Section Cut perpendicular to view
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I would like to add a section plane perpendicular to the current view.
I think this is not precisely possible in a perspective view, but it still might come close.
Does anyone know how to do this?
and/or how to add geometry or constructions lines perpendicular to the current view
(which could then be used to create the section in another view)Al Hart
IRender nXt from Render Plus -
slap me if I'm misunderstanding the question but I can think of 2 solutions. 1) if you're view is aligned w/ a particular face of the model then take your section from there and it should align w/ that face which will then align w/ your view. But if you're asking this that probably isn't the case. So 2) don't forget that section planes can be rotated just like anything else. I'd think you could create a section plane and rotate it until it looks like it's as close as you can get it. If you can be a little flexible w/ your view, once it's close you can select the section plane, right click, and click "Align View" and your view will shift a bit to perfectly align w/ the plane.
-Brodie
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Hi Al, hi folks.
You can align a view to a face (right click on the face and choose "Align View" in the contextual menu.
You can align a view to a "Section Plane" (right click on the "Section Plane" and choose "Align View" in the contextual menu.
You can align a "Section Plane" to a face. Select the "Section Plane" Tool and then click on the face.
Just ideas.
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@al hart said:
I would like to add a section plane perpendicular to the current view.
I think this is not precisely possible in a perspective view, but it still might come close.
Does anyone know how to do this?
and/or how to add geometry or constructions lines perpendicular to the current view
(which could then be used to create the section in another view)Tough question.
The way I see this question is:
There is a certain view needed (for whatever reason), let's say just found by orbiting. But there is no geometry (face) aligned to the screen in that particular view. How to create a section plane aligned to the screen? So the answers given by Brodie and Jean fail.
I would also like to know the answer that Al Hart is after. For now I don't know.Wo3Dan
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@wo3dan said:
@al hart said:
I would like to add a section plane perpendicular to the current view.
I think this is not precisely possible in a perspective view, but it still might come close.
Does anyone know how to do this?
and/or how to add geometry or constructions lines perpendicular to the current view
(which could then be used to create the section in another view)Tough question.
The way I see this question is:
There is a certain view needed (for whatever reason), let's say just found by orbiting. But there is no geometry (face) aligned to the screen in that particular view. How to create a section plane aligned to the screen? So the answers given by Brodie and Jean fail.
I would also like to know the answer that Al Hart is after. For now I don't know.Wo3Dan
Yeah, that would be the scenario that would be most difficult to solve. However, I'm having a difficult time envisioning that scenario.
Regardless, I wonder if there's some ruby script solution out there. Maybe something that draws a face perpendicular to the view that one could then use to take the section plane from.
-Brodie
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Consider: the rotate feature of the Move tool displays a protractor that is calibrated in absolute degrees from positive red (east). Therefore, you can get a fairly close reading of the direction of your line of sight at any arbitrary rotation by:
- Turn off Model Info > Units > Angle snapping
- Create a circle centered on the system origin and group it.
- Switch to parallel projection
- Using the Move tool, grab the rotation handle (of the circle group) closest to screen up or screen down.
- Rotate the circle until the protractor guide line exactly coincides on-screen with the blue axis line
- Read the angle from the VCB.
Once you know the rotation of your line of sight from east, you can rotate a section plane to that same angle.
~Voder
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@voder vocoder said:
Consider: the rotate feature of the Move tool displays a protractor that is .....
...
...
Read the angle from the VCB.Once you know the rotation of your line of sight from east, you can rotate a section plane to that same angle.
~VoderVoder,
Although your explanation of (an approximation of) the rotation angle about Blue is a correct it is still just one rotation angle. You forgot the tilt. The section plane generally needs two rotations to align it to the screen. In some cases I can get a fairly correct section plane by first drawing a few lines, creating a face that is visible as a single line (i.e. viewpoint and target in that particular face).
Tough question!Wo3Dan
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Film and stage plug create physical cameras. That would give you what you need use as a reference for your section plane. Not sure if this plugin is still on SU site or available somewhere else?
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Great thinking. I haven't used it but I've seen it used in a tutorial recently. I believe it's only for SU 5, however if you install it it supposedly still works w/ SU 6.
Here's the link to the plug-in. It's sort of hidden since they technically they didn't update it for SU6 but as I say, word on the street is that it works for SU6 nevertheless.
http://sketchup.google.com/download/previousplugins.html
For the tutorial I mentioned go to
http://www.go-2-school.com/podcasts Episode #33
There are also TONS of great SU tutorials on this site. I've been using SU for awhile but these tutorials are entertaining and still very informative. I found myself even watching the ones on tools and concepts that I know really well because they always seem to sneak in some little tidbit that I didn't know.
-Brodie
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@wo3dan said:
Although your explanation of (an approximation of) the rotation angle about Blue is a correct it is still just one rotation angle. You forgot the tilt. The section plane generally needs two rotations to align it to the screen.
Wo3Dan, sorry, but I think your logic is working in reverse. Al does not want to establish a viewing plane: the viewing plane is given. He wants to erect a section plane perpendicular to the viewing plane, not parallel. I'm taking the section plane as a vertical plane containing the line of sight, so its inclination to the ground plane is not a consideration.
Perhaps Al will clarify this point. Indeed, perhaps he will even reveal what he's up to so we can get a better understanding of the constraints on the problem.
~Voder
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It's a simple ussue. To solve it
1/ add scene
2/ use cameraLines.rb (it connects camera with its target by line)
3/ extrudelne.rb(?) to make prism
4/ and finally section glued to the face.
That's all ) -
Thanks,
I'll check out those ruby files to see if they help.
I have a IRender nXt client who wants to re-render just part of his model, and then paste the rendered part into an existing. larger, image.
We plan to add a "render screen area" function which will be the best solution, but until it is done, he could achieve the same effect by placing 4 clipping planes around the area he wants to render.
I added this thread to see if anyone had any ideas on how to do this.
However, the sub-topic here - how to make a single clipping place parallel to the view is probably interesting to many users, because it would let us clip off areas in front of the camera to get the rendering desired.
Al Hart
IRender nXt from Render Plus -
Okay, Al, but it sounds like you do want all four section planes perpendicular to the ground plane.
As far as our slight semantic mixup, you did say initially that you want to "add a section plane perpendicular to the current view." I think it's rather natural to think of the "current view" as whatever is on the screen; therefore, anything perpendicular to that would appear edge-on.
~Voder
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