Does anyone know how to do this

[Hopinc]

Hi Guys,

 

I have attached herewith a rendered image of a Bentley BR2 engine that I created sometime back. I wanted an image with a sectional cut through selected parts and then to colour the cut surfaces so they contrasted and stood out.

 

I made a cut in the assembly and partly achieved what I wanted but could not apply coloured properties to the sectioned surfaces.

 

Does anyone know of a way I can achieve this using Inventor 2011?

 

My apologies for the poor image, a 250K file size does not give me a lot to play with.

 

Thanks.

 

Dave

[Hopinc]

So, that's a NO then?

 

Dave

[shift1313]

what type of file are you trying to do this in? a presentation file, assembly, or drawing?

 

If you are in an assembly there are section views you can create. One of them is a Three Quarter Section View and i thi nk that will let you achieve this. You need to select two reference planes or faces. Since you are dealing with round parts you may need to create work planes that intersect where you want or use standard planes. Im not sure about the color thing off hand but you can color faces individually, but i dont think that applies to section views.

 

In a drawing you can also create these section views. or areas by creating sketches to slice these views. The work plane selection in the assembly might be better suited.

[JD Mather]

So, that's a NO then?

 

Dave

 

Yes, it can be done.

[Hopinc]

Hi Guys,

 

Thanks for replying to my post.

 

I am working within the assembly environment and ideally want to stick to that so I can produce a photo-realistic image. An inventor drawing does not produce the quality of image I require. I also need to have full control over lighting, shadows, backgrounds, etc.

 

Surely .ipn files are for exploded detail drawings and animations?

 

Your comment about sectional views within assemblies is knew to me, I don't know of any way to do that other than the way I did in the image above. I can see no icons that allow me to do what you describe? How do you go about it?

 

OK J.D. that's a bit cryptic - please enlighten me.

 

Regards both.

 

Dave

[JD Mather]

 

OK J.D. that's a bit cryptic - please enlighten me.

 

Dave

 

I'm a bit busy right now and since you didn't attach a sample dataset I will have to make one up to illustrate the technique in iam.

[shift1313]

Hopinc, i dont have 2011, and currently at work i only have a version from 2007 so the interface is different. The section button should be on one of the ribbon tabs. When i have a chance later I will take a look at 2010 which should be very similar in layout. In the mean time go to your help file and search for quarter section and see what comes up.

 

sorry i cant be more help at the moment.

[JD Mather]

The section button should be on one of the ribbon tabs.

 

I don't think that tool is going to take care of his design intent for face color properties.

 

....could not apply coloured properties to the sectioned surfaces....

[shift1313]

I don't think that tool is going to take care of his design intent for face color properties.

 

 

Right, i stated that I didnt think it applied to section views in my response.

[Hopinc]

J.D. - a description of the technique will suffice. However, if you want a data set I can easily provide a much simpler .iam file?

 

Forgive me for not offering you the Bentley BR2 data as I have too much work invested in that to simply give the files out - I hope you understand?

 

Shift1313, thanks for your help. It's just like every CAD help program that I have ever used - you need to input just the right phrase or you don't get an answer. I was looking for things like "assembly cut" or "assembly section" - neither of which lead me anywhere I wanted to be.

 

I have to say that I feel that this assembly planar-section feature should be incoporated within the assembly modelling menus per se - not hidden away as it is - even if it meant a duplication of some functionality. Surely that is more logical?

 

Once again, thanks for that information I am sure it will prove useful to me in future. I am now waiting with bated breath for J.D.'s method.

 

Dave

[JD Mather]

A simple assembly (two or three parts) would suffice. Since we spend so much time and effort learning to communicate with geometry (CAD) I prefer to communicate with geometry.

[shift1313]

I took a look at 2010 and the section view is on the View panel of the ribbon. Here is a screen shot to show you.

[Hopinc]

Hi Matt,

 

Thanks for going to that amount of trouble for me. Unfortunately it was a little bit wasted (but still appreciated) as I had already found and tested your method from your previous post. Cheers my friend!

