Creating an excavation plan

[Anonymous]

I need to try my first attempt at an excavation plan in ArchiCAD. I have an existing topo survey with contour lines and a completed civil plan with finish elevations. I need to create an excavation plan to figure out how much dirt we need to excavate and how much to bring in. How can I create a volume that allows me to calculate the needed fill dirt?
Any approach on how to best tackle this would be much appreciated.

Marc

[Anonymous]

So I have created by as-built topo with the mesh tool. I am then creating another full volume with another mesh per my civil plans - so I have two volumes with my existing topo and the new desired topo. Unfortunately I am unsuccessful creating "difference" volume through SEO. Are SEO not possible with Mesh volumes or am I approaching this wrong?

Marc

[Steve Jepson]

Yes. You SEO does work with a Mesh. The problem with using the mesh for the SEOporator sometimes is that you can 't adjust the nodes ( z) on the bottom of the mesh. You may need to make the adjustments in the top of the mesh, then convert it to a Morph for adjustments on the bottom before use using it for SEO. (Solid Element Operations)

Also, you may want to use some roofs. You can convert a Mesh to a Roof in 2D view. Doesn't work in 3D view. Using roofs gives you good control over slopes.

If you could post a picture of the topo we could make more useful sugestions based on the kind of slopes your working with. Roads, parking, etc... ?

Also you can make some very useful scheudles for the volumes to be excavated and volumes for the different types of fill. For example you might like to know the volume of each type of material in a road way. You can label them with notes about compacton lifts...things like that. ArchiCAD is a great tool for Site Plans / Excavation Plans...

[Anonymous]

Invert the mesh you use for SEO by entering a negative number in the mesh height (-9000 in this case). then use element info to give you the volume of the mesh.

[Steve Jepson]

russfairhurst wrote:
Invert the mesh you use for SEO by entering a negative number in the mesh height (-9000 in this case). then use element info to give you the volume of the mesh.

The picture is not showing up. Can you post it again ? That is a really good idea. I will give it a try.

[Anonymous]

Thx everybody. I finally figured out my mistake... I failed to convert the volume into a morph to make the operation permanent.