Learning Center

Terracing: build and maintain terraces

Terracing grades the channel and builds the berm with the same machine. Pick Simple Maintenance for a cleanout, Standard Terracing to design a terrace with a soil balance, or Contour-Guided Terracing to lay a new one out along the land.

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

In the app Home › Terracing › Terracing Method

A terrace is a channel that carries the water across the slope and a berm on the downhill side that holds it there. In Terracing the Ditch Assist® app grades the channel and builds the berm with the same machine: the dirt you cut from the channel goes into the berm.

There are three ways to run it. They differ in what you survey and how much the app works out for you. Grading is the same in all three: a Channel target and a Berm target, and you switch between them.

Terrace channel and berm Top: cross-section of a terrace on sloping ground, uphill on the left. Runoff from uphill collects in the channel. 1: soil cut from the channel builds the berm just downhill. 2: the berm top stands a set height above the finished channel bottom, called Berm Offset in Simple Maintenance and BERM MIN HT in Standard Terracing, 18 inches by default. Bottom: the long profile along the terrace, falling toward the outlet on the right. 3: the berm line is the channel design raised by the offset; Simple Maintenance builds the berm to it, Standard Terracing treats it as the minimum. 4: the channel design is a smooth grade toward the outlet, never flatter than Min Grade, 0.10 percent by default; the bumpy line above it is the channel bottom as surveyed. Terrace channel and berm Cross-section Runoff 18″ Channel Berm 1 2 Along the terrace Outlet 3 4

A terrace seen end-on, then along its length. The channel catches runoff from uphill and carries it to the outlet; the berm holds it in.

  1. Cut builds the berm. The dirt you cut from the channel goes on the downhill side.
  2. Berm height. How high the berm top stands above the finished channel bottom: Berm Offset in Simple Maintenance, BERM MIN HT in Standard Terracing. 18″ to start.
  3. Berm line. The channel design raised by the berm height. Simple Maintenance builds the berm to it. Standard Terracing treats it as the minimum and checks the channel cut gives enough dirt.
  4. Channel design. Falls toward the outlet, never flatter than Min Grade (0.10 % by default). The bumpy line above it is the channel bottom you surveyed.

Which method?

MethodUse it forYou surveyThe app gives you
Simple MaintenanceCleaning out and topping up a terrace that's already there.The channel only.A channel design, and a berm target that copies it plus the Berm Offset. No berm volumes.
Standard TerracingRebuilding a terrace, or building one on a line you've already picked, when you want the cut to cover the fill.The channel, then the berm.Channel design, BERM MIN HT, cut / fill / balance with 15% compaction, Auto-Balance.
Contour-Guided TerracingA new terrace that should follow the lay of the land.A field surface first (usually a saved LiDAR DEM), then the channel and berm inside a zone band.Contours and a Terrace Zone to survey in, then the same design as Standard.
Simple MaintenanceOne channel survey. Cleanouts and routine upkeep. Standard TerracingChannel and berm surveys, soil balance. Contour-Guided TerracingNew terrace laid out along a contour.

Before you start

  • The tablet is charged and the Ditch Assist app is installed (Install the app)
  • The tablet is on the Wi-Fi of your control module, or of your Reach receiver for Ditch Assist Lite (Connect to your kit). To practise with no machine, you don't need any Wi-Fi: you'll tap Simulate.
  • The GPS button at the top of the screen shows a green RTK. RTK Fixed is the most accurate GPS position, and the only one good enough to survey and grade.
  • Blade height is set for this implement (Set blade height)
  • You know which end of the terrace the water leaves by (the outlet). The app asks you to confirm it after the channel survey.
  • Contour-Guided only: a field surface ready, best a saved LiDAR DEM made on internet Wi-Fi before you go (Prepare a field)

Time: about 2 minutes to open Terracing and pick a method. The survey, design and grading take as long as the terrace does.

Open Terracing and pick the method

Tap Terracing

On the Home screen, the nine big squares are the jobs the app can do. Terracing is the square in the middle of the grid, with a picture of green curved strips and the words Channel + Berm under its name. Tap it.

Home screen: nine square cards in three rows. Middle row: Forming, Terracing (Channel + Berm), Excavation. The column of buttons down the right side reads Home, Survey, Grade, Settings, Manual, Pre-Flight Checks.
  1. Terracing. Middle square of the grid, Channel + Berm.

A window opens called Terracing — Connect.

Tap Connect

Connect is the big dark-green button at the top of the window. The app looks for your control module or Reach receiver on the tablet's Wi-Fi. After a moment the window changes to System Check.

