# Surface area of isosurface

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [May 21, 2020, 6:01pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381 "2020-05-21T18:01:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![dutta-alankar](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/dutta-alankar/32/13310_2.png) [@dutta-alankar](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/dutta-alankar)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 6:01pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381/1 "2020-05-21T18:01:30Z")

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How can I calculate the surface area of an isosurface from a 3D dataset?  
Additionally, the surface is highly corrugated with fractal nature so I also wish to see how the calculated surface area changes with smoothing.

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### Author: ![Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/kenneth_moreland/32/15033_2.png) [@Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Kenneth_Moreland)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381/2 "2020-05-21T18:04:57Z")

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First use the `Cell Size` filter to find the area of each polygon. Then use the `Integrate Variables` filter to add them up and get the total surface area.

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### Author: ![dutta-alankar](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/dutta-alankar/32/13310_2.png) [@dutta-alankar](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/dutta-alankar)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381/3 "2020-05-21T19:04:26Z")

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Thanks. I got it working and changed smoothing by using resample to image filter and change resampling points count on the orginal data before making an isosurface contour. However, the problem I faced is as soon as I clicked on cell size, Paraview 5.7 crashed but got it working on version 5.8.

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### Author: ![Rob777](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/rob777/32/3776_2.png) [@Rob777](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Rob777)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381/4 "2020-05-22T14:43:51Z")

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I cannot find Cell Size filter on paraview GUI. Is this filter accessible only from scripting ?

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### Author: ![dutta-alankar](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/dutta-alankar/32/13310_2.png) [@dutta-alankar](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/dutta-alankar)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2020, 3:06pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381/5 "2020-05-22T15:06:04Z")

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It is available in the GUI. Here it is. I’m using version 5.8. It is also in version 5.7. But using it crashed Paraview for some reason which I haven’t figured out.

 ![image](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/e/e1f777565a5369d2dcb64f72290cfa80972524bc.png)

 ![image](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/3/31b6ba2e2c810335c2d23611785d8d978069081a.png)

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### Author: ![Rob777](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/rob777/32/3776_2.png) [@Rob777](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Rob777)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381/6 "2020-05-22T15:10:25Z")

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I don’t have it. Have you compiled paraview by yourself ? I have pre-compiled binaries.

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### Author: ![dutta-alankar](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/dutta-alankar/32/13310_2.png) [@dutta-alankar](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/dutta-alankar)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381/7 "2020-05-22T15:11:34Z")

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I’m also using the pre-compiled binary for this. What is your Paraview version?

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### Author: ![Rob777](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/rob777/32/3776_2.png) [@Rob777](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Rob777)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2020, 3:12pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381/8 "2020-05-22T15:12:36Z")

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Sorry, I’m using 5.4. Thanks a lot.

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### Author: ![Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/kenneth_moreland/32/15033_2.png) [@Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Kenneth_Moreland)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2020, 2:14pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381/9 "2020-05-24T14:14:23Z")

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If the `Cell Size` filter is not available or not working for you, you can use the `Mesh Quality` filter instead. It is also capable of computing the area of triangles and quads.

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### Author: ![wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/wascott)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2020, 5:42pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381/10 "2020-05-25T17:42:43Z")

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Or, you could always update to a newer version of ParaView! 🙂

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### Author: ![bibhas](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/838e76/32.png) [@bibhas](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/bibhas)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/surface-area-of-isosurface/4381/11 "2025-06-10T16:31:42Z")

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Thanks, it helped me get what I wanted.