How to schedule the surface area (m2) of a Complex Profile used as a Railing sub-element?

[Roman Belenki]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to extract the exact material surface area (m2) for a specific part of a balcony. I modeled the slanted balcony panels using the Railing Tool, where the panel itself is a Complex Profile acting as a Rail (Profil podłużny).

My main goal is to calculate the square meters of the outer finishing material of these panels for a quantity takeoff.

Here is what I have discovered so far: I noticed that if I go into Edit Mode for the Railing, I can select this specific sub-element (the rail/panel) and assign a unique Classification to it (see attached screenshot). I suspect this might be the key to isolating this specific part from the rest of the Railing in the Interactive Schedule.

My questions are:

1. Which schedule type is best for this scenario to get the accurate m2 of the outer finish: a Component Schedule or a Surface Schedule?

2. How should I set up the Criteria to filter only this specific sub-element? Does the Interactive Schedule recognize the Classification assigned to a sub-element in Edit Mode?

3. Which specific Schedule Field will output the correct surface area for a Complex Profile nested inside a Railing (without giving a "0" value)?

Any advice or best practices for scheduling Railing sub-components would be greatly appreciated! I've attached screenshots of my Complex Profile and the Edit Mode interface.

Thanks in advance!

Operating system used: Mac Apple Silicon Tahoe 26.0.1