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Quick start

Contour-Guided Terracing chapter of the Ditch Assist app manual. The same text is in the app under Manual.

In the app Manual › Contour-Guided Terracing › Quick start

  1. Tap the Terracing card on the Home screen. The wizard opens and asks for the Terracing Method.
  2. Tap Contour-Guided Terracing (described as "Lay out the terrace within a contour zone band"). The other choice, Standard Terracing, is the two-survey mode covered in the Terracing chapter.
  3. Tap Generate New Contours & Survey.
  4. The app asks for the Terrace Zone Width. The default is 12 m (pre-filled wider if your swath is wider). Adjust it if you want a tighter or roomier corridor, then tap Get a Field Surface.
  5. Pick a surface source: Saved LiDAR DEM, Saved Survey, Point File, GeoTIFF DEM, or Survey New Field. If no DEM is saved yet, open LiDAR & Mapping while online, save the DEM, reconnect to the controller, and return here.
  6. A Contour Settings dialog opens: contour interval presets (default 3″ imperial / 75 mm metric) plus a custom value field, a Smoothing slider (default Medium), Meters / Feet source-unit chips for point files and GeoTIFFs, and an estimated contour count. In Decimal Feet mode the same presets read 0.08 / 0.17 / 0.25 / 0.5 / 1 ft — the same intervals, just relabeled. Tap Generate — a Generating contours... progress dialog runs.
  7. The app draws the contours, highlights the nearest one in teal, and paints the Terrace Zone band around it (uphill side and downhill side shaded differently).
  8. Survey the channel inside the zone. Tap Start, drive the channel line — start near the uphill edge and ease downhill toward your outlet to build fall — and tap Stop. Watch the zone-position readout as you go.
  9. The wizard prompts for the berm. Drive the berm centerline on the downhill side, Start, drive it, Stop, save.
  10. The Terrace design dialog opens. Set the channel grade and Min Berm Height, review the cut/fill balance, tap Auto-Balance if needed, then Implement Slope.
  11. Calibrate the BM if prompted.
  12. Grade the channel, then tap the Berm toggle in the sidebar and grade the berm.

Contour-Guided Terracing with selected contour, shaded terrace zone, and zone-position guidance.
Contour-Guided Terracing with selected contour, shaded terrace zone, and zone-position guidance.

Step-by-step guides for this

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