Work with Section Planes & Section Boxes

Overview

The BIM Viewer supports multiple section planes and a section box, which allow you to focus on specific areas by cutting through the 3D model. Sections allow to position the camera outside and see all relevant information within the model.

How to Access the BIM Viewer

1. Click Tickets
2. Open the project drop-down
3. Select the project and layer
   
4. Click BIM model in the View drop-down
   

Section Planes

Use section planes to slice the model. You can create up to six section planes.

Create a Section Plane

To create a section plane:

1. Click the more menu
2. Click Section
   
3. Select a face of an object in your BIM model to start creating a section plane parallel to the face
4. Click on the section plane and hold it while moving your mouse to adjust its position
   

Create Multiple Section Planes

To create additional section planes:

1. Click the + sign
   
2. Crete a new section plane as explained above in Create a Section Plane

Move Section Plane

1. Click on the section plane and hold it while moving your mouse to adjust its position
   

Rotate Section Plane

Section planes can be rotated in any direction. To rotate a section plane:

1. Click the rotating icon
   
2. Move the rotating icon on the model by drag and drop
   

Flip Section Plane

To reverse the cutting direction (i.e. the normal vector) of your section plane:

1. Click the Flip icon
   
2. The section of the plane will be flipped
   

Delete Section Planes

To delete only one section plane:

1. Click on the section plane you want to delete
2. Click the delete icon
   

If no section plane is selected, the delete icon shows the number of existing section planes.

To delete all section planes:

1. Make sure that no section plane is selected
2. Click the delete icon
   

Section Box

Similar to section planes, the section box allows you to slice the model. The section box will create six section planes around the bounding box of an element. Anything inside the box remains visible, while everything outside is hidden.

Only one section box can be created at a time.

Alternatively you can use the isolate feature as described in BIM Viewer > Isolate Elements.

Create Section Box

To create the section box:

1. Select the element(s) you want to isolate in the section box
2. Click the box icon
   
3. The element(s) selected will be isolated in a box 
   

Resize a Section Box

You can adjust the size of the section box by moving each face individually. To do so:

1. Click the face of the box in the direction you want to adjust
2. Drag the face to expand or reduce the section box
   

You can also remove a face of the section box to expand the view and reveal the rest of the model from that side. To do so:

1. Click the face of the box in the direction you want to expand
2. Click the delete icon
   
3. The rest of the model will be revealed from that side
   

You can delete more than one side using the same steps.

Delete Section Box

To delete the section box and show the whole model again:

1. Make sure you are not selecting any of the section box faces
2. Click the delete icon
   

Show/Hide Section Planes and Section Box

To hide the section plane(s) or section box while the model is still being cut:

1. Click the eye icon
2. Click Hide sections
   

Hiding section planes and the section box enables you to select elements located behind it. Otherwise, clicking on the element will select the section plane instead.

To show the section plane(s) again:

1. Click the eye icon
2. Click Show sections