resolution of the Points filling the Box.

This will create a Points component in the tree in the “Projects” window with the same name as the Box, but with
“-points” appended to the end of the name. The Points will also be visible in the “3D Window” and should fill the
inside of the Box component used to make them (Figure 79).

Figure 79: Points filling a Box component are shown in the “3D window” and in the tree in the “Projects” window.

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6.7 Polygon ( )
Polygons are a vital component in Vantage, given their use in event spatial filtering (Subsection 7.3). They are indis-
tinguishable from Box components in terms of their properties, except that Polygons, as their name suggests, can have
any number of vertices. They are still based on a central plane (with a certain orientation) with a hanging wall and
footwall - like a Box component.
To create a new Polygon component, either underneath the Project component or underneath another Folder, right-
click on the component, select “New” → “Polygon” (as shown in Figure 80).

Figure 80: Creating a new Polygon component under the Folder named “ExampleFolder”.

A dialog will appear with requesting the user to input a name for the new Polygon. Type the desired name into the
textbook and click “OK” (Figure 81).

Figure 81: Providing a name for a new Polygon component.

A new Polygon component will be created in the appropriate location in the “Projects” window tree (underneath
the “ExampleFolder” in this example) with the provided name (Figure 82). The “Properties” window is shown here
to highlight the properties of a Polygon component as similar to that of a Box component, as mentioned above.

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Figure 82: The new Polygon component named “ExamplePolygon” created in the Projects window, underneath the Folder “Ex-
ampleFolder”, and shown visually in the 3D Window.

Alternatively, a Polygon can be created using the shape of a Box, using the “Create Poly” function on a Box
component, as outlined in Subsection 6.6.4.
Polygons have two useful visualisation options, “Show containing box” and “Display Mode”, that can be found
in the “Properties” window of the Polygon (see in the “Properties” window of Figure 82). The “Show containing
box” checkbox adds a Box to the 3D environment that contains the entire Polygon component (Figure 83), whereas the
“Display Mode” feature provides the option to view a Polygon as the 3D object (with a hangingwall and footwall), or
the Polygon projected onto the central plane as a 2D shape (Figure 84).

Figure 83: A Polygon component with the “Show containing box” visualisation property activated.

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Figure 84: A Polygon component with the “Display Mode” visualisation property, “Projected On Plane” activated.

6.7.1 View from top

See Subsection 6.6.7 for equivalent details on viewing a Polygon component from directly above it.

6.7.2 Fill with points

See Subsection 6.6.7 for equivalent details on filling a Polygon with points (creating a Points component).

6.7.3 Edit Poly

See Subsection 6.6.5 for equivalent details on editing a Polygon component. There is an addition to this feature when
editing Polygon components, though, this involves the creation (and deletion) of more vertices of the Polygon. To
create more new vertices on a Polygon component during editing mode, hold down the “Shift” key, and drag one of
the current vertices - this will create a new vertex to be drag into place. On the other hand, to delete a vertex, drag the
vertex to on top of another vertex - they will combine into a single vertex.

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6.8 Ellipsoid ( )
An Ellipsoid component represents 3D sphere and ellipsoid shapes. It is categorized by a center and covariance matrix
(which defines the orientation of the shape and the lengths of semi-principal axes).
To create a new Ellipsoid component, either underneath the Project component or underneath another Folder, right-
click on the component, select “New” → “Ellipsoid” (as shown in Figure 85).

Figure 85: Creating a new Ellipsoid component under the Folder named “ExampleFolder”.

A dialog will appear with requesting the user to input a name for the new Ellipsoid. Type the desired name into the
textbook and click “OK” (Figure 86).

Figure 86: Providing a name for a new Ellipsoid component.

A new Ellipsoid component will be created in the appropriate location in the “Projects” window tree (underneath
the “ExampleFolder” in this example) with the provided name (Figure 87). The “Properties” window is shown here
to highlight the properties of a Ellipsoid component as mentioned above as including a center and the values of a
symmetric covariance matrix. Note that by default an Ellipsoid is created as a sphere as the semi-principal axes are
equal in length.

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Figure 87: The new Ellipsoid component named “ExampleEllipsoid” created in the Projects window, underneath the Folder “Ex-
ampleFolder”, and shown visually in the 3D Window. Note that the transparency has been set to 0.5 to allow better viewing of the
rest of the components.

The lengths of the semi-principal axes can be changed to represent a more ellipsoid shape, as shown in Figure 88
below.

Figure 88: The Ellipsoid component named “ExampleEllipsoid” (as shown in Figure 87), but with different values for the semi-
principal axes, representing a more ellipsoid shape.

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Ellipsoid components also have extra display options (under the “Visualisation” section in the “Properties” win-
dow), whereby the the Ellipsoid surface that is seen in the 3D environment (and can be seen in figures 87 and 88) can
be toggled on/off and the semi-principal axes can be toggled on/off (see Figure 89).

Figure 89: The Ellipsoid component named “ExampleEllipsoid” with the semi-principal axes shown. Note that the other compo-
nents in the 3D environment have been set as invisible for more clarity.

