Dynamic sectioning?

[WPONG]

Working with the section tool --

1. What is the best way to dynamically section an assembly (a la catia, or solidworks -- very helpful to be able to drag a plane and see the sectioned parts update ~real time). For simple assemblies, moving the section plane with the triball works well, but with even a moderate assembly I have, dragging the section plane with the triball is very slow and not practical to use.

 

2. What is the easiest way to section "everything" in a scene, or a region of a scene (eg. for interference checking, when one doesn't know what parts might be interfering, and therefore can't know which parts to include in the section specifically)? When I try graphically dragging over an entire region to apply a section to, the "section part/assembly" option under tools greys out...

 

 

--Will

Edited May 14, 2019 by WPONG

[IronKevin]

We only have the 3D Section tool that requires a selection.

[Nickul]

Will,

You can also use a co- ordinate system to section a model. Under the feature menu, create a new co-ordinate system and position one of the planes on your desired section. Right click the plane and choose, Create Section Profile. This creates a 2d sketch section, it does not cut the model, which I understand you are asking about but this is sometimes an advantage.

By changing the size of the plane also controls the section extents, i.e. you can just section a small region of an assembly. By opening the sketch with it displayed on-top of the 3d model may reveal issues.

The other advantage of this method is you can copy using the triball, 20 or so planes 50mm apart and quickly create multiple sections without having to wait for the parts to regenerate.

Nick

[HDEAR]

Hi Nick, that sounds just the thing I am looking for in a project I have at the moment. Are you able to make a video of the process please?

Thanks

Harley

[Nickul]

Hi Harley,

I've not really sorted out the video thing yet, here are some steps and screen grabs showing the process, (incidentally what software do you guys use to capture video?)

Step 1 - On the feature menu create a new co-ordinate system

Step 2 - Place this co-ordinate system, from the image I'm placing on the top edge of the front frame, click the green tick to accept the command

Step 3 - Right click the newly created Co-ordinate system in the scene and make active. With it selected turn on the triball and position as desired

Step 4 - Select one of the planes in the scene and right click, Choose "Create section Profile"

Step 5 - Edit the this newly created profile as per usual.

 

Notice that the plane only extended half way along the downstream region of the duct, in Step 4, and in Step 5 the extents of the profile reflects this.

 

Humbug, in trying to clear and reduce my attachments I now cannot reload the images back up....

 

Nope it really will not let me upload any images now....

I've done a Grabcad tutorial with the images and steps, see this link;

https://grabcad.com/tutorials/using-the-co-ordinate-system-to-create-a-section

[WPONG]

Nick -- Very cool!  As you say, it's different from what I was looking for, but can be very helpful, and perhaps serve a similar purpose. 

I do note that your section lines were white in the example, and appear more 'foreground' than my test yielded.  I tried to edit properties, etc.  Are there some tweaks you did to get such good visibility of your section?

--Will

[Nickul]

Will,

Not especially, I would wager it had something to do with my graphics. I'm using OpenGL2. Try having a play with geometry thickness within the 2d section, (while in the 2d section , right click and choose the show option. in there change the geometry thickness number, its quite insensitive, i.e. a number of 0.1 gave me quite thin lines, and a number of 100 gives me lines almost appear '20mm' wide, see image below;

 

[jolizon590016]

Hi Nick,

On Options>Rendering as you are using OpenGL2, please try if setting it to Geometry will improve your display. I using AMD based card and usually works better with Segment, I think Nvidia works better with Geometry on the display list.