Volume Calculations in Pix4Dmapper and Pix4Dsurvey

I am using both Pix4Dmapper and Pix4Dsurvey to capture the volume of an object. In mapper, it is my understanding that when drawing the polygon bounding the box, it is a 2D plane to which we can adjust how we want to handle ground surface elevation (max, min, average). The volume reported seems questionable. I import the Pix4Dmapper project into Pix4Dsurvey and proceed to delineate the polygon around the object and calculate the volume, but it reports a different volume than Pix4Dmapper.

My question is how does survey use the DTM based within the polygon. Is it the same as Pix4Dmapper or is survey able to account for the topography with the polygon when calculating volumes or are do they both employ the same methods and why would there be a such a difference.

Hello @Kim_Hodge

In PIX4Dsurvey the volume is calculated based on the Point cloud and not the DTM. In PIX4Dmapper the volume is calculated based on the DSM and there is an option to have a 3D shape if you select triangulated. Without seeing the exact type of polygon that you used, it will be hard to determine the reason for the noticeable difference.

Best regards,

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Hi @Kim_Hodge

You can find additional details about the volume computation tools in our different software on this page: