Settings: Implement, Survey and Fields

These three cards set the size of your implement, how the app records a survey, and how strict it is about the GPS fix. Every change saves the moment you make it; there is no Save button.

Before you start

• The Ditch Assist® app is open. Any screen will do.
• Each change takes under a minute. Typed numbers save as you type; finish with the tick key on the keyboard.
• Blade-height Auto Measure also needs the tablet connected to your kit, with RTK Fixed, and the machine parked on level ground.
• Never changed a setting before? How to change a setting shows each kind of button up close.

Find these cards

1. Tap Settings

   In the column of big buttons down the right-hand edge of the screen, tap Settings: the fourth button from the top, with a gear icon. (On the Survey or Grade screen, tap the wrench at the right end of the top bar instead.)

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2. Scroll down to IMPLEMENT and SURVEY

   Slide a finger up the cards (how to scroll). After MAP and DRAIN-IQ come IMPLEMENT (the sixth card) and SURVEY (the seventh). The Fields card is further down, after GRADING.

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Implement

The IMPLEMENT card has two rows: Swath Width and Excavator Grid Cell.

Swath Width

The working width of your blade, scraper or ditcher. The app paints coverage on the map this wide as you grade, and Slope-IQ uses it as the starting BOTTOM WIDTH of a new ditch design.

To change it: tap the number box at the right-hand end of the Swath Width row. A number keyboard opens. Delete the old number, type the new one, then tap the tick key at the bottom right of the keyboard. The number saves as you type.

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• Default: 8 ft (2.4 m).
• Range: 1 to 100, in ft (or m in Metric). A number outside the range is ignored and the old value stays.
• Shown: every kit and mode.

Excavator Grid Cell

The size of each square in the completion grid of a new Excavation LandXML job (the grid you tap to mark areas finished).

To change it: put your finger on the blue dot of the slider at the right-hand end of the row and slide it. Right is bigger, left is smaller. The blue number beside it (for example 11m) changes as you slide and is saved.

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• Default: 11 m.
• Range: 3 to 30 m in 1 m steps. Always in metres, even in Feet + Inches.
• Shown: every kit, including Ditch Assist Lite. Only used by Excavation. See Completion grid.

Survey

The SURVEY card has five rows. They decide what goes into a survey and when grading holds for GPS quality.

Recording Interval

The minimum distance between logged survey points (Minimum distance between logged survey points). In Drive mode the app drops a point each time you have moved this far. The Field Survey screen uses the same spacing.

To change it: tap the number box at the right-hand end of the first row of SURVEY. Delete the old number, type the new one, and tap the tick key on the keyboard. It saves as you type.

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• Default: 10.0 ft (3.0 m).
• Range: 1 to 100, in ft (or m in Metric). A number outside the range is ignored.
• Shown: every kit and mode.
• When to change: go down to 3–5 ft for a short run with sharp humps, or a run you will design to tight depths; go up for a very long, even run. Smaller means more detail and bigger files. Shots you log by hand in Shots mode ignore it.

The in-app manual calls this row "Survey Interval"; the screen says Recording Interval.

Blade Height

The height of the cutting edge above the ground with the implement raised all the way up in transport position (Blade-to-ground distance in transport position (subtracted from GPS during survey)). You survey with the blade up, so the app takes this off every survey point to get the ground under the blade. It is only used while recording a survey; it is not the antenna-to-cutting-edge distance, and grading an imported design does not use it.

To change it, use either the box or the button at the right-hand end of the second row of SURVEY:

• Type it: tap the number box, delete the old number, type the height (inches in Feet + Inches, cm in Metric, feet in Decimal Feet) and tap the tick key. It saves as you type.
• Measure it with GPS: tap the dark Auto Measure button with orange writing. A window opens; see below.

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Auto Measure opens a window called Auto Measure Blade Height. It checks Controller: Connected and RTK Fix: RTK, then walks you through two steps: with the implement raised all the way UP, tap Measure UP Position; then lower it to the ground and measure again. The app averages the GPS elevation at each step and saves the difference. The Raise and Lower buttons move the implement while you hold them (Full Automation Kit). Cancel closes the window without saving.