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6.9 Mesh ( )
A Mesh component might seem very similar in certain ways to a Plane component, but doesn’t share its properties of
a center, strike-span, dip-span, and orientation (strike, dip and rake), but is rather just a collection of interconnected
points that may lie in the same plane (and can be created from a Plane component). What is extremely useful about
Mesh components is that data can be calculated over all the points in the Mesh and displayed.
A new Mesh can’t be created like other components, but rather generated from a Plane component (see Subsection
6.5.2) or as multiple Meshes from a Box component (see Subsection 6.6.3).
There are various options for viewing Meshes, namely, “Line”, “Fill” and “Line and Fill”. “Line” will outline the
mesh structure (or contour lines for any Mesh Data), “Fill” will outline the rectangular plane-like surface (and colour
it appropriately for any Mesh Data), and “Line and Fill” shows a combination of the two.

Figure 90: This series of images highlights the viewing options for Mesh nodes, namely, “Line”, “Fill” and “Line and Fill”. “Line”
will outline the mesh structure (the images on the left-hand side), “Fill” will outline the rectangular plane-like surface (the center
images), and “Line and Fill” shows a combination of the two (the images on the right-hand side). The images in the first row do not
have any Mesh Data visible, whereas the images in the bottom row do.

6.9.1 Event Gridding

The Event Gridding tool is used to add and visualise data on a Mesh. To do this, right click on a Mesh node and select
“Event Gridding” (Figure 91). This will open a wizard dialog to navigate through to specify the data to be added to
the Mesh, the following series of images are a guide through this wizard:

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Figure 91: Navigating to the “Event Gridding” action on a Mesh node, “ExampleMesh” in this case.

The first page of the wizard requires the user to provide a name for this set of data (note that multiple data columns
can be added to a set). Enter a name in the textbox provided and click “Next” (as shown in Figure 92).

Figure 92: Setting the name in the “Event Gridding” wizard for adding new Mesh Data to a Mesh node.

The next page allows the user to select the Filtered Subset (underneath any of the Events nodes present in the
project) upon which to calculate data onto the Mesh. Highlight a Filtered Subset and click “Next” (as shown in Figure
93).

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Figure 93: Setting the associated Filtered Subset in the “Event Gridding” wizard for adding new Mesh Data to a Mesh node.

In the “Gridding Parameter” page, the parameter(s) to be used and gridded on the Mesh are chosen. Check the
appropriate boxes corresponding to the data parameters to be gridded and visualised on the Mesh, then click “Next”
(as shown in Figure 94).

Figure 94: Page of the “Event Gridding” wizard to choose the parameter(s) to be used and gridded on the Mesh.

In the following page, “Spatial Influence of Events” is used to set the type of region around each point in the Mesh
to use to grid the data. For the “Constant Radius” option, a value can be specified. Select the appropriate option and
click “Next” (as shown in Figure 95).

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Figure 95: Page of the “Event Gridding” wizard to choose the region around each point in the Mesh to use to grid the data.

The page, shown in Figure 96, provides options for various taper functions that can be applied in the griding of the
data. Select the appropriate option and click “Next”.

Figure 96: Page of the “Event Gridding” wizard to choose a taper function to be used in the griding of the data.

The final page (Figure 97) can sometimes allow for the data to be projected onto a 2D surface. Otherwise simply
click “Finish” to complete the process.

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Figure 97: The final page of the “Event Gridding” wizard.

This creates a Mesh Data Column (for details on Mesh Data Column nodes see Subsection 6.9.3) underneath the
Mesh node for each parameter chosen to grid, “Event Density” and “Log Energy Index” were chosen for this example
(see Figure 98). Note that only one Mesh Data Column can be visible at any time.

Figure 98: Highlighting the newly created Mesh Data columns (“Event Density” and “Log Energy Index”) underneath the Mesh
node “ExampleMesh”.

Mesh nodes can also have multiple sets of Mesh Data Columns, or Mesh Data’s (for more details on Mesh Data
nodes see Subsection 6.9.3). For example, if “Event Gridding” was performed again and, say the parameter “Log
Apparent Stress” was gridded, the following nodes would be populated underneath the Mesh node, “ExampleMesh”
in this case (Figure 99). Each Mesh Data Column would be underneath each respective Mesh Data, and then each
Mesh Data underneath the Mesh node, “ExampleMesh” in this case.

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Figure 99: Highlighting two Mesh Data nodes (“ExampleMeshData” and “ExampleMeshData2”), underneath the Mesh node
“ExampleMesh”, each with Mesh Data Columns underneath these nodes.

6.9.2 Delete Data

To delete all the data (Mesh Data Columns and/or Mesh Data) underneath a Mesh node, right-click on the Mesh node
and select “Delete Data” (this option is shown in Figure 91). A dialog will appear to confirm that all the data is to be
deleted, click “Yes” to delete the data.

