AnyRail Model Railroad Forum

General Category => Wish list => Topic started by: ErieAW on December 31, 2022, 10:16:30 PM

Title: Tabletop Surface Area
Post by: ErieAW on December 31, 2022, 10:16:30 PM
Is there a way to obtain the surface area of an object? I am primarily concerned obtaining the area of table tops after I have rounded corners. It seems tedious to try to shrink the grid small enough to get a good estimate by counting grid blocks.  I apologize if my searching overlooked the solution or posted this in the wrong category. 

Thanks
Eric
Title: Re: Tabletop Surface Area
Post by: David on January 01, 2023, 04:48:19 PM
AnyRail does not provide it at the moment.
It's not trivial as the polygon describing the surface can be self-intersecting.

Why do you need the exact surface area?
Title: Re: Tabletop Surface Area
Post by: ErieAW on January 02, 2023, 05:05:15 PM
I was reading Joe Fugue's article in MRH magazine from October 2014 "Layout Design assessment formulas". In this article he talks about analyzing your designs to determine if they meet your operating expectations.  In addition to analyzing track lengths for various functions; he uses the room area and the layout area to compare different layout plans.  I wanted to easily obtain those numbers. I also thought it might be useful in determining some scenery quantities (resin for water, grassed  areas, trees, etc.)   

Definitely more of a wish than a need.
Thanks
Title: Re: Tabletop Surface Area
Post by: Nick the Cabin Boy on January 02, 2023, 10:34:21 PM
Hi Eric,

Perhaps try some old high school geometry? It shouldn't be too hard to break your table into rectangles/triangles/part-circles etc. Then calculate the area of each shape and add them together. Tip 1: only use quadrilaterals, triangles and circles (you said you had rounded corners). Tip 2: put all the shapes you use for this in a separate layer, you might want to adjust them at some point.

Cheers,
Nick, about to leave Geelong (Go West, young man!)
Title: Re: Tabletop Surface Area
Post by: ErieAW on January 04, 2023, 07:44:22 PM
Nick,
I attached an image of my three tables. I could use manual geometry, but I will probably use another CAD program to draw the tables and standardize them, then import the images into AnyRail to check the size is correct.

Thanks
Eric

 

Title: Re: Tabletop Surface Area
Post by: cucominer on June 19, 2023, 03:30:16 PM
It's something I want too. I thought it'd be helpful for calculating materials, etc. The other thing is design compositions with area restrictions. But, yeah I can do math, I've just been spoiled by not really ever having to nowadays 😂
But, no worries.
Title: Re: Tabletop Surface Area
Post by: railroads2005 on July 23, 2023, 06:59:27 AM
Math, does anyone use that anymore...that is why I spent thousands of dollars on computer equipment and software so I don't need to do math the expensive equipment will ;D