Soil volume calculations

[Jonnydubya]

Hello All,

We are currently quoting for some work for a client which will involve calculating volumes of soil types based on a topographic survey and borehole information. I have a few q's on this:

- can standard AutoCAD (2008 - full version) do this? The only command I have found is MASSPROP, but I'm not sure this is the best to use for dealing with a contoured ground surface.

- which would be the best AutoCAD product to use for this - Civil, Land Desktop? I haven't used either of these before, would it be relatively easy to do this type of calculation.

Any advice on best method and suitable programs gratefully accepted.

Cheers,
Jon

[lpseifert]

Q1. Yes and no, acad can't calculate the volumes directly but can be used as a tool to gather the data needed, i.e. areas of cross-sections, areas of contours. Look here for methods

Q2. Either Civil 3D or Land Desktop will do the job. I don't think LDD can be gotten as a standalone package anymore, but it comes as a 'companion' with Civil 3D.

[Jonnydubya]

Ipseifert,

thanks for the response and the calc link. Yes it seems that LDD is no longer available.

Have you had any experience of using Civil 3D for this type of calculation? Is it relatively easy to set up and calculate volumes?

Perhaps I shoud repost in Civil 3D for this topic.