Section Drawings
Drag a line across the plan and the building is cut there: walls and floors in hatch where the line passes, everything beyond drawn as seen, levels marked down the side. It is drawn from the model, so it changes the moment the plan does.
Every property, and what it does
Select a section line or open its view, and these are its rows.
The marker on the plan
Select the section line on the plan and these are its rows.
| Field | What it does | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Mark | What the drawing calls it. Empty, it is numbered on its own. | Any name, or numbered |
| Looking | Which half of the building the section shows, the way its arrows point. | Left of the line, Right of the line |
| View depth | How far past the cut the drawing reaches. Empty reaches as far as the building goes. | Millimetres, or the whole building |
| Perspective | How far in front of the cut the eye stands. What is cut stays true size; what is beyond draws towards the eye. Empty draws it parallel. | Millimetres, or parallel |
The view
Open the view from the Views list and these are its rows.
| Field | What it does | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Storeys | The storeys the view draws. | Every storey, or the ones it covers |
| Scale | The size the drawing letters and prints at. | 1:10, 1:20, 1:25, 1:50, 1:100, 1:200, 1:500 |
Working in the view
A side view is a drawing of the model you can work in, not a picture of it.
| Field | What it does | Values |
|---|---|---|
| What it shows | Walls cut or seen, floors and roofs, doors and windows with their tags, stairs, furniture, services and the ground line. | Read from the model |
| Select and move | Click or box select, then drag along the view or up and down: a window's sill, a wall's base, a beam's drop. A typed figure moves it exactly. | The plan and the model follow |
| Place | Walls, doors, windows, levels and services runs and fittings can be placed on the cut or on a wall face. | From the view's own tools |
| Annotate | Dimensions, text, leaders, lines and hatches drawn in the view belong to it. | Kept with the view |
| Export | Settings, Exports has a sheet of the open view as PDF, and each view gets a sheet in the default sheet set. | PDF, or on a sheet |
How the Section tool works
Open the Section tool
In the editor, open CAD tools, then Annotate, and choose Section, or type SECTION (SE).
Drag a line
Drag a line across the plan where the building is cut. The half on your left as you walk along it is the half you see.
Read the section
It opens as soon as you finish: cut walls and floors in hatch, what is beyond as seen, levels down the side.
Put it on a sheet
It is in the Views list, and the default sheet set gives it a sheet of its own at the scale that fits.
Section questions, answered.
Which way does a section look?
To the left of the way you drew the line. Draw it the other way, or set Looking in its panel, to look the other way.
Does the section update when I change the plan?
Yes. It is drawn from the model every time, so a moved wall or a new window is in it at once.
Can I edit the building in a section?
Yes. Select and move walls, doors, windows, levels and services in the section, and the plan and the model follow.
Can I export a section?
Yes. Settings, Exports has a sheet of the open view as PDF, and the default sheet set lays every section out on a sheet.
Read on
- Elevations: The four outside faces and each room's walls.
- Levels: Storeys, heights and the datum.
- Sections and elevations docs: Cutting, viewing and editing the building from the side.