Tool: Measure Volume and Area

Measure Volume and Area reports the total surface area (sum of triangle areas) and enclosed volume of a surface model. All types of surface models are handled, including volume data isosurfaces. To measure individual disconnected blobs within a single surface model, see Measure and Color Blobs . To measure the solvent-accessible surface area of an atomic structure, the command measure sasa should be used instead. See also: Volume Viewer, measure area, measure volume, surface splitbycolor, measurements

Measure Volume and Area can be started from the Volume Data section of the Tools menu. The tool window can be moved, resized, etc.

The Surface of interest should be chosen from the list of available surfaces. The surface area and enclosed volume are reported in the dialog in the physical units of the data, typically ų for volume and Ų for area.

Surfaces are composed of triangles. Anything that changes the positions of the vertices in a surface will change its area and enclosed volume, for example:

• adjusting the contour level of an isosurface shown with Volume Viewer
• changing the probe radius or other calculation parameter of a molecular surface

Clicking Help shows this page in the Help Viewer.

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Notes

Includes some hidden parts of surfaces.
Measure Volume and Area includes parts of surfaces that have been hidden with surface dust, surface zone, or volume zone (with minimalBounds false). The command measure area or measure volume can be used with includeMasked false to omit these hidden parts. However, regardless of the includeMasked option, surface parts hidden by clipping are always used, whereas parts of a map that have been cropped away are never used; only the current display region of a map is used.

Surface holes.
The volume enclosed by a surface with holes is calculated by assuming each hole has a planar cap. These caps are not displayed or included in the surface area determination. The number of holes is reported, as planar caps may not represent missing data very well. Holes in a volume data isosurface may occur at the boundary of the data, but by default these will already be covered with planar caps. Such boundary caps will be included in the surface area calculation and will not be reported as holes.