(07-30-2018, 05:51 PM)mikeperik Wrote: Thank you both for responding and I'm seeing that there is a lot to improve in the model.
My excavator is saying that I need approximately 1,000 cu yd of fill to get to the final grading. I attempted to eliminate the garage and porches from the calculation by setting those areas to the grade since I will need to fill with gravel and I'm just trying to figure out what the backfill and grading imbalance is going to be. I had modeled a feature (new grading around house), and 4 platforms (basement, 2 porches, and garage). With this model, which I provided via the link, I came up with approximately -200 cu yds.
I'll watch the video and attempt to rework the model. I'm just not understanding how the creation of the features and platforms are interacting with each other to get the final imbalance.
Mike
Hi Mike,
Maybe this will be too much information, but there's a couple of points about outlines that are worth mentioning. Especially the first one could affect the volumes quite a lot:
When you define the outline around the proposed (your 'features' surface) this outline should be around the limits of the disturbed area. To me it looks as though the areas I've highlighted in green are not being disturbed, as the proposed contours have already ended where they meet the existing ground. Since the software will invent levels in this area and calculate volumes based on these levels, this could affect your volumes quite a bit.
If I'm understanding you right, you don't want any calculation of the garages, patio and porch because you are calculating this separately as gravel volumes. You've cancelled them out roughly, by adding platforms in these areas at the existing ground level. A better way to do this is to add internal boundaries to the feature surface. If you add an outline inside your main outline it will remove that area from the surface, like a hole in the surface. You can see I've done this on the attached file, so it shows gray as there's no cut or fill.
BTW Tim -> A very minor point but there's also Ctrl+X to 'cut' an item. You can then paste with Ctrl+V and it just means you don't have to delete the old surface. Not a big deal, but might save you some time if you're doing this a lot.
