Section Planes

Note: There are extensive graphical facilities for creating and manipulating Section Planes in Draft’s Graphical User Interface. See the Drawing Production User Guide for further information.

Draft gives you the ability to construct sections through specified Design items, the results of which can be displayed at VIEW level. All Planes are database items and can therefore be used with more than one VIEW. There are three types of Plane element that can be used to define four types of section plane, namely:

• A Perpendicular Flat Plane passes through a specified point in the 3D design, being oriented so as to be perpendicular to the current VIEW direction. The VIEW contents that are discarded can be on either side of the plane. This type of plane would be used as either a section or a backing plane.

• A Flat Plane is similar to a perpendicular flat plane, but can be oriented to allow views of the section from any angle.

• A Stepped Plane is a folded plane (that means, a series of non-intersecting straight line spans) that extends to infinity in both directions along a specified axis. The shape is defined by a series of points, the ends of the plane also extending to infinity. The simplest form of stepped plane would be defined by two points and would be equivalent to a Flat Plane. Any VIEW direction can be used and the VIEW contents on either side can be discarded. Note that the two end spans must not intersect each other or an inner span. A stepped plane is illustrated in Figure 5:1 below.

• An Enclosed Plane. This is a particular form of stepped plane in which the first and last points that define it coincide to form a ‘tube’ that is infinitely long along its axis. Any VIEW direction can be used and either the inside or outside of the ‘tube’ can be removed. An enclosed plane is illustrated in Figure 5:2 below.

Figure 5:1. Stepped Plane

Figure 5:2. Enclosed Plane

All Planes have a standard ‘retain’ and ‘discard’ side, depending on how the Plane is defined in the database. The Plane can be used in either ‘standard’ or ‘reverse’ mode, which effectively switches the Plane’s action without altering its definition. This allows the Plane to be used in different VIEWs both as a section or backing plane. Planes can only be used with modelled VIEWs, that is not with basic wireline views.