The MASSPROP Command

Hi Everyone,

This command is used to calculate the properties of 2D and 3D objects.

This command will give different properties for different type of objects.
Here is a list of properties for the different objects "MASSPROP" will provide :

Regions :

• Area
• Perimeter
• Bounding Box
• Centroid

If you select more than one Region "MASSPROP" will provide the information about the regions which are coplaner with the first selected region.

If the regios selected are coplanar with XY plane current UCS, "MASSPROP" will provide following additional properties

• Moment of inertia
• Products of inertias
• Radius of gyration
• Principal moments and X,Y,Z directions about centroid.

Solids :

• MASS
• Volume
• Bounding Box
• Centroid
• Moments of inertia
• Products of inertias
• Radius of gyration
• Principal moments and X,Y,Z directions about centroid.

Use "AREA" command to find out the surface area of solids.

After showing you the properties in the text window, "MASSPROP" will ask you if you want to write the properties to a text file. If you select "Yes" it will ask you the filename. The file created will have a .mpr extension. This is a text file and you can open it with Notepad or any other text editor.

There are properties that are dependendent on current units like Length & Density. These in turn effect other properties like :

• Mass of solids
• Volume of solids
• Area of regions and surface area of solids
• Bounding box, radius of gyration, centroid and perimeter
• Moment ofinertia, products of inertias and principal moments

This command is very useful when engineers need to use a non-standard section for their analysis and they need the properties of the section to put into the analysis software like STAAD.

- Abhay Chauhan

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