Volume of a single surface?

[rhdins]

I have a single surface, a pond, that I want to calculate the volume of.  Is there a way I can have Civil3D tell me the volume of a single surface, without a comparison surface?

[neilyj666]

Not really.......as what would you be calculating the volume of?

[rhdins]

I understand that without a comparison surface C3D does not know where to calculate to, but... when I'm doing a simple pond with a top elevation and a bottom elevation, it would be nice to just get a rough idea of the volume without having to make a top of water surface, or measuring the area of the top and bottom and calculating the volume myself.  There's got to be an easy way to do this, right??

[troma]

It is not too hard to make a top surface.
Just make it as one big rectangle. I'd make a polyline at the elevation, and build from that.
Then do the volume comparison:

Base = Pond
Comparison = Water top
Ignore the cut values. The Fill is your water.

If you'd still like a better way, please add your vote to this idea:
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-civil-3d-ideastation/dynamic-stage-storage-object/idi-p/557825...

[neilyj666]

There is also the method of calculating a volume  from a datum elevation - I think it is command line only though; reportsurfboundedvolume but may need a volume surface to work?

[Neilw_05]

Have you looked at the Stage Storage tool? It reports pond storage volumes at specified depth increments. The tool is found on the Design panel of the Analyze Tab (see the pull down on the panel). See also StageStorage in the help system.

[Joe-Bouza]

Igo with @troma's suggestion. its easy enough. And @Neilw_05's suggestion for Stage store is a goody too. you have many options

[Jerry_Barnes]

Stage Storage is the ticket. It's quick and easy, generates incremental and accumulative volumes from an existing surface or just from polylines at elevation if you want. No need for a second comparison surface. It generates a report instantly as well. You can choose to calculate volumes using Average End Area or Conic Incremental methods, or both.

[troma]

I've learned to be mistrustful of Stage Storage. It calculates from contours, not from the TIN. The precision of calculation depends on the precision of the contours in your surface style.
When I had my contours set to 0.50m I was not happy at all with the volumes that the stage storage tool calculated. I actually had to put them to the mm (yes that's 0.001m contours) to get a volume result close to what a TIN volume surface calculated.

It also has trouble if there's more than one depression in the pond bottom. It really doesn't seem to know how to calculate that.

[neilyj666]

I haven't had any success with Stage Storage in the past so I never used it since....:)

[Neilw_05]

I've not used it in a real world project. It's good to know there are problems with it. Looks like another half baked tool.

[inproconsultca]

I have two ponds in a surface. The stage storage reports on of them 😞 Is there a way this command reports both?