To practise with no machine, tap Simulate instead: the white button with blue writing, just under Connect. The app then pretends to be connected, so you can try the whole job anywhere.

Window Terracing — Connect in the middle of the Home screen, heading Connect to Controller, with buttons stacked: Connect (dark green), Simulate, Bluetooth GPS, and Manual Options at the bottom
  1. Connect. Finds the control module or Reach on the tablet's Wi-Fi.
  2. Simulate. Practise the whole job with no machine.

A Bluetooth GPS can survey but can't start grading. If Connect finds nothing, see Connect to your kit.

Tap Continue

Wait until all three rows show a green tick. The last row, GPS Accuracy, must say RTK Fixed. If it says FLOAT, wait for the fix before you go on.

Then tap Continue, the big green button at the bottom of the window.

System Check window with three rows, each with a green tick: Controller Connected (Simulator active), GPS Signal (22 satellites), GPS Accuracy (RTK Fixed — 0.8 HDOP). Green Continue button at the bottom. 1
  1. GPS Accuracy. Must read RTK Fixed before you survey or grade.
  2. Continue. Opens Terracing Method.

Tap the method you want

The window now reads Terracing Method, with three choices stacked one above the other. Tap one. Each opens its own short menu (New Survey, Load, Resume).

Terracing Method window with three choices: Simple Maintenance (Survey one channel, then copy its design to the berm with an offset), Standard Terracing (Survey the channel and berm, then design from them), Contour-Guided Terracing (Lay out the terrace within a contour zone band) 1 2 3
  1. Simple Maintenance. One channel survey; the berm copies it.
  2. Standard Terracing. Channel and berm surveys, soil balance.
  3. Contour-Guided Terracing. Contours and a zone band to lay it out.

From here, follow the guide for the method you picked.

What every method shares

Confirm the outlet after the channel survey

When you save the channel survey, Survey Direction shows the elevation at each end, guesses the outlet from the lower one, and asks Is this correct? Tap Yes, that's correct, or the No — outlet is at … button if the water really leaves the other way. The design drains toward the outlet you confirm. The Auto Flow / Reversed button in the design flips it later if you need to.

Channel and Berm targets

On the Grade screen, the column of buttons down the right side has two big buttons side by side: Channel and Berm. The one the blade follows carries the word ACTIVE. The chart along the bottom of the screen (the profile) shows the active target bright and the other one grey and dashed, and a label on the chart reads CHANNEL ACTIVE or BERM ACTIVE. Grading always starts on the channel. You can also switch by tapping near the other line on the chart.

The Channel and Berm buttons are greyed out until a control module, Reach or the simulator is connected. Step by step, with pictures: Grade the channel, then the berm.

Auto-Nudge passes

Deep channel cuts are staged with Auto-Nudge™: each pass takes Max Cut Per Pass (2″ by default) off the ground until the last pass reaches final grade. You step through them with the Pass + and Pass − buttons on the right side of the Grade screen. The berm target is the finished berm height: build it up in as many machine passes as the dirt needs. How passes work: Nudge and Auto-Nudge.

Saving and picking it up again

  • Surveys are saved when you tap Save after STOP. Name them so the channel and berm pair up ("Terrace 12 channel", "Terrace 12 berm").
  • Designs are saved in the Save Terrace Design window, just before grading starts. The name ends in "(Terrace)".
  • Jobs (your grading progress, passes and coverage) save by themselves when you tap Stop. To pick one up, use Resume Job in the Simple Maintenance or Standard Terracing menu. A Contour-Guided job is listed there too, under Standard Terracing. More: Save and resume jobs.
  • Tapping the Terracing card while a job is loaded asks Start New Session? Tapping Start New clears what's on the screen; saved files stay on the tablet.

On each kit

  • Full Automation Kit: the valve moves the blade to the active target. Hold, Resume, Raise and Lower work as in Ditching.
  • Guidance Only Kit: the same screens and targets; you run the blade on the tractor lever by the chevrons and the Grade / Depth guide.
  • Ditch Assist Lite: every Terracing method runs. You move the blade; Hold and Resume are hidden, so stop guidance to switch targets (Working in Ditch Assist Lite).
  • DIG™ Kit: Terracing is a blade workflow. On a DIG™ module it warns Designed for a different kit: survey and guidance only.
Standard Terracing walkthrough: channel and berm surveys, cut and fill balance, the terrace design and grading both halves. Simple Maintenance isn't shown in the video.

If something goes wrong

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