I am trying to perform an interesting task.
Basically I have a large pattern created using a repetitive component element that creates a wall.
The pattern has many pieces of various lengths, widths, and depths.
The wall created using this pattern has a couple doors cut out of it and two edges where the pattern stops. What I want to do is hide the portions of the components that intersect with the holes in the pattern. I could explode the components in those areas to edit them differently, however I want the module component to remain editable so I can create various options.
Is there an extension out there that does this or any other way? Basically this is like performing an xclip in AutoCAD for anyone familiar with that program.
If I understand properly, you want to have an invisible solid that hides* any geometry it intersects with (inside it).
(*non-destructive)
Good idea, but unfortunately in SU you would have to explode the geometry and get rid of the excess lines/faces. You could duplicate it onto a hidden layer before trimming it all - this can be used as a template for different options (however that might get confusing.)
I suppose as a feature request, turning faces into ‘section planes’ would be a really cool tool to have available.
I was just about to submit a topic on this when the forum advised me of this old feature request from 4 years ago. Curious if there has been any progress on this concept?
I too would like to create a non-destructive subtraction from a shape/component. For example, I am working with some wild terrain and want to be able to freely move a variety of homes around the sloped property that cut partially into the hillside. Kind of like how the Component Cut Opening feature works for windows on perfectly flat faces, or similar to how the Section Plane feature works. But I would like it to non-destructively subtract one component from another, so I can peer inside, not see the dirt slope inside the room, move the houes around if I like, but not alter the actual contour slope I made. I think of it as a 3D-shaped-mask.
This was actually in the Extensions category, but had no real discussion of extensions as this would need to be a native feature (similar to “Cuts Opening” components.)
So I’ve reassigned this to the Feature Requests category. (Perhaps there it’ll get more discussion.)
Not as of yet. Not possible to non-destructively do this with an extension (unless the extension creates copies of your terrain mesh, which will bloat the model filesize.)
Over the years there have been many users asking for “Cuts Opening” components to work across groups and components, ie non-destructively cutting multiple faces. Like a window cutting all the way through a wall.
Such components would need to have a cutting volume instead of only a cutting face. Some of the wall cutting extensions do this but in a destructive way using boolean tools (subtracting solids.)
