We’ve been exploring the use of ClippingDrawings in our architectural drafting workflow at the office. The development of the tool seems to be progressing steadily in the right direction, but there are still some missing features that prevent it from being fully practical for our use. At the moment, it requires quite a bit of manual adjustment each time the drawings are updated.
One feature that would be particularly helpful—something I believe was discussed before, though I can’t locate the thread—is the ability to draw geometry above or behind the clipping plane. In a plan drawing, for instance, this might include a roof window situated above the clipping plane.
We’ve attempted to work around this limitation by adding a second clipping plane above or behind the geometry to generate a new set of lines for elements not visible in the original section. However, this approach results in double lines that need to be cleaned up every time the drawing is updated. Another workaround we tried was flipping the clipping plane to project upwards instead, but this produces a mirrored drawing, which can’t be seamlessly incorporated into the final print layout without copying and mirroring the result each time.
Ideally, there would be an option to draw all included and “visible” geometry above or behind the clipping plane on a separate layer, allowing us to control the appearance of these lines independently.
If this functionality is already being considered, or if there’s a relatively simple workaround available today, I’d be glad to hear about it!
Could you post a very simple 3dm file that shows what is expected here? I’m not clear on how you would mark which objects would be included and which would not.
It doesn’t produce a mirrored drawing if the active viewport is set to the Parallel Reflected Projection.
If I understand what you are after, you’d still need two clipping planes where one is flipped and would need to put the drawings on top of each other.
-wim
Thanks for the reply. We’re still fairly new to using Rhino at the office and we hadn’t realized there was an option for Parallel Reflected Projection—we’ll give that a try and see if it works for us!
You’re right that the workaround involves using two clipping planes for a single drawing, which makes the setup less than ideal. That said, if drawing updates can happen automatically without requiring manual cleanup, I think the extra effort during setup is a reasonable trade-off.
What I mean by “included” refers to the objects set under Objects Clipped in the ClippingPlane properties. For example, if a roof window is part of that set but located above (behind) the clipping plane—and not obscured by other geometry—I’d like it to still appear in the ClippingDrawing. I hope that makes sense, let me know if it’s still unclear and I’ll try to put together a visual reference.
That sounds a bit like RH-84624 ClippingDrawings: Selective Clipping Is Not Selective Visibility
Could you review that item and see if that is what you are looking for? As of now, the state of that issue is “Inactive” as the developer says the current behavior is as expected. I’m not a user so my vote doesn’t count.
-wim
Thank you both for providing feedback on my issue.
I’ve read through the issue you linked, and I believe it’s not quite the same as what I’m looking for. That issue deals with objects not included under Objects Clipped not appearing in the output, which does seem like the expected behavior.
In contrast, I’m looking for a way to include objects that are listed under Objects Clipped, but are essentially clipped out due to their position above or behind the clipping plane. Ideally, these could still be included in the output—on a separate layer, perhaps labeled “Above” or “Behind.”
The Reflected Ceiling Plan workflow is definitely related to what we’re trying to achieve, though it does not quite fit our needs it seems like. The example file here Reflected Ceiling Plans uses static 2D geometry combined with a shaded display to show the reflected ceiling plan.
In our case, we need a dynamic ClippingDrawing that represents geometry above or behind the clipping plane—as an additional layer in the existing ClippingDrawing. For our workflow to be viable, there needs to be a way to include what’s “above the cut” dynamically in the drawing output.
It’s possible this could be achieved using a second ClippingSection/ClippingDrawing setup in combination with Parallel Reflected Projection, but I haven’t quite been able to wrap my head around how that might work, if at all possible.
The way I see it, this could be implemented in one of two ways:
As an option within ClippingDrawing that allows geometry above or behind the clipping plane to be included in a dedicated output layer
Or by mirroring the output of a second ClippingDrawing and layering it above the primary ClippingDrawing in the layout
The key point is that the workflow should remain dynamic, without requiring Make2D or manual cleanup after updates.
I’ve tried to illustrate the functionality we’re after below—I hope it helps clarify things a bit:
I sent the ceiling plan post thinking about this work around, I know it may not be ideal but maybe with the ceiling plan example this can work enough for now?
