On the Meissa platform, earthwork volume is calculated by converting the 2D CAD drawings a construction company already holds—such as the original ground surface, strata surface, and design surface—into 3D, and comparing them with the 3D as-built surface generated from drone imagery.
Since converting the design surface into 3D and analyzing the drone imagery are handled automatically by the Meissa solution, simply uploading your drone data whenever you like lets you easily check the cumulative work completed against the original ground surface and the remaining work against the design surface.
In this post, to help you understand "volume calculation" with Meissa, we walk through the process in detail—from creating the reference data to deriving the final results.
The first step is building the reference data (design surface and original ground surface).
When a construction company sends 2D CAD files—such as the original ground surface, strata surface, and design surface—to Meissa, we convert that data into 3D and upload it to the platform. If you already have TIF files, they can be uploaded directly with no separate conversion. The uploaded 3D drawing data can be viewed visually on the platform, and the x, y, and z coordinate values assigned within this 3D drawing data are linked into the platform.
The second step is creating the as-built data through drone imaging.
Capture the construction site with a drone whenever you like, then upload that data to the platform, and the Meissa solution automatically analyzes it to generate an orthophoto and a 3D as-built surface model with x, y, and z coordinates.
During this process, you can also delete the height values of unnecessary objects on the construction site, such as heavy equipment or stockpiles. When you designate the areas you want to exclude, the height data of those objects is flattened to the surrounding average ground surface height. This lets you generate digital terrain model (DTM) data for more accurate volume calculation.
The third step is the process of calculating the volume by comparing the reference data with the as-built data.
The calculation applies a triangulation method and can derive both the "completed volume" done so far and the "remaining volume" still to be carried out.
The volume data calculated this way can be reviewed in two ways.
When you select a specific zone on the platform, you can easily check the cut/fill volume data calculated by comparing the as-built surface and the design surface for that zone.
You can monitor changes in earthwork volume over time. Remaining work can be reviewed broken down by material type (weathered rock, soft rock, and hard rock).