6.9.3 Mesh Data Column ( )

A Mesh Data Column is a single parameter calculated at each point in a Mesh node, used for visualisation and analysis.
Mesh Data Columns are either found directly underneath a Mesh node (if there is only one set of Mesh Data Columns,
i.e. one Mesh Data), otherwise it is found underneath the Mesh Data node that it belongs to. Mesh Data Columns
can be created using the “Event Gridding” function on Mesh nodes (as outlined in the previous Subsection, 6.9 and
highlighted in Figure 99).
Only one Mesh Data Column can be visible at any given time as they would need to be plotted on the same Mesh,
so if one checks a Mesh Data Column as visible when another Column is already visible, the latter is toggled off and
the former is then toggled on. This also applies to Mesh Data Columns in different Mesh Data’s, but underneath the
same Mesh node.

6.9.4 Mesh Data ( )

Mesh Data nodes represent a collection of parameters (or Columns) that have been gridded on to the Mesh node. A
Mesh can have many Mesh Data nodes, each with their own Data Columns. Mesh Data can also be imported by right-
clicking on a Mesh node, selecting “Import” → “Binary (bmd)” (this option is shown in Figure 91). Select the data
file to be imported in the file chooser dialog and click “OK”.

6.10 Production ( )
Under construction

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6.11 Events ( )
Events nodes contain the events visualised in the 3D environment in Vantage. Events can be imported into Vantage
from a Local/Remote Database (as outlined in section 4), which will create an Events node containing all the imported
events. Events can also be imported directly from .evs or .evp files. To do so, in the “Projects” window, highlight the
project node or any folder within the project (should you wish to import the events into that folder). Right-click on
this and select “Import”, or simply select the import button in the toolbar ( ), then choose → “Events” → “Events
(.evp)” or “Events (.evs)” (as shown in the list of options in Figure 31). Select the event files to be imported using
the file chooser that pops-up. Then click “OK” to import the events. This will also create a new Events node in the
“Projects” window underneath either the Project node or the Folder node, depending on which you clicked to import
the events into.
The following Subsections relate to the actions listed in Figure 100, accessed by right-clicking on an Events node.

Figure 100: List of actions available when right-clicking on an Events node.

6.11.1 Manage Filters

This opens the toolbox of filters that are being used in the Vantage project in a new window, usually as a tab next to
the “Information” window (see Figure 101 for “example” project’s filter set). This is particularly useful for managing
the filters used in the spatial filtering of events (for more details about spatial filtering see Subsection 7.3). This filter
“toolbox” can also be accessed via the Project node, by right-clicking on the Project node, then choose → “Manage”
→ “Manage Filters”. This window also contains a toolbar whereby new filters can be added to the filter “toolbox”:
Add Filter: This button can be used to create new filter. A dialog will pop-up to provide a name for the new filter, a
new filter will be created to after which constraints can be added.

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Figure 101: This window acts as a “toolbox” for filters, listing all the filters used in the Vantage project.

6.11.2 Update and Refresh

To update the events in the Events node, whether imported via a remote or local database, right-click on the Events node
and select “Update and Refresh” (option listed in Figure 100). This will begin the process of updating any modified
events and adding events to the Events node that weren’t there before. Note that if events were originally imported
from a local database, this database must still be in the same directory as it was when the events were imported for this
function to work.

6.11.3 Add Filtered Subset

To add a Filtered Subset to an Events node, right-click on the Events node and select “Add Filtered Subset” (shown
in Figure 100). This will pop-up a dialog for the name of the new Filtered Subset to a entered (see Figure 102).

Figure 102: Dialog to provide a name for the new Filtered Subset, “ExampleFilteredSubset” in this case.

This will create a new Filtered Subset node under the associated Events node (see Figure 103). Filtered Subsets
come with an already attached filter, “Normal Events” as can be seen under the “ExampleFilteredSubset” node in
Figure 103. This filters only events that are: not a blast event, is accepted, manually processed, not a tap test or test
event. These constraints of this filter can be seen by expanding the “Normal Events” filter, found in the “Events
Filters” window (see Figure 103).

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Figure 103: Newly created Filtered Subset called “ExampleFilteredSubset” with automatically added “Normal Events” filter
attached. The constraints of the “Normal Events” filter are shown in the “Event Filters” window.

6.12 Filtered subsets ( )

Filtered subsets are exactly that, subsets of the events in the Events node based on various applied filters, temporal,
parameter-based and/or spatial. This allows each subset to be easily looked at independently and analysed. Every
Events node has a standard “DEFAULT” filtered subset with the “Normal Events” filter applied (with the entire time
period of the events in the Events node applied). A new filtered subset can be added to an Events node by right-clicking
on the Events node and selecting “Add Filtered Subset” (detailed in Subsection 6.11.3).
The way in which the events of a Filtered subset are displayed in the 3D environment can be customised. These
include symbols type, colour and the size of the symbol.

6.12.1 Symbol
The symbol representing an event in the 3D environment can be changed. By default, events are shown as Pixels, but
the other options include: Hourglasses, Spheres or Mechanisms. To change the type of symbol for a Filtered subset,
right click on the Filtered subset and select “Symbol” → and choose from: “Pixels”, “Hourglasses”, “Spheres”
or “Mechanisms” (shown in Figure 104). Note that “Pixels” should be used when dealing with large datasets as
performance may suffer when using the other symbol types with thousands of events.

