Learning Center

Simple Grading: grade a constant slope

Put one straight grade along a run, two ways: survey the route and fit a constant slope to it in the Simple Grade window (cut and fill shown before you start), or skip the survey with Enter Grade Only and grade from a reference point like a laser.

  • Full Automation Kit
  • Guidance Only Kit
  • Ditch Assist Lite

In the app Home › Simple Grading

Simple Grading grades one straight, constant slope from end to end: no best fit, no bends. Use it when you know the grade you want, say 0.20 % down a waterway or across a field, and the job doesn't need Slope-IQ™ to follow the ground.

The card offers two ways in. With a survey, you drive the run first and see exactly how much the slope cuts and fills before you start. Enter Grade Only skips the survey: type the grade, lower the blade where you want to start, and the blade follows that grade as you drive away from the spot, much as it would off a laser.

Before you start

  • The tablet is on the control module's Wi-Fi, or you'll tap Simulate to practise (Connect)
  • The machine has RTK Fixed: the most accurate GPS position. The GPS button at the top of the screen shows a green RTK.
  • Blade height is set, if you'll survey (Set blade height)
  • You know the grade and direction you want, and which end the run starts at

Time: about 10 minutes on the tablet, plus one drive down the run to survey it, plus the grading passes.

Survey the run and fit one slope

Tap Simple Grading

On the Home screen, tap the Simple Grading card: top row, on the right, with a picture of a sloped slab.

The nine workflow cards on the Home screen; Simple Grading is top right, with the subtitle Single Slope 1
  1. Simple Grading. Top row, right. Its subtitle reads Single Slope.

A window opens called Simple Grading — Connect.

Tap Connect, or Simulate to practise

Connect is the big green button in the middle of the window. Simulate, the white button under it, practises with a pretend machine.

Simple Grading — Connect window, Connect to Controller: a green Connect button, then white Simulate and Bluetooth GPS buttons, and Manual Options 1 2
  1. Connect. Finds the control module.
  2. Simulate. Practise with a pretend machine.

Tap Continue

Check the three rows of the System Check: all green, with GPS Accuracy reading RTK Fixed. Then tap Continue, the green button at the bottom.

Simple Grading — Connect, System Check: Controller Connected (Simulator active), GPS Signal (22 satellites) and GPS Accuracy (RTK Fixed — 0.8 HDOP), all with green ticks, and a green Continue button 1 2
  1. GPS Accuracy: RTK Fixed. All three rows green.
  2. Continue. Bottom of the window.

Tap New Survey

The window asks How would you like to grade? Tap New Survey, the first of four wide buttons. The Survey screen opens.

How would you like to grade? Survey a route first, or enter a grade directly. New Survey: Survey a centerline, then apply a constant slope. Load Survey / Design: Open a saved survey or design. Resume Job: Continue a previously saved job. Enter Grade Only: No survey — replicate a laser with a fixed grade 1 2 3 4
  1. New Survey. Drive the run, then fit the slope. This walk-through.
  2. Load Survey / Design. A saved survey or design (below).
  3. Resume Job. Saved Simple Grading and Manual Grade jobs (below).
  4. Enter Grade Only. No survey: type a grade (below).

Tap START SURVEY at one end

Wait until the dark card's three rows are green. Drive to the end you want the slope to start from, with the implement raised. Then tap START SURVEY, the big green button in the card.

Simple Grading Survey screen: the dark Ready to Survey card with a big green START SURVEY button, and a Grade Design button in the right-hand column
  1. START SURVEY. The big green button in the middle of the map.

Drive to the other end and tap STOP

Drive the run at a steady pace. At the far end, tap STOP, the red button in the small dark bar at the bottom middle of the map. Pauses, shots and driving tips: Survey a route.

Recording the Simple Grading survey: red label Recording Survey (34 pts), and a red STOP button in a small dark bar at the bottom middle of the map
  1. STOP. Bottom middle of the map.

A window called Save Survey? opens, and the keyboard opens with it.

Type a name for the survey

The Survey Name box already holds the date and time, ending in (Simple Grading). Keep it, or clear it with the keyboard's delete key and type the field and run (typing on the tablet).

Save Survey? 55 points, 597 ft, 0.172 percent, Survey Name Shop quarter waterway, Discard and Save 1
  1. Survey Name. The run you'll find again.

Tap Save

Tap Save, the green button under the name. Don't press the tablet's Back button in this window: it can close it without saving the survey.

The same Save Survey? window, with a red-outlined Discard button and a green Save button at the bottom 1
  1. Save. Right of Discard.

The Simple Grade window opens by itself.

