Menu : DIMENS

Command: Faceted:Volume

Shortcut : None

This command calculates the volume of the target faceted model or an element containing several faceted models. Surfaces may be converted to a faceted model using command SURFACEÞChange:Faceted.

The surface volume is displayed in the message lines. The volume is expressed in cubic units. You should interpret the units in the same way as your main model. For instance, if you intend the units to be millimeters, the volume "1000 cubic units" would be 1000 cubic millimeters.

Important:

For the calculation of volume to be accurate the object must form a closed surface or surface set. In other words, surface must have no holes in it, it must be "watertight" and it may have no overlapping surfaces.

In addition, the faces of the faceted models must be consistently oriented having the same normal directions. If you convert an element of surfaces into a faceted model with a single SURFACEÞChange:Faceted command, and use the check directions option, then the normals are guaranteed to be oriented correctly.

As an example say you have modeled a vase and you convert this to faceted format and asked for the volume. DeskArtes will report the volume enclosed by the surface. This will represent the volume of material needed to make the vase not the volume of liquid that can be held in the vase. To calculate the volume of liquid you will need to model the liquid. This can easily be achieved by copying the whole vase element and editing the projection curve so that it represents the liquid.

This is a model of a vase and the volume calculated would be the volume of material needed to make the vase.

This is a model of the liquid and the volume calculated would be the volume the vase could hold.