Floor Elevation lets the FieldPrinter measure how flat your slab is and sync the results to the Dusty Portal. You can measure in two ways: Point Elevation, where the robot drives to specific points you define in a CSV, and Area Elevation, where it measures across a region and builds a heatmap. This article covers preparing and uploading a Point Elevation CSV, running both measurement types in the field, and reading the results in the Dusty Portal.

Point Elevation vs. Area Elevation

The two modes answer different questions, and you can use both on the same layout.

Point Elevation measures specific locations. You give Dusty a list of points as a CSV; the FieldPrinter drives to each one and records a single elevation value there. Use it when you need precise, named readings — equipment baseplates, panel or prefab corners, column lines, or compliance checks against surveyed points.

Area Elevation measures across a region and fills in a grid of readings that the Portal renders as a heatmap. No file preparation is required for this feature. There are two ways to run it:

• Have the robot continuously measure the whole area wherever it drives (background measurement).
• Measure a specific area you draw in the app using the Measure Area tool.

Use Area Elevation when you want a general picture of the highs and lows across a region rather than named point values.

Prepare your Point Elevation CSV

Prepare the file the same way you would a control-point CSV (see Image 1). The format is:

• At least four columns: a point-name column plus X, Y, and Z coordinate columns. A description column is optional.
• Flexible headers (matched case-insensitively; spaces and a "(ft)" suffix are ignored): the point-name header contains point or name; the X header contains x or east, or is exactly e; the Y header contains y or north, or is exactly n; the Z header contains z; the optional description header contains desc.
• Column order can be X, Y, Z or Y, X, Z.
• Coordinates must be plain numbers — no comma thousands separators and no text like "N/A."
• Give every point a unique name so each measured elevation maps back to the right point.
• Units default to feet on upload and can be changed to inches or meters in the import dialog.
• The coordinate system must match the layout file you publish to the Portal.
• The Z column can hold any values — it isn't used for point elevation, since the robot measures the actual elevation in the field. The only requirement is that the Z column is present and not empty.

If the upload fails, the most common cause is extra or missing columns. Keep the file clean and remove any extra fields.

Upload the CSV and set it to a Measure layer

Point files upload as printable Trade points by default. Switch the file's Function to Measure so the FieldPrinter measures elevation at those points instead of printing them.

1. Open your project and layout. On the Prepare Layout tab, click Edit on the layout. If the CSV isn't uploaded yet, click Upload Files and add it first.

   

2. In the Files panel, find your point CSV and click the + to expand it.

   

3. Click the › arrow on the layer to open its settings.

   

4. In the Function row at the top of the layer settings, switch from Print to Measure. The measurement points will appear as purple circles on the layout.

   

   

5. Click Publish. Publishing is required for the points to push to the Dusty App.

Measure in the field

Complete these setup steps for either mode:

1. Set up the tracker on a stable tripod and level it.

2. Open the Setup panel on the iPad and toggle Measure Elevation on. Toggle Background Measurement on to measure floor elevation everywhere the FieldPrinter navigates. If you only need to measure floor elevation on certain areas, do not toggle Background Measurement on.

   

3. Complete every setup step until each shows a green check mark. Completing the Verify Station Location step is required before you can collect elevation.

   

To measure Point Elevation:

1. In the Dusty App, confirm the measure-layer CSV is published — the measurement points show in purple.
2. Select the points to record (all of them or a subset) and tap Start.
3. The FieldPrinter drives to each point and records its elevation; each point updates as it is measured.

To measure Area Elevation:

• Set the grid size in the app before you measure — options are 4" × 4", 6" x 6", 1' x 1', 2' x 2', and 3' × 3'. A finer grid captures more detail; a coarser grid covers ground faster. Changing the grid size after you've measured discards the data already collected, so choose it before you start.

  

• To measure continuously across the whole area, toggle Background Measurement on during Setup — the robot records elevation wherever it drives.

• To measure a specific region, use the Measure Area tool to draw the area, then tap Start.

  

• Watch the heatmap fill in on the Dusty App (see Image 2).

Heatmap Visibility

The heatmap toggle controls whether you see the live elevation overlay on the iPad as the FieldPrinter measures. Data is recorded either way; the toggle only controls what's displayed.

1. Open the Settings tab on the iPad or look at the lower right-hand corner of the canvas.
2. Tap to toggle the heatmap display on. Color values appear over the layout, scaled to the min and max readings collected so far.
3. As more data comes in, the color scale auto-adjusts. High spots and low spots stand out at a glance.
4. Toggle the heatmap display off to see the layout without the overlay.

Restationing

If you move the tracker, each new station must share at least one control point with a previous station so the cloud can merge the data. The Dusty App warns you when a new stationing doesn't share a control point — stop and add an overlapping point before continuing. Without a shared control point, each stationing's elevation data is treated independently and appears as a separate heatmap, or section, in the Portal.

View results in the Dusty Portal

After the robot uploads its data, open the layout's Elevation tab in the Dusty Portal. The Floor Elevation Report shows a heatmap preview, an on-page summary, and downloadable reports. Switch between Area and Points at the top to see each measurement type.

Set these before you preview or download:

• Units: inches or millimeters.
• Display precision: 1/32", 1/16", 1/8", or 1/4".
• Reference point: the baseline every elevation is measured against — Highest Elevation (all others read negative), Midpoint (above read positive, below read negative), or Lowest Elevation (all others read positive). This drives the +/- values in the heatmap and reports. Changing it recalculates from the same data — no re-measuring. The reference is relative only to the points measured in that session, not to a real-world or control-point datum.
• Options: Exclude outliers, Display control points, and (in Area) Display elevation points.

Click Preview to render the heatmap, or Download Area Report / Download Points Report to export.

On-page summary

Below the report controls, the Elevation tab lists an Elevation Summary and an Elevation by Stationing table for each section: total measured points, total measured grids, highest and lowest elevation, and — per stationing — the number measured and the control points used. Measurements that don't share a control point across stationings appear as separate sections, each with its own heatmap.

Outliers

An outlier is a single reading that sits far enough from the rest that it's almost certainly noise — the robot passing over rebar, a chair, debris, or a curb edge — rather than real slab condition. The Portal flags outliers with a standard statistical rule, and the Exclude outliers option drops them so one bad value doesn't skew the heatmap or the numbers. For the full explanation, see What Is an Outlier in the Elevation Tab?.

Downloads

From the Elevation tab, open the download menu:

• Area Heatmap PDF — the printable heatmap.
• Area Data CSV — one row per grid cell, with columns TopLeftX (inches), TopLeftY (inches), and ElevationDelta (inches). This downloads as a ZIP containing one CSV per stationing; if a control point is shared across stationings, the data merges into a single CSV.
• Point PDF — each measured point plotted and labeled with its elevation.
• Point CSV — full numerical data per point: area, point name, point X/Y, measured Z (in both inches and feet-inches), the reference point and its X/Y, stationing number, and control used.
• Autodesk-compatible Point CSV — columns NAME, X, Y, Z, DESC, already formatted for Autodesk Point Layout. Import it into AutoCAD with no edits.

Current limitations

• Floor Elevation does not print elevation values onto the slab as a same-day output. To mark elevations on the floor, take the Point CSV through CAD and print them on a second pass.
• It does not generate an ACI-format FF/FL flatness/levelness report.

Related articles

• Floor Elevation: Quick Overview
• Floor Elevation: File Preparation
• Floor Elevation: Dusty App
• Floor Elevation: Dusty Portal Reports
• Floor Elevation: What Is an Outlier in the Elevation Tab?
• Floor Elevation: Best Practices