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Surface Vol Calcs.

13 REPLIES 13
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Message 1 of 14
AEC_Cadd
1349 Views, 13 Replies

Surface Vol Calcs.

Does anyone know of a way for Vol. calcualtions to be shown in Acre Feet? I am doing Volums of lakes and the client needs a report of the number of Acre Feet in the lake. To get the data, he uses a depth finder hooked up to a GPS. I can do this by hand calculator but using Civil 3D 2013 would be much easier.

13 REPLIES 13
Message 2 of 14
tcorey
in reply to: AEC_Cadd

You can enter the conversion factor of Cu. Yd. to Acre-feet as an adjustment factor in the Volumes Dashboard.

 

1 cy = approx 0.0000619834 acre-feet. Please don't rely on this number, look it up yourself to be sure.



Tim Corey
MicroCAD Training and Consulting, Inc.
Redding, CA
Autodesk Gold Reseller

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. -- Kurt Vonnegut
Message 3 of 14
BrianHailey
in reply to: tcorey

Being a math geek, 1 cubic yard = (27/43560)acre feet

Brian J. Hailey, P.E.



GEI Consultants
My Civil 3D Blog

Message 4 of 14
troma
in reply to: BrianHailey

It's at moments like this that us in the big wide metric world have to look away so you can't see us sniggering. Smiley LOL


Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

Message 5 of 14
tcorey
in reply to: troma

eau contraire. What advantages ares built into the imperial measurement system?

 

1. Divisibility. We use a dozen (inches, for example) instead of ten because of its divisibility. 1/3 is an exact measure in the fractional world, but not in the decimal. (.3333333333 ad infinitum)

 

2. A foot equals the size of a human foot and a yard is a step. What's a meter in human terms? (( One meter is the distance traveled by a ray of electromagnetic (EM) energy through a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 (3.33564095 x 10-9) of a second. The meter was originally defined as one ten-millionth (0.0000001 or 10-7) of the distance, as measured over the earth's surface in a great circle passing through Paris, France, from the geographic north pole to the equator.)) That's definitely simpler than a foot and a yard.

 

The only advantage metric has is that it's easier to calculate because it's base-10. So what, I never saw a baker offer donuts in tens. Mothers of three, four or six wouldn't stand for it.

 

Plus, who wouldn't prefer to walk ten miles rather than 16 kilometers. I mean, sixteen, that's such a big number.Smiley Wink



Tim Corey
MicroCAD Training and Consulting, Inc.
Redding, CA
Autodesk Gold Reseller

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. -- Kurt Vonnegut
Message 6 of 14
Joe-Bouza
in reply to: BrianHailey

remind me to tell you the story of the mathmatician, physisist and engineer that had to extinguish a fire

Thank you

Joseph D. Bouza, P.E. (one of 'THOSE' People)

HP Z210 Workstation
Intel Xeon CPU E31240 @ 3.30 Hz
12 GB Ram


Note: Its all Resistentialism, so keep calm and carry on

64 Bit Win10 OS
Message 7 of 14
tcorey
in reply to: Joe-Bouza

Don't tease. Let's hear it...



Tim Corey
MicroCAD Training and Consulting, Inc.
Redding, CA
Autodesk Gold Reseller

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. -- Kurt Vonnegut
Message 8 of 14
antoniovinci
in reply to: tcorey


tcorey wrote:

What advantages ares built into the imperial measurement system?


Let God bless ya, sir: now I have easy reasons to explain to my little daughter the differences between english and metric systems...

Message 9 of 14
Joe-Bouza
in reply to: tcorey

An engineer a physicist and mathematician were on a camping trip. They went to sleep and a short while later an ember from the camp fire jumped and set the tent on fire.

 

The engineer wakes up to see a fire has started. He does a quick back-of- the envelope calculation adds 5% contingency, gets the water and extinguishes the fire. Then returns to sleep.

 

A short time later the physicist wakes up to another fire and calculates to within one standard deviation how much water would be required to extinguish the flames. He gets the the water, douses the fire and goes back to sleep.

 

 

The mathematician is then awoken by the smell of smoke! He then proceeds to develop a derivation and computes to PI exactly how much water would be required to put out the fire....................He was so pleased with his calculation that he patted himself on the back and went back to sleep Smiley Wink

Thank you

Joseph D. Bouza, P.E. (one of 'THOSE' People)

HP Z210 Workstation
Intel Xeon CPU E31240 @ 3.30 Hz
12 GB Ram


Note: Its all Resistentialism, so keep calm and carry on

64 Bit Win10 OS
Message 10 of 14
troma
in reply to: tcorey

1. How often do you need to divide things in three?  Honestly?

Ok, do one for me quickly in your head: what's a third of a mile in feet?  or in inches?

