Simple Maintenance: clean out a terrace

Tap New Survey

After you tap Simple Maintenance, a short menu opens with four wide buttons. New Survey is the first one, at the top. Tap it.

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The Survey screen opens: the map, with a dark card in the middle called Survey the Channel. If blade height isn't set yet, a Set Blade Height window comes first (Set blade height).

Drive to the inlet end of the channel

Drive onto the channel bottom at its high end, where the water comes in (the inlet). Keep the implement raised: the app takes the blade height off every point it records.

The card checks you're ready to record. All three rows should be green: Connected, GPS: RTK and RTK: Stable. The line under them says Drive the channel bottom from inlet to outlet.

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Tap START SURVEY

START SURVEY is the big green button in the card in the middle of the map. Tap it. Don't use Skip guided flow under it: the guided way leads you straight on to the design.

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The card closes. A red banner at the top of the screen reads Recording CHANNEL Survey, with the number of points so far.

Drive the channel bottom

Drive along the middle of the channel bottom at a steady pace, all the way to the far end (the outlet). The banner counts the points, and the chart along the bottom of the screen fills in with the ground you've driven.

Need to stop for a gate or a turn? Tap Pause in the column of buttons on the right. It turns into Resume; tap that to carry on. More: Survey a route.

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Tap STOP at the far end

At the outlet end, tap STOP. It's the red button at the bottom middle of the map, beside the point count.

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A window called Save Survey? opens.

Type a name for the survey

The window shows the points, distance and grade you recorded. Tap the Survey Name box: the keyboard opens (typing on the tablet). Type a name you'll recognise next year, for example "SM Terrace 7 channel".

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Tap Save

Save is the wide green button at the bottom right of the window. If the keyboard covers it, hide the keyboard first (how).

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A window called Survey Direction opens.

Check which end is the outlet

The window shows the elevation at each end of your survey. The lower end is tagged OUTLET: that's where the app thinks the water leaves. Here the end of the survey is 1.5 ft lower, so it's tagged OUTLET.

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Tap Yes, that's correct

If that's right, tap Yes, that's correct, the green button at the bottom right. If the water really leaves by the other end, tap the orange-outlined button beside it instead: it reads No — outlet is at START (or No — outlet is at END). The design will drain toward the end you confirm.

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The design window, Terrace Design, opens.

Tap Design Channel

Terrace Design opens on its first step, Select Surveys. Your channel survey is already in the box, with its length and the outlet end you confirmed. Design Channel is the dark-green button under the box. Tap it.

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Simple Maintenance has three design steps, named across the top: Select Surveys, Channel Design, Implement.

Check the channel design

The Channel Design step draws your channel on a chart: the ground you surveyed (green dashed line), the design (thick orange line) and the dirt to cut (hatched). Under the chart is a row of four boxes. Two of them matter most:

• MIN GRADE, the second box: the channel is never flatter than this. Terrace channels start at 0.10%.
• BERM OFFSET, the fourth box (blue edge): how far the berm target sits above the finished channel. 18″ to start.

To change a value, tap − or + under it, or tap the number and type a new one.

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The other boxes: DEPTH OFFSET lowers the whole channel; CHANNEL BASE WIDTH is the channel bottom width (it starts at your Swath Width). BestFit, Guided and Freeform at the top left change how the line is drawn (Slope-IQ™ methods). Auto Flow at the top right flips the outlet if you need to; it then reads Reversed.

Tap Review & Implement

Review & Implement is the light-blue button in the bottom right corner. Tap it.

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A summary called Ready to Grade opens.

Tap Implement Slope

Check the summary: your channel survey, Berm Target Follows channel design, the length, the channel grade, the Berm Offset and the bottom width. Then tap Implement Slope, the big green button at the bottom.

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A small window asks you to name the design.

Tap Save & Implement

The window Save Terrace Design fills in a name for you: the survey name with "(Terrace)" on the end. Keep it, or tap the box and type your own. Then tap Save & Implement, the green button at the bottom right.

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On a design you surveyed today, the Auto-Nudge Mode window opens next. If the app asks Calibrate GPS? instead (a saved design, or a resumed job), see Calibrate if it's another day.

Tap Enable Auto-Nudge

The Auto-Nudge Mode window offers to cut the channel in passes. Max Cut Per Pass, in the middle (2.0″ to start), is how much each pass takes off. Tap the round − or + beside it to change it. Under it, the app estimates how many passes the deepest spot needs.

Tap Enable Auto-Nudge, the dark-green button on the right. Or tap Use Manual Nudge on the left to take the channel straight to final grade; you then raise or lower the target yourself with Nudge Up and Nudge Down.

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The Grade screen opens, stopped, with the channel as the target. More on passes: Nudge and Auto-Nudge.

Lower the blade at the start of the channel

Drive to the start of the channel and put the blade down. Check the target is the channel: in the column of buttons on the right, the Channel button says ACTIVE under its name, and the green label on the chart along the bottom reads CHANNEL ACTIVE.

