More about Dynamic Sectioning Using Section Plane

About Sectioning

When designing or reviewing a part, the global view is sometimes not enough. The Dynamic Sectioning functionality is useful to visualize the part by section in design phase and to detect potential section issues during the reviewing process. With the help of this capability, you can obtain a 3D section view of the part. You can choose the position to cut by moving the section plane.

About the Section Plane

By default, the center of the section plane is located at the origin of the local axis system relative to the part. A section plane has limits and its own local axis system. The letters U, V and W represent the axes. The W-axis is the normal vector of the plane.

A 3D section view is generated at the position specified by the section plane. It is dynamically updated according to the modifications made in the section plane position.

Direct Manipulation of the Section Plane

You can resize, move and rotate the section plane. As you move the cursor over the diagonals of the plane, the plane edges or the local axis system, arrows appear to help you.

Position of the Section Plane on Different Geometries

A section plane is positioned according to the selected geometry. In this section, the section plane positioning on planes, canonical faces, non-canonical faces and edges are discussed.

Planes and Non-Canonical Faces

A section plane is placed on the face/plane at the selection point which becomes its origin. In case of plane selected from the specification tree, the origin of this selected plane becomes the origin of the section plane.

Canonical Faces

Default Position of the Section Plane

On the canonical faces, the default position of the section plane is such that:

• It passes through the axis of the canonical face.
• The origin of the section is the projection of the selection point onto the axis of the canonical face.
• The normal to the section plane is on the line defined by the origin of the plane and the selection point.

Position of the Section Plane using Shift

If you press Shift while selecting the position of the section plane on the canonical face, it gets placed such that:

• The section plane is normal to the axis of the canonical face.
• The origin of the section is the projection of the selection point onto the axis of the canonical face.

Position of the Section Plane using Ctrl

If you press Ctrl while selecting the position of the section plane on the canonical face, it gets placed on the face at the selection point as in case of non-canonical faces.

Important: If you simultaneously press both Shift and Ctrl while positioning the section plane, it gets placed as mentioned in the Ctrl behavior.

Edges

Default Position of the Section Plane

On the edges, the default position of the section plane is tangent to the edge at the selection point.

Position of the Section Plane using Shift

If you press Shift while selecting the position of the section plane on edges, it passes through the tangent to the edge at the selection In this case, the normal is computed depending on the viewpoint.