Non-destructive Sectioning

[CoalHedgehog]

I see a request for a non-destructive sectioning feature comes up fairly regularly on here. Something like this:

About 50 seconds in shows it best.

I honestly think it would be a game changer and would attract a lot of new people to this software due to it appealing to a different market. The number of people in my industry I have shown Keyshot to who have been blown away by it, but then instantly dismissed it because of no sectioning feature, is crazy.

Luxion always seem reluctant to talk about it though...

EDIT: Requests on just the forum here:

https://www.keyshot.com/forum/index.php?topic=6288.msg29241#msg29241

https://www.keyshot.com/forum/index.php?topic=10849.0

https://www.keyshot.com/forum/index.php?topic=10266.msg49008#msg49008

https://www.keyshot.com/forum/index.php?topic=8239.msg39590#msg39590

[NormanHadley]

+1 from me - this would make a huge difference to my Keyshot experience. Creating assembly cuts in Pro/Engineer is both labour-intensive (choose which sub-assemblies are and aren't cut, then remember to layer off all the threaded holes that Pro/E annoyingly leaves floating in space) and pretty compute-heavy too.

If sections were to find their way into KS7 - why, that'd be like Christmas. 

[DriesV]

Hi,

A cut-away material is in the works for KeyShot 7.
It will be a boolean operation to subtract one volume from another (on the shading level, not the actual geometry ).

I agree it will be a very useful feature for users in engineering and/or technical marketing.

Dries

[NormanHadley]

Thanks Dries. Can you give us an estimated release date yet?

[guest84672]

First quarter of 2017.

[NormanHadley]

Thanks Thomas. I've had a look at the sneak preview and it looks good.

[CoalHedgehog]

Wow, as quick as KS7?

Looking forward to seeing it!

[quigley]

This feature is essential moving forwards. Will the Keyshot 7 tool allow you to specify the material of the sectioning plane/surface?

[guest84672]

Possibly.

[TpwUK]

I am a tad late chipping in here, but couldn't inverting the ground plane and clipping do this ? - Don't get me wrong I know there could/would be issues with air gaps even when working with solids. I think you have that kind of functionality in KeyShot already with the Gemstones material type where it hides/ignores intruding geometry .... Just thinking out loud here

Martin

[DriesV]

I am a tad late chipping in here, but couldn't inverting the ground plane and clipping do this ? - Don't get me wrong I know there could/would be issues with air gaps even when working with solids. I think you have that kind of functionality in KeyShot already with the Gemstones material type where it hides/ignores intruding geometry .... Just thinking out loud here

Martin

I think we want it to be more powerful than that.

Dries

[TpwUK]

I think we want it to be more powerful than that.

Dries

I should imagine so too, just saying the routines are already there in the app, how you use and implement them plus improvements such as hash patterns for capping air gaps etc is all down to the dev team et al

Martin

[DriesV]

Well, the sectioning is quite a bit different than e.g. the Ground material etc.
It needs to work with arbitrary 'cutting shapes' and it needs to shade the actual cap. It is more a boolean operation than just slicing through geometry.

Dries

[TpwUK]

Well, the sectioning is quite a bit different than e.g. the Ground material etc.
It needs to work with arbitrary 'cutting shapes' and it needs to shade the actual cap. It is more a boolean operation than just slicing through geometry.

Dries

It's a great discussion point though... Agreed Booleans would be a better more 'elegant' solution and I can already imagine what fun I could have with a 3D sectioning/cutting tool. I was alas thinking more along the lines of a simple x, y or z section suitable for technical illustration and the toon shaders - But now you bring Booleans and complex shapes into the equation and I start to dribble with the possibilities - lol

Martin

[bdesign]

Well, the sectioning is quite a bit different than e.g. the Ground material etc.
It needs to work with arbitrary 'cutting shapes' and it needs to shade the actual cap. It is more a boolean operation than just slicing through geometry.

Dries

It's a great discussion point though... Agreed Booleans would be a better more 'elegant' solution and I can already imagine what fun I could have with a 3D sectioning/cutting tool. I was alas thinking more along the lines of a simple x, y or z section suitable for technical illustration and the toon shaders - But now you bring Booleans and complex shapes into the equation and I start to dribble with the possibilities - lol

Martin

A material based boolean is something I had actually started working on quite a while back, but kind of put on the back burner when I started experimenting with the volumetrics thing. I'll post some WIP results soon in a separate thread.

Eric