Organizing drawings with AutoCAD - 5 Section

CHAPTER 26: CONSULTATIONS

In the section 3.1 of this guide we mentioned that we can make an equivalence 1 to 1 of the objects drawn with respect to the real objects. That is, we can draw a line that represents a wall of 15 meters, giving it a value of 15 units and that the number of decimals depends on the precision we look for our work. Thus, we can make a drawing of anything and then obtain additional information without having to calculate it, such as the area of ​​a certain surface or the volume of a three-dimensional object, since the drawn object is equal to the real object, so it does not require of scale conversions.
Autocad query options can give that information and many other similar information, from the coordinates of a point to the center of gravity of a rectangular prism. Which is very helpful in various areas of engineering.
The Autocad query options are in the Utilities section of the Home tab. The simplest query, of course, is the coordinates of any point. It should not be forgotten that Autocad allows to point this point with the object reference tools and that the result includes the Z axis. Another equally simple query is the distance between two points. Especially if it is a two-dimensional model. Again, the references to objects facilitate the signaling of these points. Although in this second case we are already using the MEDIRGEOM command, which has a contextual menu that allows us to continue making queries regarding the geometry of the objects.

The use of this command has the advantage of offering absolute results. In a three-dimensional drawing, the apparent distance between two points, seen in any two-dimensional plane, may vary from another 2D view, since both can be in different Z coordinates. The command measures the distance of the 3D vector, regardless of which view you are using. Consider this when requesting the distance value between two points.

In the case of areas, we can select an object or establish the points that determine the perimeter of the area to be calculated. With the result we also obtain the perimeter.

As the reader will have noticed, between the options of the command we can define points on the screen to delimit the area or to point objects, as in the previous example. But in addition, it is possible to do a dynamic calculation of areas, adding areas of some objects and subtracting those of others, as in the following example.

On the other hand, as you will recall, we had already used the List command in an earlier chapter, which can complement the use of the previous commands, although this option is more in the Properties section. Its result is a list with the data that distinguishes the selected object, such as its type, coordinates, layer, etcetera.
A special command to obtain information is PROPFIS (Physical Properties), it applies to solid objects or 3D regions and returns data such as volume and center of gravity. In fact, there are programs added to Autocad that can also analyze these and other physical properties, such as resistance to stress, considering different materials. To show an example, let's see the result of the command on some solids.

Finally, a list of all relevant parameters and statistics of the overall drawing can be obtained with the State command.