Sounds ridiculous? Engineer develops software? wft?
As an engineer working in underground mining, I’ve had the chance to use several paid blasting design software products. They’re robust, feature-rich, and undeniably useful—but they come with limitations that frustrate me. These tools often tie their functionality to the company’s own products, like specific detonator timings or explosive parameters. While it’s understandable that companies design software to promote their own profitable products, this approach sacrifices flexibility and leaves users like me wanting more. This frustration inspired me to start developing my own blasting design software for horizontal tunneling, and here’s why I think it’s a worthwhile endeavor.
visit to experience underground blasting design tool
The Problem with Existing Blasting Software
Most blasting software on the market requires a paid license, which is fair enough. But even after paying, the software’s functionality is often tightly coupled to the company’s proprietary products. This makes it hard to adapt the tools to specific project needs or to work with non-branded materials. The result? A lack of flexibility that can hinder innovation and efficiency in blasting design. Blasting itself is complex, but designing a blast doesn’t have to be. Tools like AutoCAD are perfectly capable of creating detailed blast pattern drawings, but they lack built-in calculation features. I’ve seen countless engineers resort to drawing in CAD and then crunching numbers in Excel spreadsheets. This workflow is unnecessarily cumbersome, turning a straightforward task into a time-consuming ordeal.
The Real-World Challenges of Blasting
When training operators, I’ve noticed that fixed designs on paper often fail to convey the dynamic nature of blasting. Real-world drill holes rarely match the idealized patterns on a blueprint. If operators are only trained to follow static designs, they struggle to adapt when faced with on-site challenges. This gap between theory and practice can lead to inefficiencies or even safety issues. Blasting is inherently complex because rock properties are unpredictable and can’t be reduced to a handful of parameters. A good blast design must account for numerous variables and requires collaboration between rock engineers, design engineers, and project managers. In these scenarios, a flexible, fast, and collaborative design tool is critical—one that allows real-time adjustments and input from multiple stakeholders.
Why Building a New Software Makes Sense
Developing a blasting design software might sound daunting, but it’s not as complex as, say, AI or machine learning projects. At its core, software development boils down to data and algorithms. The algorithms for blasting calculations aren’t the bottleneck—most of the complexity in modern software comes from handling security, multi-user access, concurrency, and user experience. For a niche tool like a blasting design software, these challenges are manageable.
My background in data analysis gives me confidence in handling the database layer. Thanks to open-source tools like PostgreSQL and Elasticsearch, I can experiment and iterate at a low cost. I’ve chosen these as the backbone of my software, leveraging their reliability and scalability to store and process blast design data efficiently.
Tackling the Technical Challenges
The front-end is where I face the steepest learning curve. While frameworks like React are powerful, they can be overkill for a specialized tool like this and may even restrict the unique features I want to build. Instead, I’ve opted for a lean approach, using vanilla JavaScript combined with lightweight, open-source frameworks like Bootstrap. This gives me the freedom to tailor the interface to the specific needs of blasting engineers without unnecessary constraints. As for the algorithms, they’re well within my wheelhouse as an engineer. Blasting calculations are a matter of applying established principles, and I’m confident in coding these into the software. The trickier part is the user interaction and experience, which I know is critical for adoption. I plan to start with a functional interface and iteratively improve it based on user feedback.
A Vision for the Future
My goal is to create a blasting design software that’s open, flexible, and collaborative. It should empower engineers to design blasts without being tethered to specific products, streamline workflows by integrating drawing and calculations, and provide a platform for real-time collaboration. By leveraging open-source tools and keeping the architecture simple, I believe this is an achievable goal. This project is still in its early stages, but I’m excited about the potential. If you’re an engineer in the mining industry or have thoughts on what a blasting design tool should offer, I’d love to hear your feedback. Let’s build something that makes our work easier, safer, and more efficient.
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