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Quick poché for your section cuts

Poché is what architect-types call the filled-in areas of a plan or section drawing. It denotes the parts of a building that are being cut by an imaginary section plane. Here’s what poché sometimes looks like:

Adding a poché (fill) to your section cuts makes your model views more readable.

Plenty of folks would like to add areas of poché to their section cuts in SketchUp; doing so helps to make drawings more readable. Bob Pineo, a licenced architect and überSketchupper from Virginia, just sent us a great little video that explains his technique for adding poché to section cut views. Check it out:



This method involves coloring the inside faces of your walls black (or some other color) so that they appear to have a poché applied. It’s cleverer than using the Create Group from Slice command, since that method is more labor-intensive and needs to be repeated for every new section cut. Bob’s technique works even if you move the Section Plane, which makes it a lot more flexible.

Thanks for the tip, Bob!

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

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8 comments :

Unknown said...

Yes, 3DBC 2010 was a hoot!!

There's also using TIG's Ruby 'Section Cut Face'
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=20564&hilit=section+cut+face

It allows you a whole lot more flexibility in viewing poche especially when indicating existing/demotion/proposed walls in section....
Give it a try, Bob.
Cheers,

Anonymous said...

Se a Google não faz nada pelo SketchUp, os usuarios fazem!

If Google does nothing by Sketchup, the users make!

Unknown said...

Great tip Bob, smart and simple.
What about fillings, for instance, a concrete slab. Is there a way to easily represent materials in sections?

Thanks.

James Ogston - 3D Design Software Expert - Architecture,Engineering and Construction Services said...

TIG's Ruby 'Section Cut Face'has been out for a long long time and its application is worth a look

Unknown said...

Aidan,

isn't there a possibility to create a layer that would be poché ?

I mean a full screen poché, showing through "empty" walls. does that make sense ?

Bertier

Unknown said...

Bertier,

I think I know what you mean, but I don't know of a way to do that in SketchUp right now. In Photoshop, on the other hand... : )

Thanks for the suggestion,

Aidan

James Ogston - 3D Design Software Expert - Architecture,Engineering and Construction Services said...

Poche with empty walls? I can see its application in simple terms but how would you deal with strip foundations being a group or component,cavity walls, window cills etc with poche? Also further work is require to make sure monochrome face style shows default blue facing towards cavity so that when painting intended poche faces the colour does not spill out onto visible walls, roofs etc.,

In all projects, this is why we use
the section cut face by TIG.

It would be good to see a combined video of poche and section cut face as an option too :)

Unknown said...

Hi Bob,
This may be further to RoboBert's comment.

I use a little "Section Plane" trick that helps add poche, hatching and 2D line work into a 3D model. It's esp useful for adding detail to section and plan views:

1/draw a plane parallel to the section cut, very close to the section cut. Make it as big as your scene.
2/put it on a layer, let's call it "section AA 2D".
3/ create a scene aligned with the section cut and turn the it’s layer visibility on only for this scene.
4/ Intersect the plane with the model
5/ Draw your 2D content on the new plane: eg roof trusses, strip footings, etc - stuff you don't want to bother modelling in 3D but need to see in 2D. Render the plane with hatches, etc.
Delete the bits you don't need. You can even it play with transparency.

I'll look at combining this "Section Plane" technique with "Ruby Cut Face" ...

Cheers
Norm Richards