The Eye4Software GPS Mapping Studio offers a variety of tools to calculate the area of a GPS track, map feature or other object. The results of area calculations are displayed using one of the following units:
Areas are calculated by passing all vertices, or track fixes, as WGS84 latitude and longitude to the "Vicenty's Formula", which calculates the distances between the coordinates. The calculated vectors are passed to a cross-product formula to calculate the total area of an object.
Before performing an area calculation, make sure the correct area units have been set, otherwise it can happen that you have to do the measurement again (or convert it to another unit). To specify the units used for area calculation, open the "Preferences" dialog, by selecting "Preferences..." from the "Options" menu. Now click on the "Units and Formats" tab. The following window should now appear:
Use the "Area Units" drop down box to select the correct units, and click the "OK" button to confirm.
Areas of map objects can be calculated by selecting the corner coordinates of the polygon using the mouse. To get the best (most accurate) results, make sure that the object is zoomed in at the maximum zoom level while all corners of the polygon remain visible.
Now select the "Area" cursor tool by selecting "Area" from the "Cursor" menu. All you have to do is select all the corners of the object, as shown in the screen shot below:
You will notice a blue line drawn around the object. A dialog box appears on top on the map showing the current area and perimeter of the map object. When you finished measuring, just click the right mouse button to dismiss the dialog box, and return to the previous mouse mode.
When a GPS track is loaded or updated, the area is calculated automatically. All you have to do to retrieve the area of a GPS track, is to lookup the track in the "Track List". To do so, right click the "Tracks" folder in the "Project Explorer", and select "Manage Tracks..." from the popup menu, as shown in the screenshot below.
If the "Project Explorer" isn't visible, you can show it by selecting "Project Explorer" from the "View" menu.
A dialog box with a list of all loaded tracks is now displayed. You can find the calculated area in the last column of the view.
