We value your input!
Please participate in Archicad 28 Home Screen and Tooltips/Quick Tutorials survey

Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

how do i measure square footage in my building?

Anonymous
Not applicable
hi,
i need to measure the gross and net area of my building. what is the most efficient way to do this in archicad
16 REPLIES 16
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
The Zone Tool is the one that can display area information. It can also be listed. You should probably use that one.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
Rick Thompson
Expert
I normally select the floor slab and open the "Element Info" box.
Rick Thompson
Mac Sonoma AC 26
http://www.thompsonplans.com
Mac M2 studio w/ display
Anonymous
Not applicable
I use a simple fill with the 'show area' toggled.
fuzzytnth3
Booster
The Zone tool in combination with Scheduling can preform the Gross and Nett areas calulations for you.

There is an option within the Zone tool to control it's behaviour so it will either calculate the nett or gross area.

AC versions 3.41 to 25 (UKI Full 5005).
Using AC25 5005 UKI FULL
Mac OSX 10.15.7 (19G2021) Mac Pro-2013 32gbRam AMD FirePro D500 3072 MB graphics
Arcadia
Booster
I don't use Zone's at all as I have no need for them in the work i do and find them cumbersome. My solution for working out area's is to create a layer called "calcs" then use fills (color coded for different purposes if desired) drawn over the area's wanted (ie roof, overall building area, individual rooms etc). Then open the element information window from the palettes menu. When you click on the fill you get the area, perimeter etc. If you color the fills you can tell quickly if they need to be updated when something changes. Works for me anyway.
V12-V27, PC: Ryzen 9 3950X, 64g RAM, RTX5000, Win 11
fuzzytnth3
Booster
What you describe is how the Zone tool works as well. But by using Fills instead you loose some of the power of Zone tool particularly in this case where the original query was how to calculate the Nett and Gross areas.

The Zone tool can do this quickly for you as I have shown above. Whereas to do the same thing with the Fill tool requires editing all your Fills and creating a second set of Fills to calculate the Gross.

The Zone tool also has the benefit that it can feed information into Opening and Finishes Schedules which save time and effort. Whereas the Fill tool can't feed Room Names, Wall and Floor Finishes into schedules

Don't be scared of the Zone tool, embrace it and make it your friend
AC versions 3.41 to 25 (UKI Full 5005).
Using AC25 5005 UKI FULL
Mac OSX 10.15.7 (19G2021) Mac Pro-2013 32gbRam AMD FirePro D500 3072 MB graphics
Arcadia
Booster
Well that's all very well of course, but I don't need zones linked with room names or schedules or floor and ceiling finishes and ceiling hieghts etc. Like I said its cumbersome for my purposes when all I need to do is simply fill stretched over a particular area. It takes a couple of minutes to place the 3 or 4 that I need then i don't have to think about them again till I need the area's. Maybe one day I will really have a look at zones and see what I can do with them but other stuff is a higher priority for me at the moment.
V12-V27, PC: Ryzen 9 3950X, 64g RAM, RTX5000, Win 11
David Maudlin
Rockstar
Arcadia wrote:
My solution for working out area's is to create a layer called "calcs" then use fills ... Then open the element information window from the palettes menu. When you click on the fill you get the area,...
The Fill Tool can show the area on the plan (check the "Show Area Text" box), and updates automatically as the fill is edited.

David
David Maudlin / Architect
www.davidmaudlin.com
Digital Architecture
AC27 USA • iMac 27" 4.0GHz Quad-core i7 OSX11 | 24 gb ram • MacBook Pro M3 Pro | 36 gb ram OSX14
Mark Wallace
Enthusiast
I use either zones or the fill tool as mentioned in the above.

Fills work great for sub-areas within zones.

Don't forget slab areas and roof areas included in the 'schedules' are another under utilitized feature. Can quickly tally multi-story, multi area buildings.

Mark

ArchiCAD 12 2523 USA Full + 11, 10, 9 & 7, Mac G5 Dual 2.3 Ghz, 1.5 Gb OSX.4.11, HP T1100, Epson R1800

Mark R. Wallace AIA
Mark R. Wallace AIA
---------------------------------------

MacBook 2.53 Ghz, Intel Core i5, 8 Gb,
Mac OSX (Sierra 10.12.6,
ArchiCAD 22 USA Full, +21, & 20.