Help with Section Cuts etc.

[TorreyBW]

I've been using SU Pro 2017, 2018, and now 2019. There are some things that drive me nuts. Here are two of them I ran into this morning.

1. Section fill does not work on my baseplate. Why? It is a solid component with a volume, I tried reversing the faces.

2. How to resize section cut? It is huge. Verified there are no elements outside the main drawing floating out in space. I will be exporting to layout and making construction docs, hence I want the model nice and compact.

3. It seems anytime I leave a SU file alone, it gets cozy with its neighbors and out pops another one. Pretty soon I have 5 files, some autosave files, backups, and I keep having to delete them. What even is the difference between these, and any advice for this situation?

Thank you for your help!

P.s. I know I will run across more of these little annoyances that I'd love help with, is it preferable that I add them here, or make a new topic each time?

[pbacot]

I don't think you can resize the section planes and I expect there is hidden geometry--perhaps on a hidden layer?. If on the other hand you have a section plane inside a group or component it will confine its size to the elements therein.

For the purpose of making drawings you don't have to show the whole section plane. Maybe you like to have them for some graphic use, but I don't think that is the way it is commonly used. Hide the section "planes" and keep the section "cuts" revealed for your scenes to export.

You can reset preferences for Autosave and back-up files, under SketchUp / Preferences / General.

https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/setting-software-and-file-preferences

[Box]

We would need to see the model to tell you what is the issue with the base plate.
There must be some geometry somewhere or the section plane would not be that big.
.skb is a backup File which SU automatically makes if you tick the box for Back up files.
Autosaves are different, you normally get them with crashes.

[TorreyBW]

Here it is!

[pbacot]

The section plane is that wide because your ground plane is that wide. Hiding the ground plane layer won't change this.

[Box]

A section plane placed in the top hierarchy of the model, in other words not within a group, will be as big as the model is. So you planes are extending to fit your terrain.
If I unhide some of your layers I can see some issues with the slab, but I think you'll find that is you are seeing the section planes through the section fill. You can turn off section planes without turning off the section cuts.

[TorreyBW]

@box said:

I think you'll find that is you are seeing the section planes through the section fill.

Thank you so much for the help! I didnt quite understand the above section. Are you saying that leaving the cut active but hiding the section pane might give a better look, or for another reason?

I noticed the foundation says it is a solid, says it is on layer 0, but when I hide the roof layer a face dissapears. When I edit the foundation component and highlight the offending face, it says it is in the roof framing layer! I suspect this is what is wrong with my baseplate too.

What makes this happen and how do I avaid it in the future? I've been doing this for a few years, and it seems every time I make a model I then have to spend a few hours chasing down wierd little oddities like this.

[pbacot]

I am not able to duplicate the problems with the baseplate visibility in section or the missing face in the foundation. The foundation shows all 101 entities in Layer0. Changing the roof framing layer visibility does not affect it for me. If we are seeing that no other users are experiencing the same problems with your models as you do, you might try Unchecking "Use fast feedback" under "SketchUp / Preferences / OpenGl" tab. (i.e. that would indicate a graphics card problem). Check if the graphics card driver is up to date.

Clearly you don't want faces and edges to be on other layers besides Layer0. Only assign other layers to groups and components. If you are following this, at it seems you are trying, then the only thing I might suggest is to try the "Default layer geometry" plugin to periodically check that all your edges and faces are in Layer0.

In regard to the section / baseplate question, view the model without the section cut selected, but active. Also uncheck (off) "View / Section Planes". Why don't you set up some scenes using sections that you want, and see how the scenes turn out?