Cut and fill depth categories

I have encountered a similar limitation that I can imagine would be useful to others as well:

I have been quantifying asphalting depths for a runway which is approx. 120,000m2. The difference between the existing runway surface and the proposed varies (i.e. thicknesses to be asphalted are between 0 and 180mm). The asphalt needs to be laid in given layer thicknesses to meet the specification. As an example the surface course we are using can't be laid and compacted at less than 40mm thick. This leaves the area of the runway that needs to be asphalted (between 0-39mm thickness) that we will need to plane out so we have the required depth. I can visualise this by adjusting the colours and being specific with the depths of the contours but I can't get an area or volume of the different contour bands. I need this because I need to quantify how much of the 120,000m2 needs to be planed out (i.e. is this 10% of the total area, 20%, 30% for instance)

So far I have exported the data into CAD and traced round the contours to get areas of each different contour band, but that is time consuming. I have been given a workaround which will involve some manual calculations, which should work but for the benefit of others that have the same problem in the future it is a feature I would like to see.

The other thing that I am unable to deal with is layers that have a thickness of 15, 25, 35, 125mm for instance. Most of the time for earthworks etc. the 5mm is negligible but it would be nice to be able to increase the accuracy if needed.

Thanks.

Hi STHabit!

Interesting to hear about your take on this.  I think it's essentially the same problem as others are having, except you are dealing with much thinner asphalt layers instead of bulk earthworks.  I think a break-down by depth export would resolve a lot of these issues, and we are currently planning how to implement this.

We are hoping to do this before long, and it will allow you to input your own depth thresholds.  This means it should work just as well for standard methods of measurement (e.g. NRM2, SMM7) or custom requirements based on practical considerations like yours. 

On your second point about displaying down to the millimetre for very thin layers such as yours: You can change the precision that is displayed by clicking on 'Measure' and then 'Display Units'.  This is where you can set the units.  It's mostly used to switch between metric and imperial units for users in different regions, but you can also change the precision which is displayed, so there will be more or less decimal places.  We set it to 2 by default.  That's enough for most of our users, but you can increase it to 3 to see the mm.

Hope this helps,

Leo