Finding the Cross Sectional Area of an Empty Space

"Don't play what's there, play what's not there." 
Miles Davis

A question posed to me a few weeks ago was "How do you find the cross section of a void?"

The surface area of a part face is easy.  Just use the measure tool, and pick your face.

Getting the area of a face.  No Problem!

But how do you pick what's not there?

I remembered a word of wisdom passed on to me by an old fixture designer back in the first tool room I worked in.

"Sometimes the best thing you can do, is leave extra material on a part.  It gives you something to work with when you're building the part.  You can always cut it off later."

We could fill the gap with material, but that changes the part.  It adds volume we don't want.

But what if we combine that old fixture designer's wisdom with a little Digital Prototyping magic?

What if we use a boundary patch?

The surface used as a boundary

 Bingo!  A boundary patch would give us something to pick, but wouldn't change the the part volume.  Plus it can be suppressed! 

So here we are!  A video on using a surface to find the cross sectional area of a void!

These are a couple of ideas.  Have another!  Go ahead an throw down a comment!