How do you find the surface area of a composite figure?

1. unfold the composite shape into its net, which is a two dimensional composite figures.

2. Divide any composite faces on the net into triangles or quadrilaterals, as you do with other two-dimensional composite figures.

3. calculate the area of each simple shape found on the surface of the figure.

4. add all the areas from step 3 to find the surface area of the composite 3d shape.