Slice a solid along a plane or by 3 points (equivalent to AutoCAD's SLICE command) ??

RE: Slice a solid along a plane or by 3 points (equivalent to AutoCAD's SLICE command) ??

mlm — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 10:04:57 GMT

Actually, what do you want to achieve? Just hack (slice through) the solid or do you want to rather show a section plane through the solid(s). Please elaborate.

RE: Slice a solid along a plane or by 3 points (equivalent to AutoCAD's SLICE command) ??

Jan Šlegr — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 06:23:46 GMT

[quote user="CrazyIvan303"]The 95% is spent with commands that have little to no feedback on what it does or how it works without researching it outside of the software, clicking in & out of various dialog boxes to find nothing changed, spending time resetting things that MicroStation remembers from a week ago that I changed to modify an unrelated drawing, moving my mouse infinitely farther back & forth across the screen between toolbars, menus and dialog boxes.[/quote]

Ok, looks like you never passed some MicroStation training. What you desribe is far from MicroStation normal workflow. It doesn't mean some tools would not be more interactive or some tools are not missing, but if it's sooo bad software, why so many people use it?

BTW If you have so many troubles with MicroStation tools and you told you have worked with MicroStation for a year, why I am not able to find any question about the problems you wrote about? As in any other product community, there are plenty of people willing to share their experience and knowledge.

[quote user="CrazyIvan303"]Microstation seems to have fatal errors and crash many many times more than I've had with AutoCAD.[/quote]

MicroStation is often appreciated because of its stability and ability to work with huge data and complex (reference) files structure. I work with AutoCAD ocasionally only, so I am not able to compare, but what I know from my customers using both products, MicroStation usually wins, especially when data grows.

If you have any example when MicroStation crashes, please describe the worklow and provide data, so it can be tested by MicroStation support team.

With regards,

Jan

RE: Slice a solid along a plane or by 3 points (equivalent to AutoCAD's SLICE command) ??

Thomas Voghera — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 21:06:20 GMT

A very long time ago MicroStation had a 'section'-tool. If I remember correctly it produced a 2d wireframe cut of a 3d volume.

Perhaps it is still alive in some dark corner of MicroStation

RE: Slice a solid along a plane or by 3 points (equivalent to AutoCAD's SLICE command) ??

CrazyIvan303 — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 18:54:48 GMT

It's just that everyone has told me Microstation is so great and easy and well-to-do. I've thrown myself into it over the last year. I do see some positives to it. But, I have to say that my feelings are that it is overwhelmingly more tedious to do small things, the small things that make up 95% of drawings I have worked on in many different industries. Sure, maybe it is better at that last 5%, but that is only 5% of the total make-up of a production effort on a drawing. The 95% is spent with commands that have little to no feedback on what it does or how it works without researching it outside of the software, clicking in & out of various dialog boxes to find nothing changed, spending time resetting things that MicroStation remembers from a week ago that I changed to modify an unrelated drawing, moving my mouse infinitely farther back & forth across the screen between toolbars, menus and dialog boxes. This wastes so much time. Microstation seems to have fatal errors and crash many many times more than I've had with AutoCAD. I am really not a fanboy of anything, beit software, operating systems, etc... I personally think they are all a ripoff. But, I can at least compare the usability and user-friendliness between various competitors. After all I have dealt with, I can say that Microstation is just more cumbersome to use and more tedious to accomplish pretty much anything. It remembers, as I said, something I changed a week ago (active scale/rotation) on an unrelated drawing, but does not remember the folder I printed a PDF to 3 minutes ago. It's just things like this that make it illogical and cumbersome.

RE: Slice a solid along a plane or by 3 points (equivalent to AutoCAD's SLICE command) ??

fostertom — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:29:12 GMT

There's a Extend/Trim a Form to a plane by 3 points in Architectural Building designer (ABD)

RE: Slice a solid along a plane or by 3 points (equivalent to AutoCAD's SLICE command) ??

dshaw — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 15:49:58 GMT

ok- now with your autocad slice tool cut the solid with a curved plane (or any non planar cut for that matter).

Same tool in Microstation will do all the above, so add in the logic of the extra tools needed in autocad to perform the other ways of cutting and suddenly MS is not so bad.

Your post sounds as if someone at Bentley called you a bad name in the past

RE: Slice a solid along a plane or by 3 points (equivalent to AutoCAD's SLICE command) ??

CrazyIvan303 — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 14:40:42 GMT

Figured it out. The cutting line must pass all the way through the object.

Why is it you can't even slice along a defined plane easily. Come on Bentley, get with the program...Why does everything have to be so tedious and drawn out with your software?

Autocad:
Slice, pick object, XY/YZ/XZ/3 Point plane (NO LINES NEEDED), Pick Point, (Both Sides), done...

Microstation:
Draw a line, draw another line, extend line through object, Cut by curves, pick object, pick point, click little green arrow thing's grips, rotate ACS, goof with little green arrow thing that really doesn't many any sense, accept, pray it works.

And it's not just this. Everything I've encountered while using this software for the last year is more involved, more tedious, more steps, to get to the same simple end of something simple.

RE: Slice a solid along a plane or by 3 points (equivalent to AutoCAD's SLICE command) ??

fostertom — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:15:46 GMT

Yeah it prob was in the EAP - and I chipped in then about Cut By Curve's crippled behaviour in BD. Glad to hear it's still good in MS. Still, try using a closed line string or Shape.

RE: Slice a solid along a plane or by 3 points (equivalent to AutoCAD's SLICE command) ??

Jan Šlegr — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 11:04:01 GMT

[quote user="fostertom"]Another recent topic here was saying that the Cut By Curve tool no longer worked with just an open line string. Try cutting by a closed string or Shape.[/quote]

From the original question perspective it's a bit off-topic and fuzzy information:

Open profiles work pretty fine in the current version of MicroStation.
What does it mean "Another recent topic"? Why to don't provide a link?
... I guess you mean the discussion in MicroStation EAP community, but it's pretty different issue and related to EAP1 only, so it's not possible to associate it back to the current MicroStation.

With regards,

Jan

RE: Slice a solid along a plane or by 3 points (equivalent to AutoCAD's SLICE command) ??

fostertom — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 10:27:19 GMT

Another recent topic here was saying that the Cut By Curve tool no longer worked with just an open line string. Try cutting by a closed string or Shape.

RE: Slice a solid along a plane or by 3 points (equivalent to AutoCAD's SLICE command) ??

Jan Šlegr — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 07:06:10 GMT

Hi,

it looks there are two separate questions in your post:

Why it's not possible to use Cut Solids By Curves on my solid?

It's hard to say without an example data posted, in general it should work.

Is there Slice a solid tool available?

I think Cut Solids By Curves is the most close tool available. Well, it doesn't allow to choose 3 points and you have to create cutting line at first and to define an orientation of the plane by 3rd point during the cutting process, but it's still acceptable workflow I think.

Did you search community for similar posts, e.g. this one (short demo posted here)?

If you discuss 3D modeling tools, you always should mention MicroStation version or build number, because 3D tools have changed between versions.

With regards,

Jan