Is it possible to get the transform of the section box through the API?

[Anonymous]

I am wondering if there is any way of getting information about the section box in Navisworks. I have been able to get the normal and distance of enabled section planes but have not found any info about the section box.

[vilchishin]

Hi Vanessa,

You can access section box information by de-serializing clipping planes JSON of active view:

1. Get instance of Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.View which is your current active view (this can be got from Document.ActiveView);
2. View.GetClippingPlanes() will return you a JSON string which contains OrientedBox property.

[alexisDVJML]

You can get full details of the Section Box, aka mode, bounding box, oriented box or planes etc by accessing the LcOaClipPlaneSet object of the active viewpoint:

var cps =NavisworksApp.ActiveDocument?.CurrentViewpoint.ToViewpoint()?.InternalClipPlanes;

var m = cps.GetMode();
bool enabled = cps.IsEnabled();

BoundingBox3D box = new BoundingBox3D(); Rotation3D rotation = new Rotation3D();
cps.GetOrientedBox(box, rotation);
 // etc...

However, while you can change these values by calling various SetXXX methods, I have not found yet how to have these changes be reflected in Navisworks.

Which is sad since such API is much cleaner and efficient than having to parse/construct JSON strings.
Anyone has a way to have such changes really applied?

[alexisDVJML]

I actually find a way to have changes update Navisworks:

var cvp = NavisworksApp.ActiveDocument?.CurrentViewpoint;
var vp = cvp?.Value;
var cps = vp?.InternalClipPlanes;
if (cps == null) return;

// DO CHANGES HERE, for example here we change the box (making it half size) if in box mode
if (cps.GetMode() != LcOaClipPlaneSetMode.eMODE_BOX) return;
BoundingBox3D box = new BoundingBox3D();
Rotation3D rotation = new Rotation3D();

cps.GetOrientedBox(box, rotation);
Vector3D dims = box.Size;
box = box.ExpandBy(-dims.X * 0.25, -dims.Y * 0.25, -dims.Z * 0.25);
cps.SetOrientedBox(box, rotation);

// surprisingly we have to copy the viewpoint back into the document then everything is refreshed correctly:		NavisworksApp.ActiveDocument.CurrentViewpoint.CopyFrom(vp);

Sure should have better ways, but at least that's a good working start 🙂

[alexisDVJML]

An even simpler way to change current document AND view Sectioning state and have it refreshed:

var oav = Application.ActiveDocument.State.GetViewer();
var cps = oav.GetClipPlaneSet();
// Change CPS mode, planes etc here
...
//

// Ensure UI is updated
oav.RequestRedraw(LcOaViewerRedrawType.eREDRAW_UPDATE);