# Mining: measure the orientation of rock faces

> A compass on the cloud: click a rock face and read its dip and dip direction, with how well the points fit, then export them for Dips.

Page: https://finitor.cl/learn/desktop-mining-planes

Video: https://finitor.cl/learn/desktop-mining-planes-en.mp4 — Rock slope IV-4, captured by drone photogrammetry for "Automatic Planar Discontinuity Identification with Comprehensive Error Quantification" (Han et al., Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, 2025). Data: Zenodo 16934958, CC BY 4.0.

## The compass

1. Open the Mining tab. The radius is the size of the face you mean: a few tens of centimetres on a close-range scan, metres on a bench.
2. Switch on the compass: the Point tool is armed for you.

## Measure planes

1. Click a face. Finitor fits a plane to the points around the click and gives its dip and dip direction (60/216), as a field compass would, and labels it in the view.
2. Each plane is listed with its fit in centimetres: a large fit means the points around the click are not one face.

## Export

1. CSV… writes dip and dip direction first, so Rocscience Dips, CloudCompare or a spreadsheet read it as it is; DXF… writes a small face per plane, a layer per set.

The Mining add-on is sold apart from the Finitor Desktop licence and installs itself at sign-in, with no reinstall. Measuring planes with the compass is free.

## More about Finitor Cloud

- [Finitor Cloud: photogrammetry and LiDAR in the cloud](https://finitor.cl/)
- [Cloud photogrammetry](https://finitor.cl/fotogrametria-en-la-nube)
- [LiDAR classification](https://finitor.cl/clasificacion-lidar)
- [Point cloud viewer](https://finitor.cl/visor-nube-de-puntos)
- [Pricing](https://finitor.cl/pricing)
- [Features](https://finitor.cl/features)
- [Measured accuracy](https://finitor.cl/accuracy)
- [Cameras and files it reads](https://finitor.cl/cameras)
- [Demonstration: a finished survey](https://finitor.cl/demo)
- [How it works](https://finitor.cl/how)
- [Tutorials](https://finitor.cl/learn)
- [Finitor Desktop, the desktop application](https://finitor.cl/viewer)
- [Contact](https://finitor.cl/contact)
- [Terms and privacy](https://finitor.cl/terms)