I worked on my project to estimate the amount of fill dirt we need to order to change terrain on a section of golf course. The area that has a blue line around it is where the change will take place.

Green is the lowest; red is the highest, and yellow is in between with the color changing gradually between different elevations. This model is based off of topographic lines with 2-foot intervals. (i.e. every line indicates a 2-foot change in elevation.) The further apart two lines are from each other, the flatter the land is. When the lines are bunch tightly together it indicates a very steep hill. I think it is easier and more natural to visualize terrain from a 3-d model like this than from looking at raw topo lines.



You can click on the image to see the full-size version. It is pretty cool.

The next step is to build a layer that shows how they want to land to eventually look. Then all I have to do is subtract the calculated volume from that layer from the calculated volume of the initial layer. The volume will be calculated above that plane that bisects the land 732 feet above sea level, which is the lowest point in the area of interest.