Overview: OptiSurface 4Way is a Surface Type which can drain in any way (4Way) and meander across the field as long as it is continually falling to some location on the boundary. This suits crops grown WITHOUT furrows where the water can drain in any direction. All locations on the field have positive slope towards the boundary (i.e no depression areas to hold water). An example application is rainfed wheat where it is planted on a flat soil surface (no furrow) and water can drain in any direction. Note: it is called OptiSurface4Way because in actual fact the calculated surface falls in only 4 directions of the calculation grid (eg North, South, East or West or similar depending on grid rotation setting). This can produce jagged flow paths which can be smoothed using the slope smoothing (Slope max change) and breaklines.
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Menu: Tools > Landform Design > Surface Type > OptiSurface 4Way
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Example:
This example plants alfalfa and winter wheat over a pivot. The field is planted without furrows and can drain to any direction as long as it goes out to the boundary. The design was straight forward - OptiSurface 4Way with 0.10% minimum slope and 1.0% maximum slope and 300ft/% smoothing. The cross slope parameter, if ticked OFF, follows the set parameters on the Main Slope but can still be ticked ON and have it's own parameters.
Existing Topography
Existing Drainage Analysis
Proposed Topography
Proposed Cut/Fill Map
Proposed Flow Paths
The image below shows how water flows and meanders across the field then exits at the boundary without causing any ponding.
See more details here: http://www.optisurface.com/nevada-pivot/