Total Area Autocad Lisp Site

Mastering Total Area Calculation in AutoCAD: The Ultimate Guide to LISP Routines

If you work in architecture, civil engineering, or interior design, you know the drill: you receive a complex floor plan, a site layout, or a zoning exhibit, and your client asks, "What is the total square footage?" Not the area of one room, not the zoning lot—the grand total. In native AutoCAD, calculating multiple areas and summing them manually is a tedious, error-prone process. You can use the AREA command with the "Add" option, but it is clunky. You can create hatches and check their properties, but that takes too long.

This is where AutoCAD LISP routines shine. With a well-written LISP, you can select dozens of objects (polylines, circles, hatches, or regions) and have AutoCAD instantly return the total area in your desired units—square feet, square meters, acres, or even custom scales.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore everything you need to know about "total area autocad lisp": how it works, the best free routines available, how to write your own, and advanced customizations for professional workflows. total area autocad lisp

Enter: The "Total Area" LISP

Here’s what my custom TLA (Total Area) routine does:

  1. Asks me to select as many polylines, circles, hatches, or regions as I want.
  2. Calculates the sum of all their areas.
  3. Shows me the result in:
    • Square feet (or your drawing units)
    • Square meters
    • Acres
    • Square yards (great for flooring estimates)

All in one clean command line readout.

Tips and enhancements

  • To get results in a specific unit (e.g., square meters), set scale = unit conversion factor at top of routine.
  • To include area of closed polylines that are nested (holes), consider converting polylines to regions and using boolean operations — then read Region areas.
  • For production use, wrap clipboard calls in error handling and remove OS-specific calls if running cross-platform.

Pros: The "Good"

  • Massive Time Savings: What takes 15 minutes with a calculator takes 15 seconds with a Total Area Lisp. You can select hundreds of hatches or polylines and get an instant sum.
  • Live Updates (In some versions): The best Total Area Lisps utilize Fields. This means if you stretch the polyline, the text label showing the area updates automatically. This is a game-changer for dynamic design phases.
  • Layer Filtering: Advanced versions allow you to calculate the area of specific layers only (e.g., calculate "Flooring" layer but ignore "Furniture" layer).
  • Accuracy: It eliminates human error from typing numbers into a calculator or forgetting to carry a digit.
  • Unit Conversion: Many scripts allow you to draw in meters but output the total in square feet (or vice versa) instantly.

Part 2: The Most Popular Total Area Lisp Routine (Code Included)

There is no single "official" Total Area Lisp, but the most widely used and reliable version is often called TOTAREA.LSP . Below is the fully commented, production-ready code.

For AutoCAD 2020 and newer (including LT? Note: LT does not support Lisp)

If you are using full AutoCAD (not LT), follow these steps: Mastering Total Area Calculation in AutoCAD: The Ultimate

Method 1: Quick One-Time Load (Fastest)

  1. Type APPLOAD (or AP) in the command line and press Enter.
  2. In the dialog box, navigate to your saved TOTAREA.LSP file.
  3. Select the file and click "Load" .
  4. If you see TOTAREA successfully loaded in the bottom-left, close the dialog.
  5. Type TOTAREA in the command line and press Enter. Select your polylines.

Method 2: Permanent Load (Add to Startup Suite) Enter: The "Total Area" LISP Here’s what my

  1. Type APPLOAD.
  2. Click the "Contents" button under the Startup Suite section.
  3. Click "Add" and find your TOTAREA.LSP.
  4. Close all dialogs. Now, every time you start AutoCAD, TOTAREA will be ready.