Animating Section cut through model

architeriffic

I am trying to figure out how to animate a section cut through a building. I have seen this done, so I know it is possible. I have obviously tried to animate the section plane, and also the group it is cutting. I am using SU 6 on a Mac. I have been able to animate the sun's position through the day to create a full sun sweep over the days of the solstices for sun studies.

Thanks

Frederik

Since this seem almost too simple to answer, I fear that this is not what you're looking for, but attached please find a test...

Anim-sectioncut.skp

Alan Fraser

Use 2 section planes...1 down at ground level, 1 just above the highest point. Set up 2 scenes, either from the same viewpoint or different. Then edit and update each scene so that you have the lower section active in scene1 and the upper section active in Scene2. Adjust the transition time to get the effect you want.

Wo3Dan

@alan fraser said:

Use 2 section planes...1 down at ground level, 1 just above the highest point. Set up 2 scenes, either from the same viewpoint or different. Then edit and update each scene so that you have the lower section active in scene1 and the upper section active in Scene2. Adjust the transition time to get the effect you want.

architeriffic,

Following Alans advice you may even want to exclude the 'Camera Location' from being saved in both scenes.
See the 'Scene Manager' to uncheck 'Camera Location' just before 'saving as a new style'
This will allow you to see transitions taking place from any angle. You can even orbit during these scene transitions. Although not always with the best results.

Wo3Dan

architeriffic

ok, have the animation, now how do I hide the section planes and keep the animated cuts?

Thanks so much

Alan Fraser

There's a Section Cut toolbar with an icon for show/hide the planes.

architeriffic

The obvious answer was to turn off section planes in the view menu...duh.

Gaieus

Either this (View menu) or that (Toolbar - as Alan says) way. If you plan to use section planes/cuts a lot however, activate the toolbar from View > Toolbars so that you don't need to open the menu all the time.