I have recently started using Rhino 8 and have been excited to make use of clipping section drawings. My current workflow, like many others involves constant use of the Make2D function to create 2d construction drawings. I like the idea of being able to dynamically link the 2d drawings with my 3d models. I cannot seem to find a method of maintaining the source layers into the newly created clipping section drawings though. Maintaining the color is nice, but being able to maintain the source layers would be far more helpful. Being that Make2D already does this, it seems odd that this functionality is missing. Ideally an option to link a clipping section drawing directly to a layout detail could be of even greater convenience. We begin construction far before we are done designing so there are many updates to the plans along the way requiring a decision be made to either make the changes in 2d and watch the 3d model grow further and further detached from the final product or make the changes in 3d and then regenerate the 2d outputs. The quicker I can get these 2D plans created the easier it is to justify doing more (ideally all) of the revisions in 3D. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated as well as any advice on workflow.
If anyone has a link or links to other places this may have been discussed, I would be grateful if they would share. I have trouble believing Im the first to bring this up, but haven’t seen anything specifically discussing Clipping section drawing layers.
Hi @RHammer Clipping drawings maintain source attributes or properties and they can be updated when the properties of the source are changed. They also can be set to be by output layer, giving control to change print width for example to be independent of source objects.
Could you elaborate on what workflow are you not able to achieve due to not maintaining source layers in ClippingDrawings?
Our layers are primarily material and part names. By clicking on a line the layer tells what material it is, or in some situations what part it is. This is useful while adding annotations or calculating BOM, as well as gets carried over when exported to AutoCAD. We utilize section drawings for the bulk of our construction needs.
Here is a link to the company website if anyone is interested in what we are designing. All American Marine
Thank you for explaining. We will look into the option to add source layer for drawing output.
Would adding user-text to section curves that indicated the name of the source-layer be useful in your workflow?
I’m also curious if you assign part-number and other data to objects as user-text? I’m asking because those are maintained in sections’ geometry.
Off the top of my head, adding user text to section curves could be useful if one had control over the formatting. The information density could be difficult to manage if populated automatically without some form of control.
I think the same could apply to objects. Our standard structure involves part names and numbers as part of block names or layers.
I think this feature needs careful discussion and testing to make useful. Will consider for V9 development. I created a YT Report to document the discussion.
I find that unfortunate as the clipping drawings addition was the primary reason behind our purchase of Rhino8. Considering both the Section and Make2D commands already had the capability of maintaining source layers (albeit in different manners), I was sure this new feature would also utilize it in one of those two ways. As is I don’t see a way that the clipping section drawings will find a way into our workflow.
Ryan, I’d like to work with you to better understand your workflow and see if there is a way that you can make use of SectionTools in V8.
Does your workflow allow for tagging the objects (with part numbers and other data) instead of the layers? I’m asking because this information can be carried to the section curves at this time. Also, there might be a way to tag section objects with source layer as a user-text, then use this data to sort output.
That would be better than it currently is. but I think that it would still fall short. Until Rhino can offer a real challenge to AutoCAD in the 2D drafting area I think that we would continue using the Section tool and the Make2D tool in place of the newer clipping section tool. The ability to use layers is just to heavily used to abandon. I would love to see Rhino grow to a point that I can convince the others to shift out of AutoCAD but were not there yet. At that point, we may be able to give up layer control once the section views are created.
I would love to see clipping sections having the option to maintain source layers, too. When you export 2D drawings to dwg, I have to move the elements manually, which is very time consuming and also increases the possibility of user mistakes. Exporting is mandatory as not everybody works with Rhino and therefore keeping layer structure is as well.
Having the clipping sections integrated now is so cool, but the workflow is just not perfect yet.
Also, if dimensions would stick to the clipping drawings that would be perfect.
Does anybody have a good workflow with clipping sections?