AREA

Sum up the area of multiple rectangle shapes by picking two points diagonally for each rectangle.

It can also provide sequence number, width and length dimentions, area and perimeter information of each rectangle.

INTRODUCTION

AREA.VLX can be used to calculate the area of a single room contains a few rectangles, or the area of a site in a polygon shape which contains of a few rectangels.

It creates a block named "$area" on Layer "area_text" which contains 3 attributes - sequence number, area, and perimeter.

Then it inserts the block in the middle of the first rectangle shape or in the middle of each rectangle depending on "Individual rectangles" option and shows related information in a format which can be set in the "Area Text Setting" dialogue box.

Command: ARE
Pick first corner point of a rectangle area/[Settings]:

Enter "S" to shown "Area Text Settings" dialogue box below, or
Pick up the first diagonal corner of a rectangle.

Pick opposite corner:

Pick up the second point, which should be the diagonal corner of the rectangle.

...

This pair of prompts is repeated until Enter or right-click.

"Area Text Settings" dialogue box

Settings:

  • Round up units

Select an integer from 0~14 as the power of 10 to define the round up units. Default is 0.
Example:
When round up units is set to 2, the round-up result of 23,456m² is 23,500m².
When round up units is set to 3, the round-up result of 23,456m² is 23,000m².

  • Decimal precision

Select an integer from 0~16 to define the decimal precision, Default is 0.

  • Separator

Select from "None", "Comma", and "Space" as the 1000 separator.

  • Drawing units

Current drawing unit, select between "Milimeter" and "Meter". The result will always be in square meters even the current drawing is drawing in milimeter.

  • Omit zeros

Toggle it to omit zeros after the last non-zero decimal digit even a greater decimal precision digit is designated. Clear it to retain all zeros.
Example:
When Omit zero is set to "Yes", and Decimal precision is set to 3, the result of 4.5m² is 4.5m²,
When Omit zero is set to "No", and Decimal precision is set to 3, the result of 4.5m² is 4.500m².

  • Individual rectangles

If this option is selected, it inserts the block in each rectangle and fill it in all 3 attributes as in a format of the example below:

1
3.6 x 4.5 = 16.2 m²
PERIMETER = 16.2 m

The first attribute is the sequence number which start from 1 as default and increases 1 in next rectangle.
The second attribute is in a format of Width x Length = Area m²
The third attribute is the perimeter length of the rectangle.

These attributes are on different layers and can be turned off separately.
When Enter is pressed at prompt "Pick first corner point of a rectangle area/[Settings]:", it asks for the insert point of the total area text:

Pick insert point of total area:

Select a point to put the total area text in a format of "TOTAL AREA = xxx", or press Enter to put it at the center of the first rectangle.

If this option is not selected, it only shows the total area of all selected rectangles in the middle of the first selected rectangle.

No sequence number or perimeter information is shown.

  • Background

This option is only enabled when the option "Individual rectangles" above is selected.
When toggled on, it creates a solid hatch background for each rectangle which has a random color ranging from Color 11, 21, 31... 241.
See Tip 8 below.

  • Text height

Input the attribute text height.
See Tip 9 below.

  • Start number

You can change the start sequence number. When you restart ARE command, the default start sequence number will continue the last sequence number.
Change Start number will restart a new sequence number series.
This options is only enabled when the option "Individual rectangles" above is selected.

  • Help button

Open IE and bring you here.

TIPS

  1. You can redefine the block "$area" to a desired format, change its size, text style, attribute layer etc.

  2. You can update existing "$area" blocks after edit its definition (eg. change the font) by using "sync" button in BATTMAN dialogue.

  3. When "Individual rectangles" option is off, as the text block is to be inserted in the middle of the first selected rectangle.

  4. You can snap to a "temporary tracking point" by type in "tk" when prompted to pick up some of the rectangel corner points which is not a "physical" corner.

  5. A customized block with the same name of "$area" can be inserted into the drawing before using AREA.VLX, just ensure it contains 3 visible non-constant attributes.

  6. Use ALTEXT.vlx to convert square meter to square feet etc.

  7. Use command FIND to replace text string such as "PERIMETER" or "m²".

  8. Use CHZ20.vlx to change the color of background hatches to truecolor.

  9. Check the text size setting if you cannot find the text, it may be too big or too small.

EXAMPLES

Example 1

"Individual rectangles" option is not selected.

(Actually there is no background color in the result. To demonstrate how to divide a polygon into 3 parts, we add the colors deliberately.)

To calculate the area of a room comprises a few rectangle shapes as the example above, you can pick up 6 points to define 3 rectangle shapes.

The result is inserted in the middle of the first rectangle.

You can set up the decimal precision, 1000 separator, etc in the setting dialogue.

You can change the definition of the block "$area". In the example above, the text font has been changed.

Example 2

"Individual rectangles" and "Background" options are selected.

Sequence numbers are shown in the picking order.

Area and perimeter information of each rectangles are filled in the text block attributes.

Solid hatch in different color are created as the background in each rectangle.

You can pick up any point to put the total area text.

UPDATES

17 July 2022, Use MS Edge to open webpage when pressing help button.
12 Jan 2012, New option added - Background. Attributes are put on 3 different layers.
07 Jan 2012, New options added - Individual rectangles, Text height, and Start number.
17 Nov 2010, [Settings] option added to supersede command Are_ini
12 Nov 2010, Fixed a bug which shows the unit incorrectly. Removed redundant separator from end of figure.
28 Jan 2010, First issue