Landscape software to analyze amount of dirt moved

Question

I'm about to embark upon a design project for re-contouring landscape around my home. Assuming I get an accurate measurement of the landscape into the computer, and after I modify the landscape model to represent the proposed result, I want to produce the 'diff':

• A visual representation showing the volumes where dirt needs to be removed.
• A visual representation showing the volumes where dirt needs to be added.
• A report of the actual volume of dirt being moved (the sums of those volumes).
• A report of the delta (+/- of dirt that will be needed, or will need to be removed).

What software exists that can produce this report for me? I will prefer inexpensive software and software that is easy to learn quickly, but will accept any that meets the above criteria.

Answer 1

AutoCAD Civil 3d is the software that I use for cut and fill jobs. Once you create a surface as a triangulated irregular network (TIN) that represents the existing ground, and another one that represents your desired surface, it will tell you how much dirt you need to move. It is available as a free trial from AutoDesk. I believe that the only restrictions on the trial is a time limit.

Answer 2

GRASS GIS can do the same job: http://grass.osgeo.org

• 3D tutorial
• volume calculation: r.volume
• nviz visualization tool:

Answer 3

The procedure is mostly the same for all softwares. You need a base surface, where it contains the heights of the terrain representing it now, and a future surface, representing how the terrain must look like after work.

The software makes a difference in them and retrieves the results in a graphic form. ArcGIS 3d Analyst does that job. I'm not sure of Opensource solutions that does it too.

Answer 4

Although already answered, you might also want to take a look at 12D. I used them a few years back for excavation calculations and was really impressed.

Calculates volumes through various methods between surfaces, between surface and models, or defined elements. 12d model provides numerous methods for approaching volume calculations in many different scenarios.

Whether it be for dam storage, or stockpile calculations, there is a method available to get your results.

Computation methods include:

End Area or Exact (height to height, TIN to TIN, TIN to height, storage calculations, removal calculations, balanced calculations) Grid cell Stockpile TIN to height range