Surface Area for Assembly

dave_fogliatti

Is there a way to have the Mass Properties Tool show the outside only surface area for two mated parts in an assembly?  I did a quick example with two unit cubes and wanted to have the Surface Area be calculated as 10 in^2  instead of 12 in^2 so the two mated (fasten tool) sides in the assembly did not count towards the surface area.  



I'm a teacher and I'm doing the typical "assemble the cube" project but wanted them to practice surface area volume for each puzzle piece before the assembly.  The volume is super easy but not sure how to do a bottom-up construction using mated cubes vs building each piece as one part. 

Thanks,

Dave 

mahir

There's no "open-air" or "non-contact" filter you could use. You're stuck selecting individual faces that you want to measure one at a time and using the measure tool instead of the mass properties tool. Alternatively, you can measure bodies like you're doing now via the mass properties tool, but then selectively measure just your contact surfaces with the measure tool. A little subtraction, and you have your desired result... although more slowly than you'd prefer.