Read the Simple Grade window

The plane starts on the ground at the START end and runs at GRADE in the direction (DIR) you pick. On the chart: the ground is dashed green, the plane is orange, CUT (tan) is above it and FILL (blue) below it.

Simple Grade window as it opens: header boxes Grade 0.10%, Dir DN, Length 597 ft, Start 800.32 ft, End 799.72 ft; chart with the ground, a straight orange plane at 0.10 percent, cut and large blue fill areas; boxes GRADE, DIR with Down and Up buttons, DEPTH OFFSET, BOTTOM WIDTH and SIDE SLOPE; a results strip; a yellow Apply Design button
  1. Grade and Dir. The slope, and DN (down) or UP.
  2. Length, Start, End. The run's length, and the plane's elevation at each end.

Set the grade

The GRADE box is the first box under the chart, on the left. Tap + or − under its number (0.01 % a tap below 1 %), or tap the number to type it.

The GRADE box under the chart: 0.10% with minus and plus buttons
  1. GRADE. The slope, START to END.

Tap Down or Up

In the DIR box, second from the left, tap Down if the run falls from where you started the survey, or Up if it rises. The selected one is yellow.

The DIR box: DOWN, with a yellow Down button selected and a white Up button
  1. Down and Up. Which way the plane goes from START.

Slide the plane with DEPTH OFFSET

In the DEPTH OFFSET box, third from the left, tap − to lower the plane until it cuts where you want it to (0.05 ft a tap).

Simple Grade with Grade 0.20 percent and Depth Offset -0.15 ft: the plane now cuts most of the run with two blue fill hollows, an orange Offset -0.15 ft label in the header and in the strip
  1. DEPTH OFFSET −0.15'. Negative lowers the plane.
  2. Offset label. Orange, in the header and the strip, whenever the offset isn't zero.

Blue hollows under the plane are fill: the blade rides over them, and a scraper can drop dirt there.

Tap Apply Design

Apply Design is the yellow button at the bottom right corner. Tap it. The design saves itself under a name like Simple 0.20% downhill (Simple Grading); nothing to type.

The yellow Apply Design button at the bottom right corner of the Simple Grade window, and Cancel at the bottom left
  1. Apply Design. Bottom right corner.

The Grade screen opens. Calibrate GPS? appears first if the survey came off the tablet (Load Survey) rather than being driven just now. Then Auto-Nudge Mode.

Tap Enable Auto-Nudge, or Use Manual Nudge

In Auto-Nudge Mode, set Max Cut Per Pass with ⊖ and ⊕, then tap Enable Auto-Nudge (green, bottom right) to have the app stage a deep cut into passes. For a shallow plane you'll take in one pass, tap Use Manual Nudge (white, bottom left). Which to choose.

Auto-Nudge Mode window after Apply Design: Max Cut Per Pass 2.0 inches with minus and plus, Estimated 7 passs at deepest point, Use Manual Nudge and Enable Auto-Nudge
  1. Max Cut Per Pass. What your implement takes in one bite.
  2. Enable Auto-Nudge. The app sets each pass's target.

Lower the blade and tap Start

Lower the cutting edge onto the ground, then tap Start, the green button at the top of the column on the right. The Grade screen works exactly as in Ditching (Grade the ditch).

Simple Grading Grade screen before Start: a green Start button at the top of the right-hand column, an Auto-Nudge box reading Pass 1 of 7, and the straight plane on the chart along the bottom
  1. Start. Top of the right-hand column.

Grade the run

You should see the red Auto Grading Active banner, and the blade holding the plane. On the chart along the bottom, the straight design runs against the ground: cut above it, blue fill hollows below.

Simple Grading while grading: Auto Grading Active banner, ON GRADE on the map, the straight plane on the chart with cut above and a blue fill hollow below, Stop and Hold in the right-hand column
  1. Auto Grading Active. The blade follows the plane.
  2. Chart. The straight plane against the ground.

The Simple Grade window in detail

BoxWhat it doesDefault · step
GRADEThe constant slope, START to END.0.10 % · 0.01 % below 1 %, 0.05 % above (0.01–20 %)
DIRDown: falls from START. Up: rises from START. The header shows DN or UP.Down
DEPTH OFFSETMoves the whole plane: negative down, positive up.0.00 ft · 0.05 ft (±30 ft)
BOTTOM WIDTHFor Cut Vol only.8 ft · 1 ft
SIDE SLOPEFor Cut Vol only.6.0:1 · 0.5

The results strip reads Grade, Dir, Length, Drop, Max Cut, Avg Cut, Cut Vol and, when set, the orange Offset label. There's no Est. Passes here; the pass count shows after you enable Auto-Nudge.

Surveyed from the wrong end?

No need to drive it again. The plane always hinges at START, so tap Up instead of Down in the DIR box, and set the offset to suit.

