Auto-grading the slope

The Grade screen for Simple Grading is identical to Ditching's: map, top stats bar, chevrons, profile chart, sidebar with Start/Stop/Hold/Nudge.

To start:

1. Lower the blade to the ground at your starting point.
2. Tap Start in the sidebar. The red "Auto Grading Active" banner appears and the blade goes under automatic control.
3. Drive at grading speed.

Start is gated to a real controller link. Start is enabled only when the tablet is paired with a Ditch Assist Control Module, the simulator is running, or the DIG module is attached. Bluetooth GNSS alone is not enough — Bluetooth is for surveying only, not for driving the blade. Start is also refused with a red SnackBar when there is no GPS fix (No GPS fix) or the GPS feed has gone stale (GPS: STALE — position not updating); the simulator is exempt. This fires before the Pre-Start safety check.

The same Pre-Start safety check described in the Ditching chapter also fires here when the design target at your current position is more than the configured threshold away from your live GPS elevation.

Reading the chevrons:

• Up arrows → blade is below target (app is raising it).
• Down arrows → blade is above target (app is lowering it).
• Center dot → on grade.

Hold and release:

Tap Hold to halt the hydraulics without exiting grading mode. The app sends a halt command to the controller (the blade stops in place) and stops sending new target elevations until you release. The chevrons keep updating. The Raise / Lower buttons stay live during Hold for hand-jogging. Tap Release to re-engage auto-grading.

Auto-Hold behaviour is the same as in Ditching — see Auto-grading the ditch for the full trigger list (non-RTK fix, GPS stale, HDOP threshold per sensitivity, rolling-window degradation) and the RTK Filter gate / hysteresis rules.

Stop:

Tap Stop to halt. The job auto-saves.

Reset:

Tap Reset in the sidebar to fully clear the current session and return to the Home screen. Reset wipes active survey points, the loaded design, graded terrain and coverage, nudge offset, breadcrumb track, and imported map overlays. Reset does not delete saved files — survey and design JSON remain in Documents/DitchAssist/.

Nudge:

Same as Ditching — ±2″ per tap, effectively unlimited range (±999″). Use it when soil resistance forces you to back off depth temporarily.

Auto-Nudge:

Available in Simple Grading exactly the same as in Ditching. If your plane is more than one pass deep, enable Auto-Nudge in the prompt that appears after Apply Design, set Max Cut Per Pass, and use Pass + / Pass − to advance.