Create clip planes

Clip planes enable you to focus on the required detail in the model. You can either create clip planes by selecting an object face, or create clip planes that are based on the view depth.

Create a clip plane

You can create up to six clip planes in any model view that shows the object faces.

When you create clip planes, ensure that you are using a model view that shows object faces.
On the View tab, click Rendering, and use any of the following options:
- Parts shaded wireframe (Ctrl+2)
- Parts grayscale (Ctrl+3)
- Parts rendered (Ctrl+4)
- Components shaded wireframe (Shift+2)
- Components grayscale (Shift+3)
- Components rendered (Shift+4)
- References shaded wireframe (Ctrl+Shift+2)
- References grayscale (Ctrl+Shift+3)
- References rendered (Ctrl+Shift+4)
On the View tab, click Clip plane .
Move the mouse pointer over the model objects.

A green symbol indicates the object faces that you can select and align the clip plane with. The green line indicates the side that will be clipped out. For example:

Note that the snap depth setting on the Snapping toolbar affects the object faces you can select. Set snap depth to 3D or Auto to select object faces in the entire 3D space.
Select an object face.

The clip plane symbol appears in the model:
Repeat step 4 to create as many clip planes as needed.
To finish creating clip planes, press Esc.
To move a clip plane, select the clip plane scissor symbol and drag it to a new location.
If you want to move the clip plane scissor symbol to a new location on a clip plane, hold down Shift and drag the symbol.

This does not move the clip plane, only the scissor symbol.
You can delete the clip planes when you do not need them anymore.
- To delete a single clip plane, select the clip plane symbol and press Delete.
- To delete all the clip planes in all the open views, click View > Clip plane > Delete all clip planes.

Create a view depth clip plane

If the model objects do not fit to the work area view depths, you can create view depth clip planes on the contextual toolbar.

Based on the view depth, you can, for example, easily isolate an entire floor from a building. View depth clip planes can be created both in native Tekla Structures models as well as in reference models and overlay models.

If needed, modify the view depth of the current view on the contextual toolbar.
On the contextual toolbar, click Add or update view depth clip planes .
If you want to remove the view depth clip planes, click Remove view depth clip planes on the contextual toolbar, or click View > Clip plane > Delete all clip planes.

Note that the work area box may have gaps to view depths, and when working with overlay models, you can clip models that are outside the work area.

Limitations:

You cannot move the view depth clip planes by dragging the clip plane to a new location. This is because the view depth clip planes are strictly connected to the view depth.
After you have adjusted the view depth, click the Add or update view depth clip planes button to manually update the view depth clip plane.