Glossary
As-Applied: This refers toRepresents the current state of the mapfield as itwork reflects current reality.progresses. The As-Applied surface shouldtypically normally progresstransitions from being equal tomatching the original surface to being equal tomatching the design surface as aearthworks jobare proceeds.completed. SynonymousAlso withreferred ‘to as As-Built’Built.
Baud Rate: This is a number representing theThe speed at which messagesdata areis senttransmitted over a serial connection.communication Alink, biggermeasured numberin correspondsbits toper asecond faster data rate.(bps). Both thecommunicating sending and receiving systemsdevices must haveuse the same baud rate in order to communicate.communicate successfully.
Backslope/Batter:Backslope This(Batter): isThe thesloping crosssides sectional slope that leads intoof a drain or channel that transition from the fieldsurrounding surface.ground Thesurface “sides”to ofthe adrain drain.invert.
Bi-directional error:Error: A term for the consistent (equalbut and opposite)opposite vertical error of the cutting edge that is sometimes seenoccurs when goingtravelling in opposite directions. This errorcan canoften be solvedcorrected by applyingadjusting anthe appropriatesystem look-ahead time setting.time.
Benchmark: SynonymousA surveyed location with “control point”. This is a known locationposition (and height)elevation inused oras outa ofreference thefor fieldcalibration thatand canverification. beAlso returnedreferred to as required.a Control Point.
Blade Shift: BladeThe shiftingvertical isor usedlateral toadjustment describeof howan implement blade, performed either manually by the bladeoperator ofor automatically by the implementmachine-control moves either automatically or manually.system.
Borrow pit:Pit: AAn pit or depression that isexcavation created whenby dirtremoving is removed from a locationmaterial for use elsewhere.elsewhere Is oftenwithin a channel beside a bank, where the channel was dug in order to provide dirt for the bank.project.
Bulking: The actprocess of making allperforming the largest cuts and fills first before approaching thecompleting final stagesgrading. ofBulking theprioritises implementation.productivity Generallyover thoughtfinal of as being a low accuracy activity.accuracy.
Burning: The actprocess of embedding a certain design element into an existing surface.
Com port:Port Also(Serial knownPort): as a ‘serial port’. This is aA hardware connectioncommunication interface used to connectexchange a cable to another device so thatserial data canbetween bedevices. transferred.COM A computer may have 0, 1, or several of these. Sometimes a com port may represent a connection to an internal device (modem or GPS) soports may be presentphysical evenconnectors ifor therevirtual isports nocreated externalby connectorUSB-to-Serial present.adapters Sometimesor ainternal com port will not exist until a device is connected to a USB port.hardware.
CSV:CSV (Comma Separated Values.Values): ThisA is a generic texttext-based file format often used to store columns of numerictabular data. ToCSV viewfiles can be opened using spreadsheet applications or text editors.
Cut Area: A region where material must be removed to achieve the contentstarget of a CSV file, open the file in a text editor such as “Notepad” or “Excel”. Users in countries where a comma is used as a decimal place separator should be particularly careful when using this format.surface.
CutCut/Fill area:Map: A cut area is a zone where soil needs to be removed.
Cut/fill map: Acolour-coded map using different coloring to showshowing the difference between anthe original surface and athe design surface.
Cut/Fill Ratio: AThe ratio that is determined bybetween the typevolume of material beingexcavated moved.and Itthe relatesvolume torequired whatafter percentageplacement ofand itcompaction. willFor “settle” or “shrink” once compacted. Example: Usingexample, a cut/fill ratio of 1.2 indicates that 1.2 means that you require 1.2 cubic yardsm³ of cutexcavated soilmaterial is required to createproduce 1.0 cubic yardsm³ of compacted fill.
Design surface:Surface: A surface that has been designed, thisdigital model representsrepresenting the finished/targetintended surfacefinished terrain after all earthworks have been completed.
