Free Cut

Here, the cutting plane cuts through two parts, of which one is selected. The cylinder is unaffected.

In netfabb Studio Professional, you can not only cut parts along the main planes. With the free cutting tool, you can define a cutting plane individually and then cut parts along this plane, or you can draw a polygon on your screen which will be used as a cutting line.

The tool can be started by an icon in the toolbar, in the Extras menu or in the Extras submenu of the context menu. The functions for the Free Cut can be activated in the tabsheet. If you have already worked with the tool in this netfabb session, the last cutting plane is still in position. If you have set a cutting plane with the simple cutting tool and start the free cut there, this plane will be in place when you start the Free Cut.

With the two registers in the tabsheet, you can choose if you want to cut with a plane or draw polygon.

Free Cut with Cutting Plane

First Placing of the Cutting Plane

To insert a cutting plane, you have three options: at a right angle from the skin of a part, tangentially along the skin of a part, or defined by clicking on three points on the part. The cutting plane is, by default, bright blue and has points in its center, at its corners and in the center of its edges. When placing the plane, you can hold the left mouse button to get a preview of the plane. The plane is inserted when you release the button. The size of the plane is adjusted to the current screen, depending on zoom and perspective. Cuts can be performed by clicking on the "Cut" button at the bottom of the tabsheet.

The three options can be activated by icons in the tabsheet:

Create Cutting Plane Vertical to Surface: If this option is chosen, you can insert a cutting plane with a mouse click on a part in the project. The cutting plane will go vertically through the skin of the part at the point you clicked on and will be positioned horizontally, if possible.

Create Cutting Plane Tangential to Surface: With this option, the cutting plane is parallel to the triangle you click on and it runs right through that triangle.

Create Cutting Plane by Three Points: If this option is chosen, you can click on any three points on the part. A cutting plane is inserted which is defined by those three points. Here, you get the preview of the plane when you hold the mouse button during the placing of the third point. The last point you choose will also be the center of the plane.

Here, the cutting plane is inserted vertically to the sphere.

This plane is aligned tangentially to the sphere's skin.

When you define a plane with three points, the first two are colored blue, while the third is colored black and will be the center of the plane.

Move and Rotate Cutting Plane

With help of the points on the plane, you can move and rotate the plane with your mouse per drag & drop and you can change its proportions. Doing so, there is a difference between the left and the right mouse button.

If you click on the center of the plane, you can move the whole plain freely. This works in the same way as moving parts. If you use the right mouse button instead of the left, the plane can only be moved two-dimensionally to its sides. It will still cut through parts in the same plane, but its boundaries change.

With the points on the edges and corners, the cutting plane is rotated. When you move them by drag & drop, two lines in a darker blue are displayed, one from the point you are moving to the center of the plane, and one along the axis of rotation.

If you move the corner points, the plane is rotated around an axis vertical to the plane, running though its center. Thus, the plane stays in the actual position, only its edges and corners are moved. This is very important if you want to roll the plane afterwards.

The cutting plane can be rolled with the points in the middle of the plane's edges. The plane is always rotated round an axis parallel to the edge you clicked on, running through the center of the plane. If you roll the cutting plane on all sides, you can adjust it to any position.

Use drag & drop on the base point to move the whole cutting plane.

With the corner points, the plane is rotated around a vertical axis.

With the side points, the plane can be rolled.

As you can rotate the plane only in two directions by using drag & drop, it is often helpful to use the corner points first to rotate the plane around a vertical axis, so that you can tilt it in the direction you want.

Change Size of Cutting Plane

If you use the right mouse button instead of the left, you can also change the size and proportions of the cutting plane with drag & drop. Use the side points and corner points to enlarge and shrink the cutting plane.

Changing the size of the cutting plane is only relevant, if you cut with the option "Use Plane Boundary" (see below).

Align Cutting Plane

Additionally, if you right-click on a part, a context menu is opened which gives you further options for the positioning of the plane:

First, you can move the basepoint of the plane to the point you clicked on. Thereby, the whole plane is moved parallel.

Second, you can move the plane parallel so that it goes through the point you clicked on. This function is similar to the first, but the base point is moved only in a right angle to the plane.

Third, you can align the plane parallel to the face you clicked on. The plane is rotated into a parallel plane. To move the plane tangentially to a face, first align the plane and then move the base point or move the plane parallel.

Fourth, if you click on an edge of the part, you can align the plane vertical to this edge. Again, the plane is rotated, cutting in a right angle through the edge you clicked on. However, it is not moved to the point you clicked on. Therefore, you would have to follow up this option with one of the first two.

The tabsheet register for the free cut with a cutting plane enables you to enter specific values, edit parameters for the cut and perform the cut.

Information and Fine-Tuning

Alternatively to positioning the cutting plane in the screen, you can enter specific values for the plane in the tabsheet, enabling you to fine-tune and position the plane more precisely:

The base point is the central point of the cutting plane. You can enter values for the X-, Y- and Z-axis. The plane is then moved immediately.

