Export PDF, Excel and DXF

What it is for

It issues the flowsheet as a technical drawing in vector PDF: A0 to A4 sheet, frame, title block with logos and revision table, stream table, balance closure (with "Grades and distribution" when the project has grades) and particle size table. The PDF is generated in the browser itself and downloaded as a file.

Step by step

Fill in the title block: Project ▾ → Project settings… → General (or Project ▾ → Drawing title block…).
Click Export ▾ → Drawing PDF… in the top bar (or Project ▾ → Export PDF…).
In the dialog, choose:
- Sheet: A0, A1, A2, A3 or A4; Landscape or Portrait;
- Stream table: On the drawing sheet (if it fits), On a separate sheet or Do not include;
- Particle size table (% retained per size class): tick the streams that go into the table (only in projects with particle size).
Check the preview; use Previous sheet and Next sheet to see them all.
Click Download PDF.

The Export ▾ button gathers everything that leaves the project: Drawing PDF…, Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx), DXF drawing and Pump list (PDF) (see Pumps). What your plan does not include shows a lock and the name of the plan that unlocks it.

The title block

It sits in the bottom right corner, with:

two logos;
Client, Project, Phase, Discipline / area;
Drawing title, Scale ("Not to scale" by default), size (automatic);
Drawn by, Checked by, Approved by, Date;
Drawing No., Revision and sheet ("1 of 2", automatic).

Above the title block is the Revisions table (the most recent ones). Use Add revision to record each issue (Rev., Date, Description).

The title block is saved in the project, ready for the next issue.

Logos: Choose image…. The image is reduced and saved as JPEG; transparent areas turn white. Prefer a logo on a white background.

My title block and My clients: what you repeat on every drawing lives in My account → Title block (see Settings and Preferences). In Project settings → General, right above the fields:

Client from my list: pick the client; its name and logo (logo 2) go into the title block;
Apply my title block: puts in your company's logo (logo 1), drawn / checked / approved by and the discipline. What is empty in My title block doesn't erase what is in the project;
Save client to my list: the typed client (with logo 2) goes to My clients.

A new project starts with My title block, and a client typed in the wizard that is on the list brings its logo. Changing My title block or My clients doesn't change existing projects: only the ones you open and click Apply my title block or pick the client again.

Dates: the calendar button next to the date opens the month with today highlighted and a "Today" button. The date format (system, dd/mm/yyyy, mm/dd/yyyy, yyyy-mm-dd, dd.mm.yyyy or dd-mmm-yyyy) is chosen in Project settings → General → Date format or in My account → Preferences; changing the format converts the dates in the title block and in the revisions. The date is free text: anything that is not a date stays as it is.

Notes

With nothing selected, the right panel has the Notes section: write one note per line. With more than one tab, choose whether the note applies to the whole project or only to the open tab.

In the PDF, the notes come out numbered (1, 2, 3…) in the NOTES block, right above the title block (and the revisions), with the same width. Each sheet gets the project notes and then the tab ones, continuing the numbering. The block takes room on the sheet, and the sheet limits on screen already account for it. To export without them, untick Print notes in Export PDF. Too many notes for the room are cut, with a warning in the preview.

What goes into the PDF

Drawing inside the frame (wider margin on the left, for binding).
Stream table, in the row order of your preferences, with specified values in blue and bold and the Name row when any stream has a name. Many columns are split into bands; many bands, into more sheets, all with frame and title block.
Balance closure, together with the stream table (beside it, below it or on the following sheets). With Do not include, the closure is left out too.
Particle size table, with the % retained per size class and the P80 of the ticked streams. With no stream ticked, there is no table. With the stream table turned off, it goes on sheets of its own.
Notes in the NOTES block, above the title block (see Notes, above).
Legend to the left of the title block: slurry, water, no result, value specified, closure summary and "Generated by Mining Flow on <date>".
Credit "made with miningflow.app", in small print, outside the frame, in the bottom right corner. It can be turned off in My account → Preferences.