Figure 104: Changing the symbol type of a Filtered subset.

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6.12.2 Colour
The colour of the symbol representing an event in the 3D environment can be changed. By default, events are coloured
according to “Event Time” (the time at which the event occurred). To change the colour of the symbols for a Filtered
subset, right click on the Filtered subset and select “Colour Using” → and selected the preferred parameter to colour
by (shown in Figure 105).

Figure 105: Changing the colour of the symbols of a Filtered subset.

6.12.3 Size
The size of the symbol representing an event in the 3D environment can be changed. By default, the events have a
fixed size, but the size of the symbol can be used to represent various parameters, for example “Local Magnitude”. To
change the size of the symbols for a Filtered subset, right click on the Filtered subset and select “Size Using” → and
selected the preferred parameter to represent with the size (shown in Figure 106).

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Figure 106: Changing the size of the symbols of a Filtered subset.

6.13 Points ( )
Points nodes represent a collection (or cloud) of locations in 3D space, unlike events that have data associated to these
locations in 3D space. Points nodes can either be created using the “Fill with points” function detailed in Subsections
6.6.8 and 6.7.2. Alternatively, Points nodes can be imported from either a binary file (*.bpg) or ASCII file (*.dpt or
*.pdt).

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7 Event filtering
One of the fundamental features of Vantage is filtering the events in an Events node using Filtered Subsets (see Subsec-
tion 6.12) and visualising these subsets in the 3D environment. There are three main types of filtering that can be done
on events: temporal (filtering based on the time at which the event occurred), spatial (filtering based on the position in
space the event was determined to have occurred), and parameter-based (filtering based on one or many parameters of
the event).
How to apply each of the these filtering methods to Filtered Subsets is outlined in the Subsections below, these
walk-throughs assume that an Event’s node containing events (details on creating an Events node and importing events
into it is outlined in section 4), with a Filtered Subset added (see Subsection 6.11.3 for details on adding a Filtered
Subset), has already been created in the Vantage project.

7.1 Temporal
Temporal filtering is done by right-clicking on the Filtered Subset (underneath the Events node) and selecting “Edit
Time Filter” (as shown in Figure 107).

Figure 107: Editing the time filter of a Filtered Subset, “ExampleFilteredSubset” in this case.

This will pop-up a dialog to specify the the time range over which to filter the events (Figure 108). The event
activity over the whole time range is shown in a graph in this dialog.

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Figure 108: Dialog to specific a time range over which to filter a Filtered Subset.

There are various “policies” to specify the type of time range required in the “Time Policy” section of this dialog -
select the policy that best suits your needs. Note that some of the policies can engage with the graph to select a point
in time or drag a range of time. The “Start and End fixed” policy can make use of a range dragged in the graphing
area (from left to right), see Figure 109 for an example of this. Similarly a start/end time can be provided in the graph
area for the “Duration from fixed start” and “Duration from fixed end” policies. Note that a start time, end time and
duration can be filled-in manually in the appropriate fields on the left-hand side of the dialog under the “Time Range”
section. Click “OK” to apply the time filter to the Filtered Subset.

Figure 109: Dialog to specific a time range over which to filter a Filtered Subset. The drag function of the “Start and End Fixed”
policy is shown here.

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7.2 Parameter-based
The state of an event or associated parameters of an event can also be filtered for, e.g. Blast, Rejected, Manually
Accepted, Number of Triggers, etc. To do this, open the project’s “Event Filters” window, or filter “toolbox” and add
a new filter (as outlined in 6.11.1). Right-click on this new filter, named “ExampleFilter” in this case, and select “Add
Constraint” (as shown in Figure 110).

Figure 110: Adding a constraint to a new filter.

This will pop-up a dialog with a list of categories of possible constraints that can be added to a filter. Find the
parameter to suit your needs, select it and click “OK” (Figure 111). This example adds a constraint on the “Number
of Triggers” parameter. Note that more than more constraint can be added to a filter in the same way more than one
filter can be combined in a Filtered Subset.

Figure 111: Dialog to add a constraint to a new filter. The constraint “Number of Triggers” is being added in this example.

Expand the filter node to reveal the newly added constraint to the filter underneath it. It is currently undefined.
To configure the constraint right-click on the constraint and select “Modify” (Figure 112). This will again pop-up a
dialog, customised to the selected parameter, to enter the values for the constraint, in this example a minimum number
of 20 triggers is configured (as shown in Figure 113). Other constraints will have different dialogs for the parameter to
be configured. Click “OK” to apply this configuration to the filter’s constraint.

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Figure 112: Configuring a newly added constraint.

Figure 113: Dialog to configure a newly added constraint of a filter: the “Number of Triggers” constraint, in this example, is set
to a minimum of 20 triggers.

The constraint is now configured as seen in Figure 114.

Figure 114: Completed configuration of filter constraint, the “Number of Triggers” constraint set to at least 20 in this example.

