Using Cross Slope Guidance

Cross Slope guidance lets you set and grade a constant cross slope, perpendicular to the machine's direction of travel. You can drive up and down varying slopes and change the blade rotation whilst still maintaining grade to the target cross slope.

Best operating practice

This best operating practice list helps you achieve the best results with your system:

  • Keep the drawbar centered under the gooseneck/mainframe.
  • Do not lean the wheels.
  • Do not articulate the machine.

Selecting Cross Slope guidance

3D positioning source

To select Cross Slope guidance while using 3D sensors:

  1. From the Dashboard, tap the Machine Setup tile.
  2. From the Machine Setup screen, select a 3D positioning source such as GNSS or UTS.

    3. When positioning source is not Cab/body mounted dual GNSS, the mast sensor toggle button is displayed on the Machine Setup screen. Enable the mast sensor to receive guidance from the mast sensor only. The mast sensor provides the highest blade pitch accuracy. Disable the mast sensor to use the blade sensor for guidance, which provides high blade pitch accuracy. If you change the setting, check the sensor accuracy with a known benchmark.

  3. From the Guidance Combination field, tap the Open icon . The Guidance Combination screen displays.
  4. The guidance combinations that are available on your machine are listed. Select Cross Slope and tap Apply.
  5. You are returned to the Machine Setup screen. Tap Apply.
  6. From the Dashboard, tap Start to enter the work screen.

TIP – For quick access to the Guidance Combination screen, touch and hold the guidance combination icon in the guidance bar, at the top of the work screen. Alternatively, a single tap will cycle through the Quick Change list in the Guidance Combination screen. For less used combinations, use the re‑order list icon to drag and drop them into the Other Available combination list.

2D positioning source

To select Cross Slope guidance while using 2D sensors:

  1. From the Dashboard, tap the Machine Setup tile.
  2. From the Machine Setup screen, select 2D as the positioning source.
  3. From the Sensor Combination field, tap the Open icon . The Sensor Combination screen displays.
  4. The sensor combinations that are available on your machine are listed. Select one of the combinations, for example, Cross Slope and tap Apply.
  5. You are returned to the Machine Setup screen. Tap Apply.
  6. From the Dashboard, tap Start to enter the work screen.

    7. TIP – For quick access to the Sensor Combination screen, touch and hold the sensor combination icon in the guidance bar, at the top of the work screen. Alternatively, a single tap on the icon on the guidance bar will cycle through the Quick Change list that is configured in the Sensor Combination screen. For less used combinations, use the re‑order list icon to drag them out of the Quick Change list and drop them into the Other Available combination list.

Target cross slope

You can access the Target Cross Slope screen from the Work Settings menu, or you can touch and hold the Target Cross Slope field in the guidance bar.

Use the Target Cross Slope screen to apply a new target cross slope, or to select or edit an existing Target Cross Slope memory. You can also access the Cross Slope Memories screen, which you can use to create target cross slope values that the system saves for later use.

Applying a target cross slope

NOTE – The Apply button saves values temporarily. The values are overwritten the next time you enter a different value. If you want to save the entered values as a memory, use the Save button.

  1. In the guidance bar, touch and hold the Target Cross Slope field to access the Target Cross Slope screen.

  2. Either:

    • Enter the value of the cross slope and then tap Apply; or
    • Set the blade on the ground that you want to match the slope of and tap Target Set .

The cross slope target icon in the guidance bar

The cross slope target icon displays the current target value:

  • Tap to cycle through the configured target memories.
  • Touch and hold to access the Target Cross Slope screen.

Changing the target cross slope using Inc/Dec switches

You can also change the target cross slope while you operate by using the increment and decrement switches mounted on the control levers or joysticks. Set the desired increment and decrement step size in the Increments screen from the System Settings menu.

Autos

If the selected sensor/guidance combination is Cross slope only, then only one side of the blade at a time can be controlled by Autos. The side in Autos maintains the Target Cross Slope value. The operator controls the elevation of the manual side.

To change which side is in Autos, press the Auto switch for the side you want Autos to control. The first side change requires only a single press of the Auto switch. Subsequent changes will require the Auto switch to be pressed twice on some machines.

Lightbar guidance is only provided for the side of the blade in Autos.

The guidance view

The guidance view displays the machine relative to the surface being worked. You can set up to three different views to display at once, from the following view types:

  • 3D
  • Cross-section
  • Profile
  • Plan
  • Cut/Fill Left
  • Cut/Fill Right
  • Cut/Fill Center

NOTE – The 3D view only renders the design surface for a radius of 150 m (about 500 feet) from the current machine position.

Text items

Use the text ribbon area (across the bottom of the guidance view) to display text items of your choice. By default, the system displays ribbon items appropriate for your machine. Useful text items when working with cross slope are:

  • Cut/Fill Left and Cut/Fill Right
  • Cross Slope
  • Blade Rotation
  • Body Mainfall

Touch and hold any text item in the text ribbon to open the corresponding context menu:

  • Tap Add to select a new text item to add to the text ribbon.

  • Tap Replace to select another text item to replace the current one.

  • Tap Remove to remove the current text item from the text ribbon.

At the bottom of the context menu, you can tap Go to Text Ribbon . Alternatively you can access it from the System Settings menu . The Text Ribbon screen allows you to:

  • Drag-and-drop items to reorder your list. Alternatively, you can drag a text item in the text ribbon to shuffle it.

  • Tap Edit to select which items appear.

  • Tap Default to reload the default ribbon items for your machine.

  • Enable or disable the display of the text ribbon in the work screen.

TIP – Blade Slope and Cross Slope text item values will only be the same when there is zero blade rotation (blade square) and the drawbar is centered under the gooseneck.

System settings

The System Settings icon is on the work screen:

Use System Settings to access and configure various functions, including (but not limited to):

  • Lightbars
  • Units
  • File Transfer
  • Increments (where the inc/dec switches step size can be set)

The shortcut bar

The shortcut bar enables you to easily perform frequently repeated tasks. The shortcut icons are for Cross Slope relevant items such as:

  • Flip Target Cross Slope . Tap to invert or swap the slope.
  • Set Target Cross Slope . Tap to set the current blade cross slope to be the target cross slope. Touch and hold to open the Target Cross Slope screen.

The Back icon

The Back icon is in the top left‑hand side of the title bar:

You can tap the icon or title to return to the previous screen; either the Dashboard or work screen.

Work settings

The Work Settings icon is in the lower right-hand side of the work screen:

Use the Work Settings menu to access and configure those settings that change according to the requirements of each individual task, including (but not limited to):

  • Target Cross Slope
  • Flip Target Cross Slope
  • Blade
  • Auto Mode

NOTE – See the Using Autos guide for how to adjust the valve speed settings for cross slope.