DraftSight: Get Area to Go the Distance

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Following my blog on DraftSight’s Smart Calculator, I discovered the Inquiry icon, which is located right beside it in the Utilities section of the Manage tab. Upon selection, it opens a drop-down menu that contains multiple helpful features regarding the size and properties of your designs.

Today’s blog will be covering two of the Inquiry Icon’s commands, known as Get Distance and Get Area.

Starting with Get Distance – this feature lists the length of the distance between two points in your drawing display. It’s activated by selecting its function in the ribbon, and then just specifying a start and end point for your distance measurement.

Your results will be displayed in your command line – disclosing the total distance, the angle of the distance line, and the change in X, Y, and Z coordinates between your two specified points.

Next up, the Get Area command does exactly what its name suggests – it instantly calculates the area of any entity in your graphics window. It even allows you to add and subtract entities from your area calculation.

It’s activated by simply selecting Get Area from the ribbon, and then DraftSight will prompt you to select the points that outline your designated entity’s area.

If you’re just concerned with the area of a single entity, go ahead and select your points right away, and DraftSight will immediately list your Area measurement.

That said, if you’re looking to find the total area of multiple entities, or subtract the area of an entity from another, type “A” (for add) into the command line before specifying your initial outlining points.

Now that you’ve selected the points defining the area of your first entity, just enter “A” again to add the area of a different entity, or enter “S” to subtract the area of different entity. Then select your outlining points as normal, and voila! Better yet, you can repeat this process as many times as you’d like.

I hope this post encourages you to try out the Get Distance and Get Area features in DraftSight! Look out for next blog covering more Inquiry Icon commands!

Check out the video below to see Get Distance and Get Area in action!

 

Learn more at DraftSight.com!

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