Clipping Planes- Used to be able to

Rhino Rhino for Windows
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Clipping Planes- Used to be able to set a Clipping Plane setting to show the clipped plane as solid surface instead of “hollow” as in this pic -

I’ve looked all through HELP on Clipping Planes, and all through the Properties. Can no longer find the setting to allow the flat clipped surface to show on the part.

Was expecting to be able to show a clipped part highlighting the internals of the part for the Client, as was available the last time I sent him a CLIPPED view of this sort. Was RIGHT AT quitting for the day and meeting the deadline, all I had to do was capture the desired view, and send it along, RIGHT ON TIME. I TRIED to find the setting in help, as explained above, and even went to the internet, with no joy. Now, I have to explain STILL ANOTHER DELAY because of another last minute unexpected behavior.

ANY possible suggestions ? CLEARLY this represents an area of knowledge that I lack, and would greatly appreciate ANY POSSIBLE help on this I can get !

Thanks !

-C.

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Hi Charles - probably not - this does fail sometimes - but… are you sure the solid fill is set in the Diaplay panel for this viewport? That is the first thing to check. If that is set and the object is closed and valid and all, please export it to a new file and send it to tech@mcneel.com.

-Pascal

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Pascal-
The part is NOT yet closed. Is THAT the problem ?
Thanks -
-C.

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Yes. It has to be Closed so Rhino knows what is inside and outside.

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John, Rhino knows what’s inside and outside by surface normals direction. In fact mid-modeling, even before I have created all the patches to close a polysurface i need to be able to do operations that take into account normals direction. Example: you can do booleans with open entities and get them to behave the expected way just by paying attention to surface normals. As a user I can see what those normals are by having a dedicated backface color for all surfaces on a display mode.

My point? Clipping plane should ALSO pay attention to this. Right now it doesn’t and it makes absolutely no sense, …because you know when I need to know what objects are close to others, or colliding? When I’m modeling! That means BEFORE all my polysurfaces are closed up into solids.

This doesn’t I even include cases when a polysurface should be close but it has a single point naked edge (it happen). Or when I’m import components for references (step files) and in most cases those will not besolid because of the not so great step importing abilities of rhino.

So please, let me see capped clipping planes based on a close intersection + surface normal.

cc. @pascal

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I am with Gustavo on this one - I’d think it should be possible to make that work- but the do-ers know better than I do…

-Pascal

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Sounds smart to me but I’m not familiar with the plumbing of the command. Certainly should be on the wish list.
I was commenting on what the command requires currently.

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Check’s in the mail

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Thanks !
John -I CAN see why it would need to be closed, but sometimes I have to do a clipping plane on an open object. Pascal’s comments are appropriate to my situation, tho, so I can DEFINITELY see both sides.

Connected but slightly different -A greater benefit to me would be the ability to DE-Select objects to NOT include as clipped.
For instance, ASME Y-14.5 (Drafting standard) indicated that diametrical parts should NOT be sectioned when sectioning the parts they are inserted into. 2 examples which should make sense immediately, when we think about it, are 1- the BOLTS used to secure a cover to a base of some sort, for instance maybe a Valve Cover on a Pump body, or 2- a Center-shaft inside a rotating assembly.

Connected but different again - I do an EXTENSIVE amount of MECHANICAL and STRUCTURAL conceptual modeling, so this an other recent posts are really kind of connected this way. Point of this paragraph - RHINO REMAINS my GO-TO TOOL for both disciplines, and that RH-5 IS available in BOTH 32 & 64 bit is of SIGNIFICANT importance to me. I am forced to drop back to RH-5/32 - BO-1 for ANY Animation requiring precise movements and destination timing, with BO-2 “~OK” for other uses.

