Measuring Area of Surface

[wesday@stvleaze.net]

I use signlab 5 to layout my design and to make tool paths. Is there anyway to calculate the surface area of the actual artwork, square inches etc. I thought I might could save it as a dxf file and open it in a cad program to measure the area. Do any or most cad programs do this???

Thanks,
Wes

[rgbrown@itexas.net]

Many CAD programs do some won't. It is at times faster, and I believe common practice, just to measure greatest length and greatest width and multiply for sign work billing purposes.

Ron

[Mayo]

Just select all the lettering or shapes.
The size for that group is displayed on the menu bar across the top of your screen. You can also select objects, right click them, and then select "size" and this tells you the current size and allows you to change size if you want.

There is a built in calculator by going to the Help menu, then select calculator. You will have to enter the sizes in order to calculate your area.

There's no need to save and re-open in any other program just to determine the size or area of anything.

[wesday@stvleaze.net]

What I need to know is the area of the ACTUAL piece cut, not the "square" around the object. For instance, If I am cutting out an "A", how much area is on the actual "A".

Thanks,
Wes

[rgbrown@itexas.net]

"how much area is on the actual "A"."

Surface of "A" or surface area of cut of "A"?

Surface of cut area of "A" would be tool-path X cross-setion length about the bit. Rhino will calculate the surface area of raised text.

Rhino came up with 75.3041129 for 12 unit tall X 1 unit thick raised Times New Roman "A" and 113 and change for a 2" thick letter. If I were calculating the actual surface of a "one-sided" leter I would have taken half of a "double thickness" letter.

HTH,

Ron

[wesday@stvleaze.net]

Actual front face surface of "A"

Thanks
Wes

[rgbrown@itexas.net]

Then one could write a short formula (or just select the surfaces) in Rhino and get the area in that program.

Ron

[imserv@imsrv.com]

In VectorCam the area in selected, closed chains is displayed with Special-Verify. The extents in X Y and Z, and number and total length of the selected chains is also displayed.

Fred Smith - IMService