How to Show Section Cuts in Plan Drawing

In SketchUp, section planes cut a model along a plane so that you can peer within the model - without moving or hiding any geometry. In a 3D model, an active section plane hides everything on one side of the plane, as shown in the following effigy.

You can apply section planes for all types of applications:

• Cut a building horizontally to see the floor plan. In architectural drawing, this two-dimensional tiptop-down cut is called a planimetric view.
• Cut a edifice vertically to see inside the rooms of several floors at once. This type of cut is called a exclusive view (non to be confused with SketchUp'south section planes).

Tip: To create a planimetric view like an architect, place the section airplane 48 inches in a higher place the floor's surface. This placement commonly enables you to run into windows and doors in the slice without cutting through countertops or furniture. To create a exclusive view, don't cutting through columns, considering they'll await like walls instead of objects that people can walk effectually; practise cut through stairs or elevators, because this shows how people movement through the building.

In SketchUp, you can insert multiple section planes, just only ane section plane can exist the active cut in each context. Yous create more than ane context in a model past creating groups or components, each of which has a separate context. For example, the post-obit model is a component and has ii department planes; the section plane that shows the programme is active.

Another example is this model that contains several ovens. Each oven is a separate grouping, as shown in the post-obit figure. You lot can display an agile section plane in each group to see that none of the ovens contains a warm apple tree pie or chocolate chip cookies. (Darn information technology!) See Group Geometry and Creating a Basic Component for details about creating groups or components and how to open or close a group or component context.

Tip: Want to evidence off multiple interior views of a model? SketchUp enables y'all to show section cuts in scene animations. To animate scenes that show different section cuts, y'all demand to save the department settings in a way and then salvage each view in a scene. Animating Scenes explains how to create animations of your model.

The following video introduces you to section planes and gives y'all a sneak peek at section plane animation. In the upcoming sections, you find detailed steps that walk y'all through the many things section planes can do.

Tabular array of Contents

1. Adding a section plane
2. Filling voids in section cuts
3. Creating new geometry from a section plane
4. Showing or hiding section planes, cuts, and fills
5. Exporting section cut effects

Adding a section plane

Inserting a department aeroplane is easy as pie. Make certain nothing in your model is selected, and open the grouping or component context where you want to add together the section airplane. Too, if y'all want to place the department aeroplane at a specific superlative, such as 48 inches above the flooring surface, apply the Tape Measure out tool to prepare a guide line that will assist y'all place the department plane precisely where yous want it.

When you lot're ready to add a section plane, follow these steps:

1. Select the Department Aeroplane tool () or select Tools > Section Plane. Microsoft Windows users detect the Department Aeroplane tool on the Sections toolbar. On both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, the Section Plane tool is on the Big Tool Set palette.
2. With the section plane cursor, shown in the following effigy, click a face up to place your section airplane.

   Tip: If you have problem keeping the section plane in your desired orientation, hover over a face that matches the orientation y'all want and concord downwardly the Shift key to lock the section plane cursor'southward direction. You tin too tap the arrow keys to orient the normal of the section plane to the default axes directions: Up for Blue axes, Right for Reddish axes, Left for Green Axes, and Downwards for parallel to face.

After you click a face, your department plane appears, as shown in the following figure.

One time the Section Plane has been placed, a dialog box appears, name your section plane assign the numeric symbol for that aeroplane, then click Ok.

Afterward you identify a department plane, you lot can reposition information technology or adjust it every bit follows:

• Adjust the placement with the Move tool or the Rotate tool.
• Reverse the cut direction past context-clicking the section airplane and selecting Reverse from the carte that appears. For case, if yous make a vertical cut, you tin can reverse the cutting to brandish the within of the other half of your building.
• Align SketchUp's camera with the section aeroplane past context-clicking the section plane and selecting Align View. In the preceding figure, aligning the view to your section plane takes you to a superlative view of the model.
• Select which section aeroplane is the active cut, if you take more than one, by context-clicking the section plane you want to make active and selecting Active Cutting from the menu. Or, double-click the section plane y'all'd like to actuate or conciliate.
• Control section airplane visibility. See details about hiding or showing section planes later in this article.

Tip: Want a quick style to manage your section planes? Each section plane appears in the Outliner console with the proper noun yous entered when you created the section aeroplane. You lot tin edit the section aeroplane'southward name and symbol in the Outliner or the Entity Info console.

In the Outliner, you tin can likewise context-click a section airplane and apply the menu that appears to hide, activate, reverse, and take other actions to manage that section plane. Double-clicking the name in the Outliner activates or deactivates the section plane.

Note: When you utilize the Align View control in Parallel Projection perspective, yous can quickly generate sectional elevation or one-signal perspective views of your model.

Filling voids in section cuts

When yous slice a solid with a section plane, you may not desire to see voids where solid material should be. For example, say a department plane is showing a sliced concrete block. Depending on your section fill up settings, the model might show empty space where the concrete block would be filled.

To fill up closed loops in the slice, you lot can simply select the Department Fill check box in the Styles panel. For example, the following effigy shows how the concrete cake changes when the Section Fill check box is selected. Alternately, you can toggle section fill visibility with the View > Section Fill control or the Display Section Fill up push () on the toolbar. (Recall that whether you use the Styles panel, View menu, or toolbar buttons, yous modify the style and need to save the manner if you don't want to lose the visibility settings you've applied.)

To control the Section Fill settings in the Styles panel, follow these steps:

1. Open the Styles panel.
2. Click the Edit tab.
3. On the Edit tab, click the Modeling Settings icon ().
4. To fill areas that are closed loops, select the Section Make full check box. Recollect that, to create a filled section cut, the geometry in the department slice must form a closed loop inside its group or component hierarchy. You tin come across that hierarchy in the Outliner.
5. (Optional) To accommodate the color, click the Section Fill color swatch and apply the colour picker to choose your desired colour.

