Clipping

Clipping allows creating cross-section views (clipping planes) of your mesh.

It is available as a sub-item in the context menu of an active mesh.

To create a clipping plane, click on the New button in the dialog and choose how it is defined: by Absolute or Relative coordinates.

Absolute Coordinates

• Base point - allows defining the coordinates of the base point for the clipping plane.

  • Reset - returns the base point to coordinate origin.

• Direction - allows defining the orientation of the clipping plane.

  • Invert - allows selecting, which part of the object will be removed and which will remain after clipping.

Relative mode

• Orientation ( ||X-Y, ||X-Z or ||Y-Z).

• Distance between the opposite extremities of the boundary box of selected objects, if it is set to 0.5 the boundary box is split in two halves.

• Rotation (in angle degrees) around X (Y to Z) and around Y (X to Z) (depending on the chosen Orientation)

The preview plane and the cut object

The other parameters are available in both modes :

• OpenGL clipping check-box allows choosing OpenGL native clipping, which clips the whole presentation. If it is unchecked, the clipping is done on the dataset i.e. only the visibility of separate mesh cells is changed (see the examples).
• The List contains Meshes, sub-meshes and groups to which the cross-section will be applied.
• Select all check-box allows to selecting and deselecting all available objects at once.
• Show preview check-box shows the clipping plane in the 3D Viewer.
• Auto Apply check-box shows button is on, you can preview the cross-section in the 3D Viewer.

It is also possible to interact with the clipping plane directly in 3D view using the mouse.

To get a new object from Clipping, click Apply.

Examples:

The cross-section using dataset

The OpenGL cross-section