iray Section Helper

Creates a cutting plane for the iray renderer.

When an iray Section helper intersects objects in a scene, it creates a cutting plane: Those parts of the scene on one side—usually the "near" side—of the plane are not visible in iray renderings.

iray section plane positioned in a viewport

On the right: iray section plane reveals the interior of a house model.

Note: Section Planes and ActiveShade: In iray ActiveShade renderings, moving the section plane updates interactively, but changes to settings on this Parameters rollout don't update the ActiveShade rendering.

Properties group

On
When on, iray renderings use the section plane. When off, they do not. Default=on.

You can also disable the cutaway effect by hiding the iray section plane object.

Clip Light
When off, lighting behaves as if the clipping plane didn't exist: The clipped geometry still casts shadows and prevents exterior lighting from entering the model. When on, the clipped geometry does not affect lighting: Exterior lighting is allowed to enter the model through the section plane, as if the clipped geometry didn't exist. Default=off.

House model cutaway with light clipping

Flip Direction
When on, reverses the direction of the cutaway effect. Default=off.

Flipping the section plane direction

Grid Size group

Length and Width
Set the length and width of the plane as displayed in viewports.

These settings affect only viewport display: In renderings, the plane is effectively infinite.

Spacing group

Grid
Adjusts the density of the section plane grid.

Like the Length and Width settings, this affects viewport display only.

Display Group

XY Plane / YZ Plane / ZX Plane
These options change the orientation of the section plane by rotating it 90 degrees along one axis. Default = XY Plane.