Bench Heading

In Depth and Slope mode, if you have GNSS or a heading sensor, you must bench the heading before you begin working.

Benching the heading sets the direction of the design mainfall. The system calculates target slopes from the benched direction even during machine rotation. You can use the current direction of the machine to bench, or if you have GNSS receivers, choose two points on the ground.

TIP – Using the Two Point Method is more accurate as it defines the direction of the bench heading.

NOTE – If you have 3D sensors, in the Bench Heading screen, the Current Heading displays relative to grid north. However, if you have a heading sensor it displays relative to magnetic north.

One point method

You can access the Bench Heading screen via the Work Settings menu or the shortcut bar.

  1. Position the machine in the direction of the design mainfall.

  2. Tap the Bench Heading icon in the shortcut bar to bench the heading directly.

    This clears the current bench and sets a new bench heading along the line of the linkage.

Alternatively:

  1. Touch and hold the Bench Heading icon in the shortcut bar to open the Bench Heading screen.
  2. Tap Bench.

Two point method

If you have GNSS receivers, use the two point method to bench the heading as this method is more accurate than the one point method.

You can access the Bench Heading screen via the Work Settings menu or the shortcut bar.

  1. Position the machine in the direction of the design mainfall.
  2. Touch and hold the Bench Heading icon in the shortcut bar to open the Bench Heading screen.
  3. Toggle the Two‑Point Method on.
  4. Follow the wizard to select two points:

  5. Touch the attachment focus point on two points that are not too close together (there should be at least one meter between the two points). The mainfall runs parallel to the line between the two points and the cross slope is perpendicular to it.

    1 Mainfall 2 Cross slope
  6. Make sure that the only machine movement between point one and two is from the stick and boom (no slew).
  7. Tap Bench.

When to re‑bench your heading

If you only have a single GNSS receiver, you must re‑bench your heading whenever you move the machine tracks.

If you have 2D as the positioning source and a Cat rotation sensor or HS410 heading sensor, you must re-bench your heading whenever you move the machine tracks off the benched alignment.

Useful text items

Text items display information on the work screen. When you bench the heading the following text item can be helpful: Rotation.

Troubleshooting

The table below lists some of the error messages that may appear when you use the two point method to bench the heading.

Error Message Action
Too much movement

Machine movement between point one and two should only be through the stick and boom (i.e. no slew).
Point 2 not saved, bench points are too close Select a second point that is further away from point one. There should be at least one meter between the two points.