Simple Grade with DIR set to Up: the plane rises from START toward END, and the Up button in the DIR box is selected
  1. Up. The plane rises from START.

Simple Grading or Slope-IQ?

One grade suits a waterway, a field surface drain or a pad edge where the ground is fairly even. If the run has a big hump or a low spot, one straight grade means a deep cut or a long fill. The Ditching workflow's Slope-IQ follows the ground and cuts less. To switch, open Ditching and load the same survey with Load Survey (Ditching: other ways to start).

Enter Grade Only: no survey

No survey, no design: type a grade and go. The blade follows that grade as you drive away, in a straight line, from the spot where you start.

  1. Tap Enter Grade Only

    In How would you like to grade?, tap Enter Grade Only, the last of the four wide buttons.

    How would you like to grade? with Enter Grade Only as the fourth wide button: No survey — replicate a laser with a fixed grade 1
    1. Enter Grade Only. The last button.

    You should see the Grade screen with a Set Grade bar along the bottom: type the grade, pick Downhill or Uphill, and tap Set Grade. Then lower the blade where the slope should start and tap Start: that spot becomes 0+00.

    Manual Grade screen after Enter Grade Only: grey Grade label, map only, Set Grade bar along the bottom with Target Grade %, Uphill and Downhill, Depth Offset (in) and a greyed-out Set Grade button; Start greyed out in the right-hand column
    1. Set Grade bar. Grade, direction and depth offset.

No survey means no cut/fill chart and no Auto-Nudge. You can chain several grades in one run with Change Grade. Every tap, with pictures: Manual Grade.

Load a saved survey or design

A survey opens the Simple Grade window on it. A design, including Simple Grade designs saved earlier, skips the design step and goes straight to the Grade screen.

  1. Tap Load Survey / Design

    In How would you like to grade?, tap Load Survey / Design, the second wide button. A window called Load opens.

    How would you like to grade? with Load Survey / Design as the second wide button 1
    1. Load Survey / Design. The second button.

  2. Tap Designs

    The window opens on Surveys. For a saved survey, tap its green Load button there (how). For a saved design, tap Designs, the right half of the bar at the top of the window.

    Load window opened from Simple Grading on the Surveys tab, with Designs on the right half of the bar at the top
    1. Designs. Right half of the bar at the top.

  3. Tap Implement on your design

    The Designs list shows designs from every workflow. Simple Grade designs are named from their grade and direction, and read constantSlope in their row. Tap the green Implement button on yours. (Edit, to its left, reopens the Simple Grade window.)

    Load window, Designs tab: top row Simple 0.20% downhill (Simple Grading), 0.20% constantSlope, with Edit and green Implement buttons, then Ditching designs
    1. Simple Grade design. Named from its grade and direction.
    2. Implement. Grade it now.

Change the slope mid-job

Edit Design, at the foot of the chart on the Grade screen, reopens the Simple Grade window with Save Revised Design. Unlike Ditching there's no Keep My Progress here: saving a change asks Apply Revised Design? and starts a fresh job (progress, coverage, pass and nudge cleared). The new version saves with V2 on the name. Tap Cancel to keep grading as you were. Edit the design and resume.

Stop and come back later

Stop saves the job. To carry on another day:

  1. Tap Resume Job

    Open Simple Grading from Home (connect if asked). In How would you like to grade?, tap Resume Job, the third wide button.

    How would you like to grade? with Resume Job as the third wide button 1
    1. Resume Job. The third button.

  2. Tap Resume on your job

    This list shows only Simple Grading and Manual Grade jobs. Simple Grading jobs end in (Simple Grade). Tap the orange Resume button on yours.

    Resume Job window opened from Simple Grading: Simple 0.20% downhill (Simple Grading) (Simple Grade) and two West road ditch (Manual) jobs, each with an orange Resume button
    1. Simple Grade job. Ends in (Simple Grade).
    2. Resume. Back where you stopped.

    Then Calibrate GPS? and Auto-Nudge Mode come up, as in Resume a job.

On each kit

  • Full Automation Kit: as described.
  • Guidance Only Kit: nothing moves by itself; follow the guide with the tractor lever.
  • Ditch Assist Lite: every step is the same; Start runs guidance and you move the blade. Working in Ditch Assist Lite.
Simple Grading walkthrough video. Where a screen in the video differs from the pictures on this page, the pictures show the current app.

If something goes wrong

  • The plane is way above the ground at one end: wrong direction or offset. More.
  • Grade Design greyed out: no survey yet, or fewer than 2 points. More.
  • No Auto-Nudge prompt: More.
  • Too deep or too shallow by the same amount: benchmark. More.
  • Blade hunts on flat ground: More.

Related

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