Calculating Volumes Using a Single Surface
Updated July 09, 2021
This article applies to:
- Terrain 3D
- Terrain Forestry
- RoadEng Civil
- RoadEng Forestry
This Knowledge Base article is an excerpt from one of our tutorial files. The files referenced in the article, as well as the full tutorial document, are available in our Tutorial Installer.
Stockpile Example
This example demonstrates how to quickly calculate pile or excavation volumes using the TIN boundary to define the lower surface. For most piles with simple convex boundaries this technique is appropriate and can save time since only one TIN surface is required.
This method can be applied to any earthwork calculation where the surface is defined by the toe of the pile (or crest of the excavation), and is an accurate representation of the original surface.
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File | Open <Terrain>\DTM\stockpile.terx. -
Press the Terrain Modeling | Calculate Volumes button to open the Volume / Surface Properties Calculation dialogue box.
Figure 1: Volumes / Surface Properties Dialogue Box
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Ensure the Volume enclosed by a single surface is enabled. Press OK.
Note: When Volume enclosed by a single surface is checked, the Volume and surface properties by polygon is automatically selected and disabled. This causes a boundary polygon to be automatically created but not shown.
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Once the calculation is complete, the Volume / Surf. Properties Reporting dialogue box will display the cut and fill volumes.
Figure 2: Display of Cut and Fill Volumes.
Note: The fill volume (small compared to the cut), is because the toe of the pile is not flat. If the initial surface is not planar, it is more accurate to use the 2-surface technique (described in the previous section) to calculate volumes.
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File | New. Do not save changes.