Measuring Stockpiles: Uneven Bases, Overlapping Material, and Base Designs

Loading and measuring against a base design    

If the area where your stockpile sits has a design representing its base, you can measure the volume based on the design surface.

How to measure a stockpile using a base design:

1. Upload your design surface.

2. From the measurement toolbar, choose Polygon.

3. Select the Stockpile option.

Customizing the stockpile base 

Measuring material on uneven or stepped ground, stored in bins, stacked against benches, or in overlapping piles can require more customization than the interpolated base used by the Smart Volume. 

The Custom Base Volume type allows for precise adjustment of the individual vertex points, making up the outline of a volume measurement. Adjusting the position and elevation of the vertices allows the measurement base to reflect the material in the stockpile accurately.

How to customize the base of a stockpile measurement:

1. After selecting the Stockpile template, draw the outline of your stockpile. Alternatively, you can use the Magic Polygon tool and edit the shape if needed.

2. Change the From surface comparison dropdown to Custom surface.

3. To begin editing the base, right-click the measurement on the map and click Edit Shape or click on a vertex point.

4. Adjust the points to reflect the shape of the material.

You can also edit the point by adding the Northing and Easting.

5. Click SAVE to recalculate the volume.

Change measurement units

If you want to change the measurement units, select the most appropriate one from the dropdown menu. This makes it easy to switch between imperial and metric units as needed and create reports in your preferred units. Make sure to hit the APPLY button to recalculate the units.

How do I account for shrink and swell?

Add the shrink and swell factors to the Shrink/swell tool.

Enter the shrink-swell factor for the cut and fill to calculate the Cut, Fill, Net, and Total volumes. For example, if your swell factor is 5%, input 1.05. If your shrink factor is 5%, enter 0.95.

When applied to cut or fill, a factor >1 is needed for swell and a factor <1 is needed for shrink.

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