Variable-slope grading
Plane-with-continuously-varying-slope grading in all eight variants, with slope bounds, monotonic rows, node constraints and max cut/fill, solved in your tab.
Survey → Design → Machine control
Know the dirt before you move it.
RosettaGrade takes a field survey to a balanced grading design — cut, fill, water and haul checked — and hands your display the file. It runs in the browser, on the computers you already have, for the whole company.
Already set up? Open the Studio →
BalancedEvery section to the ratio you set. Best-fit planes, hinges or variable-slope grading, each solved to your cut:fill ratio so the dirt you cut is the dirt you need.
FlaggedProblems before the machine rolls. A section that is off balance or reaches past the survey is marked on the map, in the table and in the checklist — not discovered in the cab.
DrainedWater checked on the design. Ponds, flow paths and design-storm runoff on the natural ground and on the finished grade, so you can show the water has somewhere to go.
DeliveredFiles your display reads. LandXML, DXF, shapefile, multiplane text, .ags / .agd and point lists — and a refusal, never a guess, for anything we cannot verify.
The workflow
The job is the navigation.
The Studio is laid out as the job runs — Survey, Sections, Design, Check, Deliver. Each step shows the commands it needs, says what is left to do, and lists anything that will bite later. Every command is still one search away.
- Step 01 · Survey
Bring the field in, and see it read correctly
Drop in a points file from any rover, an existing .ag3 project, LandXML, DXF, a shapefile or a DEM. The Studio works out the columns and the codes itself and shows you the first rows and the counts before anything is imported — so a swapped northing and easting is caught on the preview, not on the map.
Import preview · 720 points · columns and codes detected before anything is imported - Step 02 · Sections & design
Split the field, then balance every piece
Draw section lines where the field wants to fall differently, then design each piece — best-fit, fixed-slope, hinged, matched, or variable-slope grading solved in the tab. Every section reports its own cut, fill, ratio and slopes in one sortable table, and the totals stay on screen while you work.
Variable-slope design · 56.5 ac · 8,632 yd³ cut · 7,439 yd³ fill · C:F 1.16 - Step 03 · Check
Look at it the way the machine will
Cut a profile anywhere and see the natural ground against the design, with the step at every section line. Measure, check slopes, run the water analysis on the design, and read the design report before anything leaves the office.
Profile across four sections · natural ground vs. design · steps at each section line - Step 04 · Deliver
Prove it in the report, then ship the files
The design report prints every section with area, cut, fill, ratio, maximum cut and fill and slopes, then the definition and solution of each. Save it as CSV or text, print a PDF, share a read-only link with the landowner, and write the job out for the display.
Design report · 4 sections · 27,217 yd³ cut · 21,773 yd³ fill · C:F 1.250
Water
See where the water sits before a scraper does.
The water analysis fills every low spot, traces where the water runs, and sizes a design storm’s runoff into each pond. Run it on the natural ground to find the problem and on the design to show it is gone.
- Ponds with volume, depth and spill point — the field shown holds 9 on the surveyed ground, the largest 2,271 yd³ and 0.51 ft deep.
- Flow paths traced to their outlets, or from wherever you click.
- Storm runoff per pond by the SCS curve-number method, with the ponds that overflow called out.
In development
The same field, on the iPad in the truck.
The collector is the other half of the loop: an RTK survey app for iPad and iPhone that shoots the field, syncs it to the office library, and brings the design back out — with the cut or fill under the rover, live. It runs today against its built-in RTK simulator; it has not yet been tested with a physical receiver, and there is nothing to download yet.
- Cut and fill on the map — the office design shaded under the rover, with ground, design and the depth to grade read out where it is.
- A survey that says what is next — master benchmark, perimeter, interior, then send it to the office.
- Quality gates on every shot — fix, satellites, RMS, PDOP and correction age, on screen and in the record.
The office
One library for the office, the crew and the landowner.
