Cut-Fill with more information

[C3D_RickGraham]

Hi all,

Yesterday my boss showed me a drawing from an earthworks contractor that
they simply take our EG and FG and make some very pretty graphics-oriented
drawing with colors for the varying amounts of cut or fill needed and shows
in rectangles on a 50x50 grid of what is the cut-fill amount at that
location. As he was talking about this, I was thinking to my self that WE
should be able to do this with Civil3D - and it's just a matter of styles to
play with. The gotha on this, and thus the reason for the post is that this
contractor also accounts and give a number in CU FT the amount of topsoil
that is being removed. I'm not sure how to automate this process. I believe
the software that this contractor is using is called either Paydirt or
Insight.

Any ideas on how to replicate this so that we don't have to pay this
contractor to do something that we can already do in Civil3D or am I blowing
smoke?

Thanks,

--
Rick

C3D 2007 SP3
Dell DuoCore 2.66GHz 2GB Ram 256 Dual DVI Dual monitors! 🙂

[Anonymous]

RickGraham wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Yesterday my boss showed me a drawing from an earthworks contractor that
> they simply take our EG and FG and make some very pretty graphics-oriented
> drawing with colors for the varying amounts of cut or fill needed and shows
> in rectangles on a 50x50 grid of what is the cut-fill amount at that
> location. As he was talking about this, I was thinking to my self that WE
> should be able to do this with Civil3D - and it's just a matter of styles to
> play with. The gotha on this, and thus the reason for the post is that this
> contractor also accounts and give a number in CU FT the amount of topsoil
> that is being removed. I'm not sure how to automate this process. I believe
> the software that this contractor is using is called either Paydirt or
> Insight.
>
> Any ideas on how to replicate this so that we don't have to pay this
> contractor to do something that we can already do in Civil3D or am I blowing
> smoke?

As far as removing the topsoil....can't much help you there.

However, for the nicely colored view that you're looking for, check out
http://www.civil3d.com/index.php/2006/08/creating-colorful-presentations-for-a-client/

You can play with the number of ranges to get what you're looking for -
my two range method just simply displays cut and/or fill.

--
Jason Hickey

Civil 3D 2007, SP3
Dell Precision M70
2 GIG RAM, 256 MB nVidia Quadro FX Go1400
Intel Centrino 2 gHz Processor

www.civil3d.com

[Anonymous]

I've never liked doing the topsoil quantities with software, but you could
try something like the following:

Make a new surface
Paste in your EG surface
Lower it the topsoil depth
Make a volume surface comparing that as the base to your FG

.....be careful, particularly if anyone is looking at depths when you do
this!!! For the analysis (see Jason's post), I would think you would want
to use EG vs. FG, not the 'topsoil removed' EG you used for volume calc.

WARNING: I'm making several assumptions about your methods/abilities,
etc!!!! Verify your results before you pass them up the chain. It's quite
easy to get yourself into a world of hurt (which I'm sure you already
know...........just in case......and for anyone who else who may read this).
Getting quick volume numbers really impresses the boss, provided they never
come back as wildly incorrect.

wrote in message news:5454556@discussion.autodesk.com...
Hi all,

Yesterday my boss showed me a drawing from an earthworks contractor that
they simply take our EG and FG and make some very pretty graphics-oriented
drawing with colors for the varying amounts of cut or fill needed and shows
in rectangles on a 50x50 grid of what is the cut-fill amount at that
location. As he was talking about this, I was thinking to my self that WE
should be able to do this with Civil3D - and it's just a matter of styles to
play with. The gotha on this, and thus the reason for the post is that this
contractor also accounts and give a number in CU FT the amount of topsoil
that is being removed. I'm not sure how to automate this process. I believe
the software that this contractor is using is called either Paydirt or
Insight.

Any ideas on how to replicate this so that we don't have to pay this
contractor to do something that we can already do in Civil3D or am I blowing
smoke?

Thanks,

--
Rick

C3D 2007 SP3
Dell DuoCore 2.66GHz 2GB Ram 256 Dual DVI Dual monitors! 🙂