Rhino WIP Feature: Document Section Styles

Serengeti (Rhino WIP)
1

Document Section Styles is a new feature in the Rhino WIP.

Section Styles include settings for fills, hatches, edge colors, and line weights. They help define the appearance of geometry in the clipping sections.

Rhino WIP provides a table for saving and maintaining these section styles in the 3DM file. This makes the creation and assignment of Section Styles efficient across multiple layers, objects and clipping planes and modifications easy.

See this interview with developer Travis Serio (@trav):

Background
Rhino 8 added the clipping sections feature.

  • The section style controls the appearance of geometry in the clipping sections. Sections styles included fills, hatches, edge colors, and line weights

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  • The clipping section combined with the section style created clear professional technical drawings with cutaway visuals.

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  • This was important to users like architects, product or industrial designers, engineers, or anyone that wants to section their model for printing or inspection.

  • The section styles helped create a clean and descriptive section view for floor plans, elevations, and sections.

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But in Rhino 8, section styles were assigned per object, per layer, or to the clipping plane.
They were time consuming to create for every layer, object, or clipping plane. Editing them was required on each object, layer, or clipping plane.

In Rhino 8, the section styles we identified as “custom,” and they were not shared with other layers, objects, or clipping panes in the document. This created a fair amount of work when developing and editing a model using clipping sections.

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Why Document Section Styles in Rhino WIP?

Document Section Styles allow for a centralized, “reusable” way to manage all the styles that are in the document.

  • Now you can define and name styles in a document properties and apply them across multiple objects, layers, or clipping planes.

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  • Editing them is a breeze and will provide a more consistent look with less effort.
    Document Section Styles makes for a faster, easier workflow than Rhino 8.

Where to Start?

  1. First do the comprehensive tutorial Master Class: Sectioning Workflows in Rhino.
  2. Then download the Rhino WIP and open a model you want to section.
  3. In document properties, make a couple section styles,
    apply them to multiple layers or multiple objects.
  4. Then go in and modify the section styles and watch it update across all of those areas.

Saving Back to Rhino 8

If the Rhino model that contains Document Section Styles is saved back to Rhino 8, all the section styles will be assigned to the object, layer, or clipping plane. This is very good news to those that are using clipping planes and clipping sections in the Rhino WIP and need to save back to Rhino 8.

Conclusion

If you are just getting started with clipping sections, the Document Section Styles in Rhino WIP will make them efficient and configurable.

Download the Rhino WIP and try document section style improvement. Give us feedback below if something is working or not working for you.

Thank you!
Mary Ann Fugier

2

This is awesome, guys and will make managing section styles so much more efficient. Thank you!

3

Hoping to see this in functionality come its way to Grasshopper soon too! Right now Grasshopper R8 has access to get and set annotation styles which seems like what the Document Section Styles is based on. I am aware that clipping planes are being worked at for Grasshopper R9, so hoping to see clipping drawings come through as well.

4

This is amazing.

Could you make it even more convenient by making „section styles“ to just „ styles“, meaning that every parameter of objects, layers can be controlled there! Is something like this is also in Planning ?

It would also be nice if we could use this for overwriting objects, layers, or clipping planes in layout space. As an architect we often use different level of detail in our Planoutput that could help a lot.

5

Thanks for making improvements in this area!

Would it be possible to have the default Layer Section Style be ‘Default’ rather than None?

And to have a default section style already loaded in Doc Properties (which could be “none”)?

I ask this because I can then change the default section style to whatever I want, and have this applied to every layer/object in the model without having to assign it to every single layer.

From there I can customise different objects / layers as required.

Having this ability to get a default section style applied globally to a document would be a great timesaver, and mimics how the Print Width layer setting works, which is great.

6

Hi @Andrew,

That makes sense.
Would this work as an initial Default Section Style?

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When you pick on None now in the WIP, it is named “Custom Unnamed”

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Does None just stop being used?

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If you open a Rhino 8 file in Rhino 9, are all the Section Styles that were set to None now set to Default?

I can log the request when I hear back from you.
Thank for the additional direction.

Sincerely,
Mary Ann Fugier

7

HI Mary Ann,

That makes sense.
Would this work as an initial Default Section Style?

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Yes! That would be my personal choice for a default section style.
Though not sure of other’s preference here, which is why I suggested a default ‘None’ style in case people preferred to have no style to be their default.

When you pick on None now in the WIP, it is named “Custom Unnamed”

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Yes, I see.

Does None just stop being used?

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My preference would be to have all layers set to Default.

  • In The Doc Section Style, you have a checkbox to make any Section Style the Default.
  • There are two preloaded Section Styles, ANSI31, and None
  • A user can choose to select either style as Default
  • At any time a user can create a new section style, and make that one default.

If you open a Rhino 8 file in Rhino 9, are all the Section Styles that were set to None now set to Default?

Interesting question.
I would have to say that if they were set to None in v8, then they should stay as None in v9 (as long as None is still an available Section Style).
Personally, I’d be happy to have them changed to Default, but if a complex file has been created with Layer Section Styles intentionally set to None, then that setting should be retained.

Thank you!

Andrew

8

Adding a voice here to @Andrew’s thoughts:

First of all the extra section control that Section styles gives is really awesome, and adding the ability to create styles is even better.

I think there should be the out-of-the-box options for at least “None”, and a standard section style (maybe the ANSI31?).
In my mind “None” is confusing if it does anything (ie. the current 3x Width Scale and no hatch). I think “None” should turn all options off (no boundary, no Hatch). The Rhino standard section style then could be what “None” is currently.

Having an option to set a section style as a default would be nice for creating new layers, versus defaulting to “None” or the standard style and then having to change the layer section style each time. Also having a section style called “Default” could be confusing so probably better to give it a different name.

9

Okay, this single-handedly convinced me to upgrade when the time comes