Full Version: New Section command

Show messages:  1-11  12-31  32-49

Thanks for the section command. It is a useful tool indeed. Often, I find myself drawing a straight line in one of the parallel views, then using that line to generate a projected curve on my objects for cutting faces or detailing. This requires some trial and error to get the best result.

I am wondering if it is possible to have the "Section Plane" outlines generate pseudo-projected lines on objects, as these results are much cleaner than standard projected lines. I believe an "outline" mode would be a great fit for this command.

Additionally, if you agree that an "outline" mode would be beneficial, it would be useful to have a way to retain both the object and the section outputs, as they can be used to construct curves for further modeling.
options such as: [None, Keep Section Geometry, Keep All].

---

Michael,
A small anomaly for you to investigate before you get too deep.

Some of the "inner snaps" are missing on s simple object at first creation

---

Hi MO,

re:
> I am wondering if it is possible to have the "Section Plane" outlines generate pseudo-projected
> lines on objects, as these results are much cleaner than standard projected lines.

Can you please post a file with an example of the desired result?

Thanks, - Michael

---

Hi Michael,

Here are two example files. In the first file, you will see a cleaner result obtained by extracting the generated section plane.

I also did another experiment in file #2 where I compared the "Section plane edges extraction," "projecting a straight line," and "intersecting a surface" methods on normal and analytical surfaces. I found that the Curves/Isect command produces the best and cleanest results.
I'm not sure if using analytical surfaces actually makes a difference. In example 1, the curves generated from analytical surfaces have fewer points, but in example 2, the opposite is true.

Attachments:
outlineExample-1.3dm
outlineExample-2.3dm

---

The dimension tab could also be a good spot for this command.

Marc

---

Wow - seriously useful command!

Up till now I've been making copies of solids & slicing them up in different ways to get an idea of what's going on - this has made things way easier.

It's sometimetimes a little glitchy depending on complexity/number of solids, but that might just be my processor, and it gets there in the end ;)

Kudos to whoever came up with this!

---

777RAVEN777

"Kudos to whoever came up with this!"

Rich asked and Michael delivered. ;-)

---

Seems we can't give a color to the section(s) surface(s) during the process!

(or before in giving different colors to the surfaces' volumes like X= Red, Y = Green, Z = Blue)

---

Hi Pilou, in "Section plane" mode, the generated plane will get the "active style" applied to it.

Go to the scene browser styles section and right click on a style's color swatch to set it as active.

- Michael

---

Yep cool trick for give a color!

But it's only one color for all the surfaces and not each separately!

Sure I can at the exit of the function but...

---

Hi PIlou,

re:
> But it's only one color for all the surfaces and not each separately!

You can do it separately if you run the Section command 3 separate times and only generate one section each time.

You can also set up a keyboard shortcut that will enable just one specific plane at a time, like this:

Section UseXY=true UseXZ=false UseYZ=false

- Michael

---

@Pilou, it's also possible to automatically set a specific style to be the active style in a shortcut key as well, like this:

Section oncommandstart="var style=moi.geometryDatabase.findStyle( 'Rouge' ); moi.geometryDatabase.activeStyle=style.index;" UseXY=true UseXZ=false UseYZ=false

If you set that on a shortcut key when you press it, it should set the XY checkbox to be on, XZ and YZ checkboxes off and make a style named 'Rouge' to be the active style.

- Michael

---

Yep so if i good understand I must have 3 different shortcuts! :)

Something like

Section oncommandstart="var style=moi.geometryDatabase.findStyle( 'Rouge' ); moi.geometryDatabase.activeStyle=style.index;" UseXY=true UseXZ=false UseYZ=false

Section oncommandstart="var style=moi.geometryDatabase.findStyle( 'Vert' ); moi.geometryDatabase.activeStyle=style.index;" UseXZ=true UseYX=false UseYZ=false

Section oncommandstart="var style=moi.geometryDatabase.findStyle( 'Bleu' ); moi.geometryDatabase.activeStyle=style.index;" UseYZ=true UseXY=false UseXZ=false

Yep but that is just successively ! :(
If i add a true there is 2 same colors!

---

Hi Pilou,

re:
> Yep so if i good understand I must have 3 different shortcuts! :)

Yes that's correct.


> If i add a true there is 2 same colors!

Sorry I don't understand this part.

- Michael

---

on my video above on the last image there 2 red planes because I add a "true" condition!

I can't have the 3 different colors in the same time !

---

Hi Pilou,

re:
> I can't have the 3 different colors in the same time !

Yes that's correct, this command is not designed to make 3 different colors at the same time.

Is that something that you need to do frequently?

- Michael

---

No aespecially but seems to me that will be just natural that "pushing" a section will show that you are in a primary axis (red , green , blue)

---

@Pilou,

re:
> No aespecially but seems to me that will be just natural that "pushing" a surface
> will show that you are in a primary axis (red , green , blue)

To me that seems like it would be distracting. seeing a big red surface would seem to me like a "danger something's wrong" signal.

- Michael

---

Show messages:  1-11  12-31  32-49