[ORD 2022 R1] Template Question to model Cut/Fill Correctly

Question

I have a template where I have material that needs to be cut in order to grade down to subgrade. I also need this purple volume to be paid for as fill from the top of base to the finish grade. This fill area is constant throughout the range of the template drop. However the cut area will vary depending on the ground (or unsuitable) above it. 
 
 I have two questions: 
 1. Do I need this component at all? Will the Create Cut Fill Volumes tool know that the purple area needs to be removed in order to cut to the left bottom of the subgrade? Even with this component present, the Cut/Fill Volume is not being shown as fill. I don't see many templates from other agencies with this component shown, so I'm not sure if the cut volume is calculated correctly to account for the vertical cut at the outer limits of the base/subbase. 
 
 2. If I need this component to calculate the purple fill volume, what volume option should be set in the feature definition?

Steven Litzau · Accepted Answer

Good morning Josh, 
 To your first question, which really is "Is the cut volume mesh generating correctly?" the answer is yes, presuming that what appear to be your aggregate and granular under the curb have a Design volume option applied. When you run the cut/fill volumes, you should be able to see that mesh in the Dynamic Section viewer to confirm. 
 From the fill side, the manner in which ORD is processing cut and fill takes the bottom most design surface to define both cut and fill, so the "common embankment" (the term I am familiar with for fill) does not include anything over a design element. I have developed a workflow for one of my clients that would take a mesh generated in this area (we used the Create Closed Mesh tool) and merge it with the fill mesh created by the cut and fill volumes tool. This will be necessary if you want the software to report this all as a single volume (End Area Volumes would then look to the combined mesh for example.) To do this you will need a component to generate the mesh. I do not know if you could simply use the corridor created mesh. Our workflow used a trace component that then became the source element for the Create Closed Mesh tool. 
 Hope that all makes senses and helps. 
 Steve