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What does an element's "Area" dimension really calculate?

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Anonymous
1446 Aufrufe, 2 Antworten

What does an element's "Area" dimension really calculate?

Hi all,

 

I'm curious if there are any published heuristics on the "Area" parameter of an Element's "Dimension" properties panel. As an example, I was looking at a concrete wall whose "Area" parameter was roughly shown (read-only) as 540 square feet. I assumed this was the "wetted surface" of the element, so I ran a few tests:

 

- I used the API to get all the underlying geometry for the wall and sum up the area of all its faces. This surface area (the raw sum of the areas of its underlying mesh) was over 1000 square feet -- nearly double the 540 reported by the Area parameter. Spitting out the area of each face individually, I did see one face whose surface area was exactly the same as that reported by Area. Hm.

 

- By applying unique materials to each face of the wall and building a material takeoff, I could see the net surface area of each face, and found that largest rear face of the wall exactly matched what was being reported by the "Area" parameter. 

 

This led me to think that "Area", on this concrete wall at least, is neither the sum of the surface areas of all its faces or even the sum of its visible/"paintable" faces. It seems to be the area of its largest face (maybe coincidentally). It is also very close to the surface area of the profile that generated it.

 

Does anyone know how to determine how this parameter is calculated and what assumptions it makes?

 

Thanks in advance!

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RDAOU
als Antwort auf: Anonymous

Hi @Anonymous

 

You didn’t require API to verify all that.

The Area parameter reading varies depending on the element and its state. Example the wall you used. In the following

  • I am using a Wall (single layer 2m x 4m)
  • In its original state Area 8 sq.m
  • I used a triangular void (0.2m x 0.2m x 4m) to cut the walls edge

Area behavior

  • When wall is in its original state…the area always reports that of the largest edge no matter how you cut the wall. And the reason is that the Area parameter calculates the HxW of the wall’s extents (the blue drag grips at the end of the wall) ie: 4m x 2m = 8 sq.m always

 => The reduced area from the void cut is not reflected in the Area

Wall Area 1.PNG

 

 

  • From the Ribbon, if you convert the wall to Parts and switch view to show parts (As per Image below) then notice the Area, you will notice that it has been reduced BUT not to match any of the faces…When the wall is converted to Parts, the Area will report the HxW of the layer at its Center Line (ie: the average between the internal and the external faces of the Part/Layer  4m x 1.9m = 7.6 sq.m)

  => Reduced area is reflected for the part, however, it corresponds to the average area considering width at the CL & not that of the inner/outer face

 WALL AREA.PNG

 

However; when it comes to scheduling...the area reduction resulting from such cuts can be scheduled using Part material takeoffs and using

  1. Material: as Paint for the Face area (inner and outer) or that of the average
  2. Or Material:Area for the average

 

Wall Area 2.PNG

 

Hope this helps

 

Cheers

 

 

YOUTUBE | BIM | COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN | PARAMETRIC DESIGN | GENERATIVE DESIGN | VISUAL PROGRAMMING
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Nachricht 3 von 3
Anonymous
als Antwort auf: RDAOU

Hey @RDAOU

 

Illuminating! Thank you, thank you :leicht_lächelndes_Gesicht:

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