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Section Plane

17 REPLIES 17
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Message 1 of 18
kaiser6977
6610 Views, 17 Replies

Section Plane

I am confused by the section plane, or I must not be using it correctly. I would assume you can insert a section plane to "hide" geometry while working in the 3d space. This does not seem to be the case. Can someone explain to me what the section plane is used for, and how to use it?

I am looking for a way to create a section "volume" or to create a cube around certain geometry inside the cube, while everything outside the cube is hidden.

Is this possible?
17 REPLIES 17
Message 2 of 18
sivapd
in reply to: kaiser6977

In Plant 3D, create a new Ortho drawing, View and select the models you need to include. Click on the cube and you can adjust the length, width and height of the cube to define what needs to be projected in the drawing. Everything outside the cube volume will be hidden.
Thanks, Siva (Autodesk)



Siva Thankappan
Technical Sales, Plant Solutions, Asia Pacific
Autodesk Singapore
Message 3 of 18
kaiser6977
in reply to: kaiser6977

I understand that. What I want is to be able to cut out geometry in the 3D design mode. You know, like when you are routing pipe.

So let's say I am routeing a pipe from a pump to a tank. However, this routingis in the middle of the plant, so there is a lot of steel and equipment blocking my view while routing this pipe. What I want to do is keep everything turned on, so when I am routing the pipe I can see any potential clashes. However because this routing is in the middle of the plant, I can not see everything clearly.So I want to "hide" all the elements outside my routing "path" so I can more clearly see what is going on.

Is this possible.

And I will say again, in almost every other 3D software, this is possible, so if it is not in Plant 3D, Autodesk really needs to put this in.
Message 4 of 18

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is what you uare looking for, but you can quite easily hide any element that is in your way or isolate only those elements you wish to see using the PLANTHIDE and PLANTISOLATE commands - available on the Visibility section of the tool ribbon and the RMB context menu option 'Part Hiding/Isolation'.

Andy

Andy Davis

Industry Specialist
Cadline Ltd.
Message 5 of 18
kaiser6977
in reply to: kaiser6977

If anyone has worked in 3D before, especially in plant design, this concept should not be foreign. Almost every other package out there does what I am talking about.

I understand the hide and isolate features which are great when you want to left-click your project to death. In some case it would take hours to hide the elements you want in order to get the view necessary for design.

I know what will be said next, "You can use QSELECT and select the families you want to hide." Well, this defeats the purpose of what I am talking about. The idea is to see EVERYTHING in the area that you are routing the pipe, but only in the area of design. The rest of the plant is not necessary to see and in fact hinders design effeciency and accuracy while visible and in the way of the area of design.

I am attaching some views from Revit to illustrate what I am talking about
Message 6 of 18
gulnacm
in reply to: kaiser6977

there are a few functions that exist with Autocad:
3DCLIP that will allow you to designate a front and back clip plane that visually cuts off sections of the model. This can be used in multiple view windows

XCLIP will alow you to designate a clip box for xref files. you can create a clip box per xref file

Mike G (Autodesk)


Michael Gulnac
Technical Specialist
Organization
Autodesk, Inc.
Message 7 of 18
kaiser6977
in reply to: kaiser6977

Sorry, the message prematurely posted...

If anyone has worked in 3D before, especially in plant design, this concept should not be foreign. Almost every other package out there does what I am talking about.

I understand the hide and isolate features which are great when you want to left-click your project to death. In some case it would take hours to hide the elements you want in order to get the view necessary for design.

I know what will be said next, "You can use QSELECT and select the families you want to hide." Well, this defeats the purpose of what I am talking about. The idea is to see EVERYTHING in the area that you are routing the pipe, but only in the area of design. The rest of the plant is not necessary to see and in fact hinders design effeciency and accuracy while visible and in the way of the area of design.

I am attaching some views from Revit to illustrate what I am talking about, this is meant to be only an demostration of the concept.

Finally....

Can someone please explain the purpose of the Section Plane in AutoCAD Plant 3D, because it does not section anything out, in fact it does not seem to work at all!

If you do not know what I am talking about, this can be found under the Modeling Tab >> Section >> Section Plane. Considering this is in the Modeling Tab, one would assume you could section your 3D model. I guess not.
Message 8 of 18
kaiser6977
in reply to: kaiser6977

Is there an equivalent to the XCLIP for the 3D Model as a whole? The 3DCLIP command is very lacking in visibility.
Message 9 of 18
Anonymous
in reply to: kaiser6977

Kaiser,

Thanks for your comments. The Section plane functionality that you're
looking at is part of plain AutoCAD and was intended to work on solids.
Plant objects aren't solids, so the sectioning tools don't work on them.