To add this filter with configured constraint to a Filtered Subset, right-click on a Filtered Subset and select “Active
Filters” → select the option with name of the filter, “ExampleFilter” in this case, to apply this filter to the Filtered
Subset (Figure 115).

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Figure 115

This will add the filter to the Filtered Subset, “ExampleFilteredSubset” in this example (as shown in Figure 116).
Notice that there are much fewer events visible in the 3D environment as only events that meet the extra constraint of
the newly added filter “ExampleFilter” are shown (those with at least 20 triggers in this case). Furthermore, notice the
two filters, “Normal Events” and “ExampleFilter”, shown underneath the Filtered Subset, but also another node with
the text “AND”. This node describes how filters of a Filtered Subset combine together. This option can be toggled to
an “OR” option by double-clicking on the node. These nodes are explained below:
AND: This option requires that the constraints of both the filters need be met for the event to be included in the
subset.
OR: This option requires that the constraints of either of the filters need be met for the event to be included in the
subset.

Figure 116: Newly created parameter based filter with configured constraint, “ExampleFilter” with a constraint of at least 20
triggers in this case.

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7.3 Spatial
Spatial filtering is about filtering events that are located in a certain region of the 3D environment. This is done
in Vantage using Polygons and selecting only those events contained inside a given Polygon. This is done in Van-
tage by selecting a Polygon in the tree in the “Projects” window and dragging it onto the Filtered Subset to which
the filter is to be applied. In this example, the Polygon “ExamplePolygon” is dragged onto the Filtered Subset
“ExampleFilteredSubset”. This will display an option, “Update 1 poly filters” (shown in Figure 117), which will
create a filter based on containment in the dragged Polygon and add it to the Filtered Subset.

Figure 117: Option to create a new spatial filter from a dragged Polygon (“ExamplePolygon” here) and apply the filter to the drag
destination Filtered Subset, “ExampleFilteredSubset” in this case.

A new filter will be created in the “Event Filters” window and also added to the list of filters active on the Filtered
Subset “ExampleFilteredSubset” as shown in Figure 118.

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Figure 118: Newly created Polygon filter named “Poly ExamplePolygon” applied to “ExampleFilteredSubset” here. Notice only
the events contained within the Polygon are shown.

Another method of adding a spatial filter is to right-click in the white area of the “Event Filters” window and select
“Add polygon filter”, as in Figure 119.

Figure 119: Select “Add new polygon filter” to create a new spatial filter, using a polygon or box.

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Performing this action will pop-up a window listing all polygons and boxes in the project, with the appropriate
symbol next to each object. Clicking and highlighting one of these will show the project path of the object in the
information at the bottom of the window, while checking the tick box will visualise the region in the 3D environment,
as seen in Figure 120.

Figure 120: Window to add a new spatial filter, choosing from all boxes and polygons in the project. The path of the object is
displayed in the lower information window, and the region to be covered can be viewed in the 3D environment

After selecting “OK”, a window will appear asking the user to name the filter. Enter the desired name, or if left
blank, the filter will assume the name of the polygon or box that was selected. The filter will now appear in the “Event
Filters” window and can be treated like any other filter.
After the filter has been created, the user may wish to modify the polygon or box that was used to create the filter,
and filter events on the modified region. Simply modifying the spatial object will not automatically update the filter, as
seen in Figure 121.

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Figure 121: The spatial filter created from the polygon “ExamplePolygon” has been applied, and height of the polygon decreased.
Without updating the filter, the filter will still use the original region defined by the polygon.

Updating the filter with the modified spatial object can be achieved by right-clicking the appropriate spatial filter,
and selecting “Refresh Spatial Filter”, as shown in Figures 122 and 123.

Figure 122: The filter has to be updated with the modified polygon by selecting “Refresh Spatial Filter”

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Figure 123: After selecting “Refresh Spatial Filter”, the filter will use the updated spatial object.

The user may also wish to use a different polygon or box to filter events, without having to create a new filter.
This could be particularly useful and time saving if the event filter that was created with the spatial filter has had
other parameter constraints added to it. To use a different spatial object in an existing filter, simply right click the
appropriate event filter in the “Event Filters” window and select “Replace Filter”. A window like the one originally
used to select the spatial object will appear, allowing the user to select a new spatial object. After selecting the new
object and pressing “OK”, the filter will be updated with the new spatial object, as seen in Figure 124. The user will
not be prompted to name the filter this time, as it will keep the name it was originally given.

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Figure 124: The spatial filter now uses “ExampleBox” and not “ExamplePolygon”. The name and any other constraints would
remain the same.

The “Refresh Filter” and “Replace Filter’ options will only be available on event filters that contain a spatial
polygon.

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8 Clustering
Vantage supports various Event Clustering options, including “Single link”, “K-means”, “Statistical Flaring” and
“Grid based”. The following subsections outline how each technique can be used. To perform any of the clustering on
a Filtered Subset of events, right-click on the Filtered Subset and select “Clustering” → and then select the appropriate
technique (shown in Figure 125). It is important at this stage to note that the Filtered Subset on which Clustering is to
be performed, must not be set as visible, otherwise the “Clustering” option will not be available.

