Introduction
In many projects, the calculation of volumes, for the earthworks of an upcoming project, for example, can be very important, especially in project management. The time and cost of our project depend on the right calculation of such values. With Plex-Earth, you can quickly and easily calculate the respective volume which will be needed for your earthworks. Not only will you have access to accurate terrain data, but also calculate the volumes between terrain and a plane or another surface. Both these methods are available in Plex-Earth and will be presented to you below.
Method 1: Calculate Volumes between Surface and Plane
Step 1: Import a Terrain Model
Step 2: Use the Calculate Volumes between Surface and Plane Command
Step 3: Set the Parameters in the Volume Calculation Dialog Box
Step 4: Edit and Adjust the Volume Object
Step 5: Import Drawing Objects from a Volume Object
Method 2: Calculate Volume between Surfaces
Step 1: Import a Terrain Model
Step 3: Use the Calculate Volume between Surfaces Command
Step 4: Set the Parameters in the Volume Calculation Dialog Box
Method 1: Calculate Volumes between Surface and Plane
This method applies when we have a Terrain Model and we want to calculate the volumes between it and a specific plane level. This could be the case when we have a specific ground condition and we want to planish it for road work, for example.
Step 1: Import a Terrain Model
After georeferencing your drawing, you can import a Terrain Model, as shown here.
Step 2: Use the Calculate Volumes between Surface and Plane Command
Select the Calculate Volumes between Surface and Plane command of the Plex-Earth ribbon. To use this command you need at least one terrain model in your terrain manager.
Step 3: Set the Parameters in the Volume Calculation Dialog Box
After selecting this command, the dialog box below appears so you can select the parameters for your Volume Calculation.
In the Existing Ground box, a drop-down list with all the Terrain Models included on your Terrain Manager will appear. Choose the one that describes your existing ground condition. Notice that below that box, the minimum and maximum elevation appear, so you are helped to choose the plane elevation.
At the Final Ground box, define the plane elevation you want your final ground to be after proceeding with your scheduled earthwork. You can put positive or negative values in that box.
Notice that between the Final and Existing grounds, there is a double direction arrow. If you click on this, you can interchange them.
In the Advanced Options, you can select the color of the Cut and Fill volume appearance, by clicking the respective color box. Cut refers to the amount of ground that should be removed to achieve the final ground we set. Fill, on the other hand, refers to the amount of ground that should be put in to reach the level of the final ground.
The last setting is the Grid Cell Size. Plex-Earth calculates the respective volumes by dividing the volume into 3D Solid Rectangles. The value in this box defines the side of the square base of each solid. Plex-Earth automatically calculates the optimum value for the grid cell size whilst considering the accuracy and the quality performance of the volume model, so we generally advise leaving this option as it is. However, you can adjust the grid cell size if needed.
In our case, let’s set the terrain we created in Step 1 as Existing Ground and a plane at 850m elevation as Final Ground, as shown below. We have also changed the colors of Cut and Fill to Pink and Green respectively, and select Calculate.
After executing the command, a Volume Object appears in our drawing as shown below.
Step 4: Edit and Adjust the Volume Object
Notice that the Volume Object is added in Plex-Earth’s Terrain Manager. You can adjust it as any other terrain manager object: you can hide it, using the eye button, zoom to its extents using the magnifier button, and rename it, using the T button. Notice, also, that the volume of Cut and Fill also appears in the Terrain Manager.
For the moment, let’s click Edit and see what options appear to adjust our Volume object.
In the Volume Editor, we take overall information about our Volume Object, like the Final Ground and the Existing Ground. We also see the total Volumes of Cut and Fill will be needed to create the Final ground shown in square meters, square feet, or other units, depending on the units of your drawing. Again, we can change the cut and fill colors by clicking on the color buttons, to the preferred ones if we are not satisfied with our choice so far.
On the left part of the Editor palette, we can use the eye button to hide or show our volume object, and the Edit Button, to send the Volume Object to the back or to the front of our drawing (we will explain the Insert Button in Step 5).
If we want to adjust our Volume Calculation, we select the button “Change”, in the Edit tab. Here, the Volume Dialog Box appears and we can adjust our choices. Here, let’s change the existing ground’s plane elevation to 1000m and set the final ground as Terrain 1 (this would be the case if we had a plane ground at 1000m altitude and we want to create a surface looking like Terrain 1). We also change the Cut and Fill colors to blue and yellow respectively, and select Calculate.
Now, the changes to our Volume Object have been applied as shown below. The updated Cut and Fill values, as well as the new Existing and Final Ground, and the new colors, appear in the Volume Editor palette.
Step 5: Import Drawing Objects from a Volume Object
Until now, our Volume Object is a dynamic object, like the Terrains and Images of Plex-Earth. That means that it is locally stored in your drawing and needs a Plex-Earth license or Plex-Earth Lite to be viewed. However, we can import our volume object as a AutoCAD drawing object using the Insert command of the Volume Editor, and choose to insert Volume Bars. This way we will import a block of our volume which can be shared with other collaborators along with our drawing.
| Tip: We can convert the Visual Style to Realistic for better distribution of our volume bars. |
Method 2: Calculate Volume between Surfaces
This method is the best option when we have terrain data on how we want to form our project area, and we want to compare it with the current site conditions to calculate our earthworks.
Step 1: Import a Terrain Model
This is the same as Step 1 in Method 1. We import a Terrain model using the quality elevation data of Plex-Earth.
Step 2: Create a Surface
Here, you will need to create a second surface that will show how we want to adjust our project’s area. You can create a surface using existing drawing objects, like contours, or using survey measurements, using Plex-Earth. In this case, we will use survey measurements. After that, the surface will appear in Plex-Earth ‘s terrain manager.
Step 3: Use the Calculate Volume between Surfaces Command
Select the Create Volume between Surface and Plane command of the Plex-Earth ribbon. To use this command, you need at least two terrain models in your terrain manager, like the ones created in Step 1 and Step 2.
Step 4: Set the Parameters in the Volume Calculation Dialog Box
We set the parameters of the respective dialog box as we did in Step 3 of the previous method. To achieve the Volume calculations we want, we set the terrain we imported with Plex-Earth in Step 1 (Terrain 1) as Existing Ground, and the Terrain Surface we created from our data in Step 2 (Terrain 2) as Final Ground. We do not change the other parameters.
After executing the command, a Volume Object appears in our drawing as shown below.
Conclusion
With Plex-Earth, not only can we access accurate terrain data, but we can also access advanced tools, like the Volume Calculation between planes or surfaces for more accurate project management, especially for site grading and earthworks plans.
We hope that you have found this tutorial on how to generate volume from Plex-Earth's terrain, helpful. Feel free to contact us at support@plexscape.com for any questions you may still have.
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Compatibility includes:
AutoCAD Version: 2024 , 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016
Civil 3D® Version: 2024 , 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016
AutoCAD Architecture Version: 2024 , 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016
BricsCAD Pro: V23 , V22 , V21