1.) Are Section Planes supposed to snap to objects or guidelines?
I can move them but I can’t seem to get them to snap onto anything.
2.) Is there any way to align Section Planes to the Midpoint of an object, or to a Guideline?
Even the trusty Pixero “Align On XYZ” plugin doesn’t move the plane.
This is the desired end result: 4 Section Planes, each facing to a compass direction.
Ideally, I would love to discover a method to make 4 SPs like this automatically, but failing that, at least a way to align them to the center of the object.
I need to review a few things but… could it work for you @Nathank9000 ?
It makes 4 sections in the component bounds center and create a scene with each aligned view. I have to solve problems with the styles and scene settings…
If you keep bringing in this component and exploding it, what happens with the names of the section planes? Can you end up with unique section planes with the same names?
You can use the geometry to snap section to things. As you see here I use the endpoint and move it to the midpoint, then rotate a copy on the midpoint. You also only need two to create the four views. Edit: This appears to be incorrect, another missing option. But they can be easily duplicated to make four, or array 3.
Note: if you have trouble finding the second midpoint before the rotate, simply double click the section so the cut isn’t active and you will easily snap to the second midpoint.
You still need 4 planes to achieve though - what magic is there that allows you to reverse a section plane and not have it change in a scene - what am I missing?
I honestly had the same thought - let’s try making a scene and reversing the section… noooope, didn’t work. I get the programming aspect of it, though - there is no separate value for the direction of the section plane, i.e. [ Plane 1 View A / Plane 1 View B / Plane 2 View A / Plane 2 View B], it’s either [Plane 1] or [Plane 2] as far as the Scene “lens” is concerned.
It’s another one of those IWBNI moments that the Sketchup experience is rife with. Don’t get me wrong, I love the platform, and this community is outstanding, but there are so many little UI issues, I want to write them like a 20-page letter…
Section plane names don’t have to be unique, although editing the component (before exploding others) will change the name and symbol for all inserted instances. As said, one can deal with the details in outliner for renaming (after exploding)
One was able to do what the OP wants without the need of 4 sections planes with position camera, but that’s only for dummies, I guess:)
I’m not sure how you do it differently. The section plane controls which side of the plane is ‘cut away’ - being able to reverse it is great, but you’d need to rework scene controls and have extra toggles if you wanted the section planes to magically be able to switch between two states.
My comment about only needing 2 sections was incidental and I almost didn’t(wish I didn’t) type it.
The thread title asks how to centre a section to an object, I showed that in my gif.
