Is there a way to measure a parts silhouette area projected onto a plane?

[Ashley_Norman]

I have a complex part/assembly I need to calculate the visible area from certain angles to calculate wind loading area and centre. Projecting all the geometry manually is too time consuming as this is a regular task. The silhouette feature doesn't capture holes through the part.

When I searched I found this was possible in Space Claim. Is there an equivalent in Inventor? 

https://help.spaceclaim.com/dsm/6.0/en/Discovery/user_manual/measure_projected.html

[CGBenner]

@Ashley_Norman 

Hello!  If you create an offset work plane and create a sketch on that plane, you can project only the geometry that you need to measure into that sketch, and then use that to take some measurements.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Ashley,

There is an indirect workflow to get the measurement. Create a 3D Sketch -> create the Silhouette Curve from the body based on the selected direction. Create a 2D Sketch on the ground plane. Project the Silhouette Curve to the sketch. Inspect -> Region Properties -> select the sketch profile.

Many thanks!