Having said that, I agree the section plane feature is a valuable one and
should work on our objects. I'll put this on our enhancement list for a
future release.

Peter Quinn (Autodesk)


wrote in message news:6378047@discussion.autodesk.com...
Sorry, the message prematurely posted...

If anyone has worked in 3D before, especially in plant design, this concept
should not be foreign. Almost every other package out there does what I am
talking about.

I understand the hide and isolate features which are great when you want to
left-click your project to death. In some case it would take hours to hide
the elements you want in order to get the view necessary for design.

I know what will be said next, "You can use QSELECT and select the families
you want to hide." Well, this defeats the purpose of what I am talking
about. The idea is to see EVERYTHING in the area that you are routing the
pipe, but only in the area of design. The rest of the plant is not necessary
to see and in fact hinders design effeciency and accuracy while visible and
in the way of the area of design.

I am attaching some views from Revit to illustrate what I am talking about,
this is meant to be only an demostration of the concept.

Finally....

Can someone please explain the purpose of the Section Plane in AutoCAD Plant
3D, because it does not section anything out, in fact it does not seem to
work at all!

If you do not know what I am talking about, this can be found under the
Modeling Tab >> Section >> Section Plane. Considering this is in the
Modeling Tab, one would assume you could section your 3D model. I guess not.
Message 10 of 18
eski
in reply to: kaiser6977

Has there been any advancement with this tool?  I would definitely like to see this work inside of Plant3D.  I am currently on Plant3D 2012 release and when i use the Section Plane nothing seems to happen.  When I turn on "Live Section" the model doesn't seem to section how one would think and only fittings and components disappear out of the model?

 

Can someone shed some light on why this functionality (having a 3D volume to cut out parts of the model while designing) has not yet been added?  I remember working with Bentley projects years ago and it was a basic command for designing.  I know about xclip and 3Dclip, but why can there just not be a "visible" box you can turn on and adjust with grips to essentially crop out parts of large models and focus in where you are working at the time.

Message 11 of 18
Morsy87
in reply to: Anonymous

Hey,

 

Is there any progress on this topic? do we have such a sectioning tool now in Plant 3D in 2017?

 

Best,

Morsy

Message 12 of 18
JamieZwicker
in reply to: Morsy87

Hello,

I too am working with Section Planes.  I use them to cut piping/equipment assemblies to see a "cut" version on a 2D Layout or Shop Drawings.  Its basically a quicker version of using "Create Ortho View".  My problem is that the Section Plane tool will not remove any fittings or pipe or anything from the "Plant" side of things. It merely cuts our 3D Solids.

 

Any progress with this AutoDesk?

Message 13 of 18
Prasanth_R
in reply to: JamieZwicker

Is there any solution or round about for this section plane issue?

 

I am trying to work with Xref of a Revit model exported as .dwg 

 

Regards,

Prasanth

Message 14 of 18
Slawomir_
in reply to: Prasanth_R

Check out DVIEW command Clip feature.

Message 15 of 18
Prasanth_R
in reply to: Slawomir_

Thanks for the suggestion Sławomir, 

However, my requirement is that- After creating a cut section view, I need to pick the P3D elements for routing my pipelines. When I try to do the same using DView or 3DClip command, only the Xref models are getting selected. 

 

As a roundabout, I am turning off the layers (of Xref elements) which are obstructing the view of P3D element. But this is a tedious process when the model gets complex. 

 

Regards,

Prasanth

Message 16 of 18
ed_crago
in reply to: Prasanth_R

I am still shocked that Autodesk can't figure out how to create a 3D clip plane, let alone a live one. I don't consider ACAD a true 3D modeling environment, if one can't create a clip box. Using multiple commands & adding multiple steps is waste of time.

Message 17 of 18
Xnihilo1
in reply to: ed_crago

Our company has used Bentley products forever (Plantspace/OpenPlant), but due to acquisitions we are using Plant 3D a lot now.  The ability to create a clip plane or create a clipping box can be done in two ways in OpenPlant:  Set Display Depth (by placing an active window around area you want to see in one view that applies to other open views you choose, but it only clips in two directions), or Clip Volume (by placing an active window around area you want to see in one view that applies to other open views, and it clips in all four directions).  In both cases, the windows are interactive and can be changed bye using grips.

 

I still haven't found anything like this in Plant 3D.  It is absolutely necessary for live modeling of pipe in a full model, but allows you to clear out what you don't need so you can see only the essentials.

Message 18 of 18
Chris8947
in reply to: kaiser6977

I also have switched from microstation to autocad and really miss the 3D cut volume. I can't believe that there isn't a function similar to the "Section Plane" command for the objects created with the Plant 3D toolbox (piping, equipment, steel structure...).

No improvements in the last 12 years?

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