Display Area for a Drawing Section in a Drawing Text Box

[kegle]

How do I calculate the area for a section of an extruded profile and display it in a drawing note?  I see how to add a field <AREA> in the text dialog box, but it comes up as N/A in my text box in the drawing.  This is also the case for <MASS> and <VOLUME>.  How do I get the drawing fields associated with the physical properties of the model?

Thanks,

Kevin

[swalton]

update the mass props of the object. 

I'll bet that the area prop is the surface area of the object, not a cross-sectional area. 

[kegle · Accepted solution]

You are correct.  I was able to get the field properties to display by going to the model and calculating the physical properties. 

The area is the surface area which I do not want.

I figured out to get what I really want which is lbs/foot of a profile.  I created a sketch on the extrusion and created a reference dimension and renamed it "Length".  I then created a user parameter named LBperFT.  Then I created an iLogic rule and defined LBperFT = iProperties.mass / Length.  In the drawing note I displayed the user parameter LBperFT.

This seems to work.  Is there a better way to do this?  This will not be accurate if I have other features added to my extrusion such as holes and cuts.