Clipping Plane Sections

Rhino
1

Hi all,

I’m working on producing section drawings directly in Rhino 8 using a clipping plane, and I’m trying to get the graphics to read like a conventional architectural section.

Ideally, I’d like the section to display with the typical graphic hierarchy used in architectural drawings:

  • Cut boundary (where the clipping plane intersects objects): bold/heavy lineweight

  • Cut surfaces: filled with a section hatch to read as solid material

  • Objects beyond the cut plane: visible but with lighter/finer lineweight to provide context

In other words, I want to clearly differentiate cut elements vs. background elements using lineweight and hatch, similar to how sections are represented in architectural documentation.

Current Progress

I’ve been using a clipping plane with section fills enabled, which successfully produces the hatch on the cut surfaces.

However, I initially encountered an issue where internal features such as screw holes or voids remained visible at the section cut, making the objects appear hollow rather than solid.

I was able to resolve that by setting:

AddBackground = No

This prevents background geometry from appearing through the section fill, which allows the hatch to read as solid material and eliminates those unwanted internal features.

Remaining Issue

While this fixes the hollow appearance, it also removes all background geometry entirely. As a result, elements that should appear beyond the cut plane (for example, a cabinet side panel located behind the section cut) are no longer visible.

Ideally I’d like to achieve something closer to a traditional architectural section where:

  • the cut reads as solid with hatch,

  • internal holes at the cut are not visible,

  • but objects further behind the cut plane still appear, just with lighter linework.

Question

Is there a workflow in Rhino 8 that allows:

  1. Section hatching that occludes internal geometry at the cut,

  2. Bold linework at the cut boundary, and

  3. Lighter linework for background geometry beyond the clipping plane?

I’m curious whether this is best handled through:

  • display mode settings,

  • clipping plane properties,

  • Make2D workflows, or

  • some combination of the above.

Any guidance or examples of how others are producing architectural-style sections directly from Rhino would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

4

@wim can you help please?

5

Hi Adam -

In a quick test here in Rhino 8, this appears to work as expected and doesn’t make the object appear hollow.

Please post a 3dm file in which this is behaving differently.
Also, please run the Rhino SystemInfo command and copy-paste its output here.
-wim