Land Forming
Put your 3D field design on the ground — RTK grade control for Geo-Surface™, AGD, LandXML, and other popular land-forming design software.
RTK GPS Grade Control
Stay on grade. On any machine. On any job.
Surface drainage — the original workflow, and still the one most customers run every day. Survey the route, let Slope-IQ™ design the ditch, then let Ditch Assist's automated RTK grade control keep you on grade. For deeper cuts, Auto-Nudge™ takes manageable bites pass by pass. It handles curved routes, several grades along one run, and mile-long runs.
Check out Ditch Assist
One-time purchase, no subscription
Not sure which fits your machine? Which kit do I need?
- Since 2014 in the field
- 15+ countries
- Engineered in Manitoba
- About 1 hr to install
Why not just set one slope?
Because real drainage rarely runs in a straight line at one grade. Ditching mode surveys the actual ditch line, and Slope-IQ™ builds a multi-grade design to fit it — steeper where the ground falls away, flatter where it doesn’t, downhill to the outlet on your minimum grade. Curves, grade breaks, and depth limits are handled in the design, not set by eye. As you cut, the target follows the surveyed line, so the profile stays right through every bend. And if one slope really is all the job needs, Simple Grading is the faster tool.
Map it. Survey it. Design it. Cut it.
Map: see where the water goes before you drive the field.
Flow routes, ponding risk and the true low spots, from public LiDAR. Fetch it while the tablet has internet; it stays on the tablet for the field.
Explore LiDAR Drainage Mapping
* Subject to public LiDAR availability — coverage across the contiguous US; in Canada, major ag regions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, with coverage expanding.
Survey: drive the run once.
The app records the ground as you drive and draws the profile under the map, so you see the humps and low spots before you design anything.
Design: Slope-IQ™ works out the grade.
Set your minimum grade and let Slope-IQ™ solve the design — it follows the natural slope where it works, cuts through any humps that hold back flow, and moves the least dirt possible to reach final grade.
Cut: Auto-Nudge™ takes it down in passes.
Set the deepest cut your machine can pull in one pass. Auto-Nudge™ sets each pass target from the original ground, never deeper than that and never below final grade. Finish the pass, tap Pass +, and the next one is ready.
Survey, design and cut a ditch in Farming Simulator 25: the free Ditch Assist mod
Ditching · Land Forming · Leveling · Terracing · Simple Grading · Levee & Contour · Excavator · Tiling
One RTK GPS on the implement. Three ways to run it.
Illustration, not to scale.
Dozers, motor graders, self-propelled scrapers, and skid steers with grading attachments — machines Ditch Assist can't automate, where you run the blade by hand.
On the machine: an Emlid Reach RS3 or RS4 on the blade, on its own battery. Nothing else, no wires.
The tablet joins the receiver’s Wi-Fi and you follow the up/down arrows (chevrons) on the screen while you work the blade. One-time license per receiver. On the farm, it is the lowest-cost way to run Ditch Assist; automating later means buying the Full Automation Kit at full price.
See Ditch Assist LiteVisual guidance. Automation later, or through a factory valve.
On the machine: your RTK GPS on a mast on the implement, so it rises and falls with the cutting edge (John Deere, Trimble, Emlid and others), and the control module, which powers it. You follow the chevrons on the tablet and work the hydraulics, and you can add our valve later to make it the Full Automation Kit.
If your implement has a compatible factory valve, like a Revolution Ditcher or a Soil-Max Stealth ZD tile plow, the module plugs straight into it and Ditch Assist works raise/lower. Most implements don’t have one; ask us to check yours.
See the kits
Everything from day one. Ditch Assist works the hydraulics.
On the machine: your RTK GPS on a mast on the implement, the control module, and the proportional valve plumbed into your existing hoses.
Ditch Assist raises and lowers to the design, pass after pass, and you can take over from the cab at any time. Wi-Fi to the cab, no harness through the door.
See the kits
For excavators: DIG™ Kit
See grade at the bucket tip. Keep digging.
Sensors on the stick and bucket and an RTK GPS on the stick tell the Ditch Assist app where your bucket tip is. You see cut or fill live in the cab while you run the controls.
Illustration, not to scale.
- RTK GPS on the pendulum mount
Welds to the top of the stick. The pendulum keeps your receiver upright as the stick reaches and curls.
- Stick sensor
Reads the stick angle. IP67, in a protective housing.
- Bucket sensor
Reads the bucket angle, mounted on the dogbone link.
- DIG™ module
Sits by the cab on magnets. The main harness runs over the boom to the sensors, a separate GPS cable goes to the receiver, and Wi-Fi goes to the tablet.
Every mode. Every tool. One free app.
The simulator runs the app in your browser: no login, no download.
Open the app simulator
RTK ditch grade control for surface drainage. This is what Ditch Assist® was born to do.
Ditch Assist® turns RTK GPS into grade control on the machines you already run. Surface drains, pads, terraces, land forming, tile, trenches: one app, one-time purchase, no subscription.
Ditch Assist® is a registered trademark of Northern Plains Drainage Systems Ltd. DIG™, Slope-IQ™, Auto-Nudge™, and Drain-IQ™ are trademarks of NPDS. Other product names are trademarks of their respective owners.