Tip: Need some help troubleshooting a fill? Context-click the section plane and choose Troubleshoot Section Make full. You and so see red circles effectually the vertices that border the opening in the loop.

Meet Customizing Modeling Settings to Complement a Manner for more than details about your Modeling Settings options.

Creating new geometry from a section plane

Where a section airplane intersects with a model, SketchUp enables you to create geometry, which is automatically organized into a group. Yous can then move that grouping to a new location in your model, and then y'all take a re-create to piece of work with, every bit shown in the following figure. Or explode the group so you lot can utilise the geometry to divide your model.

To create geometry in this manner, context-click a section airplane and select Create Group from Slice from the menu that appears.

Tip: If you take problem seeing or selecting the group, select the group in the Outliner.

When a section plane cuts your model, the cutting isn't permanent, and you can control the visibility of the plane and the cut independently of each other. Hiding the department aeroplane makes the transparent airplane with its colour handles disappear. Hiding the section cutting makes your model look whole once more.

Here's how to control the visibility of your section planes and cuts:

Tip: Microsoft Windows users tin find all the section tools on the Department toolbar. Mac OS Ten users can add section tools to the main toolbar. Meet Customizing Your Workspace for details.

Exporting department cut furnishings

No matter what version of SketchUp you take (Make or Pro), yous can export an paradigm of your model displaying section cut effects. You tin can use these images in portfolios, presentations, websites, or basically anywhere you might want to prove off an image of your work. Just brand sure your model shows the section cutting as you want it to appear in your prototype. See Using SketchUp Data with Other Modeling Programs or Tools for details about exporting a model as an image or other file blazon.

PROWith SketchUp Pro, you can also export a section slice, which is a 2nd vector epitome of geometry along a department plane. Hither are a merely a few ways you might use a section slice:

• Create scaled drawings in a CAD program. If yous created a 3D model with precise measurements and angles, the section slice feature enables you to scale the piece. (Technically, you can scale imprecise models, likewise; the scale simply doesn't hateful anything.)
• Edit the piece equally a vector image. Considering the 2d slice is exported as a vector graphic, yous may be able to open the exported file in programs like Adobe Illustrator.

Tip: When the calibration of your 2d slice is important, pay close attention to your view in SketchUp. If your view is set to Perspective, you tin can't export to scale. If you lot're viewing your model in Parallel Projection view, but faces whose normals are perpendicular to the view bending are measurable. Viewing a Model explains what the different views evidence and how to alter your view.

PRO To export a department slice from SketchUp Pro, follow these steps:

1. If your section plane is within a group or component context, double-click the group or component to open its context.
2. Select the section plane with the section cut that you want to export.
3. Select File > Export > Section Slice. The Export 2D Section Piece dialog box appears, equally shown in the following figure.
4. Choose where you want to salve the file. By default, the file is saved in your Documents folder.
5. Type a name for the exported file in the File Name box (Microsoft Windows) or Save As box (macOS).
6. Select what type of file yous want to export from the Save As Type box (Microsoft Windows) or Format box (macOS). The default option is .dwg or y'all can select .dxf. Both of these are AutoCAD file types.
7. (Optional) Click the Options button to open a dialog box where you can select your options. The post-obit list outlines what your options hateful. After you're washed selecting options, click OK to return to the Export 2nd Department Slice dialog box.
8. Click the Export push. Your file is saved in the location you selected in Pace 4.

When you export a 2nd piece, you tin can choose from the post-obit options:

• True Section (Orthographic) exports the section piece as a true orthographic drawing. This is useful for creating templates for CAD drawings or any other time you want to generate accurate, measurable slices.
• Screen Project projects the section cut as you run into information technology on your SketchUp screen, including any perspective distortion. This is well-nigh useful for diagrams that you don't need to mensurate.
• AutoCAD Version enables you to select the version of AutoCAD yous plan to use from the drop-down list.
• Cartoon Scale and Size options enable you to configure the scale of the exported section slice. If Total Scale is selected, SketchUp exports the file at a 1:one scale. The In Drawing and In Model options enable you to specify a drawing calibration, where In Drawing is the measurement of the exported geometry and In Model is the object'south actual measurement. For example, for a scale of one:4, enter 1" in the In Cartoon box and iv" in the In Model box.
• Section Lines options enable you to choose how the section cut lines in your exported slice appear. None exports the lines at normal width. Polylines with Width turns the lines into polylines. Wide Line Entities (only bachelor when exporting .dwg files to AutoCAD 2000 or subsequently) makes the lines in the exported file wider than normal. If you want to set the line width automatically, leave the Automatic checkbox selected. Or clear Automatic and enter a value in the Width box to prepare an exact line width.

On Microsoft Windows, you as well see Section Line options for separating contour edges on a layer and e'er being prompted for department piece options.

• The Divide on a Layer option creates a single additional layer for profile edges. This layer is useful if yous would like to plot profile lines using a unlike pen weight or quickly modify the line width of all profile lines in a separate CAD or illustration program.

  Tip: The Separate on a Layer option is unlike from layer assignments in SketchUp. SketchUp Layer assignments do not interpret direct when exporting 2D hidden line vectors.

• Select the Always Prompt for Section Piece Options checkbox, and SketchUp displays the 2D Section Slice Options dialog box every fourth dimension you export a department slice. When this checkbox is cleared, by default, SketchUp uses whatever options were selected last fourth dimension.

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Source: https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/slicing-model-peer-inside