Solid section cuts

Apologies if this has been requested before.

In the real world, very few things are hollow and nothing is hollow with a zero thickness wall. So it would be nice if SU were able to be more like the real world, so that if you section-cut something solid, a face is created at the cut face. I know there are plug-ins that will do this, but is there a reason it cannot be a native feature? If it mucks up something else, perhaps it could be an option when making a section cut?

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What’s wrong with plugins like SectionCutFace or Scalp?

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Nothing wrong with available plug-ins but I was asking why it isn’t a native feature, given what nature is like. Also, plug-ins have their own issues, like not working with new versions of SU, bugginess, etc.

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Simply this : Sketchup brings solid and section view but no solid section view ? Why ? What is the logic behind that ? That is just the most basic feature you’d expect from a professional solid modeling software. Time passes, and the same answer is always given : Skalp ! I really believe Trimble is afraid to bring the feature now to avoid breaking Skalp business… It is so desappointing when a free and young solution like onshape brings this out of the box day 1. I designed my whole house after purchasing a sketchup pro 2014 licence, and this was a fabulous experience. Now I have to pay to upgrade it to perpetual and this basic feature is still not considered as granted ? No way. That is such a waste !

You should have a look at the forum guidelines…

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Sorry if I broke some rules. Are you referring to the angry tone ? :S

Sketchup is a not a solid modeler, it’s a 3D drawing program -there’s a difference. Even modelers like Blender, 3DS Max, etc don’t cut solid sections without a plugin or some parametric properties. There are a few ways to make solid sections without extensions: Create group from slice, color back faces black, etc

I will have to disagree : as long as the software is able to tell you that a given set of surfaces is closed, calculate its volume (i.e. knowing the inside and the outside) and even make boolean operations, you actually have a “solid” modeler (call it “volumic” if you prefer, but that’s the same idea.) Now it is true the current section view is a visual trick working directly on 3D data within the graphic card (where everything is a surface and where there is no more volume concept, just front and back triangle sides) but I do not see why they just do not compute the closing surfaces for cut volumes before sending it to the graphic card to implement this (and I am not even asking to have a material texture mapping, a plain color would make me happy)… Well anyway I just wish I could get an answer from Trimble themselves one day (I already tried to ask.) For me the whole LayOut part can be put away if you get proper section cuts. The 3D measures and annotations allowed me to have a complete 3D mockup with named section views to show everything in 3D.

No, it is a surface modeller, but you can write a plugin to keep solids ‘solid’ after applying section cuts…

It’s a little slower using Ruby than it would be if builtin, but I dought the number of people interested would justify the time required to implement…

he’s an example of one of mine…


it also works on drawings with lots of scenes, layers, but can get slow…

john

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Thanks for this work. The video is quite handy showing the result too. One things bother me though : it seems the model is modified (since you add a surface for each cut in a solid ?) But Is it able to have several sections each matching a named scene ? For example a front view showing all floors with building frontcut and a scene per floor on top withthe model cut to show the desired floor ?

[quote=“christophe.albugues, post:10, topic:17514”]
it seems the model is modified
[/quote]if you look at the model Title you’ll see it’s actually making a new ‘skp’ file first, the red flash occurs as it purges the new skp of scenes and definitions that aren’t needed…

it’s designed for making referenced sections for Layout, but it may also be useful for 3d printing…

There are other plugins for getting a standard set of elevations, this is something else…

I’m just illustrating that keeping things ‘solid’ is possible even with a surface modeller…

john

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