which mash profile to use?

Hi, I brew 3 or 4 gallon batches. I use a cooler mash tun to steep my grains. after 1 hour, I vourlaf the wort and drain the mash tun. I then add another round of hot water ~168 deg, stir, and then vourlaf again and drain the mash tun and start my boil.

When choosing a mash profile in BS, I really don't see anything that matches that. I thought that is a pretty standard method at least according to a lot of the videos that i watch about AG brewing.

right now I have a 4 gallon recipe loaded up and when I choose "single infusion, medium body, batch sparge 1 step" it gives me a mash in water volume, which is what i want.

then it says "batch sparge with 3 steps" what??? I just want the water volume for the 1st round of steeping grains, and then the 2nd volume for the rinsing round of water.

I really depend on BS for my water volumes to try and be consistent and develop a sense of my efficiency. someone help please? thanks

Start with the mash profile you picked and customize it for your needs  and process.  All the mash profiles which came with BeerSmith are templates the the user can modify to their needs. 

In your case, it is most likely a simple change of editing the profile and clicking on the box next to 'drain mash tun before sparge'.  Without this activated, the progam will add water to the capacity of the madh tun before instructing to drain.  This results in two sparge water additions and 3 steps.

thank you for the advice. i didn't know i could edit that. duh!

So i clicked on the edit button.
Checked the "drain mash tun before sparging" box
hit ok

so now it gives me this for my 4 gallon batch:
mash in 14.20 qt at 163 deg

batch sparge with 3 steps:
Drain mash tun-ok
2.25 gal, .32 gal of 168 deg water

how can i get rid of that little water volume of .32 gal and just have 1 volume of water for my sparge?

Check the mash profile again.  It will have a limit on the amount of water to add to the mash tun listed with the batch sparge option as "batch sparge using batches that fill xx%"  I believe the default is set to 90%.  You can choose to have the sparge fill to whatever percentage you want but remember to leave some room for stirring and splashing.

The other thing to look at is reapportioning your infusion volume to bring in more water in the initial strike volume.  Denny Conn had done a lot of testing of splitting the volumes and reaffirmed prior work that if you aim for approximately equal runnings from your initial mash infusion and your sparge that you maximize the lauter efficiency when performing a batch sparge process. 

The formulation for this is pretty easy to figure out.  If you take your total water, subtract your dead space and grain absorption.  Now divide the remainder by 2.  Add back in the dead space and grain absorption figures and this becomes the amount of water you want for your initial infusion.  If you do this for an average grain bill you brew and set the mash profile up as such, it should be close enough to work with most of your recipes without having to go through the calculations each time.

Exceptions may be for high gravity brews where you will want to keep an eye on the 'mash volume needed' section of the mash tab to make sure the button next to that figure stays blue.  If it turns red, then the volumes planned exceed the capacity of your mash tun.

i must say that's a little over my head at this point. i just want to know the appropriate water volume for the initial mash (first wort) and then the sparge water amount. i guess i've been focused on the mash tab in BS. a quick look at the water volume tab shows me what i need. i have been keeping the stats in the session tab about wort volume collected and pre-boil grav and OG before it goes into the fermenter.