Cut Plane Conundrum

[JamFam]

Greetings to all. As much as I try, I just can't get to hang of the cut plane in Autocad Architecture. Or at least how to properly make changes to it. Here is my challenge. I have a floor plan with a few windows and doors, nothing difficult. At times when I place a new window in a wall, the windows do not show up in plan view. As I start to "fix" the problem the worse it becomes. Now my walls with the doors have dashed lines across the openings everywhere there are doors. HELP. I just want to see my windows and doors in plan view. The drawings cut plane down on the bottom bar displays 3'6". If you can help sort out my mess I would very much appreciate it.

[tzframpton]

What you're working with is the global cut plane, and then there's also object-specific cut plane's. Both of these items can be researched in the Help file.

 

The "Cut Plane" is the height in which you are "slicing" through the model. Take a one level building for an example. if you were to "slice" the building exactly 3'-6" above the finished floor, you would see gaps where doors would be, and you would see indention's where windows would be. This is why you see the window edge, but still see the wall continuing through, but with doors you see a "gap" because there is no continuous wall to the floor. The "Display Above Range" simply will grab any object that is "up to" the height specified. Same goes for "Display Below Range". The defaults are as follows (for me anyways, default template):

 

Display Above Range: 13'-0"

Cut Height: 3'-6"

Display Below Range: 0'-0"

 

Create some walls that are as tall as the Display Above Range (13'-0" height). Throw in some normal doors and windows. Cut Plane set to 3'-6" makes these items look normal. Now set the cut plane to 12'-0" and notice what happens. Windows disappear but door frame shows. That's because the "Display Below Range" is still at 0'-0" so it's showing everything down to the finish floor. Well, at the finish floor level there is no wall where the door is, so you are seeing a line. The Cut Plane is higher than the window, but the window doesn't go all the way to the finish floor so it seems to "disappear" when in actuality it's simply out of range. Now set the Display Below Range to 11'-0" - the doors seem to "disappear" but all that has happened is the range stops before it ever reaches the doors, so the wall at this point is continuous.

 

Now lets try something different. Set the Below Range back to 0'-0". Set the Cut Height and Above Range to 0'-6". You'll see doors but no windows. That's because two things... the cut plane is below the window so it never intersects it, AND the Display Above Range never reaches the window at all. Even if you set the Above Range through the windows, or higher - it doesn't matter because only the Cut Plane "slices" through certain objects. Not only that but the Global Cut Plane setting is always going from top to bottom, never bottom to top. So anything the Cut Plane touches and below will be visible, not the other way around which is anything the Cut Plane touches and above.

 

Also take note that the Cut Plane will never be more than the Above Range, or less than the Below Range. If you wanted the Below Range to be negative two feet, then you'll be seeing objects from the level below. This works great for underground piping beneath the slab (as long as it's two feet or closer to the finish floor).

 

Once mastered this is a very nice tool indeed. Also note that you have an "Enable Display by Elevation" tool in the Display Control tab under Options. This even further complicates things by adding "Below" and "Above" to the Display Properties options. Be careful with this setting as this is a global change and you need to understand the basics first.

 

Then, there's object-specific cut plane settings for objects that you can manually override by selecting an object, then going to Edit Style > Display Properties tab > Edit Display Properties > Cut Plane tab. This works good when you have a Global Cut Plane that is not "slicing" through windows but you need them to show. This is how you can control the visibility of things the way you need with it's not a typical situation. Just remember, the Cut Plane is showing things as they really are - but this throws people for a loop at first because they're used to showing things how they "want" by simply "drawing" it. So it'll make you think about your designs more and keep you in check, that's for certain.

 

Hope this helps.

[JamFam]

Here is what I did to correct the issue of dashed lines appearing below the cut plane at every door opening. Select a wall where the problem exists. Right click the mouse and select "edit object display", then make sure the "Display Properties Tab" is selected. Then chose the "Plan" found under the Display Representations. This will open up another screen called "Display Properties (drawing default)-plan". It's here where I found a checked box next to "Automatically choose above and below cut plane". I unchecked this box, clicked ok and exited out of the other dialogue boxes. The dashed lines where no longer visible and the problem is fixed. Thanks so very much for the detail explanation of cut planes.

[tzframpton]

Glad you got it figured out.