Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

I've recently been using Inventor 2009 modeling some metal plates using just the extrustion command in the regular part enviroment., rather than the sheet metal environment.  I've been using the Area iProperty to find the area of material being used.  When area was being checked by an associate, he was using the Measure Area Tool.  It appears that the Area iProperty calculates to about twice as large as the Area Measure Tool reports.

Should the caculated area be the same using EITHER method?

Why is this happening?

Any tips, suggestions or errata on this matter would be very useful!

[#2 · Accepted solution]

The Area iProperty provide the area of the selected part.

That is, the sum of the areas of all the faces of the part.

For obtaining the same result with the Area Measure Tool, you need to do the following:

• Select one face.
• Add the value to Accumulate, (as shown in the picture below).

• Repeat the two steps above for all the faces of the part.
• At the end, when you have added the area of the last face selected to Accumulate, click on Display Accumulate.

I hope I’ve clarified the difference.

Kind regards,

Alessandro

[#3]

Thanks Alessandro for the reply.  Remembering the difference was about twice, I took another look at both solutions.  You've just confirmed what I finally figured out.

I also noticed that a plate with holes or other removed extrusions will differ in area for the same plate WITH the same features SUPPRESSED.

I wasn't differentiating between Sheet Metal Extents and the Measure Area Tool.