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Tabletop Surface Area

Started by ErieAW, December 31, 2022, 10:16:30 PM

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ErieAW

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

David

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?
David Hoogvorst. Founder and Owner of DRail Software. Creator of AnyRail.

ErieAW

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

Nick the Cabin Boy

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!)
Elizabeth Grove, South Australia
Building Pottersbridge, a fictional town a little North of London, served by a fictional Heritage Railway, in N

ErieAW

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

 


cucominer

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.

railroads2005

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