Section Plane Color - a missing feature?

[AK_SAM]

Am I missing something here?

As it stands, Section Planes are a light grey color (don’t know why…just are…).
And they are more a visual “cutaway” than a technical Section Cut. Lovel for some presentations, but not great for construciton docs etc.
These get confusing when there are details in the model, eg a house interior (see below). Especially if there is geometry that is not solid (ie, often).

..bear with me…

Creating a Group from a Section cut slice is the typical option…each group brings (yet) another entity to the project that needs to be managed (camera, tags, scenes, styles, edge colours), and they are not dynamic (model changes, but slide does not). So, I don’t like creating Groups from Section Cuts (slices)…not at all.

Here’s the question:
Why can’t we just have a Section Plane that is opaque and “whites out” everything behind it? (leaving just the cut)..

Before:

After (with my suggestion):

(this is 100% opacity, but we could a slider)

Before you post a response:
Yes! There are some advanced and amazing Extensions that can do this. I probably should have used them long ago, but I don’t particularly want to adopt a new workflow system, not after the Skalp incident…

For styling options, I know we can change the color (material) of a Section Plane (an option with no functionality?). I also know we can turn down the transparency of the faces in the model, or use Hidden Line mode for a more technical presnetation…though they dont produce the desired result of hiding the “behind” geometry.

Undesired result:

(SketchUp pro 2024 here)

[bmike]

Monochrome with edges and profiles and AO and all the rest turned off.

Here it is with the shadows on so you can see the model:

[bmike]

I also often add ghost planes to my models:

[nmason]

Unfortunately, the monochrome/hidden-line method wouldn’t work for Hybrid/Vector in LO, and if you did Raster, you wouldn’t be able to stack it on top of another viewport to show anything behind.

[bmike]

Ahh, IIRC I think you are right.
I have done it with the dual section cut setup - one in a group of the house, one in front only an inch away, then stack the VP, but I only use vector now for shop drawings where I stack viewports - hidden line vector over a raster with hidden edges to show internal joinery.

The problem could be solved going back to the long requested section cut with thickness request.

[AK_SAM]

Thanks - I’ve been playing around all morning… Not using Raster mode in LO was my undoing.

I worked out another style that I like for what I need (quite simple images):

• Profiles On and Section Cut edges to Black.
• Section Fill Off.
• Edges On.
• Edge materials to a very light grey.
• Turn Transparency to “nicer” and set slider to 80.
• Turn on Xray.