sq m to sq feet expression and schedules

[Anonymous]

Hi I need to have sq meter and square feet in a schedule. I can convert the numbers with an expression but when the schedule sums the zones the figure is shown as m2.
Am I missing something in the expression or in the schedule? or am I asking something that AC can't do currently?

[Podolsky]

When you create your property expression - set property value as a number (i.e. 0.000) not area. Then ArchiCAD will not treat this as an area and will not use m² in Schedule sum.

[Anonymous]

Podolsky, I did try this but with the expression as is it just errors out. :S

[Laszlo Nagy]

You can also convert the Measured Are in Feet to a String (STRCALCUNIT), and then convert that to a number (STRTONUM), which can then be summed in the schedule.
The only thing missing, in this case, is there will not be "ft" displayed in the Total row for it.
In the below example, to get the feet value, I divided the Measured area by the square of 0.3048 m, which is the exact amount of 1 foot.

[James B · Accepted solution]

I also made a quick video last year about how to convert units.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Hi James,

That was a cool trick you showed at 7:20 when you divide the Area by 1 m2 to convert it to a Number instead of using my convoluted method. Pretty elegant. I did not know you could do that in Property Expressions.

[David Shorter]

I needed to display site areas in Hectares and was surprised that I couldn't add additional unit types so I eventually used expressions to convert m2 to hectares .
Fairly simple multiply m2 x 10000
I then added this new property to the Zone stamp to display the plot area. I could also use the new property in a schedule to list all the plots/lots/paddocks and calc a total area of the "farm". The only downside was that the units were not displayed against each zone stamp. So I changed the the conversion expression to STRING and added 'ha' for the units


"
That worked for the individual lots but not for the schedule as each lot area was now a STRING

So I needed to create a new expression retaining the area but omitting the "ha" units


Is there a better way of achieving this other than a simple export to Excel?

[Barry Kelly]

David wrote:
Is there a better way of achieving this other than a simple export to Excel?

Probably not.
You can add a column header and add "Ha" or "Hectares' there (not a great solution).
But you will still get no total in the schedule, unless you have them as numbers and not a string.
But then you will need to work on the zone stamp to show the area and the non-standard unit.

Barry.

[David Shorter]

Hi Barry
The zone stamp works fine as you can add the property/expressions in the Zone stamp settings. Very cool really