Arch SectionPlane

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THIS COMMAND IS PART OF THE INTEGRATED BIM WORKBENCH IN V1.0
This page has been updated for that version.

Arch SectionPlane

Menu location
Annotation → Section Plane
Workbenches
BIM
Default shortcut
S P
Introduced in version
-
See also
Draft Shape2DView

Description

The Arch SectionPlane tool creates a Section Plane, which defines a section or view plane. It takes its placement according to the current Draft Working Plane and can be relocated and reoriented by moving and rotating it, until it describes the 2D view you want to obtain.

The Section Plane object will only consider a certain set of objects. Objects that are selected when you create a Section Plane will be added to that set automatically. Other objects can later be added or removed from a SectionPlane object with the Arch Add component and Arch Remove component tools, or by double-clicking the Section Plane in the tree view.

The Section Plane alone won't create any view of its objects set. For that, you must use the 2D drawing production workflow to create a view in a TechDraw page.

Usage

  1. Optionally, set the Draft Working Plane to reflect the plane where you want to place the Section Plane.
  2. Select objects you want to be included in your section view. Tip: selecting an Arch Floor will include all objects in it.
  3. There are several ways to invoke the command:
    • Press the Section Plane button
    • Select the Annotation → Section Plane option from the menu.
    • Press S then P keys.
  4. Move/rotate the Section Plane into a different position if needed.
  5. Select the Section Plane if not selected already.
  6. Use the workflow described below to create a drawing.

Typical drawing workflow

The typical workflow to create a 2D drawing involves the following steps, also reflected in the buttons' order in the toolbar:

  1. Create a Section Plane, and place it correctly in the model. As described before.
  2. Create a drawing view with the 2D Drawing tool. A drawing view is simply a BuildingPart that has been modified to be recognized as a 2D drawing (and stripped of some attributes like level, height, etc). Using a BuildingPart has a few advantages: It defines a working plane, you can move it and it will also move its contents, and it has a "title" that shows in the view report. But fundamentally, the drawing view is just a container for the components of your 2D drawing. If the Section Plane is selected before initiating the 2D Drawing command, both the Section view and Section cut objects mentioned in the next step are created automatically.
  3. Create a Section view and if needed, a Section cut from your Section Plane. Both tools produce a Shape2DView, but the first one in "solid" mode, which shows projected lines from what is viewed by the Section Plane, and the second one in "cut lines" mode, so it shows only the cut lines (the intersection between the Section Plane and the model). In plans and sections, you will want both, and give the section cut a bit thicker line width, in elevations you will typically only need the section view, as there is nothing to cut. Then, of course, you place both these objects, in the drawing view.
  4. Create all needed annotations like dimensions, texts, 2D linework, etc... and add them to the drawing view.
  5. Create a TechDraw page using the Page tool of the BIM Workbench. It will pop up a dialog to let you select an SVG file to use as a template (and remembers the last used template).
  6. Once you have your drawing view and your page, select both and press the View button. This will create a TechDraw view on the page, showing the contents of your drawing view.

Options

Properties

Data

SectionPlane

The Arch SectionPlane with the DataClip property set to true will behave like a camera, limiting the field of view.

View

SectionPlane

Tweaks

Alternative workflows

Scripting

See also: Arch API and FreeCAD Scripting Basics.

The SectionPlane tool can be used in macros and from the Python console by using the following function: 

Section = makeSectionPlane(objectslist=None, name="Section")

Example: 

import FreeCAD, Draft, Arch

p1 = FreeCAD.Vector(0, 0, 0)
p2 = FreeCAD.Vector(2000, 0, 0)
baseline = Draft.makeLine(p1, p2)
baseline2 = Draft.makeLine(p1, -1*p2)

Wall1 = Arch.makeWall(baseline, length=None, width=150, height=2000)
Wall2 = Arch.makeWall(baseline2, length=None, width=150, height=1800)
Structure = Arch.makeStructure(length=1000, width=1000, height=200)
FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.recompute()

BuildingPart = Arch.makeBuildingPart([Wall1, Wall2])

Floor = Arch.makeFloor([BuildingPart])
Building = Arch.makeBuilding([Floor, Structure])
Site = Arch.makeSite(Building)
FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.recompute()

Section1 = Arch.makeSectionPlane([Wall1, Wall2])
Section2 = Arch.makeSectionPlane([Structure])
Section3 = Arch.makeSectionPlane([Site])
FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.recompute()


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