Slice Polygons Op Property Editor

 
 
 

| General | Custom Plane

Splits the polygons of a mesh object along any plane.

To apply manually: Select one or more polygon mesh objects, polygon clusters, or polygons and choose Modify Poly. Mesh Slice Polygons from the Model toolbar.

To apply interactively: See Knifing Polygons [Polygon Modeling].

To redisplay: Select the sliced object, click the Selection button on the Select panel, then click the Slice Polygons Op icon.

General

Reference

The reference frame for specifying the cutting plane:

  • Global is relative to the scene origin.

  • Local is relative to the object's own center.

Plane Normal

The plane used to slice polygons:

  • X Axis cuts along the YZ plane (X = 0).

  • Y Axis cuts along the XZ plane (Y = 0).

  • Z Axis cuts along the XY plane (Z = 0).

  • Custom Plane cuts along the plane defined by the parameters on the Custom Plane tab.

Right-click the connection icon to work with a custom plane defined by the center of another object. The position of the slice updates automatically as you translate and rotate the connected object.

  • Pick and Connect allows you to pick an existing object in the scene. The cutting plane immediately aligns with the center of the object you picked.

  • Create Grid and Connect creates an implicit grid at the position of the current cutting plane.

  • Disconnect breaks the connection between the object and the cutting plane, leaving the cutting plane at its current position. If you no longer want the other object in the scene, you can also delete it without disconnecting first.

Use BBox

Controls the units for other parameters. When on, Offset and Spacing are in percentages of the object's bounding box. When off, values are in Softimage units. The bounding box is calculated with respect to the local or global frame, depending on the value of Reference. If you are using custom planes, Use BBox is always off and cannot be changed.

Offset

Moves the location of the slice along the normal of the cutting plane. The value is in Softimage units if Use BBox is off; otherwise it is a percentage of the object's bounding box.

Snap Offset to Point

Automatically calculates Offset so that the slice passes through a particular vertex. First click this button, then pick a point in a 3D view. The vertex does not need to be on the same object as the slice; simply click on the desired object and then click on the desired point.

Create Grid and Connect

Creates an implicit grid at the position of the current cutting plane, and connects it to the custom plane parameters. You can translate and rotate the grid to control the position and angle of the slice. See the description of Slice Polygons Op Property Editor for more options.

Update With Transfo

When this option is on and another object is connected to the Plane Normal, the slice is updated every time the sliced object is moved. This allows you to make the slicing object a child of the sliced object and transform the whole hierarchy without affecting the position of the slice.

It is best to leave this option off unless necessary, because it forces the slice to be recalculated every time the object is transformed.

Nb Slices

The number of slices. Each slice is parallel to the cutting plane.

Spacing

The spacing between multiple slices. The value is in Softimage units if Use BBox is off; otherwise it is a percentage of the object's bounding box. Note that spacing cannot be modified directly if Distribute Slices is on.

Distribute Slices

Automatically calculates Spacing so that slices are spaced equally along the extent of the object's bounding box. Note that this option is available only when Use BBox is on.

Point Snap Tolerance

The minimum distance between a new point created by the slice operation and an existing point on the object. If the slice operation creates a point closer than this value, the point is moved to the existing point and welded. This prevents the slice operation from creating very small edges and polygons. As a result, some of the new edges are no longer exactly parallel to the cutting plane but no existing points gets moved.

Action

Specifies the components created or removed by the slice operation:

  • None simply creates edges at the slice position.

  • Disconnect Edge Loop(s) creates pairs of opposing boundary edges. This results is disconnected islands of polygons.

  • Delete Polys Above deletes the polygons in the direction of the cutting plane's normal from the slice's position (or the last slice's position, in the case of multiple slices).

  • Delete Polys Below deletes the polygons in the inverse direction of the cutting plane's normal from the slice position (or the first slice's position, in the case of multiple slices).

Select

Edge Loop(s)

Selects all edges created by the slice operator.

Polys Above

Selects the polygons in the direction of the cutting plane's normal from the slice position (or the last slice's position, in the case of multiple slices).

Polys Below

Selects the polygons in the inverse direction of the cutting plane's normal from the slice position (or the first slice's position, in the case of multiple slices).

Custom Plane

Defines the location and angle of the cutting plane for slicing. These values cannot be modified if Plane Normal is not set to Custom Plane on the General tab, or if another object is connected to Plane Normal.

Values are interpreted as either local or global coordinates, depending on the value of Reference set on the General tab.

Position X, Y, Z

The location of the cutting plane, in Softimage units.

Rotation X, Y, Z

The angle of the cutting plane, in degrees.

Plane Normal

The plane to slice along:

  • X Axis cuts along the YZ plane (X = 0).

  • Y Axis cuts along the XZ plane (Y = 0).

  • Z Axis cuts along the XY plane (Z = 0).