Every field in the company in one place, with its outline, sections and how much of it is designed at a glance. Every save is a revision, every change is in the audit log, and a share link gives the landowner the report without an account.
People with roles, not a shared password
Owners and admins run the company; designers design; surveyors bring the field in; viewers read. Invite someone by email, change what they can do, or switch them off — and see in the audit log what anyone changed.
Also in the box
The rest of the job, in the same place.
Target-ratio slider
Drag the cut/fill ratio and the design re-solves live — volumes, max cut and haul included, shrink and swell too — then keep it as one undoable step.
Balance zones
Draw a zone and the solver balances inside it, so a haul-limited corner pays for itself instead of borrowing dirt from the far end.
Haul and cost
Cut paired to fill and improved by exchange: yd³·mi, average and longest haul, a mass-haul diagram and a priced estimate from your rates.
Smoothed levee lines
Natural contours off the terrain model, smoothed at the interval you choose, with editable nodes and a shapefile for the levee crew.
Aerial imagery
Aerial, road and hybrid basemaps under any field tied to GPS, with linework colours that stay legible over imagery.
DEM and LiDAR
A GeoTIFF DEM or a LAS point cloud, thinned to survey points and placed through the project’s master benchmark.
Revisions and live sync
Every save is a revision you can restore; locks show who is editing, and other browsers see a save the moment it lands.
Share links and PDF reports
A revocable read-only link for the landowner, and a branded PDF of the design report built in the browser.
The converter
Move a field between formats, and be told what it costs.
Thirteen formats in, eleven out. Before you convert, the converter shows you what is in the file and labels the conversion honestly — because the expensive mistake in this industry is a file that looked fine. It converts on our server, so the file you drop is uploaded.
SafeEverything in the file carries over. Nothing dropped, nothing inferred.
CarefulIt works, but something won’t survive. The notes name each thing before you download.
BlockedWe won’t write it: the destination can’t carry the data, or we can’t verify the result.
Access
One subscription for the company.
RosettaGrade is a subscription for your company: the Studio, the converter and your whole library of fields, for the people you work with. We are setting companies up one at a time — tell us about yours and we will be in touch.
- Everyone on one account — owners, designers, surveyors and viewers, each with their own role.
- Every field in one library, with a revision on every save and an audit log of who changed what.
- Your data stays yours — export everything, any time, in open formats.
Questions
The things people ask first.
What does it cost?
RosettaGrade is a subscription for your company — the Studio, the converter and your whole library of fields. We are setting companies up one at a time right now; request access below and we will talk it through with you.
Do I have to install anything?
No. The Studio runs in a current browser on macOS, Windows, Linux, a Chromebook or an iPad. There is no installer, no licence file and no per-machine version to keep in step.
Can it open my existing projects?
It reads .ag3 projects, display multiplane text, .ags / .agd, LandXML, DXF, shapefiles, GeoJSON, KML and points files, and every import tells you what it recognised and what it did not.
Will it write a file for my display?
It writes LandXML, DXF, shapefile, GeoJSON, KML, .ags / .agd, display multiplane text and point lists. Formats we cannot verify are refused rather than attempted — a conversion we cannot stand behind is labelled Blocked.
Where does my field data go?
The terrain model, the design, the water analysis and the volumes are computed in your browser. A project is stored when you save it to your company’s library, where every save is a revision, and you can export it in open formats at any time. The file converter is the exception: it converts on our server, so a file dropped there is uploaded.
Is the iPad collector available?
Not yet. It is in development and runs today against its built-in RTK simulator; it has not yet been tested with a physical receiver, so there is nothing to download yet.
What units does it work in?
Feet, acres and cubic yards by default, with metres, hectares and m³ a switch away. Units a file declares are read from the file; units a file leaves ambiguous are yours to state, not ours to guess.
File extensions and format names on this site say only what RosettaGrade is compatible with; any third-party product or format name is the trademark of its owner. RosettaGrade is an independent product of Real World Development and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of them.