Create Architectural Section Drawings

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to configure and create building sections in Rhino 9. Using the ClippingSections and ClippingDrawings commands, you’ll cut vertical and horizontal sections through a model and extract them as 2D drawings with clean, consistent linework, then set up reusable Section Styles to control hatch patterns, linetypes, and colors across every drawing. Clipping properties can be tuned at any stage, from a rough working section to a finished, printable sheet. Let’s get started!

What you’ll learn

• Create a section with ClippingSections .
• Create a 2D drawing with ClippingDrawings .
• Set up a Layout for printing.
• Create reusable Section Styles and control hatch scale.
• Create horizontal sections and clean up unused layers with Purge .
• Control the layer and display properties of Clipping Drawings.
• Align 2D section drawings with AlignClippingDrawings .

Create a Section

We’ll start by creating a Clipping Plane through the model with ClippingSections , then use its widget to preview the cut interactively.

1. Download and open the model Section Tutorial.
2. Maximize the Top | ▾ viewport and Change Display Mode to Shaded.
3. Run ClippingSections .
4. At the Select objects to section prompt , press Enter to select all the geometry.
5. At the Place sections prompt, set the following options:
   • Direction = Y
   • Custom Depth = No
   • Clip = No
   • Name = Vertical
   • Label Mode = Text
   • Saved to Named View = No
   • Flip = Yes
6. Place the section, snapping to the vertical guide. Press Enter.
7. Minimize the Perspective to get back to 4View .
8. Select the Clipping Plane widget and open the Properties panel. Under Views Clipped, check Perspective.
9. In the Front | ▾ viewport, drag the Clipping Plane widget left and right. Notice how the clipped view updates in the Perspective | ▾ viewport.

Create a 2D Drawing

Next, we’ll extract a 2D vector drawing of the section using ClippingDrawings .

1. Download and open the model Section Tutorial 01 or continue with the file above.
2. Run ClippingDrawings to create a new 2D Drawing.
3. At the Select clipping planes prompt, select the Vertical_00 section and press Enter .
4. In the Clipping Drawings dialog, select the following options:

   

   • Auto-Update = Yes
   • Project in Place = No
   • Output to Clipping Drawings layer = Yes
   • Label = Text
   • Properties = By Output Layers
   • Create Section Hatch = Yes
   • Create Section Surface = No
   • Add Background = Yes
   • Tangents = No
   • Hidden = No
   • Silhouette = No
   • Projection = Parallel
5. Press OK to confirm. We’ll cover these Clipping Drawing options in more detail later in this tutorial.
6. At the Placement point prompt , place the drawing in the Top | ▾ viewport, to the right of the model.
7. The drawing is created. This is a parallel section looking through the clip visible in the Perspective | ▾ viewport.
8. In the Front | ▾ viewport, drag the Clipping Plane widget again. Notice how both the 2D Drawing and the clipped Perspective | ▾ view update together.

Create a Layout

Rhino’s Layouts (sometimes called Sheets in other software) are where you arrange 2D Drawings for printing.

1. Download and open the model Section Tutorial 02 or continue with the file above.
2. Run Layout . In the New Layout dialog, set:

   

   • Name = Cross Section 01
   • Initial Detail Count = 1 - Top
   • Printer = Rhino PDF
   • Size = A0 (841mm x 1189mm), Landscape
   • Copies = 1
3. The new Layout opens, and a viewport tabs is added at the bottom of the screen so you can switch between Model Space and Layout Space (also called Paper Space in other software).
4. Switch to Cross Section 01 using the viewport tabs.
5. Double-click inside the Detail to activate the Detail. A Detail is essentially a window into Model Space from your Layout or “sheet”.

1. Pan and zoom to center the 2D Drawing in the Detail.
2. Double-click outside the Detail to deactivate it.
3. Select the Detail border.
4. In the Properties panel, set:
   1. Scale Value = Layout 1 / Model 20 (1:20 scale),
   2. Check Locked so the scale can’t change while navigating in an open Layout view.

Create Section Styles

Each layer’s Section Style controls its hatch pattern, linetype, and color for both Print and Display, and applies to clipped views as well as 2D Drawings. Hatch scale can be set relative to either Model Space or Layout Space. Here we’ll use Layout Space, so the hatches look right on the printed sheet. In Cross Section 01, the blockwork hatch currently looks very dense, so let’s adjust it.

1. Download and open the model Section Tutorial 03 or continue with the file above.
2. Open the Layer panel:
   1. Find 002-04-002 Exterior Walls layer.
   2. Scroll to its Section Style column: CMU.
   3. Select CMU to open the Section Style dialog.

