Easy way to estimate volume size

[ComputerLady]

Back again, with what may be a newbie question! (No luck in finding answer, hence question.)

Is there some easy way within ONI vanilla to estimate the volume of areas, such as bodies of water you want to move around within your map? Reason I'm asking is that there are often inconveniently placed bodies of water on a map within my starting base area. They need to be moved, by one means or another, to another location; but that area needs to be large enough to hold everything. (Hence struggle with guessing right size with "wall" area needed to support mass, etc.) What I've been doing is making use of the ladder tool as a "measuring device" to get numbers for width and height, then counting those out prior to then canceling those. This isn't 100% accurate, needless to say, as water "pockets" often have odd shapes rather than nice squares. But, it is better than "eyeball" estimating!

Is there an easier, better way I'm missing? Thanks in advance!

[Zarquan]

If you use the cancel or destroy command, it gives you the width and height of the area.

[Tsabo]

5 hours ago, ComputerLady said:

Reason I'm asking is that there are often inconveniently placed bodies of water on a map within my starting base area. They need to be moved, by one means or another, to another location; but that area needs to be large enough to hold everything. (Hence struggle with guessing right size with "wall" area needed to support mass, etc.)

It's not an answer to your specific question, but the way I deal with that problem is to put my vast liquid storage tanks against the outer edge of my base, so they can be extended up/down/left/right as and when they look like they need it.

[goodtams]

6 hours ago, Zarquan said:

If you use the cancel or destroy command, it gives you the width and height of the area.

The dig command works as well, which might be useful within areas that are already dug out.

[Gurgel]

You could enclose (if needed) and use the "room size" value from the room overlay (upper right, last element). That does not separate fluids and gases, but it does count area filled with fluid as well.

[ComputerLady]

Thanks for the ideas, folks!

 

[Zarquan]

8 hours ago, goodtams said:

The dig command works as well, which might be useful within areas that are already dug out.

I generally use cancel because I have never killed a duplicant with an accidental cancel command.  I have accidentally destroyed a natural tile that stranded duplicants.

[mathmanican]

On 9/8/2020 at 9:54 PM, ComputerLady said:

that area needs to be large enough to hold everything.

This area is large enough to hold whatever volume of liquid is there (though after some extremely large volume amount, I do think the game bugs out). 

Spoiler

And here is a guide, provided you're willing to use one-element-per-tile mechanics along with overpressure features of metal doors.