Calculate Area of Shapes Made in Layout

[dgorman3]

I would like to know if there is a way to calculate the area of shapes drawn in layout based on the underlying Sketchup model's scale. If not, this is a feature that I would find extremely valuable.

[Dave R]

No. there isn't but it wouldn't be difficult to trace the region in SketchUp and get the area there.

[Richard]

I'm totally with you on this one mate! I'm forever forced to use dimensions and a calculator to determine areas.

[bmike]

IIRC doesn't the leader tool have an auto text option to pick up the face area?

[Dave R]

@bmike said:

IIRC doesn't the leader tool have an auto text option to pick up the face area?

You can get the volume of a 3D SketchUp entity in LO with Auto Text and an area of a 2D SketchUp face.

[JQL]

I've been asking for this feature for quite some time.

I do as Dave suggested and, though the setup is adding complexity to the sketchup model, it works.

I use sectioncutface plugin;
Generate all areas from plan rooms inside my section cut face;
Group room areas inside the act group;
Assign them an 'areas' layer and hide it in every scene;
Create a new scene for each area with only the act and areas visible;
Create a layout layer for areas;
Juxtapose the areas scene to my plan in layout;
Use the leader autocracy to tag areas;
Hide areas layout layer.

If needed I rebuild the areas in sketchup and the tag rebuilds.

It's not a perfect setup, but works...

[pcmoor]

another idea

export the layout as a dwg, open in a free or economical dwg program like draftsight, make one line entity a polyline, use command join and select the others to form the area. Area calculations done in properties.

Or (probably easier) one can transfer the required lines from paper space to model space, then save, import into sketchup, and change them to include surface (redraw a line) then use smart labels

[juju]

or someone can write a smart routine/plugin/extension to be used in LO, seeing that the LO SDK is available (LO is written in C++, correct?)