Interactive 3D cutting planes

[Anonymous]

Hola,

Is this possible in AC11? The cutting plane tool is nice, but not as interactive as it would be desired. I would like to modify cutting plane locations directly in the 3D window... or even in the dialog box that appears and see the changes as I move the planes interactively.

Will AC12 have this feature? I hope so. It´s very nice how other 3D software let you do this to quickly inspect models.

Thanks!

Daniel Acevedo

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi,

Not possible, and nothing new in this regard for 12.

Cheers,
Karl

[David Maudlin]

Daniel:

Could this be accomplished with a slab(s) and SEO? Put the slab on a layer that has been set to wireframe to see the model through the slab.

You should add to your Signature your ArchiCAD version and operating system (see mine for an example) for more accurate help in this forum.

HTH

David

[Karl Ottenstein]

David wrote:
Daniel:

Could this be accomplished with a slab(s) and SEO? Put the slab on a layer that has been set to wireframe to see the model through the slab.

Hi David,

Kind of. I didn't suggest subtraction of masses because of the potentially huge computational impact (the entire model would be the operand of multiple operators), the fact that some elements will not cut properly, and the fact that AC does not have any good generic rotatable masses short of the obvious.

What Daniel suggests can have very low computational impact if done correctly (as in other software, as he mentions). The easiest intermediate solution that GS could offer - were they interested - might be to make the Cut Plane dialog a modeless palette (like the SEOp dialog) so that it could stay on-screen, and then include a 'rebuild 3D' button, etc. Even that would never compare with the instant visual feedback of sections in SketchUp or of the clipping box in Artlantis, which are joyful to work with. 😉

One plus of the cutplanes, Daniel, that you may not have noticed is that they are memorized with each 3D view (along with lots of other settings including the cutting marquee). So, at least you can save multiple 'interesting' cuts of the model easily. When the view is retrieved, the cutplanes are restored to their saved state, and can of course be further manipulated to either redefine the view, or define a new one.

The thing in 12 that relates to this is the new 3D Document. Most often for me, a 3DD will be a detail - and I'll want to trim away the rest of the model to just emphasize the detail area. So, a corresponding 3D view with the cutplanes and marquee memorized lets me quickly get the live model view corresponding to the 3DD.

Anyway ... I agree with your wish. 😉

Cheers,
Karl

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. I do hope GS takes note of this, at least with the simpler solution of keeping the menu modeless.
I will try, however, to make it modeless myself as API programming practice. Don´t know if I can even access that kind of functionality, but I´ll try and report if I succeed.

Thanks again!

Cheers!