Figure 125: Spatial clustering techniques that can be applied to the Filtered Subset “ExampleFilteredSubset”

A very important feature of all of the techniques, is that any cluster of events can be saved by right-clicking on the
cluster of events, and selecting “Save Cluster” (as shown in Figure 126).

Figure 126: Saving a cluster of events.

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8.1 Single link

The single link method seeks to find clusters of events that are all linked by a maximum distance away another event
in the cluster. All clusters must include at least a minimum number of events. For more details about the single link
clustering technique, see Frohlich and Davis (1990) or Davis and Frohlich (1991). It is important to note that the single
link technique can be computationally very expensive for very large event sets.
To perform a single link clustering, right-click on the Filtered Subset (that is set as not visible) and select “Clustering”
→ “Single link” (shown in Figure 125). If a Filtered Subset contains more than 1000 events, a message will pop-up
providing the number of events in the Filtered Subset and warning that this may be a computationally expensive task
(as shown in Figure 127). Click “OK” to continue, or click “Cancel” and reduce the number of events in the Filtered
Subset first.

Figure 127: Warning message highlighting that the Single link method can be computationally expensive to perform on large event
sets.

A dialog will appear, as shown in Figure 128, for the maximum link distance between events and minimum number
of events in a cluster to be provided. Fill in the appropriate values and click “OK” to perform Single link clustering.

Figure 128: Dialog of options for Single link clustering.

This will engage the clustering mode and display events, belonging to the same cluster, as connected and in the
same colour (for example, Figure 129).

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Figure 129: Example output of the Single link clustering technique.

8.2 K-means
The K-means clustering method tries to find k clusters of events where each event belongs to the cluster with the nearest
mean. This is done using an iterative refinement approach. For further literature on the K-means clustering technique,
see for example Guan et al. (2004).
To perform K-means clustering, right-click on the Filtered Subset (that is set as not visible) and select “Clustering”
→ “KMeans” (shown in Figure 125). A dialog will appear, like the one shown in Figure 130, for the number of clusters
(k) to be provided.

Figure 130: Dialog for the number of clusters to be used in K-means clustering.

Fill in the appropriate value and click “OK” to perform K-means clustering. This will engage the clustering mode
and display events, belonging to the same cluster, in the same colour. The centroid of each cluster is also drawn as a
solid ball in the colour of the corresponding cluster (for example see Figure 131).

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Figure 131: Example output of the K-means clustering technique.

8.3 Statistical Flaring

The Statistical Flaring clustering technique involves comparing activity over time and clustering events together in
boxes that occur near each other during periods of high event activity. Therefore, the statistical flaring technique
requires a long history of event activity. At least 100 days of event activity is requires for this analysis technique.
To perform Statistical Flaring, right-click on the Filtered Subset (that is set as not visible) and select “Clustering”
→ “Statistical Flaring” (shown in Figure 125). If the Filtered Subset doesn’t have an event history of at least 100
days, a warning message (like the one shown in Figure 132) will appear.

Figure 132: Statistical Flaring event history warning message.

A dialog will pop-up (Figure 133) with various options to customise the Statistical Flaring method - the size of
the box into which the group of events must fall; the period during which events in a given cluster occurred; and the
minimum number of events found in each box.

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Figure 133: Statistical Flaring dialog of options.

This will engage the clustering mode and display events, belonging to the same cluster, grouped together in a box
(for example see Figure 134).

Figure 134: Example output of the Statistical Flaring clustering technique.

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8.4 Grid based

Grid based clustering is used to cluster events together based on a certain parameter. Events in grid cells with signifi-
cantly high activity levels are grouped together, based on the clustering parameter, to form clusters.
To perform Grid based clustering, right-click on the Filtered Subset (that is set as not visible) and select “Clustering”
→ “Grid Based” (shown in Figure 125). A dialog will appear, like the one shown in Figure 135. Select the cluster-
ing parameter required, the grid cell size and significance level (the number of standard deviations above the average
activity level ) required and click “OK”.

Figure 135: Dialog of options for Grid Based clustering.

This will engage the clustering mode and display events, belonging to the same cluster, in the same colour and
surrounded by a iso-surface of the same colour (for example see Figure 134).

Figure 136: Example output of the Statistical Flaring clustering technique.

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9 Viewpoints
Viewpoints in Vantage are certain perspectives of the 3D environment. It is sometimes useful to save preferred View-
points. This can be done in two ways. Preferred viewpoints of a certain object (e.g. Box, Polygon or Plane) in the
3D environment can be saved for that object (see Subsection 9.2). Furthermore, globally for a Vantage project certain
perspectives can be saved and loaded (see the next Subsection 9.1). When Viewpoints are loaded, the name of the
Viewpoint will flash in the middle of the 3D environment to highlight the new perspective.

9.1 Project Viewpoints

Each Vantage project can store preferred Viewpoints and load any of these saved Viewpoints. To save the current
Viewpoint, right-click on the Project node (see the Project node outlined in Subsection 6.1) and select “Viewpoints”
→ “Save” (Figure 137).

