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ptc-46287181-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 18, 2012
Question

Surface Area in MathCAD

  • June 18, 2012
  • 2 replies
  • 2623 views

I was hoping to create a 3-D model of a complex shape and then evaluate the surface area of specific segments depending on a rotation about an axis. I was told to implement MathCAD to do this but have little experience with the software. Does anyone have suggestions on how I might be able to do this? Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Jeff Pontell

2 replies

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RichardJ19-Tanzanite
19-Tanzanite
June 18, 2012

Do you have a function that describes the surface?

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ptc-46287181-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
June 19, 2012

I do not; I can model it as a combination of shapes, say cylinders, ogives, frustums, etc. but it can not be modeled as one function. How would you suggest going about doing this? Thank you for the response.

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Fred_Kohlhepp23-Emerald I
23-Emerald I
June 19, 2012

How does the surface area change with rotation?

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ptc-46287181-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
June 19, 2012

I should have clarified: it is the surface area of the segment of the shape visible after a certain rotation. For instance, if the shape was a cylinder and the aspect angle was head-on toward either flat side, the surface area of interest would be pi*R^2; if it was 90 degrees from that directly toward the 'side' of the cylinder, it would be 2*pi*r*l/2 (half of the lateral surface area because only one side of it is visible). Does this make more sense? Sorry for the confusion and thank you.

F
Fred_Kohlhepp23-Emerald I
23-Emerald I
June 19, 2012

So it's not projected surface, it's visible surface!

That's some problem!!

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