Sometimes it’s necessary to measure the surface area, volume or mass of a product. For example, in order to calculate the amount of paint it’s useful to know the surface area. We all know how to measure the surface area of a simple shape like a cube. But it’s get more complicated when you’ve to [...]
Sometimes it’s necessary to measure the surface area, volume or mass of a product. For example, in order to calculate the amount of paint it’s useful to know the surface area. We all know how to measure the surface area of a simple shape like a cube. But it’s get more complicated when you’ve to calculate the surface area of an organic shape, like the Citrus Squeezer.
Or perhaps you’ve designed a bottle and want to know what the volume is. Or you want to measure and reduce the weight of your newest carbon race wheel. Luckily SolidWorks has a useful tool to calculate material properties like this in a few clicks. I will show you how it works.
Open the SolidWorks model of the Citrus Squeezer or download it here
Go to Tools > Mass properties or click at the Mass properties icon 
In the Mass properties box you can find many material properties.
The surface area of the squeezer is 40091mm2 as you can see in the orange rectangle.
With this square millimeter to square meter converter you can convert the mm2 into m2. (or place the comma 6 steps to the left.)
Fill in the 40091 mm2 and click at the = icon
The surface area of your squeezer is approximately around 0.04 m2
As you can see in the Mass Properties box in SolidWorks, the volume of our model is 169301 mm3.
With this mm3 to m3 converter you can convert the mm3 into m3. (or place the comma 6 steps to the left.)
Fill in the 169301 mm3 and click at the = icon
As you can see in the picture the volume of your squeezer is approximately around 0.00017 m3
You can also see the Mass of your model. It’s important to setup a material first to get the right properties.
Another great value is the “Center of mass”
This information will tell you where the center of your product is.
Center of mass: ( millimeters )
X = 0.00
Y = 204.73
Z = 0.00
The information above tells you that the center of your product is 204,73 mm above the origin of this part.
Hopefully this post will help you. Any questions? Feel free to leave a comment below!
11 Responses
Your Comments
Very interesting your course information will be useful to me in my designs, I thank you enough for the information.
Thank you very much.
Dear sir,
i m kamal from pakistan, working as a process engineer in a precised parts manufacturing industry. i have 2 years of experience of using solid works. i always search the tutorial to increase my potential of using solid work’s, and your course information is very helpful for me in this aspect.
thank u very much.
Hi Jan,
Thanks for the information.
Its really useful knowledge sharing.
Thanks You..!
Hi Jan,
first of all, thanx a lot for sharing this information, and i hope that definitely i will receive more information in this aspect.
but if you have only the 3d design from surface & you need to calculate the weight , you can’t use the tools mass properties to calculate the weight of the product , as the icon of be disable ! – so what you will do in this case ?
thanks!- Murad. From –Palestine.
Hi Murad, thanks for your message. A surface model doesn’t have a volume or mass (it’s just a surface without a thickness). To get the weight of a surface model you first need to add a wall thickness. Go to Insert > Boss/Base > Thicken to add a wall thickness. Afterwards you can follow the steps as shown in the tutorial.
Hi everybody, thanks for all the positive comments! I really appreciate it. I will write many other SolidWorks tutorials the next months.
Your Comments
Sir .
It is useful thing , if you explain about moment of inertia ,it may so useful , and ,where it can applying in real world ,
Hi jan
thank you about your information , all the information are evry useful
Thank You Very Much..!!!
I m Student Dip.Design in Malaysia. This information very useful for me. i just completed this tutorial..
You’re welcome!