Removing the steepest slopes on a large surface

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

I work in the utility-scale solar industry. I am looking for a way to quickly modify a surface to remove the steepest slopes.

Is there any solution to set some slope criteria, for instance all the slopes must be below 10%, and then compute a new surface respecting this criteria? It would act as a "smoothing" of the site, removing the largest hills and holes. Then, it would be possible to compare the two surfaces to get the cut&fill required.

It is probably possible to remove the hills and holes one by one, but for sites of few kilometers by few kilometers, it would take a tremendous amount of time.

Thank you for any help.

[jroot]

Are you taking a surface of existing ground and wanting to make a proposed surface of the same, minus the steep slopes?  Or is this a proposed surface from scratch that you are designing? (having some design elevations in mind, then sloping to meet existing)

[MMcCall402]

The method in which a steep slope or hole is smoothed out of a surface is an issue.  The slope or hole could simply use fill to be smoothed resulting in fill needed, or, it could be done by using surrounding material resulting in a zero net fill. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply.

@jroot It is an existing ground and I want to make the same surface without the steep slopes.

@MMcCall402 how would you use the surrounding material? which command and function would you use?

[jroot · Accepted solution]

I would start with a copy of the existing surface and go to the Analysis tab on Surface Properties.  Add a Slope with Max:99 and Min:10 (or whatever you consider a steep slope). Make sure the lightbulb for Slopes is on in the Surface style.  This will shade the steep slope areas.

Then you can start forming a game plan on how to remove these areas.  Maybe pick the high side or low side of the steep slopes, start with a Featureline there and do some Gradings at a lower percentage tying back into the same surface.