What's the best way to cut geometry when Zorro fails?

nickdk

Hello everyone

I'm having the usual issues with the Zorry section cut plugin and I would like to know if there's any other working method for splitting geometry. Right now I trying to intersect a plane with my model to split it but it has taken 20 mins and SU just hangs, i don't know why this application is so extremely slow arghh...
I hope there's a better way!

Regarding Zorry - I have tried to group everything but it still produces bug splat after 10mins or so. I have to tried to explode all geometry before grouping it too and the result is the same. It's so frustrating.

gilles

Is this a big model?

nickdk

it's 24MB exploded, and if i look at the statistics = 36K faces.
The intersect process is still running in the background :S

mitcorb

Can this help? Create a surface- circle or rectangle- group it, position it where you desire the section cut. Select this cutting plane and the geometry around it. Right click Intersect>Selected. Do some grouping on each side of the section cut?

I know you probably need something else, but this is the picture I get after reading your post. Perhaps TIGs SectionCutFace?

TIG

If your model is to be chopped in ~half and the other ~half thrown away then you can reduce the [copied] SKP size significantly by grouping everything to the 'wrong' side of the 'cutting-plane' [make a large grouped rectangle to represent where you are going to cut] and erasing the unwanted stuff.
Purge the SKP to optimize it at each step.
Now a little over a half of the SKP remains - mostly on the 'right' side of the cut.
Explode all groups/instances that are 'straddling' this cutting-plane.
Select all of the straddling geometry, and use Intersect with Model.
Erase any geometry on the 'wrong' of the the cutting-plane [select by fence.
Finally erase the cutting-plane [group] itself.
Purge the SKP again.
It should now be cut and ~half left...

If you want 'faces' on the cutting-plane, then instead of erasing its group, you can Edit it, Select All, and use Intersect with Model; then Erase the perimeter of the original rectangle and any faced 'voids' left over in the remaining geometry...

It will take time to Intersect, Explode, Erase etc BUT be patient...
Why'd you let the SKP get so big anyway? DO you really have to chop it in half like this

nickdk

@mitcorb said:

Can this help? Create a surface- circle or rectangle- group it, position it where you desire the section cut. Select this cutting plane and the geometry around it. Right click Intersect>Selected. Do some grouping on each side of the section cut?

I know you probably need something else, but this is the picture I get after reading your post. Perhaps TIGs SectionCutFace?

Thank you for the reply
This is exactly what I did, and the process too hours to complete and then the cut was "dirty" I had to manually fix several parts that for some reason didn't slice correctly :S

nickdk

@tig said:

If your model is to be chopped in ~half and the other ~half thrown away then you can reduce the [copied] SKP size significantly by grouping everything to the 'wrong' side of the 'cutting-plane' [make a large grouped rectangle to represent where you are going to cut] and erasing the unwanted stuff.
It will take time to Intersect, Explode, Erase etc BUT be patient...
Why'd you let the SKP get so big anyway? DO you really have to chop it in half like this

Thank you TIG for that explanation, I don't understand all steps but I'll try to unfreeze my brain-freeze
To give you some more info:
I need to keep both parts of the geometry that is sliced in half. I have been using Zorro but I have been slicing it twice to get two halfs.
The reason the model is so big is that I'm using a lot of smooth curved geometry for this project.

The intersect method combined with your great section script would work wonders if it wasn't so very slow to intersect.

I'm not sure how I can group only the parts on one of the section cut/plane sides?

Thanks again!

TIG

Learn to 'select by fence', noting the different results from right>left and left>right corner drags.

nickdk

@tig said:

Learn to 'select by fence', noting the different results from right>left and left>right corner drags.

I read your post a few times and I get it now Thank you for helping me