In-place family does not section correctly

[petervanko]

I have this project in construction, and had a little time to model out the mechanical just for my sanity, understanding, and coordination. I used an in-place mechanical family to schematically represent all of the componenets--nice and fast. However, it does not section correctly; all of my building sections have extraneous pieces of the system showing up BEHIND the section line. Am I missing something???

[aggockel50321]

Once an in-place family is cut by a section, the whole family will show, no matter where it is in relation to the section line.

As a work-around, you might be able to break up the families so that only geometry you want to show in the section is in the family, and the rest is in a separate family.

[petervanko]

Thanks!!! Good thing I put it in a new workset I can turn off :)

[LRaiz]

It depends on family category. Some categories (I think casework is one of them) do section but most won't.

[hand471037]

It depends on family category. Some categories (I think casework is one of them) do section but most won't.

Yes, we cut sections of in-place families all the time. It's how we get them exported out the the CNC. Change the Family Catagory when editing the in-place Family to Generic or Casework, something that does get cut, and the model will be cut just like everything else.

This is also helpful when dealing with imported models for coordination.

[patricks]

yep, Mechanical is one of those weird families that doesn't get cut in section.

To see which categories do and don't, simply hit VV or VG to bring up a view's visibility settings, and notice which categories are grayed out under the Section heading. Those categories will not cut in section, and the entire family will show at all times unless the entire family is fully behind your view's cut plane.

For this reason I usually model stuff like that as a Generic Family, but I set up a Mechanical sub-category under generic families, so I can still control the appearance of those objects individually from other objects.

[petervanko]

Great feedback, everyone!!! Thanks for the tip on changing of category!