Section cut issues and questions
-
What I would like to do is have a floor plan showing the existing shell of a building. The using an animated section cut show the internal proposed walls be "built". What I can not figure out (or even know of it is possible) is to have a section cut only affect certain geometry. I want the section cut to not affect the existing walls but only the proposed. Also is there a way to scale a section plane?
Thanks in advance.
Scott
-
Scott, unless someone is aware of a ruby, I'm sure the answer to both questions is no; I've tried this myself a few times.
-
that is quite easy to do in fact.
simply group the geometry to be affected and the section cut face together. like that only the objects within this group are cut by the section cut face...
a short test worked fine (see attachment)
section_cut.skp -
Thanks plot-paris! That works great.
Scott
-
Thanks, Jakob!
-
Jakob,
While I finally got it to work with your suggestions I now have another issue that is driving me nuts.
I want to copy the section cut from one scene to another since I have the direction and height right where I need them. Once I do the action is not the same in the new scene. All I want to do is make floors and furniture look as though they are being built up from the floor in and animation. I am finding it seems there is no consistency in the relationship of the active cut from one scene to the next. Especially since after realizing I could not copy the section cuts from one scene to the next I figure I would just repeat the direction in the new scene....NOPE. Firggin crazy. Could someone please give an idiots rundown to section cuts. I just can not get them to operate as expected.
Thanks,
Scott
-
Also, How does a section plane decide where to start action from? I would have thought it would have been the location it was at when I updated the scene but it starts far above it.
Scott
-
ok. I am not an expert with section cut faces. but as I understand it, you are only supposed to have one section cut face active in each scene. so you can have 13 section cut faces within your model. but only the one that was active, when you saved/updated the scene, will affect the geometry in this scene.
however, you can work around this by grouping geometry together with a section cut face. like that the cut face only affects the geometry within this group. and therefore you can have lots of section cut faces within this group - but only the one will be seen, that was active, when you created/updated the scene.
and knowing that you can create two seperate groups. within each group you create a section cut face at the bottom and at the top. now you make the lower cut face in each group active and create a scene. next you activate the higher cut faces in each scene and safe a scene.
if you now play back the scenes, the faces should appear to be wandering upwards...
-
Jacob,
Here is what I have done.
I have 3 scenes. Scene 1 has the exterior shell of a building in it only (all else is hidden). Scene 2 has he interior hard walls that get built from the floor to the ceiling (got this one to work with section planes). Scene 3 has all the furniture in it, I would like this scene to start and stop it's section cut at the same points as Scene 2. I tried copying the section planes from scene 2 into Scene 3 and that did not work. I then made 2 section planes in scene 3 that were identical to scene 2 in direction and that has not worked.
Any help would be appreciated.
Scott
-
The wording on this is getting pretty tricky but I think I know what you're saying.
It sounds like perhaps the issue is in getting the right section planes active at the right time. I'm unclear on the order your doing things but let's say you want the walls to grow up from the ground, then the furniture to grow up from the ground and then the exterior walls to grow up from the ground.
You're actually going to need 6 separate scenes and 6 section planes. They'll look as follows.
Scene 1. All layers OFF
Active Section plane (facing down and only in the Interior Wall group) is below all geometry (thus hiding all interior walls)Scene 2. Interior Wall layer ON
Same as above but the Active Section Plane is above all geometryScene 3. Exterior wall layer OFF Interior Wall layer ON Furniture OFF
Active Section plane (facing down and only in the Furniture group) is below all geometry (thus hiding all Furniture)Scene 4. Furniture layers ON
Same as above but the Active Section Plane is above all geometryScene 5. Exterior OFF Interior ON Furniture ON
Active Section plane (facing down and only in the Exterior Wall group) is below all geometry (thus hiding all Exterior Walls)Scene 6. Exterior ON
Same as above but the Active Section Plane is above all geometryHope that makes things clear.
-Brodie
Edit: messed up some layer order there on the first go around
-
-
Scott,
The rule is that you can have only one section plane active in a certain scene in every individual context.
So if you want your furniture to start growing out of the ground like mushrooms,group all the furniture first,enter the group's context and place two section planes: one in scene 2 but somewhere under the floor and make this active in this scene.Then in scene 3 place another one above all the furniture and make this active in scene 3. Close the group.
-
Here is another one that you can deconstruct. View it once with the section planes not showing, then turn on the visibility of the section planes to see what is happening.
-
Thanks guys! If I can not get it with all this help then I have other issues
Susan,
That is a great demonstration!
Scott
-
Scott, thanks. It just occured to me from something you said before, that I have a very important tip for you.
It is much easier if you do this backwards. That is: Start Scene 1 with the entire model completed and showing. Think through wich pieces are going be "built" before the viewers eyes and make groups or components of each of those. Be careful not to nest things inside one another if the inside component appears after the outside one ( obvious I know but hard to keep track of when you formulating this ahead of time.) So you may end up grouping this in ways that are not the most effiicient for modelling purposes. Once you have all the pieces that you are going to have built before your eyes, go ahead, still in the first scene, to place every single section cut that you will need. So place the one at end that will hide the group when it is active and also place the one that will show the item when it is active. In every single group, make the plane that shows the item to be the active plane ( remember you are doing this backwards so this would be the last step where everything is visible) Once you have all the planes set in all the groups, create your scene tab. Now add a scene. Now edit your group that will have the last item to be built and change the active slice so that it causes the item to disappear and update the scene. Add scene, edit the next group or component that would be the second last to be built and change the active slice again to one that would hide the geometry)and update the scene. Add a scene etc. Do this all the way to the end till the very last scene has the very last group or component disappear.
I'm sure you have guessed why this is a good way to do this. If you start in the opposite direction building one group at a time and placing section slices as you build, every time you add a new scene and add section slices to that one, you will need to go back to all of your previous scenes and hide the newly placed sections that will appear in those and update each of the scenes. Much easier to start backwards and change one section at a time as you add the scenes. Each previous scene will already have it right. NOW, move all the scene tabs so that the first one is the last, and the second one is the second last etc. Now it will start from nothing and build itself.
Advertisement