Figure 137: Save the current Viewpoint action.

This will pop-up a dialog, as seen in Figure 138, for the user to provide a name for the Viewpoint to be saved. Click
“OK” for the Viewpoint to be saved.

Figure 138: Dialog to provide the name for the new Viewpoint to be saved.

To load a saved Viewpoint, right-click on the Project node and select “Viewpoints” → select the option with name
of the saved Viewpoint, “ExampleViewpoint” in this example (Figure 139).

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Figure 139: Loading a saved Viewpoint, “ExampleViewpoint” in this case.

This will load the selected Viewpoint by the “3D Window” re-positioning the perspective to the saved Viewpoint’s
perspective, with Viewpoint’s name flashing in the middle of the window to highlight the newly loaded Viewpoint.

9.2 Component Viewpoints

Not only can Viewpoints be saved globally for a Vantage project, but the preferred perspective of a certain component
can be saved and loaded for that specific component. This can only be done for certain components (e.g. Box, Polygon,
Plane). As mentioned in Subsection 2.4.1, a Viewpoint can be saved for a certain component, when that component
is selected in the tree, by clicking the “Save Viewpoint” icon ( ) in the “Projects” window (as shown in Figure 140
below).

Figure 140: Save the current Viewpoint for the highlighted component, “ExampleBox”, in this case.

The saved viewpoint for that component (if highlighted in the tree of the “Projects” window) can then be loaded
again at any stage by clicking on the “Navigate to Viewpoint” button ( ) in the “Projects” window (as shown in
Figure 140 below).

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Figure 141: Loads the saved Viewpoint for the highlighted component, “ExampleBox”, in this case.

Note that some components (such as Plane, Box and Polygon) have intrinsic, natural viewpoints, which one can
navigate to without first saving a preferred Viewpoint onto those components. When a custom (non-natural) viewpoint
is saved to one of these components that possess a natural viewpoint, it replaces the natural viewpoint. It is possible
to revert to the natural viewpoint of the component by removing the custom viewpoint from such a component by
"un-saving" it - this is done by holding down the “Ctrl” key and clicking the viewpoint save button in the projects tree
view.

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10 Charts
Vantage has the ability to generate various chart types that aids a user in performing in-depth analysis into seismicity,
numerical modeling and a few other areas. Charts can be accessed via the chart button ( ), by using the dropdown or
clicking the button, found on the main toolbar. By default this button is in a disabled state. However, if a user select a
component in the tree that supports the charting, this button becomes enabled. Selecting this button will cause a new
dialog to appear that gives a user a list of the available charts that can be generated for the selected component. An
example of this dialog is shown in Figure 142. A user can browse through the charts to obtain information about the
specific chart by selecting one of the nodes. The “OK” button can then be selected to generate the desired chart.

Figure 142: Available Charts Dialog

An alternative way to generate a subset of charts that applies to events only can be found by navigating in the event
subsets sub-menus as shown in Figure 143.

Figure 143: Event Charts

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10.1 Managing Charts

Refer to Figure 144. The areas marked A, B and C represent the three main windows for all charts in Vantage.
A The information window is used to show parameters of the chart. A user can select or deselect the parameters in
this window to add- or remove items from the chart.
B The main chart window. Some charts allow a user interaction.

C The properties of the main chart, or for a specific parameter of the chart. Simply select the parameter in the window
as in A to access the properties of a specific parameter.

10.2 Chart Types

A small subsets of charts that are most commonly used will be discussed in the sections below.

10.2.1 Time History

This graph is used to examine how seismological parameters change over time. One or more parameters can be viewed
on the same graph. When performing a time history analysis, it is implicitly assumed that the events have occurred in
the same area. Therefore, the spatial distribution of the events is ignored and it is therefore advisable to use a Polygon
filter to isolate events that are assumed to have been generated by the same process. For example, if mining is taking
place in two different areas, a Polygon filter should be created for each area. Figure 144 shows an example of a Time
History chart with two selected parameters.

Figure 144: Time History Chart

The values plotted on the graph can be calculated by using one of the two methods below:

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Fixed-Time-Step This is the preferred method to calculate the values and works by stepping back a fixed time period.
At each time period the window width defines how far back to accumulate events whose parameters are used to
calculate a value on the graph. For example, for the parameter stiffness modulus, the values for the events are
summed and divided by the number of events to obtain a value on the graph and for the parameter cumulative
apparent volume, the cumulative sum of the values for the events is displayed on the graph. The following figure
illustrates this procedure:

Figure 145: Fixed-Time-Step

Variable-Time-Step Instead of stepping through time as in the fixed step method, this method steps through events.
This method should be used when there is insufficient data available. If the fixed step method is used in such a
situation, there will be gaps in the graph. The calculator steps back from the most recent event-time, event by
event, until the event on or before the end time. For each event there will be a value calculated by using events
occurring before it (including the current event). The number of events to be used depends on the minimum
elapsed time and the minimum number of events included in the calculation. Therefore, the points on the graph
will not be regularly spaced (as in the graph obtained using the fixed method) because the time expands or
contracts depending if the minimum number of events has been included. Note that in the picture below, for
example, the number of events used to calculate values 1 and 2 differ because of the two criterions that must be
satisfied simultaneously, namely, the time period must not be smaller than a certain minimum and the number of
events contained in this time period must not be smaller than a certain minimum.