 

Your technique is quick but it has two major drawbacks that preclude it's use for my purpose - 1) The assembly does not appear as cross-sectioned when rendered in Inventor Studio. 2) You cannot colour the cut edges.

 

The cross-section does not come through into an Inventor drawing, so apart from being used as a visual confirmation device I cannot see a use for it at all. Obviously, as far as drawings go, Autodesk intend the end user to create sections such as these by using the sketch and break out commands only.

 

Unless J.D. has a working solution I am stumped!

 

Hi J.D.

 

Unfortunately I could not produce an assembly model of three parts that would come under the 250K limit so I had to go with two parts instead. Attached is the simplest thing I could think of.

 

I look forward to finding out how you achieve the results I desire. Thanks for your help

 

Regards all.

 

Dave

cross-sec.zip

[shift1313]

Hmm that is unfortunate that it does not show up in Studio. Your original idea of actually subtracting a "block" from the assembly might be a valid solution. This would let you color individual faces. Ill have to think on it a bit more.

[MarkFlayler]

Just my two cents and perhaps a bit more work, but you could create the cut in part files with colored faces. There are drawbacks to this though since you are created new variations of parts that may not have a purpose when you are done.

 

One Method:

Parts to be cut turned into iParts with cut and no cut members with face color control.

In the Assembly create an iAssembly with the variations you can switch back and forth with.

 

Other Method:

You could simply forget the colored faces and use a block like I did here with Inventor Studio:

 

The issue for you with color really resides in the fact you cannot assign colors to individual faces in the assembly without being at the part level. Studio also works this way. It can assign Surface styles in the Parts to faces, but in an Assembly it is the entire part.

[JD Mather]

The issue for you with color really resides in the fact you cannot assign colors to individual faces in the assembly without being at the part level.

 

There is a clever work-around the assembly level faces that does not alter the part level geometry and meets the OP's design intent. When I get a chance I will post the solution.

[Hopinc]

Hi Guys,

 

Mark, using a cutting block is quite an interesting solution. However, as most of the parts are made of the same material (steel) it is doubtful that the cut edges of the cross-section would show up any better than in the assembly cut I made for the attached rendered image.

 

Unfortunately, sectioning the individual parts is a bit of non-starter as orientation would be a major problem. There would have to be a lot of toing and froing to match the sections together. I also feel that it would take too much time to achieve and end result.

 

In all honesty I am not too unhappy with the results I achieved on the real photo-realistic which appears on my web site (not the whittled down version shown in my post), but I would still like the "icing on the cake" -coloured section surfaces.

 

All this begs the question why a facility such as this does not already exist in Inventor?

 

J.D. - I am agog - I can't wait :-)

 

Dave

[shift1313]

well I dont know that ive seen a need for a photo realistic render with some sort of hatched section face before. That's typically reserved for black/white images. Having the color sections kinds of defeats the purpose of a photo realistic render. But in reality whenever you see engine cut away parts from factories they color the cut edges to make the cuts more evident another BUT, if you were to actually cut the parts in the assembly rather than trying to section them, coloring the faces would work, but it is a good bit more work. In solidworks ive found a way around it with imported parts. When you apply a section to the part, you have the option to color the face. This appears in the renders as well. But this is a result of the nature of imported parts and would still be a ton of work on something like your model. Im interested to see what JD comes back with.

[Hopinc]

You and me both Matt.

 

"whenever you see engine cut away parts from factories they color the cut edges to make the cuts more evident :)"

 

- Exactly! I wasn't suggesting that an assembly cut/cross-section should have cross-hatching. I was using the fact that hatching is applied to 2-D drawings to illustrate the very reason I want to colour the cut edges of my assembly model - contrast. Logical is it not. The actual colour should be be determined by the user or possibly at random by the software.

 

As I said previously, the image I posted was of poor quality and does not give a true impression of just how many parts, all steel coloured, that are adjacent to each other inside the engine.

 

Dave

[JD Mather]

... BUT, if you were to actually cut the parts in the assembly rather than trying to section them, coloring the faces would work, ....

 

Inventor doesn't allow you to change face properties at assembly level.