Mash out question with beer smith

I'm trying to get a handle on this. Beer Smith says i should mash out with 7.70 qt of water at 198.5 and let it rest for 10 min. Then sparge with 4.15 gal of 168 water. does this mean 168 or the 198.5 that was used to bring the temp up from 154 to 168. i hope this makes sense. to me it would seem that i would now have to have 168 water ready for the sparge and that i now either have to let the 198.5 cool to 168 or heat up more water to 168 .Les

Put 7.7 qts of water in a pot and heat to 198.5F. Add the 7.7 qts of 198.5F water to the mash to bring the mash temp up to 168F. wait 10 min.

THEN

Heat 4.15 gallons of water to 168F (possibly a higher temp depending on your method of sparge). Use the 4.15 gallons of 168F water for the sparge.

Are you batch sparging or fly?

Thx much .I fly sparge.If i dont do a mash out beer smith say to sparge with 6.07 gal of water at 168. lil confused on which way to go.mash out then sparge or just sparge. mash out is an extra step. seems easier just to heat up sparge water to temp and let it rip.sense i f-ed up my last 1st AG at this step i dont want to do that again.

Normally you do the mash out to thin out your mash and to stop enzymatic activity. You start your sparge once your mash out is complete.

Does that help?

The mash out is optional. The purpose is to stop conversion and keep the wort from being overly fermentable. It could help increase dextrines and mouthfeel.

If you skip the mash out you could just heat the runnings as they enter the brew pot and that may have a similar effect depending on the lag time between the run off and when you heat the brew pot.

Skip the mashout and heat your sparge water to 185. It will raise the grainbed temp to approx 168 - effectively doing a mashout/sparge in one step.

Edit:
Just re-read your question and see that you fly sparge. My advice pertains to batch sparging.