sectioning gizmos

[AnmarieJames8335]

I'm new to Navis and am having trouble following the directions in the user manual for creating a section. Sometimes when I click on a plane, my entire model disappears. Other times, I just can't find the gizmo to move it. And rarely, I get the model and gizmo to show up, and then everything works out just fine.

So where is my move gizmo hiding and how do I get it to show up? Zooming out does no good. Usually I end up losing my model, too.  

oh - I'm using Manage 2011.

AJ

[john.lipp]

Hi AnmarieJames8335,

Right after clicking Enable Sectioning, if your model disappears it means that the gizmo is below the items in your model on the Z-axis.   When you initially enable sectioning, the section plane is set to top, so that it hides everything below the horizontal section plane.   If you see the gizmo, drag the z-handle up or slide out the transform panel of the section tools tab and enter a larger value for the Z position. You may find it useful to turn on the Camera Position Readout on the HUD so you know what the XYZ position is of your current viewpoint.  To do this, Click HUD > Position Readout on the Navigation Aids of the View tab.

If your section plane isn’t in the view and you have the Move tool toggled on in the Transform panel of the Sectioning Tools tab, it is likely that the section plane Gizmo is somewhere other than within the current field of view of the viewpoint.   If you know that a surface within your current view is aligned with either the XYZ plane or whatever plane you wish to use to section, you can simply click Alignment > Align to Surface in the Planes Settings panel, pick the surface in the view, and the section plane should then show up directly over the surface you chose and aligned with it.

If that isn’t an option, you can use the values in the Position Readout on the HUD to position the section plane.  Slide out the Transform panel of the Sectioning Tools tab and manually enter the values from your current position stated in the HUD into the transform panel.  If the section plane doesn’t show up, you should only need use the zoom tool (CTRL+4) to zoom out slightly to bring the gizmo into view.   

If your 3D model space is very large, the gizmo may be sensitive when you move. If that is the case, you may be better off just manually entering the values in the XYZ position rather than dragging the gizmo around.

You stated that when you zoom out, your model disappears.  Is this when you click view all?  If that is the case, you may have some extraneous geometry in your model on the outskirts.  To check this, zoom to a position in the model where everything that “should” be in the model is in view.  Use the select box to select everything in the view. Click the dropdown box next to Select All in the Select & Search Panel of the Home Tab, and select Invert Selection.  If you have anything highlighted in the selection tree, you may find that it is far off in space and can either be deleted from the model you are importing or you can hide (CTRL+H) these items in Navisworks.

Please let me know if this helps.

Best regards,

John Lipp

Product Support Specialist

Autodesk Product Support