The Virtual Surveyor app includes a Stockpile tool that allows you to easily create a stockpile from a drone survey. You can measure the volume, calculate the tonnage, and discern the monetary value of each stockpile. The Stockpile button appears in the Tools tab when a Boundary or Surface is selected, and once created, the final stockpile output allows quantities, measurements, and values to be viewed and analyzed. This article explains what stockpiles are, how you can generate them yourself using drone data, how you can view stockpile information, and how you can compile them all into an easy to consume PDF report.


Create a Stockpile from the Tools tab


Overview


What is a Stockpile?

A stockpile is a measurement of bulk materials—such as soil, lumber, gravel, sand, minerals, or waste—typically formed into piles for storage, processing, or future transport. In surveying, a stockpile refers to these physical mounds when they are quantified using spatial data, most often through drone photogrammetry or traditional survey instruments.


Stockpile calculations can be created from two kind of elevation or reference levels. You can use a reference surface (surface created from a boundary) or the terrain (stockpile created from a surface).


Create a Stockpile from a Boundary

In the Virtual Surveyor app, you can derive the type of reference surface you want from a boundary to create a Stockpile. Draw and select a Boundary around the pile of materials and create the stockpile from one of four ways to generate the appropriate calculations for the stock material:

  • 3D Surface: A surface is created from the boundary vertices.
  • Flat: A flat surface is a user defined surface that is created using a boundary with vertices that are all the same height. The elevation value of the boundary needs to be set by the user in the Elevation box, then edit all the vertices of the boundary to be the same elevation. Once done, you can create a flat surface under a stockpile
  • Flat Minimum: A flat surface set at the lower vertex elevation of the boundary. 
  • Timestep: Additional terrain models you compare against using consistent base references —captured at different times—that are available in the project on separate dates, to monitor changes over time. 
    • Each dataset by date/purpose needs to be set by the user in the Compare to box. 
    • This option is only available when the project contains multiple Timesteps on the Timeline.


Create the stockpile from a boundary:

  1. Trace the toe (base) of the pile with Boundary tool.
  2. Select a boundary.
  3. Go to Tools tab.
  4. In the Volumes group, select the Use type of the stockpile. 
  5. Optional - Select the stockpile Material to assign it to the stockpile.
  6. Click the Stockpile button to calculate the volume.
  7. A Stockpile is created from the boundary with the appropriate Use Type, and the stockpile quantities and information are available in the Selection box.

Creating a Stockpile from a Boundary


Creating a Stockpile from a Surface

You can manually create a stockpile from a surface that was generated from a survey. You can create a surface under the stockpile using the Virtual Surveyor app, or you can load a surface into the app that was created using a CAD program.

  1. Select the surface that was created for a stockpile.
  2. Go to the Volumes group in the Tools tab.
  3. The 'Use' type is unavailable because the stockpile is being created from a surface. 
  4. Optional - select a stockpile Material to assign it to the stockpile.
  5. Click on the Stockpile button to calculate the volume.
  6. A Stockpile is created, and the quantities and information are available in the Selection box.

Creating a Stockpile from a Surface


You can create a surface to fit the form of any stockpile, including a stockpile over a bank. 

create a breakline under a stockpile that defines a surface of a stockpile over a bank.


Produce a PDF Report and Export Stockpiles

Produce a PDF Report. The Virtual Surveyor app will produce a PDF report (with the click of a button) that includes all the stockpile information you've already generated in a neat and organized PDF deliverable that includes tables of information and illustrations for each stockpile, along with the materials used and its complete information. 


Export stockpile information. you can also export the stockpile information using either of the following file formats:

  • .csv
    • Only contains the volume information in text format.
  • .shp
    • GIS format that contains the reference surface + table with the volume information.


Assigning Material

You can assign and search for materials —that you've created in the Material Editor— to a stockpile in one of three ways:

  1. After you have selected either the boundary or the surface and clicked on the Tools tab, you can assign the material to the stockpile before you click on the Stockpile button.
    Assign Material to a stockpile before you create the stockpile.
  2. After generating the stockpile, if you did not select a material before generating it, you can select the stockpile, go to the Tools tab, and assign the material from the search box under Material.
    Assign Material to a stockpile from the Tools tab on a selected stockpile.
  3. Right-click on the stockpile and select Assign Material from the mini-toolbar.
    Assign Material to a stockpile using right-click and the mini-toolbar.


Reassign material to a stockpile. You can always reassign a different material to a stockpile at any time using options 2 and 3 from the above options:

  • Through the Tools tab
  • Through the mini-toolbar


Undefined Material

Any undefined material can be given a category and colored to your specification using the Material Editor, just remember that it is considered undefined because it does not have an assigned weight or monetary value. The undefined material color for the example project in the illustration below is set to white. 

A stockpile assigned with undefined material. 

Annotate and View Stockpile Information

Annotate Stockpile Information

You can annotate one or multiple stockpiles in the Viewport to get a quick analysis on all the stockpiles at the same time from information you have created and entered using the Material Editor. 


Select the stockpile(s) you want to annotate and go to the Tools tab. From there, you can include any stockpile information you'd like to see directly over the stockpiles:


Name
Displays the name/description assigned in the Layers panel.
Volume
Displays the volume of the stockpile in metric or imperial units.
2D Area
Displays the 2-Dimensional area of the stockpile in metric or imperial units.
Material
Displays the material type.
Tonnage
Displays the total weight of the stockpile in tons.
Value
Displays the monetary value of the stockpile based on the monetary type selected in the Material Editor.


Annotate stockpile information and see it in the Viewport. This includes material type, tonnage, and material value at a glance.


View Individual Stockpile Information

When you select a stockpile you can view its related properties, along with any assigned material, in the Selection Box:

  1. Select a stockpile.
  2. Look in the Selection Box for the following stockpile information:
    • Layer
    • Descriptor
    • Number
    • Material
    • Active Timestep
    • Compare to
    • Volume
    • 2D Area
    • Density (if assigned in the Material Editor)
    • Tonnage (if assigned in the Material Editor)
    • Value (if assigned in the Material Editor)


View Stockpile information at a glance in the Selection Box after selecting a stockpile.


The Selection Box includes all the information you entered in the Material Editor Panel for the selected stockpile and allows you to see all the information at a quick glance.

  • You can copy the stockpile information by clicking on the clipboard icon at the top right of the Selection Box.

Selection box with Stockpile information.


Tips and Tricks

  • When you calculate a stockpile, the volume calculation is done between the current terrain and the selected/compared to surface. 
    • A "current terrain" means the elevation terrain and the active terrain modifiers (e.g., a removed conveyor or truck) that are applied on top of the terrain.
    • All available data points are used in the calculation.
  • You can select multiple surfaces/boundaries to create multiple stockpiles simultaneously, and their volumes are calculated for each selected stockpile individually.