Designing Overburden Piles

[slundbacc]

I am trying to design an overburden pile and blend it into the existing topography. I am having trouble getting anything to work the way I want it to. I am hoping that somebody out there has done this and can help me out. Any help at all would be appreciated.

[TerryS]

What is not working the way you want? How are you approaching the task? One way would be to create a 3d polyline for the top and use Design Pad Template to tie it to existing topo.

[MikeE]

[quote="slundbacc"]I am trying to design an overburden pile and blend it into the existing topography. I am having trouble getting anything to work the way I want it to. I am hoping that somebody out there has done this and can help me out. Any help at all would be appreciated.[/quote]

Please describe your situation in more detail. I do this sort of thing daily, but the methods used vary depending on the situation.

Are you targeting as much overburden as you can get in a certain area (as high as you can go)?

Do you have a target elevation in mind?

Is it a valley fill?

Just give some details, I'm sure we can come up with some solutions.

[slundbacc]

Basically I have figured that I will get 80,000 CY of OVB from a pit on our first series. I now need to blend that pile into the existing topography next to the pit. I have not been able to come up with anything that looks very good. Just a nudge in the right direction would be great.

[MikeE]

Generally I create piles trying to get as much material in a space as I can.

What TerryS said above is the method I usually go about it. I start out by figuring on an area that the pile is limited to. It might be bounded by property lines & offsets, reserve boundaries, plant site, gas lines, power lines, etc. I then'sketch' this area on my drawing with a polyline. Assuming you have created a TIN or GRD of the existing surface, you can then project the polyline onto that surface (CIVIL>3D Data>3D entity by surface model. There are some other options for doing this in CIVIL>2D to 3D polyline, but most of the time I use the 3D entity by surface model).

Next, go to CIVIL>Surface>Design Pad Template. I would target an elevation, slope direction outside, and ratios. Hit ok and follow the prompts. It should create a pad for you. You can contour it if you like. If you do contour you can more easily see problem areas with some of the contour lines it creates. I usually copy the contours and pad lines to a new drawing and mess with them there. Rotate it in 3D and look at it. You can modify the pad lines, erase the contours (isolate layer and restore layer are my best friends) and have it triangulate and contour again. Repeat until you get it the way you want it.

That is one way that works for me. There are a whole lot of other options too so don't assume you have to do it this way. I am constantly copying things to new drawings, bringing them back, rotating in 3D, editing, etc. until I get things looking the way I want them.

There is also the Design Cut/Fill in the Surface Mining Module that I have used at times. For the most part, I use it for pit models and design pad template for spoil piles. Someone else will probably have different ways. Hope this helps, ask more questions if needed.