I was having a little difficulty understanding the VIEW RANGE settings which is an important tool in setting up your views, so I thought a visual guide may do me (and you) some good! I'll jump right into it.
- Double click into your view and refer to your PROPERTIES tool bar. You will see an "Edit" box under EXTENTS. Click it.
- the CUT PLANE box controls the elevation at which you want to cut your model. In this example, I am cutting my model 4'-0" from the associated level. My view will show everything from 4'-0" downward to the BOTTOM.
- ASSOCIATED LEVEL: what is that? The ASSOCIATED LEVEL is the level you choose to associate the views from. Here I am choosing the FIRST FLOOR. You may choose a datum level that best suites what you are trying to show.
- the BOTTOM is set to 0'-0" so my view stops there with exception of model elements within the VIEW DEPTH, see below for more information on VIEW DEPTH.
- the TOP is a tricky to visualize, because by principal if you are cutting through something, why would you need to see anything above the CUT PLANE? But this is architecture and we know that we need to see things above the CUT PLANE for the sake of showing locations. Setting the TOP at 7'-0" means elements with super powers will show up in the view. The elements I am referring to are programmed into the software to show up in the TOP portion of the view. These elements are WINDOWS, GENERIC MODELS and CASEWORK.
- the VIEW DEPTH is an adjusted range outside of the primary range where part of the model will be illustrated using a <BEYOND> line by default. There are exceptions. FLOORS, STRUCTURAL FLOORS, STAIRS and RAMPS within the VIEW DEPTH will appear as their designated PROJECTION LINE. I guess these elements have super powers too!
I hope I provided a little guidance when setting up your views. If you are still having difficulty understanding the VIEW RANGE, the software help center breaks it down more thoroughly. Don't be afraid of the little blue links!
