The Stockpile tool allows you to quickly measure the volume, weight (tonnage), and value of stockpiles using drone survey data. You’ll find the Stockpile button in the Tools tab once you select a Boundary or Surface. When you select a stockpile, you can view and analyze its measurements and values or can compile them into an easy to consume PDF report.

Overview

• What is a Stockpile?
• Create a Stockpile
  • Choose a Reference Level
  • Optional: Assign a Material
• View Stockpile Information
• Produce a PDF Report and Export Stockpiles
• Tips and Tricks

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.

Create a Stockpile

The Stockpile Tool becomes available after you select a boundary or surface, and can be found in the Tools tab. The boundary or surface is what delineates the stockpile and creates the outline of the stockpile. You will also need to select a reference level and optionally, you can assign a material to the stockpile.

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.

Choose a Reference Level

In the Use dropdown box, you have different options to choose from based on the type of Reference Levels you created to create a stockpile from:

Option 1: From a Surface. When using a surface to create a stockpile, your reference level is already defined as a 3D Surface and is already applied for you when creating a stockpile. You have the option to assign a material for your stockpile and click the Stockpile tool to create your stockpile.

Option 2: From a Boundary. When using a boundary to create a stockpile, you'll need to give input on what kind of reference surface to calculate from. You tell the software which reference level to choose by selecting from 1 of 4 reference level types: 

• 3D Surface: A surface is created from the vertices of a boundary (the same as the surface option).
• Flat (2D): A flat surface is created using the boundary with vertices that are all the same height as determined by the user. 
• Flat Minimum (2D): A flat surface is created by setting all the boundary's vertices at the lowest possible elevation. 
• Timestep: Creates a stockpile within a boundary that compares the current terrain area with other terrain models.
  • Timesteps contain elevation terrain models that are captured at different times, which are available in the project on separate dates to help monitor changes over time. This Timestep option compares these separate terrains. 
  • The Timestep option is only available when the project contains multiple Timesteps on the Timeline.

Optional: Assign a Material

Optionally, you can assign a material—that you've created in the Material Editor—to a stockpile before you generate it. You can also use the search function to quickly find the material you need if you have a lot of materials to look through. To find a specific material click in the search box, start typing the material name and a list of potential matches will appear. You can also scroll through the list to find the material you need.  

Add Material or change it later. If you want to add or change material on your stockpile at a later time, you have two options: 

• To change or add a material to a stockpile from the ribbon menu, select the stockpile and go to the Tools tab, and assign the material from the search box under the Material dropdown.
  
  
• You can also Right-click on the stockpile in the Viewport to open the mini-toolbar. Select Assign Material, then type a name or number in the search box to find and apply the desired material.
  

View Stockpile Information

After you click on a stockpile, you can view a stockpile's related properties, along with any assigned material, in the Selection Box. The selection box can be found at the lower left-hand corner of the Virtual Surveyor app.

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, including:

• 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)

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

Annotate Stockpile Information. Another way to view your stockpile material information is to annotate one or multiple stockpiles in the Viewport to do a quick analysis at a glance. 

To show annotations, select the stockpile(s) you want to annotate and go to the Tools tab. From there, you can tick the available boxes to include any stockpile information you'd like to see directly over the stockpiles:

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.

Tips and Tricks

• You can select multiple surfaces/boundaries to create multiple stockpiles simultaneously, and their volumes are calculated for each selected stockpile individually. 
  • The same applies for material assignment. If you assign a material to multiple stockpiles, it will apply to all of them. If you want to assign different materials for separate stockpiles, you can select them separately and assign materials after the stockpiles are created.
• You can copy and paste boundaries or surfaces to a new Timestep (Available in Mountain, Ridge, or Peak plans).
• You can Export and Import boundaries or surfaces to a new project (Available in Ridge or Peak plans).