Earthwork Plan Production | Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2020 - Earthwork Calculations

A very common task many designers and drafters are asked to do is to perform a Cut/Fill takeoff.  So, you just push a couple buttons, right?  WRONG!  Proper modeling of your existing ground and finished ground is key.  Selecting the right methods and understanding WHY you are performing that task may also be a good idea.

Here is a portion of an article our Consulting & Services Manager, Shawn Herring, wrote for AUGIWorld. This article looks at several options within Civil 3D for calculating and displaying your earthwork quantity takeoffs.

Earthwork Plan Production

You can use the Earthwork Plan Production command to insert labels in a grid and tables that contain information about the volume of the earthwork between two TIN surfaces.

This option gives contractors and job foreman a lot more info that creating a surface volume alone.  There are several simple settings to be aware of as shown in Figure 10.

The horizontal and vertical interval will give you cut-fill info at all 4 corners of the grid lines, as well as a total volume within the specified grid pattern.  You can choose how the data is displayed in the setting, but be aware, this option is NOT DYNAMIC, meaning that if anything changes, you’ll need to re-run the analysis (Figure 11).

There are 3 algorithm methods:

Accuracy Method

Calculates the volume from a volume surface that is created between the two TIN surfaces. This is the default method.

Note: This method should be used in cases where the grids are cut to irregular shapes at the surface boundary.

Triangular Prism Method

Calculates the volume from triangular prisms. The area to be calculated is divided into triangular prisms, and the volume is calculated for each triangular prism and then summed.

Note: This method should not be used in cases where the Horizontal Interval and Vertical Interval are set to different values.

Cuboid Prism Method

Calculates the volume from cuboid prisms. The area to be calculated is divided into cuboid prisms, and the volume is calculated for each cuboid prism and then summed.

The finished product is fantastic and unlike any other option in Civil 3D!