DEM:DEM see (Digital Elevation Model.Model): See Digital Elevation Model.
Detent: is a term used byA John Deere hydraulic control mode that meansenables iGrade™ to placeaccept theremote iGrade™control commands from an external system intosuch automaticas andT3RRA allow another system to send control commands.software.
Digital Elevation Model:Model (DEM): A digital representation of theterrain topographyelevations ofacross an areaarea. ofDEMs land.are Allowsused for surveying, design and machine-control applications.
Feather: To gradually blend one surface or design into another, creating a usersmooth to view the surface of the land in three dimensions with software. Can be manipulated and changed in software and the result can be fed into a machine control system.transition.
Feather: To feather something is to soften it or soften the transition between regions so that the interface is gradual.
Fill area:Area: A region where dirtmaterial must be added in order to meetachieve athe target surface design. surface.
Finishing: Final grading passes performed to achieve the target design height.elevation and surface quality.
Geo-referenced: DataDescribes data or imagesimagery that haveincludes geographic coordinatescoordinates, (latitudesallowing and longitudes) associated with them can be described as being ‘geo-reference’. Normally, data must be geo-referenced in orderit to be usedaccurately withpositioned aon GPSthe basedEarth's guidance or mapping system.surface.
GPS:GPS (Global Positioning System.System): The United States satellite navigation system. Within this manual, the term GPS is commonly used to refer to GNSS positioning unless otherwise stated.
Haul: The activityprocess of pickingtransporting upexcavated dirtmaterial from one location to another.
Heading: The direction in which the bowlmachine ofis atravelling scraperor panpointing, andtypically movingexpressed itin somedegrees distancerelative to a new location.north.
Heading: the heading is the direction a tractor is moving or facing.
Importing/Exporting dirt:Dirt: Importing refers to the action of bringing dirtmaterial into a regionproject area from outsideelsewhere. Exporting refers to removing material from the field.project Itarea mayfor come from a stockpile of dirt,use or fromdisposal some other place where it is not needed, or where removal of dirt is called for. Exporting is the opposite action.elsewhere.
Land forming:Forming: The process of alteringreshaping the land surfaceterrain using non-linearcurved curvesor andvariable slopes.surfaces to improve drainage, irrigation or productivity.
Land leveling:Levelling: The process of alteringreshaping the land surfaceterrain using largepredominantly flatplanar planes. These planes are normally gradedsurfaces to drainimprove water in oneirrigation or more directions.drainage.
NMEA:NMEA (National Marine Electronics Association.Association): NMEAA messages are data strings that conform to a particularcommunications standard established by the National Marine Electronics Association. These are commonly used withto GPSexchange GNSS and navigation data communications.between devices.
Original surface:Surface: AThe surveyed or imported setterrain ofmodel data that formsrepresenting the shape of an area of landfield before itearthworks is leveled or formed. begin.
On-grade:Grade: The positioncondition ofwhere anthe implement cutting edge when it is considered to be at the correctrequired elevation in order to achieve the desired target design.
Pixels:Pixel: PixelsThe aresmallest the individual cellselement of a raster structure that makes up an elevation surface. ThePixel width and height of a pixelsize determines the precisionresolution and level of detail represented by the surface.
Primary andSlope secondary/ slope:Secondary Slope: The primary slope (sometimes called “row slope”) is the maindominant direction of fall across a fieldsurface. or area falls in, theThe secondary slope (synonymousor with cross slope)slope) is 90° (perpendicular)perpendicular to the primary slope.
Project file:File: This is aA proprietary binaryT3RRA project file usedcontaining tosurvey, storedesign dataand forproject information. T3RRA Cutta,project T3RRAfiles Ditch, and T3RRA Plane. It will always end inuse the ‘.tci’ extension. (You may have to enable 'Showtci file extensions' in Windows to see this extension).extension.
Raster: ThisA is a term for agrid-based data structure consisting of aregularly gridspaced ofcells (pixels), each containing an elevation values.value.
