AREAUNITS-bgol (Multi-Unit Polygon Area Report)

Command Type: AutoLISP routine (works in AutoCAD, BricsCAD, ZWCAD and most AutoLISP-compatible CAD platforms)
Developed by: BGol Community, bgol.in

Inspired by the general concept of multi-unit area reporting utilities used in land-survey drafting. This is an original, independently written routine, new file name, new command name, new source code, created so the CAD community has a free, editable, open-source alternative.

Overview

ARU selects a closed polygon and instantly reports its area in six commonly used units at once, Square Meters, Square Inch, Square Feet, Square Yards, Acres and Hectares, in a pop-up message box and on the command line, without any manual unit-conversion math.

How to Use

1. Load AREAUNITS-bgol.lsp into your CAD session (drag-and-drop the file onto the drawing window, or use the APPLOAD command).
2. Type ARU at the command line and press Enter.
3. Select the closed LWPOLYLINE whose area you want reported.
4. A message box lists the area in all six units; the same values print to the command line, and a small area label is placed at the polygon's approximate centroid on layer BGOL-ARU.

Why Use It

• No manual conversion, all six common area units are computed and shown together in one step.
• Cross-convention friendly, metric (sq. m, hectares) for international engineering work, imperial (sq. ft, sq. yards, acres) for US/UK-style land and real-estate reporting, plus sq. inch for small-scale precision checks.
• Faster reporting, speeds up land-area reports, parcel summaries, or plot-area callouts that must be quoted in more than one unit system.

Where to Use It

• Land parcel / plot area reporting where stakeholders expect area in acres or hectares rather than raw drawing units.
• Cadastral or land-survey drawings requiring area verification across multiple standard units.
• Any drafting step needing a closed polygon's area quickly checked or quoted in several measurement systems without manual conversion.

Notes

• The routine assumes the drawing's base linear unit is meters (the typical metric survey convention); adjust the conversion constants near the top of C:ARU if your drawing uses a different base unit.
• A warning is printed if the selected polyline isn't flagged closed, since area on an open polyline is not meaningful in the usual survey sense.
• Source code is fully open, feel free to study, modify, and redistribute it under the same open, free-for-all spirit.

Credits

Developed and shared for the CAD community by BGol Community. Website: https://bgol.in/ Free and open-source, use it, modify it, share it, for personal or commercial work alike.