Six-Plane Clipping

As an alternative to the clipping box, up to six individual planes may be defined to clip the model. The planes may be aligned on Plant items such as panels and beams, or by selecting ship grid lines.

The six-plane clipping feature and the clipping box are mutually exclusive. Enabling one has the effect of disabling the other and clearing any related forms and aid graphics.

Clipping planes can be at any angle, for example to suit tapered compartments on a ship. Up to six planes can be defined, and the direction of a plane is considered to point into the region of interest.

Right-clicking on the Clipping & Options icon on the 3D View toolbar and selecting the Planes option displays the Clip - 3D View form.

The Define Clipping Plane drop-down list is used to select the plane (1-6) to be defined.

The Position drop-down list and data entry fields are used to set the position of the selected plane.

The Direction field is used to set the direction.

Clicking the Pick button enables a clipping plane to be aligned, for example, on a Plant item such as a panel or beam, which is picked from the 3D View. The system will then automatically fill in the Position and Direction fields based on the position and orientation of the picked item.

The Reverse direction button is useful where a deck plate is picked and the view must be above or below it.

Once the plane position and direction have been obtained from the picked item, the plane can be enabled, using the Enabled plane button.

The clipped volume can then be finely adjusted if necessary by using the gadgets at the bottom of the form to slide the selected plane in or out.

Planes can be automatically defined based on the clipping box, for example, following clip CE, then adjusted individually. Planes can also be defined by selecting grid lines from a grid system. In this case, select Derive 6 planes from grid lines from the Tools menu on the Clip - 3D View form:

The Clip From Grid form is displayed:

The Grid Systems list shows the available grid systems for the project. When one of these is selected, the lower half of the form will change to reflect the grid system selected.

Individual grid lines to delimit the clipped volume can be selected from the Limits From and To drop-down option lists, or the nearest grid lines to two picked positions can be automatically selected using the two Pick buttons. Positive or negative offsets (in mm) relative to the grid lines can be entered into the +/- boxes.

After selecting/picking the grids, the defined volume will be marked graphically:

The positions of the clipping planes will be automatically entered into the form in terms of grid lines and offsets:

When the Apply button is pressed, the clipping planes are applied to the view:

To assist in selecting the appropriate grid lines for clipping, any position can be picked to display it in World and Grid Coordinates. Select Picked position in grid coords... from the Display menu on the Clip From Grid form: the Display Grid Coords form is displayed.