File name: "<drawing No.> rev<revision>.pdf" or, with no number, the project name.

Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx)

Export ▾ → Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx) downloads the balance as a spreadsheet, with no dialog (Jr. Engineer, Sr. Engineer and Enterprise plans). The balance must be calculated. Two sheets:

Balance closure: inputs and outputs (stream, name, solids t/h, water m³/h, slurry t/h), the totals, the difference and "Balance closed". With grades, the Grades and distribution table right below (grade and distribution of each analyte).
Stream table: as on screen — one stream per column, in the column order of the screen, with its number and name on top; one quantity per row, in the order of your preferences, with the unit beside it. Grades and particle size (with the % retained per size class) come in groups, as on screen. The stream number and name and the quantity and unit columns are frozen.

Numbers go as numbers (you can add them up and chart them), with the decimals of the screen; values specified by the client in bold blue. At the top of each sheet: drawing title, client, project, drawing number and revision, the date and "Made with miningflow.app" (shown together with the PDF credit, in Preferences). File name: the PDF one ending in "- balance.xlsx". Opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets.

DXF drawing

Export ▾ → DXF drawing downloads the drawing for AutoCAD, LibreCAD, DraftSight and similar (Sr. Engineer and Enterprise plans). It is the same as the PDF, with the sheet, size and tables saved in the project (those of the last Export PDF):

each PDF sheet, side by side, in millimetres at the 1:1 paper scale (A3 measures 420 × 297);
layers: MF-EQUIPMENT, MF-SLURRY, MF-WATER, MF-STREAMS (streams without a result) and MF-LABELS for the flowsheet; MF-SHEET and MF-SHEET-TEXT for frame, title block, tables and legend. To take only the flowsheet into your own sheet, turn off the two sheet layers;
lines as polylines, arrows as solids, texts with the PDF alignment (Arial font).

DXF R12 format, which every program reads. The title block logos are left out. File name: the PDF one, ending in ".dxf".

Sheet limits on screen

To lay out the drawing with the sheet in mind:

View ▾ → PDF sheet limits.
The sheet appears behind the flowsheet, with frame, title block and, dashed in amber, the free area for the drawing. The size selector and the Center button appear in the bar.
Arrange the units inside the dashed area.

The sheet is drawn at the scale at which the equipment names print legibly (1.8 mm). Whatever fits in the dashed area prints legibly on that sheet.

The sheet stays fixed, like the paper in a CAD program. It is placed centered on the drawing when you turn it on for a tab; after that, the units move freely inside it. Center puts the sheet back in the center of the drawing.
If anything goes past the dashed area, the area and the text turn red: move the units inside, use a larger sheet or split into tabs.
The PDF comes out as on screen: on a tab with the sheet positioned, the drawing prints where it is on the sheet, at that scale. The stream table stays on the same sheet only if it fits below the drawing.
Tabs that never had the sheet turned on are centered and enlarged to fill the free area (with a limit, so that a small drawing does not become a poster on A0).

Projects with several tabs

One part per tab, in the order of the bar, each with the tab name in the title block title. The balance closure appears once, with the last tab. See Tabs.

Tips

For a formal issue: fill in Drawing No. and Revision, record the revision in the table and only then download. The file name comes out ready.
A3 landscape is the default and suits most single-area flowsheets. If the dialog warns that the names are small, use a larger sheet or split into tabs.
The PDF always prints on light paper, even with the dark theme on screen.

Common warnings and limits

"Use a larger sheet": the equipment names would be smaller than 1.8 mm.
A stream table too large for the drawing sheet goes to the next sheet, with a warning.
In read-only mode, the PDF can be exported, but the title block cannot be changed.
In read-only mode, the spreadsheet and the DXF can be exported too.
DWG: use the DXF, which AutoCAD opens and saves as DWG.