What's new in the app

The current Ditch Assist® app is version 1.5.4 (October 15, 2026). Check yours at the bottom of Home, or on the ABOUT card at the very end of Settings (pictures), and download the current release from the app download page. Installing over v1.2 or later keeps your settings, calibration and saved work. The full notes for every version are in the app (tap Manual in the sidebar, then What's New) and in the online app manual.

Version 1.5.4 (October 15, 2026)

The production release. It replaces 1.4 and every 1.5 test build; 1.5.3 was never published and everything in it is here. Coming from 1.4, everything below is new to you.

LiDAR & Mapping

• Drainage worked out on the tablet. Prepare Field still downloads the LiDAR over the internet, but flow lines, depressions and ponding are now calculated on the tablet, with the same method as Geo-Surface™ Pro. Nothing is uploaded. Ponding is ranked Wet first to Wet last with its own cutoff slider; depressions are drawn by depth and start switched off; flow lines are black, thicker where more ground drains. See Drainage layers.
• Drainage Planner. Drag a minimum drainage area slider (0.1 to 20 acres) to keep only the flow paths that drain at least that much, and save the result as a plan. Plans load from the Map Layers window: tap +, then Drainage plan. See Drainage Planner.
• LiDAR read correctly along the edges of some US (3DEP) and Canadian (HRDEM) downloads, which also fixes contours and the elevation check there. Cached imagery shows as soon as the map opens; LiDAR & Mapping opens on the tablet's location.

Ditch Assist Lite

• Guidance with an Emlid Reach RS3 / RS4 on the implement, over the receiver's own Wi-Fi, with no control module. Turn it on with the Mode card at the top of Settings (how); a LITE MODE banner heads Home. Each receiver is activated once with a 10-digit unlock code, which also unlocks LiDAR & Mapping.
• Every workflow works, including Excavation (a check between cuts, from the antenna), Tiling, Contour Tiling and Land Forming, and Auto-Nudge™ staged passes. The app never moves the blade: no Raise / Lower, Hold or automatic grading. See Ditch Assist Lite.

Receiver setup from the app

• Emlid Diagnostics (a button in Settings) finds a Reach on its hotspot, compares it with the Ditch Assist Base, Rover and Lite Rover setups, and programs it section by section. The base setup sends corrections every second and drops to every two seconds by itself if the radio can't carry it. It warns when receiver firmware is older than the version Ditch Assist was checked on (RS3 33.1, RS4 34.8). See Emlid Diagnostics.

Design and grading

• Fixed outlet depth (Ditching and Tiling, BestFit): set exactly how deep the run must be at the outlet to tie into a ditch, culvert or main, with an optional transition.
• Edit Design on the grading profile chart, and Keep My Progress when you apply a revised design: your worked surface and coverage stay and are recoloured against the new target. See Edit the design.
• Terrace Simple Maintenance: maintain a terrace from one channel survey; the berm follows the channel at an offset (18 in by default).
• Import XYZ / XYZP surveys and designs from the Load list (Ditching, Excavation, Tiling).
• Bigger grading buttons: Hold / Resume the size of Start / Stop; a larger Channel / Berm selector.

Benchmarks and calibration

• The BM badge opens Calibrate Elevation, which says what you're calibrated to and lists what you can calibrate to now (saved benchmarks nearest first, the loaded survey or design). Typing an elevation, zeroing and clearing moved under Advanced.
• Restored calibrations are flagged: a calibration carried over from an earlier session shows Restored from <date> — recalibrate before working in Calibrate Elevation. The BM badge is grey when not calibrated and filled orange when a calibration is applied; in Sunlight a restored calibration looks the same as a fresh one, so read the status line. See BM badge.
• The Benchmark Offset row in Settings is now read-only with an Open calibration button. See Benchmarks and calibration.

Display and map

• Decimal Feet in the UNITS card of Settings: small numbers (cut/fill, nudge, blade height, depths) in tenths of a foot. Switching to it puts the chevron step, nudge, max cut and grade alert threshold on the nearest 0.05 ft.
• Track-up or North-up map button; backing up no longer spins the map. See Map controls.
• Image overlays load fully opaque with their own opacity slider, and can be added from one .zip holding the image and its world file. Overlays still have to be added again after an app restart. See Add an overlay.

DIG™

• Update DIG module firmware from the app (the DIG Module Firmware card in Settings; how), with the firmware built in, no internet needed. The update to 1.7 changes the module's Wi-Fi password; the app tells you when to rejoin. A DIG module that is connected but sending no position now says so.

Improved and fixed

• Raise / Lower keep moving the valve for as long as you hold the button.
• An amber bar explains what an auto-hold is waiting for (for example HDOP). RTK Sensitivity set to Low watches RTK Fixed only. A receiver that sends no HDOP shows --.
• With RTK Filter off (StarFire SF-RTK), blade-height Auto Measure and benchmark averaging work too; a grey Start Survey says why.
• Elevation Mismatch Check is now a switch in Pre-Start Safety, off by default (30 in).
• Pre-Flight Checks and GPS Info show Wi-Fi signal and link speed. Samsung tablets that would drop the module Wi-Fi get a one-time warning with a button to the setting.
• New app installs show Min Valve DC 301 and Max Valve DC 701 (the app's recommended starting values) until the app reads the control module's own values on connect.
• Small tablets: the top bars wrap instead of clipping. Send Logs no longer says sent when the upload failed. Very large GeoTIFF / LandXML files are refused with a message instead of freezing the app.

Version 1.4.1 (August 10, 2026)

Terracing release: Terrace Simple Maintenance, Edit Design on the profile chart, bigger grading controls, a Stopping… indicator, terrace designs starting at 0.10 % minimum grade, and Channel / Berm switching only on an operator Hold while auto grading. All included in 1.5.4.

Version 1.4 (July 17, 2026)

• Field Mode (beta): file work by field, with a whole-field map view.
• Saved field benchmarks to recalibrate to on later days and after base moves; calibrate to design grade.
• Survey runs you can't drive: Pause / Resume, Shots and Grade Check.
• Tile designer Guided and Freeform tabs with depth-band shading; paced tile descent and a start-at-the-outlet check.
• Surveys recorded in the calibrated elevation frame, so they line up with grading and other days.

Earlier versions

• 1.3.1 (July 13, 2026): reliability fixes; the graded line draws on top of the design.
• 1.3 (July 9, 2026): safety and reliability fixes across grading, GPS, contour guidance and saving; LiDAR & Mapping unlocks only with a real control module or DIG™ connection.
• 1.2 (June 24, 2026): the in-app What's New screen.
• 1.1 (June 21, 2026): job names stick; more reliable autosave.
• 1.0 (June 15, 2026): first public release: survey, Slope-IQ™ design and automatic grading.