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Figure 146: Variable-Time-Step

10.2.2 Size Distributions

The size distribution is a cumulative frequency distribution indicating the sensitivity of the seismic array for different
seismic parameters as well as the size distribution of the seismic events for the same parameters. The three parameters
that is supported in the size distribution plot are:

1. Seismic Energy
2. Seismic Potency
3. Local Magnitude

The cumulative distribution of seismic events of different seismic parameters is often used to quantify the seismic
hazard of a volume of rock. Assume that we consider Seismic Potency (P) as the chosen parameter for the plot. At
each potency P, the number of seismic events with potency >= P is plotted on a logarithmic scale. The equation for the
fitted line (Gutenberg-Richter relation) can be obtained as follows:

N(≥ P) = αB−β implies that log(N(≥ P)) = log(α) − β log P (1)

where N is the number of seismic events within the time frame with a potency that can be reliably recorded; the
value log(α) is a measure of the activity rate as it represents the number of events with potency greater than or equal
to 0; the power law exponent, β, indicates the general seismic hazard- the higher the exponent, the lower the seismic
hazard. The value log(Pmax ) is the potency at which the fitted line intersects the log potency axis. The minimum potency
value (log(Pmin ) ) for this distribution can be chosen by left-clicking on the minimum value’s circle on the graph. When
the graph is closed, the values will be stored so that the previous fit and calculated values can be displayed when the
graph is reopened. Figure 147 shows an example of a Size Distribution plot for Seismic Potency.

10.2.3 Log (Energy) vs Log (Potency)

The logE vs logP graph gives the relation of Energy to Potency for a set of events. The Energy-Potency relation is
approximately power-law, thus a linear fit is used in the log-log plot. Previous research (Mendecki, 2001) has shown

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Figure 147: Size Distribution Chart

that the vertical intercept of the linear fit increase as the ambient stress levels increase. The gradient of the fit (power-
law exponent) is proportional to the seismic stiffness (the ability to resist seismic deformation) of that volume of rock.
The logE vs logP plot is used most often to set the power-law relation in order to use energy index.
Figure 148 shows an example of this chart. Note that the circles are coloured according to the Time of Day of each
event. A user can also use the control box below the chart to manipulate the linear fit.

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Figure 148: Log(E) vs Log(P) Chart

11 Options
Options for various aspects of Vantage can be accessed via the menubar. To do so select “Tools” → “Options” (Figure
149). This will display a dialog, with various categories of options through which Vantage can be customised, namely
“Configs”, “General”, “Keymap”, “Miscellaneous”, “Vantage” and “3D View”.

Figure 149: Accessing the “Options” dialog in Vantage.

Configs This contains options for the directory for local config files, to clear config cache and prompt the user to login
on startup.
General The general section provides the option to customise the proxy configuration for Vantage.
Keymap The keymap category allows for all the keyboard shortcuts in Vantage to be customised.
Miscellaneous This category covers bug reporting details, email settings, files extension settings, IMS logo posi-
tion/scale, licensing options, window settings and user UI level (as mentioned in Subsection 2.3).

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Vantage Vantage specific options can be found in this category.

3D Options regarding the “3D Window” can be found here, including the length calculator options, axis overlay
settings, viewpoint transitions, mouse sensitivity, rotation settings and picking options.

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12 Help
Further Help in Vantage can be found in the menubar under “Help” → “Help Contents” (as shown in Figure 150).
This action will open a help dialog to explore for more details about Vantage functionality. Furthermore, quick access
to set the user UI level can also be found in this menu under “User Level”. Figure 150 also highlights how to get
Vantage to check if any new updates for the application are available (click “Check for Updates”). Lastly, information
about the Vantage application (application version, java version etc.) can be found in “About” in this menu (Figure
150).

Figure 150: Accessing further help in Vantage using “Help Contents”.

References
Aki, K. and Richards, P. G. (2002). Quantitative Seismology. University Science Books.

Davis, S. D. and Frohlich, C. (1991). Single-link cluster analysis of earthquake aftershocks: Decay laws and regional
variations. Journal of Geophysical Research, 96:6335–6350.
Frohlich, C. and Davis, S. D. (1990). Single-link cluster analysis as a method to evaluate spatial and temporal properties
of earthquake catalogues. Geophysical Journal International, 100:19–32.
Guan, Y., Ghorbani, A. A., and Belacel, N. (2004). K-means: An autonomous clustering algorithm. Technical Report
TR04-164, University of New Brunswick.
Mendecki, A. J. (2001). Data driven understanding of seismic rock mass response to mining. 5th International
Symposium on Rockbursts and Seismicity in Mines, 1:1–9.

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