Jump to content
  • 0

Report on Total Area of Space Objects?


willofmaine

Question

We're trying to use Space objects to generate building square footages for cost estimating.  However, when we report on the Gross or Net areas of the Space objects, it seems we can't get totals in the Worksheet database header row; all that displays is the number of Space objects being reported on.  If we use the " =AREA" function, we get areas for the Space objects, and the total area for all Space objects displays in the header row as expected.  But the " =AREA" function appears to just return the Net area; we want to be able to report on the Gross area as well.  So... how do we do that?... @Pat Stanford , I'm guessing you might know the answer?...

 

Also, does the Space object include a field for cost per square foot?  The User-Defined Fields just appear to be Text fields, so not very useful for compiling numeric totals...

 

Lastly, how does one control the number of decimal places of the areas displayed for a Space object's Gross & Net Square footage?  They seem to vary from 0 to 3 decimal places, with no way to fix them all at 2 decimal places (the varying number of decimal places make the area numbers difficult to quickly read & understand...)

 

Thanks!

Link to comment

5 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0

Thanks for thinking of me. I think.  ;-)

 

Most (all?) of the Areas in the Space record have both a Numeric version and a Static Text version. The static text version is just that text with the number and the unit included. If you want to be able to sum the area you will need to use the number version.

 

These are stored as numbers in the Space record

image.thumb.png.8b477b6fe0490ae0c9a571e4d0dc8aea.png

image.thumb.png.d875be60b4a9189576d7cb5c5d075e88.png

image.thumb.png.c31725c21e0ce61e790ab5bfee48d16d.png

image.thumb.png.733a4262c1e781e1d787ec999ea23ce8.png

image.thumb.png.44f9f3adb3db2af91229064614170e4a.png

 

These are stored as text in the Space record.

image.thumb.png.153a62fce25c6aa9f39e1a33c8ab7b2b.png

image.thumb.png.715ffa7b6c04c20f537a8fb1cf5af08e.png

There does not appear to be a Text version of Proposed Area.

image.thumb.png.7a8c1cd05e1ba799d50accca8a4c1625.png

image.thumb.png.27537181b05dea5cb90de8ce9b6832b0.png

 

The Space record does not appear to have a Cost field. You could use one of the user fields. If you don't include the currency marker or thousands separators, then something like =Space.Area * Value(Space.'11_User-Def info 1' should work.

 

Column number formats are set in the Worksheet Format Menu:Cells...:Number tab.  Columns formatted as a Dimension will pull the units and decimals from the Document Settings:Units.  Columns formatted as Decimal allow you to set the number of decimals, but will not put the unit marks into the cell.

 

Ask again if you need more information.

 

Link to comment
  • 0

It's a good thing!  I learned some great things at your seminar in Phoenix a couple of years ago.

 

Ha ha... so all I had to do was look just a few fields down the list for the number versions.  But, you know, looking at that infinitely long and barely searchable list, well, I tend to glaze over...

 

I got your formula for converting the user field from text to a number to work (once I added a closing parenthesis... 🙂), so thank you for that.  The word "value" in front of the space.user field name converts its text to a number?  (As long as said text is numbers instead of letters to begin with...).

 

I'm a little embarrassed to say that, after all these years, I only just this afternoon realized that the "Leader:" and "Trailer:" boxes of the Format Cells > Number dialogue box aren't available for only just the "Dimension" and "Dimension Area" format options, but for other format options as well(!) - (I guess their proximity to those format options in the dialogue box somehow made me think they were exclusive to those options...).  So, it should work well to use the Decimal option to control the number of decimal places, and then just add a prefix/suffix as desired.

 

A bit of an aside: when I select a Space object > Settings > Additional Data and add a value to one of the User ("Additional Info"...) fields, the Space moves from its assigned class to the None class (VW2020).  That just doesn't seem right... a bug?  (Adding or changing info via the worksheet doesn't change the class, as expected).

 

Thank you Pat!!   -Will

 

Link to comment
  • 0

Okay, so the "Area" in your formula is Net Area Number, and if I want to use gross area for cost calculations, I just replace it with "Gross Area."  (gee, if I'd written my formulas from scratch, I would've used 'Area' and 'Gross Area' and been numeric from the get go!!...).  Does the "11_" prefix make fields into static text?...

Link to comment
  • 0

1. Value if a worksheet function that will take a "string number" (it could be a hard coded string, a record.field, or even a formula that generates a string) and converts it into a numerical value that can be used in further calculations. The "string number" must have only numeric characters and a decimal point. Thousands separators MAY be allowable. I have not checked. Things like currency symbols or dimension marks are certainly not allowable. If you have a string that contains them you might be able to use the SubString function to extract just the number.

 

2. The 11_ does not make the number into a string, but it does (usually) designate a field that contains a text representation of a number. Just one of a few different conventions used by some of the programers of objects over the years.

 

3. I also did not realize that the Leader and Trailer applied to all the different formats. Thanks for the tip.

 

4. I just checked in VW2021 and changing a user field does not change the class of a space for me. I also tried in VW2020 SP5 and did not get a change in class. I don't know what is going on in your file. Try in a new blank (maybe Architect template) file and see if it repeats.  Restart VW, etc.

 

Glad I could help.

Link to comment
  • 0

1. Thanks for the info re: "value;" I did find that if there were letters in the User Defined field, it just failed with an error message of something like "Value?!"

 

2. Now that you say it, it makes much more sense that the 11_ is just a conventional designation.

 

3. Well if you didn't know about the Leader and Trailer, I feel better!

 

4. Ultimately we'd probably just update the user field via the worksheet, so, probably not worth pursuing further, especially if it works as it should in other files and 2021; thanks for checking.

 

Thanks!

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Answer this question...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...