Earthwork Computer Program
Earthwork Computer Program
(OP)
I am trying to find the most accurate computer program that calculates earthwork based on AutoCad files. Can you please give me some good suggestions?
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Earthwork Computer Program
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Earthwork Computer ProgramEarthwork Computer Program(OP)
I am trying to find the most accurate computer program that calculates earthwork based on AutoCad files. Can you please give me some good suggestions?
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RE: Earthwork Computer Program
They have integrated the design software with ACAD fairly well. The Surface Modeling module works quite well and simply to develop DTM's and calculate quantities.
Of course ACAD has it's own suite of design tools and I've heard good things about them as well. If you haven't yet made a large software investment, check out SiteComp. This is totally independent of ACAD, has all the cogo, engineering design features and surface modeling capabilities as other packages but doesn't require ACAD. I checked this out and was impressed with it. If we weren't so invested in EaglePoint, with so many stations, I would have really pushed to switch.
David
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
http://www.insitesoftware.com/cad_2.htm
Click the home page to see all the other features InSite SiteWork provides. While products that run in the CAD environment can do volume calculations, it is very difficult to handle multiple surfaces. When you consider that often sites require topsoil stripping and demolition from the existing surface, cuts broken down by strata type, fill requirements for the whole site as well as for each structural and non structural area, subgrade volumes, and topsoil replacement quantities, it becomes quite difficult to calculate these in CAD based software. There was a pretty good discussion of contractor-based packages here:
Thread158-17845 you have any questions call me at 1-877-746-7483.
Thank You
Steve
Steve Warfle
InSite Software Inc.
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
For a 2,000,000 cy project at Vandenberg AFB I used a combination of Tundra Data Earthwork for the building pad information and cadd drawn cross sections of the rail bed with a custom spreadsheet to interpolate between stations and calculate the mass haul diagrams.
The end result of this was a balance of +/- 200 cy over the 2,000,000 cy project but it took a lot of work! In my situation it was worth it.
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
Alhtough having not used it, I have heard good things about mxroad.
Best regards.
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
(800) 441-1140
or http://www.agtek.com/
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
As this package works inside ACAD. if your design is ACAD 3D, you can readily merge the ACAD and MX models to get you volumes etc
http://www.infrasoft-civil.com/
Regards
Steve Muller
MWH NZ
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
your method sounds like a good check and a good way to get a "feel" for the e.w. quantities. My problem is following exactly how you do this -can you direct me somewhere? and what exactly is the daylight line?
I have only done e.w. using profiles drawn through a site and then computing the average end area of cuts and fills, so though this sounds more accurate, it is also unfamiliar to me.
Andy
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
Think of a wedding cake as a very simple grading plan. The table is the existing grade. Each layer of cake represents one foot of fill. The area of each layer, times one foot, gives the volume of that layer. Add up the volume of each layer to get the total volume of fill.
Now look at your grading plan. The existing contours are the "table", of course they are never flat. Pick one contour elevation and trace the existing contour with a red pencil and the finish grade contour with a red pen or marker. The area enclosed is just like a layer of the wedding cake. Measure this area with a planimeter. Of course there may be more than one area enclosed, because there can be both cut and fill. The points where the red pencil and red pens lines cross are your daylight lines, where you are either matching to existing ground, or transitioning from cut to fill. Now do this for every different contour elevation on your plan, using different colors (I usually start repeating colors every 5 contours, there just aren't enough colors to do a complex grading plan with all different colors). Draw daylight lines through all of your daylight points to separate cut areas from fill areas. Measure each separate area of cut and fill enclosed by the same color, (use highlighter to separately color the cut and fill areas) multiply the areas by one foot or your contour interval, to get the volume of each area of cut or fill. Total up your cuts and fills. Don't forget to apply shinkage corrections. Also, if your grading plan contours are drawn to finish grade, don't forget to correct your cut and fill quantities for the volumes of subbase, base, pavements, concrete, etc.
While this is a difficult procedure to describe in words, if you were here I could illustrate it to you easily. I believe it would be less tedious than the method you are using, although any earthwork method can be tedious, even the computer generated ones.
As I described in the previous posts, I have done this procedure on AutoCad, although it is just about as much work to do it on the computer as to do it manually. I have found that it gives very similar results to the grid, composite and average end area methods which the Softdesk programs generate, when everything is done right.
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
AJS
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
Thanks for your explanation! Difficult as it was to explain, you did an excellent job, and I think I actually understand it. I will try it on my next job.
Thanks again
Andy
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
Land Development R2
My own custom Excel Spreadsheet
Methods:
As others have said, you should certainly know what to expect rather than rely solely on what an application tells you. To simplify the process for many users, I've developed a basic process and that is as follows:
1. Start with two surfaces:
A. Existing with topsoil present or enter 0's in the spreadsheet where appropriate when you get to that step.
B. Your finished grade to top of pavements, etc. I highly recommend the extensive use of fault lines for quality topo and accurate quantities
2. Establish thicknesses of topsoil, pavements, etc.
3. Establish swell factor for your soils
4. Do a volume calculation between your surfaces using no adjustments
5. Do a cut-fill tick map and set the Grid surface current in Terrain Model Explorer. Topo it so that only the 0 contour will be created.
6. Determine areas of pavements and topsoil in cut and fill, and enter those values in the appropriate spaces in the spreadsheet
7. Enter the raw cut/fill numbers in the appropriate place in the spreadsheet
8. You should now see the numbers you are after. Numbers returned are:
A. Common Excavation
B. Off-site borrow
C. Off-site disposal
D. How much to raise or lower the site to balance
E. Undercut (if specified)
F. Volumes of pavements
The only thing left is that you need the spreadsheet. Drop me a note at inquiry@cegroupinc.com if you want to give this a try. Instructions for use of the spreadsheet are contained on a separate tab and in comments attached to individual cells.
Please note that this is just an aid in design provided at no charge. We cannot accept responsibility for errors and omissions. Please report spreadsheet corrections, modifications, additions to the same address. A blue bounded box in the spreadsheet is a good location for a company logo if desired.
I hope that you find this to be helpful.
Jeff Foster, PE
CE Group, Inc
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
This is not because the surveyors can't do their jobs, but because the points collected are always approximately representative of the ground surface. To clarify this I recently carried out a large earthworks design project which was based on a 50m grid over an 8km by 8km site of undulating hills of which some area were subject to ongoing erosion.
Because of the inherent inaccuracies of the survey (+-15mm), the grid spacing and the size of the site, the resultant volumes may be up to +-15% in error. So despite using quality software we were still relatively inaccurate with the client being advised so.
So to the original question, what is the most accurate program to use for earthworks? It doesn't really matter because of the factors that are outside of the control of the designer and inherent in any earthworks project. You are better to find software that is easy to learn and can produce quality results through offering a variety of checking methods. For example LDD has 3 methods of calculating earthworks, which gives a good indicator of the errors involved in each design.
In my experience if the program only uses one method to calculate earthworks, then it is seriously flawed, as it is better to check the volume by different methods where-ever possible.
Regards
SC
RE: Earthwork Computer Program
Even though we have several seats of Paydirt, I'd dump it in a minute if there is something better out there. I have looked and/or used Agtek, Paydirt, InSite and Quest. They all have short commings that don't make one a better choice than the other. If you are able to resolve your delemia, I would like to find out what you came up with.