Animating Section Planes on Multi-Bldg Simulation

[Anonymous]

I've got a 5 Bldg Construction Simulation for a site in South Florida that we've put together for a really quick Video for a Presentation.  It's on it way to the prospective owner, and he's happy with what I've done.  However, after some examination/reflection,  I want to redo this and take it up a notch, by Utilizing the Section Planes andAnimationting them per the different buildings and their schedules......Each of the 5 Buldings do have their own schedules now.  but when doing some investigationg the section Planes further, I find that I cannot just assign a "Horizontal Plane" going vertically to one building at a time.  In other words, when I add the section planes, ALL buildings oare cut off by it,,and I don't want that.  since the Construction Sequencing si different for each bldg, how does one control the SP's per bldg iwth their own animations without affecting the others.  See Attached quick shot of site complex.

Thanks,

Mike

[john.lipp · Accepted solution]

Hi mike,

Sorry, but this isn't possible in the software.  You wish to have multiple horizontal section planes that only section certain objects or certain areas, but the section plane will section the entire scene view (all of the 5 buildings).

Rather than a section plane, you could try an animator animation where you scale your animation sets from 0 to 1 on Z, which will make the objects appear to stretch up from nothing to their normal size. 

Or you could create an animation where the set moves up the Z axis which will make it appear to push up from below.

I recommend submitting what you were trying to achieve as a feature enhancement on the feedback page:

 - http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=1109794

Please let me know if you have any further questions.


Best regards,

John Lipp

Product Support Specialist
Autodesk Product Support

[Anonymous]

Thanks John,

I sort of figured that...........AND I have tried both of your suggestions.  The one that works best if the option of moving (Growing) the Towers up from the ground at the appropriate time in the Schedule.  However, the only problem with this idea is that everything shows below the ground plane as it starts and ends.  If one could figure out how to hide the cranes below grade without make the Site thicker, that would certainly be a very good option...................wonder if there is a way to have a section plane scene attached by the "Bottom" plane.in other words upside down at grade level AND hae the cranes "move" up and or  dwon, as if being assembled/disassemble, passing thru the Section Planes to be hidden below grade.

Have ot try that.

Mike

[Anonymous]

Bingo, Mike..

Once you’ve set up your animation sets, and positioned them beneath your base plane/object, add a Section Plane and set the Alignment to Bottom and position just below your base.  Set a single Keyframe at the start of your animation in Animator and your done..  However..  You could flip your direction and place the clipping plane above your models (set Alignment to Top) and then have the objects drop in “through” the clipping, or use no clipping plane and just drop into the scene from a point so far above the model proper that it’s not seen until it drops in, appearing in a more accurate constr workflow.

I’ve done this on occasion and it works very well – providing as accurate a build-up as you want, give or take time to plan, in that; you can have the foundations drop in first, followed by support, walls, etc., and then lather rinse and repeat as needed for larger/taller structures.

You can see in the 10sec sample clip, I placed the Section Plane a few meters lower than it should be (cuts off the top of the tallest vessel), but it’s just a quick-n-dirty set up and rendered in 10min-15min.  On an actual project, I’d fix the plane position and also either drop in the piping or just have it fade in like the crane, plus all the regular viz bells and whistles..  But again, just to get the idea across.

btw - You can make accurate vertical/Z translations using the numerical Translate inputs at the bottom of the Animator window.

Hope this helps..

dp

[Anonymous]

Thanks dp...

what you sent is exactly the idea, only opposite of how I'd like it to work....same principal though.

Thanks,

Mike