Hello everybody, I have a regional plan for an area (in dwg) and I need to compute the total area for housing, agriculture, industry, green open spaces etc.I want to isolate the specific layer, select all the hatches and find the total area. But this is not possible in Autcad. So how can you do this? Is there any utility i can download for free and use it? I tried to find some answer on the forum but with no luck. Thanks a lot and appreciatingCristian 

i rephrase a bit, if i select all the areas in autocad, in the properties panel it says that the area varies. C

It sounds as though you would benefit from one of the many custom area lisp routines that are available here and at other AutoCAD help sites and at the website of Cadalyst magazine.  I'd suggest a search is in order.

Try e.g. the SumaPloch utility at the Download page here. See the tip:
http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/compute-total-area-of-selected-objects-tip6574

Ok, cool thanks for the tip. But after i load it how does it work? If I invoke the lisp sumaploch and then select all the areas it says: error /  Automation error! Thanks, C

delftse_student2011-06-24 12:28:37

Try to get the informations about the different selected areas with the command "massprop" ( if exists in your AUTOCAD 2010 ) instead of reading the informations in the properties pannel or with the command "list"

You could try this lisp routine I found at Cadalyst magazine called Area-of-a-Hatch.http://cadtips.cadalyst.com/hatch-data/determine-area-a-hatch

John I checked the link you gave me (http://cadtips.cadalyst.com/hatch-data/determine-area-a-hatch) and it's just a general comment about hatches, NO lisp to download and use. I am still looking for a solution to try to compute more hatches selected. I had tried several lisp but nothing seems working. SumaPloch also is not working. 

Sorry about that.  99.99% of the time a free lisp routine is available not just a tip.  But, if you search that same site I'm sure you'll find something that works for you.  It is a good resource.You can try the POLYAREA.lsp found here:http://www.turvill.com/t2/free_stuff/index.htmJohn Connor2011-06-24 14:44:04

Another option. as suggested by Lynn Allen of AutoDesk.Need to find the area of a hatch pattern?  Don't forget the age old LIST
command - simply select the crosshatching and AutoCAD will list the
total area.  Last one.  See this thread found in the AUGI forum.  Pay particular attention to the lisp routines written by fixo.http://www.augi.com/forums/showthread.php?s=cd9b682af4927d8de1dfe73c44bae094&t=23362


John Connor2011-06-24 14:51:49

Thanks a lot John for your time and patience I will try the polyarea lsp. Cheers, C

I had tried the polyarea, and the list. They are not working... With sumaploch, just like with the list, if i take hatches one by one i get a total. But there are many hatches (areas) i need to pick so if i make a frame and select all of them at once, then the application fails!I am running short of ideas... C

So let's say you have ten hatched areas.  You want to window all ten and get a sum of their combined areas right?

Alright.  I downloaded POLYAREA.lsp and tested it.  It seemed to work for me.  I had ten closed polylines that were hatched and I windowed all ten and the lisp routine returned the sum of all their areas in a dialog box.  What happens when you use it?

it says: Cannot calculate the area of a self intersecting curve.Select objects: _.area*Invalid selection*Expects a point or Last; error: Function cancelled

One or more of your closed polylines is/are overlapping itself.

I understand that, but isn't it possible then to just measure the hatched area? I mean, this is what I am trying to do, not to measure the enclosed polyline surface as I expect polylines might not be correct, but to measure the hatch areas. 

The routine does not allow for bad geometry.  What can I say?  I did not write it.I did however test it further by purposely overlapping hatched objects and it still worked.  Unfortunately your situation is a bit different.