For the option move parallel you can enter a distance and click on "+" and "-" to move the plane upwards and downwards in a right angle.

Below that, you can set specific angles for roll, pitch and yaw. The angles can either be entered in the fields to the right or adjusted with the horizontal scroll bars.

Roll and pitch determine the rotation of the cutting plane, with roll representing the rotation to the sides and pitch representing the rotation to the front and back. Yaw determines the rotation of the plane around the vertical axis running through the central point.

Note: With a yaw of 90°, the side edges are rotated as well, although no apparent change can be seen. So, "Roll" and "Pitch" are exchanged, compared to when you have a yaw of 0°.

The size of the plane can be changed below, with two values to be entered for the two axes of the plane. The base point of the plane stays in the same position.

Free Cut with a Polygon

The tabsheet options for the free cut with a polygon cutting line.

After you click on the tabsheet register "Polygon cut", you can draw a line on your screen which will be projected through your parts when you perform the cut.

The first two buttons determine in which mode you are. In the first mode you can create and edit your polygon. With left-clicks on the screen you set corner points for the cutting line. With default color settings, the points appear as yellow squares and the cutting line is blue. When you set the third corner point, the first and the last point are connected so that the cutting line becomes a triangle. Further corner points make it a polygon. The corner points you add are always connected to the two corner points attached to the closest line. For a clear preview on the cut, the section which will be cut out is colored grey. With the scroll bar in the tabsheet box "View", you can edit the Transparency of that preview. If you move the slider to the right, the preview gets more and more transparent and at the end vanishes.

If you change the perspective after setting the first corner points, you can look at the cutting section from different angles. The cutting line is not rotated with the perspective. With the button Reset perspective to cutting direction you can set the perspective back to the one you had when you started setting cutting points.

Set corner points for a polygon with simple mouse-clicks.

After changing the perspective you get a good preview of the cut.

The two parts after performing the cut (Triangulate Cut is activated).

To change the shape of the cutting line, you can move the points by drag & drop. The points are always moved sideways and never up and down (as the cutting line is projected through the whole area where it meets parts anyway). So, when you have changed the perspective, the shift can be a bit different to what you would expect intuitively. Change the perspective again with the right mouse button to understand how the cutting line has been changed.

After right-clicking on a corner point of the polygon, you can remove that point in the context menu.

When you click on Cut, the cutting line is projected through your parts. Everything within that projection is then cut out of your parts. The direction of the projection corresponds to the perspective from which you were looking at the project when you started drawing the line. You automatically leave the Free Cut module.

In the tabsheet, there is an information box which specifies the number of points of your polygon and the volume of the whole cutting section which is about to be cut out of your parts.

Here, the cutting line divides parts into three sections

The cutting line projects through several parts.

The option "only selected parts" is activated. All other parts are not affected.

The cutting section above without transparency.

The same cutting section with medium transparency.

The cutting section is completely tranparent.

By clicking on the second button in the tabsheet, you change your mode to Select parts. With that mode activated, you are no longer able to edit your cutting line. Instead, all options of the standard interface become available. You select parts by clicking on them and you can move and rotate them by drag & drop. Also, all context menus of the standard interface are available.

With the button Reset in the tabsheet, you can remove your polygon and start a new line. You automatically get back into the mode "Create/Edit polygon".

Cutting Options

In the bottom third of both tabsheet registers, there are four boxes representing options for the cut itself. By ticking or unticking these boxes, you can activate and deactivate the options.

You can cut only selected parts or all parts, through which the cutting plane or line runs. Selection options are the same as in the standard module.

When you use the plane boundary, the cut is only conducted as far as the outer edges of the plane go. If the box is not ticked, the parts are cut completely through along the plane, independently from the size of the displayed cutting plane. This option can only be chosen for cuts with a cutting plane.

If you Stitch parts, open triangle edges are connected. Sometimes, if the option "Triangulate Cut" (see below) is activated, the cutting tool produces open edges (for example if a part has self-intersections) which can be connected with this additional step.

Next, you can choose to Remove the original parts and replace them by the cut parts. If you do not delete the originals, they are hidden after the cut.

If you triangulate the cut, holes that emerge at the new cut parts are closed automatically with a straight surface across the cut. If not, the parts will be open.

Non-triangulated (left) and triangulated (right) cut of a box.

With the option Create group, the cut parts are moved into a new group in the project tree.

Finally, at the bottom of the tabsheet, you can either Cut to perform the cutting with the chosen plane and settings. The cut parts are then inserted into a group in the project tree. You can also cancel the cutting and leave the cutting tool without doing anything. You can go back to the tool any time. The cutting plane remains in place.

Tutorials

Netfabb Studio Tutorial - Free Cut