France- based manufacturer iDig has introduced its solar-powered 3D Connect system, offering an innovative solution in excavator guidance.

True to iDig’s signature ‘less-is-more’ concept, the 3D Connect only has one GPS/GNSS that is easily removable for use as a rover.

This feature represents a “major breakthrough” in excavator guidance, said iDig, as it enables contractors to easily stake out points and map a site just like surveyors.

Traditionally, only companies with an in-house surveyor would stand to benefit from 3D guidance because most equipment is sold with one or more permanently installed GNSS receptors.

This required either an expensive, independent GNSS, or working with a surveyor to stake out the points that determine the boundaries of a site.

For this reason, 3D excavator guidance has been seldom used for small sites such as home foundations and more often called-upon for large-scale infrastructure projects.

The iDig 3D Connect is set to disrupt this traditional process, expanding the benefits of 3D to more companies, allowing even faster finish times on projects once deemed too small to merit high tech guidance.

For users new to 3D guidance, the main advantage is that the software works with a GNSS-generated site map, enabling precision digging relative to the area and making the process even quicker, simpler and more eco-friendly than with 2D.

More features will be revealed at the 3D Connect launch at bauma this October, including another that is unique to the industry, according to iDig CEO Albert Gamal.

‘”The software is so easy that even operators new to 3D guidance will be able to understand the workflow,” said Mr Gamal.

iDig previously offered the excavator guidance industry with its 2D Touch system, saving time and money for construction businesses of all sizes.

iDig said its 2D guidance, which is wireless and solar-powered, pays for itself in just three to nine months, depending on the user’s expenses. The equipment eliminates the need for manual grade checking, either by the operator or a second-party grade checker.

At the 2021 Forexpo in Mimizan, France, iDig was honoured with a Safety Award for eliminating the need for dangerous descents into trenches and reducing the frequent machine starts and stops, which not only consume an excess of fuel, but cause needless fatigue to the operator.

Bauma booth: FS.1104/2, A2.222