Cat Trial 13: Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site and 3D Machine Control
- Quantum Land Design
- Sep 28, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: May 4
If you grew up around construction or raised kids in it, you probably know the book. Sherri Duskey Rinker's Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site has been a bedtime staple for contractor families for years. Caterpillar decided to bring it to life for Cat Trial 13, and they needed precise 3D machine control models to do it. That's where our team came in.
What Caterpillar Built for Cat Trial 13
For the trial, Cat put five real machines to work on a nighttime construction site. A TL642 Telehandler stood in for Crane Truck. A D6 Track Type Tractor played Bulldozer. A 745 Articulated Truck was Dump Truck. A 349 Hydraulic Excavator took on Excavator. And a Cat on-highway truck engine powered the Cement Mixer. Three Cat dealer service trucks rounded out the cast, representing the crews that keep machines running while everyone else sleeps.
Getting those machines to perform together on camera, in a way that matched how the characters move in the book, required precise control. Every blade and bucket had to be dialed in.
Ryan's Role: Building the 3D Models for Cat Grade
Ryan Murguia, QLD's president, built the 3D surface models for the Cat Grade equipment used in the trial. Cat Grade is Caterpillar's machine control system built on Trimble hardware. It gives operators in-cab grade guidance tied directly to a 3D model of the design.
For Cat Trial 13, the models had to match the physical proportions of each machine precisely so the on-screen result looked right. That's a different challenge than a standard site model. On a normal job you're building to engineered plans and the machine hits grade. Here the model had to be scaled to the actual machine dimensions and synced to the animation requirements of the trial. Ryan worked through the scaling issues that come with that kind of build and got it done.
What Goes Into a Cat Grade Machine Control Model
If you run Caterpillar equipment with Cat Grade, you know the basics. A 3D surface model loaded to the system tells the machine where it sits on the design and how far off grade it is. On a dozer or motor grader with automatic blade control, the system moves the blade to hit grade without the operator making every correction by hand.
What most contractors don't think much about is what goes into the surface model before it ever gets to the machine. The model has to be built specifically for your equipment brand and control system. For Cat Grade, which runs on Trimble hardware, our team builds the surface files in the correct format so they load cleanly and work the way you expect in the field. We have built models for Cat Grade on dozers, motor graders, and excavators across hundreds of projects.
A poorly built model shows up fast. You will see it in surface gaps, inconsistent blade response, or grade that just does not look right when you walk it. Getting the surface tight before it goes to the machine is the whole job.
Watch the Video
Need 3D Models Built for Your Cat Grade Equipment?
Our team builds machine control models for Caterpillar equipment running Cat Grade on Trimble hardware. Standard turnaround is 3 business days. All we need to get started is your PDF plans.
If you want to know more about what a complete model package looks like for your equipment, check out our machine control models page or head over to our Trimble machine control page for specifics on Cat Grade compatible files.
Questions? Call us at 515-505-3510 or email sales@avqld.com.
Quantum Land Design has built over 20,000 machine control models for earthmoving contractors across the US and Canada. Models, takeoffs and drone data are delivered within 3 business days and are compatible with Trimble, Topcon, Leica, Carlson, and many other systems.