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• Default: 0, meaning not set. While it is 0 the Survey screen asks you to set it (Set Blade Height) and shows an orange Blade Ht 0 — antenna level chip.
• Range: 0 to 200 in (0 to 200 cm in Metric). In Decimal Feet you type feet, up to the same 200 in (16.67 ft). A blank or out-of-range number is ignored.
• Auto Measure needs a connection and an RTK fix (any fix the RTK Filter accepts).
• Shown: every kit and mode.

Step by step, with the measuring tape method: Set blade height.

Benchmark Offset

A read-only readout of your current elevation calibration: the offset between raw GPS elevation and the survey frame, in ft (or m), with what you calibrated to underneath (for example BM: BM 4). It reads Not set in grey italics when you are not calibrated. You can't type an offset here.

To calibrate or clear it: tap Open calibration, the white rounded button with a target icon at the right-hand end of the third row of SURVEY. The Calibrate Elevation window opens, the same one the BM badge opens. Calibrate there, or open Advanced in that window to type a known elevation, zero to current GPS or clear the calibration.

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• Default: Not set.
• Kept: across app restarts and updates. Uninstalling the app removes it.

When you need to calibrate and when you don't, step by step: Benchmarks and calibration.

RTK Filter

Reject non-RTK points during survey. Auto-hold grading on RTK loss and notify after timeout.

• On (default): survey points, shots, benchmark averaging and blade-height Auto Measure only use RTK Fixed. While grading, losing RTK Fixed puts the blade on HOLD — No RTK Fix until the fix comes back, by the rules in RTK Sensitivity below.
• Off: any fix is accepted for surveys, shots and calibration, and grading no longer holds on Float or DGPS. It still holds when there is no fix or the positions stop (HOLD — GPS Stale). RTK Sensitivity goes grey.

To change it: tap the switch at the right-hand end of the fourth row of SURVEY. Green with the knob on the right means on; white with the knob on the left means off.

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You should see, with the filter off, the switch white and the RTK Sensitivity buttons greyed:

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• Default: on.
• Shown: every kit and mode.

RTK Sensitivity

How quickly grading holds when RTK quality drops, and how clean the fix must be before it carries on. Pick Low, Mid or High.

To change it: tap Low, Mid or High, the three small buttons at the right-hand end of the last row of SURVEY. The one in use is filled orange. They are greyed out and can't be tapped while RTK Filter is off.

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• Low: holds only when RTK Fixed is lost or positions go stale. Ignores HDOP. Releases after about a second of steady RTK Fixed.
• Mid (default): also holds when HDOP rises above 1.2 or the fix keeps flicking in and out of Fixed. Releases when HDOP is 0.9 or lower and the fix is steady again.
• High: holds above HDOP 0.9 or at any sign the fix is unsteady. Releases at HDOP 0.7 or lower with a fully steady fix. Safest, most pauses.
• Shown: every kit and mode. Greyed out when RTK Filter is off.

While a hold waits on these release rules, an amber bar on the grade screen says what it is waiting for, for example AUTO HOLD - WAITING FOR HDOP ≤ 0.9 (NOW 1.10) - SENSITIVITY MID. If that bar sits there all day with a good RTK fix, your receiver's HDOP never gets that low (often a base sending fewer satellite systems than the rover tracks): set Low. More in HOLD banners.

Fields (Field Mode)

The Fields card has one switch, Field Mode, marked BETA: Organize surveys, designs and benchmarks by field. It is off unless you turn it on; off, the app works exactly as it does without fields.

Turned on, it adds: an active-field button at the bottom of the main sidebar, a "which field?" check on every workflow card, field filters in the load lists, a whole-field lines button on the map, and the benchmark routine when you enter a field that has one.

1. Scroll to the Fields card

   It comes after the long GRADING card, about halfway down Settings. Its name, Fields, is in small grey letters, not capitals.

2. Tap the Field Mode switch

   The switch at the right-hand end of the Field Mode row. White with the knob on the left means off.

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3. Read the note and tap OK

   Each time you switch it on, a window called Field Mode is in Beta opens across the screen. It says your work stays safe and you can turn it off any time. Tap OK at its bottom right.

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4. Check it is on

   You should see the switch green with the knob on the right, and a new button at the bottom of the sidebar, under Pre-Flight Checks, reading Unfiled (no field picked yet). Tap that button to pick or add a field.

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• Default: off.
• Turning it off (tap the switch again) loses nothing; your saved work stays on the tablet.
• Shown: every kit and mode.

How to work with fields: Field Mode.