topic Re: area calculations? in Project data & BIM

area calculations?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 14:32:18 GMT

hope someone out there can help me. i'm confused about the fastest, easiest way to get an overall square footage. i have a slab drawn. is there any way to find out the square footage of this slab (equivalent to list in autocad)? or, should i draw a zone? but then, can you grab a node of the zone and stretch it (in case you misplace one node)? or is a fill the best way. sorry, might be a basic question, but i'm fresh. thanks.

Re: area calculations?

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 16:09:20 GMT

The quickest way is to spacebar click (magic wand) a fill to the slab. (I assume you already know to turn on "Show Area Text" for the fill.)

A zone works also, but I prefer to use them when there are functions beyond just a quick area calc. Such as labeling the room or area, calculating the contents, etc.

Re: area calculations?

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 16:48:33 GMT

thanks, that worked. only thing is, the fill went to the inside of the walls (even though the slab is on the outside edge of the walls), and for my purposes, i need the calculation to be to the outsie edge. any ideas what i'm doing wrong?

Re: area calculations?

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 16:59:06 GMT

Click the edge of the slab, not the space inside the walls. The magic wand will search for any bounded region unless you click on an edge, which will apply the result to the element.

Re: area calculations?

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 17:15:10 GMT

got it, thanks!

Re: area calculations?

Aussie John — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 21:46:46 GMT

sometimes it helps to actually select the element first before you to copy with magic wand

Re: area calculations?

Laszlo Nagy — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 10:07:36 GMT

You can also get area information about the Slab with the Element Information Palette. With this you do not have to create a Fill to find out its area.