Question
What kind of designs can I generate with OptiSurface Designer?
Answer
We have changed surface type names from OptiSuface 1D (Direction), 2D and 4D because of the confusion with 1D (Dimensional), 2D & 3D machine control systems which is a slightly different concept.
Users need a 3D machine control system (GPS) to implement OptiSurface 1Way, 2Way and 4Way designs. For a Plane design, they can use a laser plane (2D machine control system). 1D machine control systems are regarded as pipe laying laser that shoot in only one dimension.
There are several surface types of design that can be generated with OptiSurface Designer:
- Plane: Single Plane of Best Fit or force plane to required slope.
- OptiSurface 1Way™: Optimised surface incorporating Infinitely Variable Grades™ (IVG™) which drains in one way (1Way). This suits crops grown with furrows where the water needs to drain in one direction along the furrow to exit the field. All furrows will have positive slope to one end. An example application is furrow irrigated cotton where water is added at the top end of the furrowed row and must drain out the other end.
- OptiSurface 2Way™: Optimised surface incorporating Infinitely Variable Grades™ (IVG™) which can drain in two ways (2Way). This suits crops grown with furrows where the water needs to drain in along the furrow but it can drain out either end of the furrow and even some distance along the furrow using a cross drain. The location of a cross drain is defined using a Subzone with a Subzone Type setting of ‘Valley’. All furrows will have positive slope to either end or a ‘Valley’ Subzone. An example application is liner move irrigated sugar cane where water can drain out either end of the furrowed row.
- OptiSurface 4Way™: Optimised surface incorporating Infinitely Variable Grades™ (IVG™) which can drain in any way (4Way) 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.
