Creating a Section View of A 3D Drawing

[Jeff10]

Hi,

I would like to create a 2D section view of a 3D drawing that I received from a customer. I must be missing something because of how difficult I have made this process.

I am working in AutoCAD 2017.

My first point of confusion is that when I am in a layout viewport and I select the Full Section from the Create View tab I expect to be prompted to start the cutting plane line. I see the command Viewsection in the status bar; but, I am not prompted for anything. What am I missing?

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff

[imadHabash]

Hi,

i suggest to start from >> Link << OR >> Link 1 <<  hope that will help.

[Jeff10]

Hi,

Thanks for your input.

I had previously tried following both of the links you provided.

The problem with the first link is that when I click on Full Section I see the command "_viewsection" in the command line. I am not prompted for the beginning of the cut section line.

Obviously, I'm missing something  elementary.

Will section views work with collections of 3-D lines (which are not solids or surfaces? My intention is to create a section view of a 3-D drawing of a piece of equipment.

Thanks,

Jeff

[john.vellek]

Hi Jeff,

Is it possible to attach a sample of your drawing? I would like to take a look at it to see if it presents any unusual issues.

[Jeff10]

Hi John,

Thanks for the reply.

The drawing is pretty big (+56 Mb). It's also a client's drawing, so I probably shouldn't post it here.

I'm not sure that what I'm trying to do with a drawing that is a bunch of 3-D lines and blocks is even possible. (I am trying to get more familiar with 3-D capabilities; but, I have a long way to go.) In the past I have worked with flattening; but, it won't help with a section if the end view is different.

Is it possible to send a PM or email to you directly? We can discuss this a little further that way, if you prefer.

Thanks again.

Jeff

[Anonymous]

---

@Jeff10 wrote:

Hi John,

Thanks for the reply.

The drawing is pretty big (+56 Mb). It's also a client's drawing, so I probably shouldn't post it here.

I'm not sure that what I'm trying to do with a drawing that is a bunch of 3-D lines and blocks is even possible. (I am trying to get more familiar with 3-D capabilities; but, I have a long way to go.) In the past I have worked with flattening; but, it won't help with a section if the end view is different.

Is it possible to send a PM or email to you directly? We can discuss this a little further that way, if you prefer.

Thanks again.

Jeff

---

Both the SECTION and SECTIONPLANE commands have some requirements to work.  Here's part of the help file entry for the SECTION command:

Uses the intersection of a plane with 3D solids, surfaces, or meshes to create a 2D region object.

The SECTION command creates a region object that represents a 2D cross section of 3D objects, including 3D solids, surfaces, and meshes.

This method does not have the live sectioning capabilities that are available for section plane objects that are created using the SECTIONPLANE command.

[beyoungjr]

When you select the Full Section command you should be prompted to select the parent view. If you don't yet have a parent view then make one (ie. Base View->from Model Space, set the desired parent view and place it with the desired scale).
Then you can begin the Full Section process prompting yu for the parent then the cutting plane. After establising 2 point for your cutting plane you can hit enter and drag the new section to a desired location. Once you drop it you will get the 2D section view.

*** Unless your 3D model is a surface model! You must be working with solids.

This is all Paper Space of course!

Hope that helps?

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi Jeff,

I went to your rt-hand viewport and then selected Section Plane from the Section panel of the Solid ribbon menu

I am prompted to select a face or point to locate the section line.

This puts in the plane but on my little laptop it took about a minute to complete.

Then I did a QSAVE which took two minutes 😞

Next, I selected the Generate Section option

 I select the section plane that I placed previously.

 Then, in what seems to be eternity, it creates the section and asks where to place it in the drawing.

 Is this what you are looking for?

An alternative is to use the Viewbase command.

I selected your model and placed a base view on a layout.

Then I added a section view

[Jeff10]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the helpful hints.

I really appreciate John taking the time to help me understand what I was doing wrong.

Thanks to you all I now have a good start to working with the sections.

Take Care,

Jeff