 

Third of a kilometer?  333.333m, or 333333mm.  Exact, no.  But close enough to make no difference.  And easily done in the head.

If dividing by 12 is such an advantage why do engineers (in imperial countries) use decimal feet?

 

2. Is your foot a foot long?  Mine certainly isn't, and I don't walk in yards either.  Not tall enough, sorry.  All measurement systems are arbrtrary originally, but you have to start somewhere.  I believe the definition of a metre has been uptaded from what you said to so many wavelenths of a certain band of light from whatever gas, but it doesn't matter.  What's the actual scientific definition of a foot?  Any idea?  A foot is equal to 0.3048 metres.  That's it. So the imperial system depends on the metric for its acuracy, and gets updated any time that the metric one does.

 

So I go shopping and I see a microwave volume in cubic feet, but the picnic cooler is in quarts.  How many quarts is 0.6 of a cubic foot?  Quickly, in your head.  That divisible by three thing should really speed you up!

If the original number was quoted in metric? 0.017 of a cubic metre is 17 litres.  Or if it were something bigger, say 0.6 of a cubic metre would be 600 litres.  So the advantage of the metric system is not only the divisible by 10 though that is very useful.  But also that the units for area and volume are logically based on the units for distance.  The unit for mass is also based on the unit for distance, through the substance water.  Therefore a mililitre of water weighs a gram, a litre of water weighs a kilogram and a cubic metre of water weighs a tonne.  This is incredibly useful when the relative densities (or in American 'specific gravity') of substances are quoted.  Gravel is 2.4 RD (SG)?  Then a cubic metre of it will weigh in at 2.4 t.

 

You can't get away from the metric system.  I already said that the foot is defined by it.  But do you ever hear of Amps or Volts?  How are they defined?  An electrical current of one Amp at a potential difference of one Volt has one Watt of power.  If it runs for one second, it converts one Jouel of energy.  What is a Joule?  It is the energy required to give a mass of one kilogram an accelaration of one metre per second per second.  If you use Ohms or Coulombs you are also in metric.

 

The original question was not about how to do the conversion, but how to display it, and you gave a good answer.  But I have to think: if I needed to convert from cubic metres to hectare metres, all I have to do is divide by 10,000, or multiply by 0.0001.  But mothers wouldn't stand for it, of course.

 

By the way, was "eau contraire" a reference to the contrariness of measuring water volumes in imperial, or did you mean to say "au contraire"?  Smiley Wink


Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

Message 11 of 14
Joe-Bouza
in reply to: troma

The first job, out of college I worked on was metric and no one in the office had metric scales. So we called a company that make scales and asked if they had metric scales, and they said they had both kinds; 6-inch and 12-inchSmiley Very Happy

Thank you

Joseph D. Bouza, P.E. (one of 'THOSE' People)

HP Z210 Workstation
Intel Xeon CPU E31240 @ 3.30 Hz
12 GB Ram


Note: Its all Resistentialism, so keep calm and carry on

64 Bit Win10 OS
Message 12 of 14
troma
in reply to: Joe-Bouza

I have a sticky note at my desk that I wrote for myself;

 

4 inch = hand

3 hand = foot

3 foot = yard

5 1/2 yard = rod

4 rod = chain

10 chain = furlong

8 furlong = mile

3 mile = league

 

It is a visual reminder of why I'm glad that I rarely have to worry about any of those units!


Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

Message 13 of 14
Joe-Bouza
in reply to: troma

There not all that bad.

 

I do get confused when I have to convert cubic leagues in cubic yards though Smiley Very Happy

Thank you

Joseph D. Bouza, P.E. (one of 'THOSE' People)

HP Z210 Workstation
Intel Xeon CPU E31240 @ 3.30 Hz
12 GB Ram


Note: Its all Resistentialism, so keep calm and carry on

64 Bit Win10 OS
Message 14 of 14
troma
in reply to: Joe-Bouza

I know, I know.  I don't often go off on a crusade, but it was fun.  I've grown up doing conversions in my head, and as long as ole' Uncle Sam refuses to get with the program they're gonna force us to be converting units.  It's not that hard to do.  I just wish they'd set the inch to be exactly 25mm, instead of 25.4mm.  Apparantly during World War I military parts made in USA and shipped over to UK didn't work, because the size of an inch was different.  Both countries in imperial; but they still had conversion problems!  Not sure exactly when it was standardised, but they picked 25.4mm.  I guess (using my handy chart) there being 63360 inches in a mile, if each one was just 0.4mm shorter the whole mile would be 25.344m shorter, and people would start to notice.  Oh well, tough luck to you say I! Smiley Tongue


Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

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