RTK has(Real-Time Kinematic): A high-accuracy GNSS positioning technique that uses correction data from a setbase number of rows and columns of grid points. Each grid point is called a ‘cell’,station or anetwork ‘pixel’.to achieve centimetre-level positioning accuracy.
RTK:Settle Real(Shrink): TimeThe Kinematic.reduction Thisin issoil a term for a type of GPS position solutionvolume that has very high accuracy.
Settle/Shrink: Settle or shrink is used when discussing the compaction of soiloccurs after itmaterial has been moved.placed and compacted.
Slope: A measure of the steepness, incline, grade/gradient, or constant rate of elevation change,change ofacross a surface. AWithin higherT3RRA software, positive slope valuevalues indicatesrepresent adownhill steeper incline. In T3RRA software positive slopes always refer to “downhill” slopes.gradients.
Stockpile: A temporary pile of dirt/soil/excavated material thatintended hasfor beenlater exported from some other area.use.
Surface: A two- or three-dimensionaldigital representation of theterrain. topographicSurfaces formare oftypically acreated field.from Issurvey oftenpoints aor systematic grid ofraster elevation pointsdata thatand describeare theused locationfor design, guidance and machine control.
Survey Point: A recorded position containing horizontal coordinates (X, Y) and elevation of every point within a field.
Survey point: A point measured with a location (x,y) and an elevation (z)Z). Collections of survey points are used to creategenerate theterrain surface of the field. The more points the more accurate the surface.surfaces.
TCM:TCM (Terrain Compensation Module.Module): A sensor that is part of the John Deere StarFiresensor receivers.integrated Usedinto StarFire™ receivers that measures machine attitude to measureimprove positioning and control cross cross-slope in iGrade™.accuracy.
Time-out: WhenA ancondition where communication is terminated because a device or application “times out” it means that whatever it is talking to has taken too longfails to respond andwithin itan doesexpected not know what to do.period.
Topography: The physical featuresshape and surface characteristics of an area of land, especially the shape of its surface. land.
Topsoiling: The actionplacement of adding a layer of new soiltopsoil over thea topfinished surface to restore fertile material following earthworks.
Washboarding: Repetitive vertical oscillation of an existingimplement surface.that Oftenproduces donea incorrugated heavysurface cutresembling areasa traditional washboard.
Zeroing: The process of calibrating measured elevations to ensurethe therephysical iscutting a layeredge of morethe organic,implement. fertileZeroing soilcompensates abovefor GPS antenna offsets, implement geometry, machine setup and differences between surveying and implementation, ensuring displayed elevations accurately represent the subsoilcutting thatedge hasposition.\
Control exposedSurface: The reference surface used by the removalmachine-control system to determine the required implement position. This may be an existing terrain surface, a design surface or an As-Applied surface, depending on the operation being performed.
Cross Slope: The slope perpendicular to the primary direction of dirttravel. duringCross theslope leveling process.
Washboarding: A termis used to describedefine undesirablethe systematicside-to-side up and down movementinclination of a scrapersurface.
Dynamic Blade Limit: A T3RRA feature that limits cutting below the As-Applied surface to help prevent over-cutting and maintain the intended design.
Grade: The required elevation or slope at a particular location relative to the soildesign surface resembles an old fashioned washboard, hence the name.surface.
Zeroing:Implementation: The process byof whichconstructing the elevationsdesigned terrain by moving material to match the target surface.
Look-Ahead: A control parameter that predicts machine movement and commands hydraulic adjustments slightly in aadvance to improve grading performance and reduce control maperror.
Machine calibratedControl: againstThe thecombination elevationsof beinghardware measuredand bysoftware the GPS. By ‘zeroing’ we are ableused to compensateautomatically for:
Remote differencesControl: inA control mode that allows an external device, such as T3RRA software, to send hydraulic control commands to a surveyorscompatible GPSmachine-control to the implement GPS,