Contour-Guided Terracing: lay out a new terrace

Tap Generate New Contours & Survey

After you tap Contour-Guided Terracing, a menu opens. Generate New Contours & Survey is the first wide button, at the top. Tap it.

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A window called Terrace Zone Width opens. There's no Resume Job in this menu (see below).

Set the zone width

The zone is a band centred on the contour, half each side. It starts at 12 m (it reads 39 ft), or your Swath Width if that's wider. Tap the round orange − or + on each side of the number to change it, 2 ft (1 m) a tap. Make it wide enough for the channel and the berm side by side.

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Tap Get a Field Surface

Get a Field Surface is the wide button under the width. Tap it. A window opens to choose where the field's elevations come from.

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Tap Saved LiDAR DEM

Contours come from elevations across the whole field, not from one line. The window offers six sources. Saved LiDAR DEM is the usual choice: the light-blue button on the right, under Or use existing data. Tap it.

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Each source in detail, with its errors: Get elevation data. Two things particular to terracing: Saved Survey lists only whole-field surveys from Field Survey, not channel or ditch line surveys (No saved surveys found. Survey a field first.), and the line Generating contours needs a controller or the simulator. is always shown here as a reminder, not an error.

Tap your field

A list opens with every field saved from LiDAR & Mapping, one row each: the field's name in big letters, and under it the acres, the resolution (metres per pixel) and the country. Tap the name of yours.

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No saved field on the tablet? The list doesn't open; the app says No saved LiDAR DEMs found. Use LiDAR & Mapping while online to save one first. Prepare one in LiDAR & Mapping on internet Wi-Fi first. Managing them: Saved fields and DEMs.

Pick the contour interval

Contour Settings opens. Contour Interval is the height between one line and the next: tap 1″, 2″, 3″ (picked to start), 6″ or 1 ft, or type your own in Custom. Smoothing (Medium to start) evens out rough data. Estimated contours updates as you change them.

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A GeoTIFF or point file also asks for its units (Meters / Feet): get it right or the spacing is out by three times. It starts on Feet; LiDAR and most drone DEMs are in metres. The Elev range and Estimated contours lines don't change when you switch units, so judge the spacing on the map after Generate. More: Contour settings.

Tap Generate

Generate is the green button in the bottom right corner. Tap it.

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A small window reads Generating contours... while it works; big or dense surfaces take a little while. The line under it (Generating contours needs a controller or the simulator.) is a standing reminder, shown even when you are connected. When it finishes, the Survey screen opens with the contours and the zone.

Read the zone on the map

The contours are drawn as thin blue lines. The one nearest you is bright cyan, with the zone painted along it: amber on the uphill side, blue on the downhill side. Across the top runs the lightbar, a row of coloured blocks. The Survey the Channel card sits in the middle; it's the same card as in Standard Terracing.

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Drive to the start of your channel

Steer by the lightbar and the big arrows, as in Levee. The lightbar lights up on the side you've drifted to, and the arrows point the way back to the contour. Drive to where the channel will start: usually near the uphill edge of the zone, at the high end.

This picture is the same screen with the card closed. The number under the lightbar (80″ here) is how far one block stands for.

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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. (With the card closed, use the green Start button in the right-hand column instead.)

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A red banner at the top of the screen reads Recording CHANNEL Survey.

Drive the channel through the zone

Hold roughly to the contour and drift downhill toward the outlet, so the channel picks up fall. The lightbar keeps steering you to the contour; you don't have to sit on it. Watch Drop and A→B Grade at the top left: the fall you've built so far.

The design uses the route you actually drive, not the contour.

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Tap STOP at the outlet end

At the outlet end, tap STOP, the red button at the bottom middle of the map.

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The Save Survey? window opens.

Type a name for the channel survey

Tap the Survey Name box: the keyboard opens (typing on the tablet). The box may already hold a dated name: delete it first, then type your own, for example "Contour terrace 3 channel".

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Tap Save

Save is the green button at the bottom right of the window. Hide the keyboard first if it covers it (how).

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A window called Survey Direction opens.

Check which end is the outlet

Survey Direction shows the elevation at each end and tags the lower end OUTLET. On flat practice ground both ends read the same, as here: then go by the end you know is the outlet.

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Confirm the outlet

If the tagged end is where the water leaves, tap Yes, that's correct (green, bottom right). If not, tap the orange-outlined No — outlet is at … button beside it.

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The Survey the Berm card opens next.

Drive onto the berm line

The zone and your channel stay drawn, and the channel's name shows at the top of the screen. Drive to the berm line on the downhill (blue) side of the channel. The card says Drive the berm top, parallel to the channel.

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Tap START SURVEY on the berm

Tap START SURVEY, the big green button in the card. The banner reads Recording BERM Survey.

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Drive the berm line

Drive along the berm line, parallel to the channel, end to end.

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Tap STOP at the end of the berm

Tap STOP, the red button at the bottom middle of the map. The Save Survey? window opens again.

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Type a name for the berm survey

Tap the Survey Name box, clear any dated name, and type a matching name, for example "Contour terrace 3 berm".

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Tap Save on the berm survey

Tap Save, the green button at the bottom right. Terrace Design opens with both surveys filled in.

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