Is this possible, area of a sheetmetal part (square area)

I know that if you click on a face, and use the measure tool,
SolidWorks will give you the area of that face. If the part has a hole
or multiple holes in, this area isnt calcualted. What I need though is
the square area of the part. In the example image below, the hole in
the center would most likely be scrapped, unless someone nested a small
part in that area (which doesnt happen much here).

Is there a way to get this value automatically? Macro maybe?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v154/3eleven/SolidWorks/sheetmetal.jpg

 

This isn't automatic, but you could offset a surface from the part (offset
0), then delete the hole or holes in the surface, then measure the area of
the surface.

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"

 

You might try this. Preconditions are in a part, a face pre-selected.
It should insert a sketch on the face, convert edges, then create a planer
surface, and exit the sketch. That should give you a surface, without any
holes, that you can use the measure tool on. Insert this below the standard
header info of a macro. Written for 2006.

Sub main()

Set swApp = Application.SldWorks

Set Part = swApp.ActiveDoc
Set SelMgr = Part.SelectionManager
Part.InsertSketch2 True
boolstatus = Part.SketchUseEdge2(False)
Part.InsertPlanarRefSurface
Part.ClearSelection2 True
End Sub

 

Thanks Brian for that macro. Im going to try and add to it where it
automatically spits out the surface area and then deletes the feature
created.