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The chart shows both targets: the channel bright green, the berm grey and dashed above it.

Tap Start

Start is the big green button near the top of the right-hand column, just under Home. Tap it.

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A red banner at the top of the tall gauge reads Auto Grading Active. Start becomes a red Stop button, and a grey Hold button appears under it.

Grade the first pass

Drive the channel. On a Full Automation Kit the valve moves the blade to the target. The big label on the map tells you how the blade is doing: CUT, FILL or ON GRADE. Coverage paints along your track.

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On a Guidance Only Kit or Ditch Assist Lite you move the blade yourself, by the chevrons and the gauge. How to read them: The Grade screen.

Tap Pass + at the end of each pass

When you finish a pass, tap Pass +: the blue button in the AUTO-NUDGE box on the right. The target drops by one Max Cut, and the counter under the button goes up (Pass 2 of 6). Pass −, under the counter, goes back one pass.

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Keep going, pass by pass, until the last pass reaches final grade.

Tap Hold

Hold is the grey button second from the top of the right-hand column, under Stop. Tap it.

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The banner on the gauge turns orange and reads HOLD — Manual Control. The Hold button becomes an orange Resume button.

Tap Berm

While on Hold, tap Berm: the right half of the Channel / Berm button, with a small mountain picture.

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The Berm button now says ACTIVE. The label on the chart reads BERM ACTIVE, the berm target on the chart turns bright blue, and the small badge in the top bar changes from CH to BERM.

Drive onto the berm and lower the blade

Drive onto the berm and put the blade down. The label on the map now shows how much fill the berm needs where you are, with blue up chevrons: 13.3″ FILL in this picture.

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In Simple Maintenance the berm target is always the finished berm height: no berm ground was surveyed, so there's nothing to stage passes from. Build it up in as many machine passes as the dirt needs.

Tap Resume

Resume is the orange button second from the top of the right-hand column. Tap it.

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The banner reads Auto Grading Active again, and the blade follows the berm target.

To switch back, tap the chart (or use the buttons)

To go back to the channel, tap Hold first, as before. Then either tap Channel in the right-hand column, or tap near the channel line on the chart along the bottom. The button, the chart label and the badge all change together. Then tap Resume.

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Tap Stop when you finish

Stop is the red button at the top of the right-hand column. Tap it when you're done for now. The job saves by itself, and you can pick it up later from Resume Job.

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Channel and berm work are recorded separately, so berm passes never paint over the channel's coverage.

Tap Load Survey

In the Simple Maintenance menu, Load Survey is the second wide button. Tap it.

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Terrace Design opens with an empty box: Select survey....

Tap the Select survey... box

The wide box in the middle of the window says Select survey... in grey. Tap anywhere on it. The Design Channel button under it stays grey until you pick a survey.

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A list of your saved surveys drops down.

Tap your channel survey

Each row shows the survey's name, its length and number of points, and which end you confirmed as the outlet (outlet end or outlet start). Surveys from other workflows are listed too, so go by the name. Tap the one you want.

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Tap Design Channel

The survey is now in the box. Tap Design Channel, the dark-green button under it.

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From here it's the same as a new survey: carry on from Check the channel design above.

Tap Load Design

In the Simple Maintenance menu, Load Design is the third wide button. Tap it.

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The Load window opens on its Designs tab, with your designs listed by date, newest first.

Tap your design's name

Tap the name of the design in the list on the left. It turns light blue, and the map on the right shows where it is. The list shows Standard terrace designs too, so go by the name.

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Tap Implement

Implement is the green button on the right of the design's row. Tap it. (Edit, beside it, opens the design to change it first: see Edit a design and keep your progress.)

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The app asks Calibrate GPS?. Answer it as in Calibrate if it's another day below. Then the Auto-Nudge Mode window opens: see Tap Enable Auto-Nudge above.

Tap Resume Job

In the Simple Maintenance menu, Resume Job is the fourth wide button. Tap it.

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A window called Resume Job lists your terracing jobs by date.

Tap Resume beside your job

Each job shows its name (the design name, ending in "(Terrace)"), when it was saved, and how much ground it covers. Tap the orange Resume button on the right of the job you want. The bin icon beside it deletes a job.

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The app then asks Calibrate GPS?.

Calibrate if it's another day

The Calibrate GPS? window asks if your base station has moved since the design was made.

• Same day, same base setup: tap Skip, in the bottom right corner beside Calibrate.
• Another day, or the base was moved or restarted: drive to the field's benchmark, lower the blade onto it, and tap the orange Calibrate button. Then follow Benchmarks and calibration.

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The window's own tip talks about a zero-cut/fill spot. On a terrace, use the field's benchmark, or an untouched spot on the original survey. Never calibrate on ground you've already cut.

Drive back to the terrace

If you're more than about 100 ft (30 m) from the surveyed line, an orange banner at the top of the map says how far: … from survey line — accuracy may decrease. Drive back to the terrace before you tap Start; the banner goes away once you're closer.

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Then grade as above, from Lower the blade at the start of the channel.