Finally - NEON is a FANTASTIC tool, with the new “Raytraced” being offered in RH-6/WIP a weak replacement, as its MUCH slower, and holds “noise” FAR longer before offering an acceptable image. Consider -if you MUST stop a viewport “R-T Render” BEFORE its done in order to continue working, is it TRULY RTR ? Answer: NO. NEON can be stopped at a predetermined time, and with a really decent video card, that can be just seconds. This NEON technique (hint) ALSO lends itself to GORGEOUS Animations, requiring only HOURS instead of DAYS. I can get a test-run over lunch,and sometimes just go with THAT, as its GORGEOUS, and really lends itself to a HIGH quality “Engineered” presentation !
Thanks ALL ! -
C.

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Thanks ALL !

John -
I CAN see why it would need to be closed, but sometimes I have to do a clipping plane on an open object. Pascal’s comments are appropriate to my situation, tho, so I can DEFINITELY see both sides.

_ _

Connected but slightly different -
A greater benefit to me would be the ability to DE-Select objects to NOT include as clipped.

For instance, ASME Y-14.5 (Drafting standard) indicated that diametrical parts should NOT be sectioned when sectioning the parts they are inserted into. 2 examples which should make sense immediately, when we think about it, are 1- the BOLTS used to secure a cover to a base of some sort, for instance maybe a Valve Cover on a Pump body, or 2- a Center-shaft inside a rotating assembly.
_ _

Connected but different again - I do an EXTENSIVE amount of MECHANICAL and STRUCTURAL conceptual modeling, so this and some other recent posts, are really kind of connected this way. Point of this paragraph - RHINO REMAINS my GO-TO TOOL for both disciplines, and that RH-5 IS available in BOTH 32 & 64 bit is of SIGNIFICANT importance to me. I am forced to drop back to RH-5/32 - BO-1 for ANY Animation requiring precise movements and destination timing, with BO-2 “~OK” for SOME other uses.

Finally - NEON is a FANTASTIC tool, with the new “Raytraced” being offered in RH-6/WIP an iffy replacement, as its MUCH slower, and holds “noise” FAR longer before offering an acceptable image. Consider - if you MUST stop a SLOW Viewport “R-T Render” BEFORE its done in order to continue working (especially with a still “noisy” image), is it TRULY RTR ? Answer: NO. In my RH-5/64-NEON - BO-2, NEON can be stopped at a predetermined time, and with a really decent video card (any of the current gen cards that work with RH qualify), that can be just seconds. This NEON technique (hint) ALSO lends itself to GORGEOUS Animations, requiring only HOURS instead of DAYS. I can get a test-run (that might take someone else DAYS) over lunch, and sometimes just go with THAT, as its GORGEOUS, and really lends itself to a HIGH quality “Engineered” presentation !

Yes, NEON is 64Bit, and doesn’t work with RH-5/32, but when I CAN use BO-2, its a real joy ! In my RH-5/32 - BO-1 I just finagle the Rendered-Viewport settings, turn on SHADOWS and get FANTASTIC renders ! Put in an in-context background, animate IT if necessary - depending - and I can put management RIGHT ON THE OFFSHORE PLATFORM or On-Bottom, while THEIR piece of equipment - a Skid-Mounted Filter unit, maybe, or possibly an operating pump or Subsea Manifold is RUNNING ! I’ve made some really great sales for my clients, this way ! RHINO REMAINS my go-to SOLUTION of choice !

THANKS for a really wonderful product !

Thanks ALL ! -

C.

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Thanks, cashed, so now I can ask -

what happens if you have a tube, say, a pipe with wall thickness with one cap missing so it’s open and the clipping plane cuts across it- how does the normal direction affect the display of the clipped plane?

What does an open cylinder show at the clipping plane cutting across it if the normals point in? How about a two concentric cylinders with opposite normals?

etc…

-Pascal

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It should behave in all cases like Boolean would. Or like the cap command would also?

Tube with thickness, one capped end and open end? Clipping plane caps it. Normals pointing inward? Don’t cap it.

open cylinder show at the clipping plane cutting across it if the normals point in? Cap it!

How about a two concentric cylinders with opposite normals? Looks at each’ normals, then decide.

