7.11 | Auto-Drains Design

Auto Drains tool buttonYou can use Auto-Drains to automatically generate drain paths for wet areas in your field. It will calculate optimal ditch lines to drain depressions. There are two tabs in Auto-Drains:

  1. ‘Create’ controls the parameters that must be met before drains are applied to the surface.

  2. ‘Edit Drains’ allows for editing of the drain paths.

Auto-Drains workspace showing an elevation map and drain design controls

Create Drains


Watch the Create Drains video on YouTube

Create Drains controls for smoothing and depression criteria‘Line smoothing strength’ - Adjusts how many sharp turns and how smoothly the drain lines flow. The further to the right the slider is the more rounded the lines will be (with decreased sharp turns).

‘Surface smooth strength’ - Adjusts the surface by applying an averaging filter to the surface of the field to remove bumps and dips without creating a full field earthwork design.

'Min. drain length' - Sets the minimum length a drain must be to be displayed on the surface.

‘Min. depression area' - Sets the minimum surface area a depression must cover before T3RRA software will consider draining it.

'Min. depression volume' - Sets a minimum volume for a depression before a drain will be implemented.

(A depression will only be drained if it meets all of the minimum length, area, and volume criteria.)

‘View Depressions’ - All depressions will be made visible (including those that did not meet above requirements).

‘Add Stop Line’ - Creates a line on the screen with red anchors at each end. Drain lines will not cross this line. Add Stop Line controls beside Lock Stop Lines and Remove Stop LineTo confirm the placement, press the ‘Lock Stop Lines’ button. Pressing the white anchor in the centre of the lines will create another red anchor so that lines can be adjusted. Additional stop lines can be added by pressing the ‘Add Stop Line’ button again.

Edit Drains

Edit Drains panel showing the existing-drain list and edit controls

The ‘Existing Drains’ list will show all drains in the current project.

Elevation map showing the drain paths discussed in the NOTE.NOTE: If you make an adjustment on a drain line and make a second adjustment closer to the origin point the first adjustment will revert to the line's original state. Auto-drains ALWAYS flow downhill from the point of the last change.

Once you are happy with the drains go back to the wizard page and use the ‘Drain Design’ function  to set their profiles and cross sections.

Watch the Edit Drains video on YouTube


Created 2025-03-04 22:17:16 UTC by Hugo
Updated 2026-10-01 04:50:49 UTC by Sathya