Free Cut with a Cutting Plane

First Placing of the Cutting Plane

To insert a cutting plane, you have three options: at a right angle to the skin of a part, tangentially along the skin of a part, or defined by clicking on three points on the part. The cutting plane is, by default, bright blue and has points in its center, at its corners and in the center of its edges.

When placing the plane, you can hold the left mouse button to get a preview of the plane. The plane is inserted when you release the button. The size of the plane is adjusted to the current screen, depending on zoom and perspective. Cuts can be performed by clicking on the Cut button at the bottom of the tabsheet. The three options can be activated by icons in the tabsheet:

Here, the cutting plane cuts through two parts, of which one is selected. The cylinder is unaffected.

 Create Cutting Plane Vertical to Surface: If this option is chosen, you can insert a cutting plane with a mouse click on a part in the project. The cutting plane will go vertically through the skin of the part at the point you clicked on and will be positioned horizontally, if possible (Figure 6.26).

 

Figure 6.26: Here, the cutting plane is inserted vertically to the sphere.

Create Cutting Plane Tangential to Surface:

With this option, the cutting plane is parallel to the triangle you click on and it runs right through that triangle.

This plane is aligned tangentially to the sphere’s skin.

Create Cutting Plane by Three Points:

If this option is chosen, you can click on any three points on the part. A cutting plane is inserted which is defined by those three points. Here, you get the preview of the plane when you hold the mouse button during the placing of the third point. The last point you choose will also be the center of the plane.

Move and Rotate Cutting Plane

With help of the points on the plane, you can move and rotate the plane with your mouse per drag & drop and you can change its proportions. Doing so, there is a difference between the left and the right mouse button.

If you click on the center of the plane, you can move the whole plain freely. This works in the same way as moving parts. If you use the right mouse button instead of the left, the plane can only be moved two-dimensionally to its sides. It will still cut through parts in the same plane, but its boundaries change.

With the points on the edges and corners, the cutting plane is rotated. When you move them by drag & drop, two lines in a darker blue are displayed, one from the point you are moving to the center of the plane, and one along the axis of rotation.

Insert the cutting plane by clicking on 3 spots on the part.

Use drag & drop on the base point to move the whole cutting plane.

If you move the corner points, the plane is rotated around an axis vertical to the plane, running through its center. Thus, the plane stays in the actual position, only its edges and corners are moved. This is very important if you want to roll the plane afterwards.

The cutting plane can be rotated with the points in the middle of the plane’s edges. The plane is always rotated round an axis parallel to the edge you clicked on, running through the center of the plane. If you roll the cutting plane on all sides, you can adjust it to any position.

As you can rotate the plane only in two directions by using drag & drop, it is often helpful to use the corner points first to rotate the plane around a vertical axis, so that you can tilt it in the direction you want.

With the corner points, the plane is rotated around a vertical axis.

With the side points, the plane can be rolled.

Change Size of Cutting Plane

If you use the right mouse button instead of the left, you can also change the size and proportions of the cutting plane with drag & drop. Use the side points and corner points to enlarge and shrink the cutting plane.

Changing the size of the cutting plane is only relevant, if you cut with the option Use Plane Boundary.

Align Cutting Plane

Additionally, if you right-click on a part, a context menu is opened which gives you further options for the positioning of the plane:

Information and Fine-Tuning

Alternatively to positioning the cutting plane in the screen, you can enter specific values for the plane in the tabsheet, enabling you to fine-tune and position the plane more precisely:

The base point is the central point of the cutting plane. You can enter values for the X-, Y- and Z-axis. The plane is then moved immediately.

Below, you can move the cutting plane into parallel planes by entering the distance you want to move it and then clicking on "+" for moving the plane upwards in a vertical direction or "-" for moving the plane downwards.

For the option move parallel you can enter a distance and click on "+" and "-" to move the plane upwards and downwards in a right angle.

Below that, you can set specific angles for roll, pitch, and yaw. The angles can either be entered in the fields to the right or adjusted with the horizontal scroll bars.

Roll and pitch determine the rotation of the cutting plane, with roll representing the rotation to the sides and pitch representing the rotation to the front and back. Yaw determines the rotation of the plane around the vertical axis running through the central point.

The tabsheet register for the free cut with a cutting plane enables you to enter specific values, edit parameters for the cut and perform the cut.

Note: With a yaw of 90°, the side edges are rotated as well, although no apparent change can be seen. So, Roll and Pitch are exchanged, compared to when you have a yaw of 0°.

The size of the plane can be changed below, with two values to be entered for the two axes of the plane. The base point of the plane stays in the same position.

Pins and Holes

Sometimes it is better to manufacture parts in segments. To help reassembling a part from segments, surface features such as pins or hooks, and matching holes, can be used. When active, this function automatically generates such configurable structures in the same process as splitting a part into segments during print preparation.

To generate these structures, tick Automatic Pin Creation, and specify the dimensions in Pin Settings. Then, simply perform the Cut as described.

Parent topic: Free Cut