Of course his uncaps an interesting can of worms: many operations in Rhino flip normals on surfaces and polysurfaces. Things like split by isopart, join, changedegree, etc. That should’t happen. This is not normal :joy:

Also new surface patch creation seems to create random normal direction. I think the more expected behavior (but maybe is because I work on products, not rooms) is that the normals should point towards the camera. So I’m adding Surface patches from the outside of the product.

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This seems more useful and expected, to me, than letting the normals and Booloean logic enter into it. Just cap all closed loops at the plane. You’d get some unexpected or possibly not useful displays with open cylinders inside other open cylinders, but maybe that is OK.

-Pascal

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I’ll settle for that. I think having a capping toggle in there display tab makes sense.

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Yeah, controls for various situations would be nice, but being able to de-select affected components is an actual thing, making it usable BOTH for Product presentations AND technical drawing Ortho AND ISO Views. Guys, this is an ACTUAL thing. This would be a HUGE enhancement. I’d even be able to BONGO-Animate the INTERNAL OPERATION of an Assembly. This would be HUGE. 3D PDFing ignores cliipping planes (RATS) so Animmating , even a simple turn-table Animation would be HUGE. Seriously, this would take RHINO useability to a whole new level, ESPECIALLY in fully ray-traced Renders.

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Lots of words there and lots of all caps emphasis, but I can’t tell what you actually mean - showing fills from clipping planes is in the display panel currently for shaded views.

-Pascal

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Really pretty simple, actually.
I give reasons for each of the 2 follow-on questions and the questions themselves. Takes a moment, yes, but would have been nice to get a response to either ofr both of those questions.- - -I know things go real fast on your end, so I get it, I really do. BUT (see what I did there?) things go pretty fast on this end too, and if I can get the questions explained and asked right up front, there’s less back and forth resulting in a far shorter time to successful resolution than a series of back-and-forths spread out over a day, two, maybe three.
So what do you think about a NEON plugin for RH-6/WIP ? Far superior to what its being replaced with, far closer to being mature, far faster, and far less noisier. Thoughts ?- - -And -
On the CLIPPING PLANES question (see - I did it again ;=) ! ), a far more USEFUL (oops) Clipping Planes feature would be the ability to deselect parts to NOT (uh-oh) be affected. Why, What and Basis, offered in original question. Its actually an ACTUAL (!?!) thing, as you can see from the original question.
Gotta take a moment tho, pause and really understand the meat of the question and where its coming from to be able to offer insight. Sometimes its nothing more than to pass it along, but its NEVER something to ignore.
Been doing what I do for 35 years, and am pretty good at it. NOT the very best you’ll ever encounter, but I hold my own.
Thanks again -
C.
Charles S. Fee - 281-546-5091Sr. Mechanical/Structural3D/2D CAD Designer, Modeler and Animator
New Product DevelopmentPatent Support a Specialty !

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I rest my case.

-Pascal

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Ok, took you as far as I can. I EVEN (;=) ! ) carved out the questions so you could see them by themselves. With NO attempt to deal with the point at hand, you dismiss the input because there was some CAPS included in the reply. That there was no more there than in THIS one, or that the means and basis for the questions were offered to back up the request, that it was DISMISSED in such an off-hand manner suggests one of 2 things, possibly both.

  1. No knowledge or insufficient knowledge on the topic.
  2. A social-media basis for professional preparation.
    Neither one is a basis for supporting EXPERIENCED customers who DO NOT live in a software Gee-whiz world, but rather use that software as a tool for the world THEY live in - the design of commercial product.
    You may “rest your case” but that doesn’t mean the verdict is in. I kept this off the public blogs so save YOU the embarrassment.
    That you are ill equipped to answer the 2 basic questions is the real verdict.
    Thanks ! This was fun, AND instructional, but not unusual. Tell everyone I said hi and send my regards -
    C.
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Post an image of what you want, maybe somebody will understand.
I, for one, can’t make sense of your request.