1. In the dialog:
   1. Change Pattern Scale from 1 to 4.
   2. Select the hamburger menu (☰) and choose Save Changes.
   3. Press OK.
2. The 3D section updates immediately. To update the 2D Drawing, run UpdateClippingDrawings and choose All. Every layer using the CMU Section Style updates together.
3. Switch back to the Perspective | ▾ viewport and Zoom into the clipped model. The section hatches now look too large. Rhino scales hatches in Model Space using a separate multiplier.
4. Run HatchScale and, at the Model space hatch scale prompt , change the value from 50 to 30. Note the improvement.
5. Rhino 9 ships with an extensive hatch library. Let’s add a new Section Style. In the Layers panel, select 002-03-001 Floor and select None in the Section Style column.
6. In the Section Style dialog, select:
   1. No Hatch Pattern to browse the hatches already loaded in the file.
   2. Press the + next to Search to open the hatch library.
   3. Find Concrete and double-click to add it to the document.
   4. Set Pattern Scale to 1.0 and save the style as Concrete.

1. Apply the Concrete Section Style to the following layers too:

   • 002-04-001 Floor
   • 002-04-007 Roof (Simplified)

     

2. The 3D model updates immediately. Run UpdateClippingDrawings and choose All to update the 2D Drawings.

3. Fine-tune the hatch scale and pattern scale as needed to balance Model Space and Layout Space.

Create Horizontal Sections

We’ll now repeat the process to create a horizontal section.

1. Download and open the model Section Tutorial 04 or continue with the file above.

2. Let’s clear out what we no longer need. Right-click the Cross Section 01 tab at the bottom of the screen and choose Delete.

3. Select and delete the 2D Drawing in the Top | ▾ viewport, then select and delete the Clipping Plane widget.

4. Deleting objects leaves unused layers and block instances behind. Run Purge and check every option in the dialog to clean up the file. Press OK.

5. Maximize the Front | ▾ viewport and change Display Modes to Shaded.

6. Enable Ortho .

7. Run ClippingSections .

8. At the Select objects to section prompt , press Enter. to select all the geometry.

9. At the Place sections prompt, set:

   • Direction = World
   • Custom Depth = No
   • Clip = No
   • Name = Horizontal
   • Label Mode = Text
   • Saved to Named View = No
   • Flip = No

10. Place the section about halfway up the lower floor. Press Enter.

    

11. Run ClippingDrawings to create a new 2D Drawing.

12. At the Select clipping planes prompt, select the Horizontal_00 section and press Enter.

13. Set the same Clipping Drawings options used earlier and press OK.

14. At the Placement point prompt, place the drawing in the Top | ▾ viewport, to the right of the model.

Align Section Drawings

Use Source Layers is especially useful while sections are still part of the design process, rather than a finished deliverable. Let’s try it.

1. Download and open the model Section Tutorial 05 or continue with the file above.
2. Run Purge to clear out the unused Clipping Drawings layers left over from the previous section.
3. Maximize Front | ▾ viewport.
4. Enable Ortho .
5. Run the Copy command.
6. At the Select objects to copy prompt , select the Horizontal_00 Clipping Plane widget, and press Enter .
7. At the Point to copy from prompt, select any point and drag it upward. Then, place it about halfway up the upper floor. The copy is automatically named Horizontal_01.

1. Switch to the Perspective | ▾ viewport.
2. Run ClippingDrawings on Horizontal_01. In Properties, use the Use Source Layers option this time. Press OK to close the dialog.
3. At the Placement point, place it next to the Horizontal_00 drawing. Notice that no new layers are created.
4. It’s often useful to overlay horizontal sections so you can compare floor details over one another. Run AlignClippingDrawings . At the Select source drawing prompt, pick the Horizontal_01 2D Drawing; at the Select target drawings to align with source prompt, pick the Horizontal_00 2D Drawing and press Enter . The drawings are now aligned.

Control Drawing Properties

Clipping Drawing options are set when you create the ClippingDrawings , but every option can be changed afterward. Double-click a 2D Drawing (or run EditClippingDrawings ) to edit its properties.

Drawing options

• Auto-Update: updates the 2D Drawing in Model Space and Layout Space whenever the Clipping Plane moves, or geometry in the selection changes. This can slow down performance on large models. If unchecked, run UpdateClippingDrawings to refresh the drawing. Per-layer changes, such as a Section Style, always need an update this way, but clipped Model Space views (for example, a clipped Perspective viewport) always update immediately regardless.
• Project in Place: aligns the 2D Drawing with the Clipping Plane. Useful together with Create Section Surface.
• Output to Clipping Drawings layer: when Yes, every 2D section is placed on one shared set of nested layers named Clipping Drawings. When No, each 2D section gets its own set of nested layers (Section_00, Section_01, and so on), which makes it easier to control visibility and line weight per drawing.
• Label: choose Text (uses the current Text Style and Annotation scale), Dot, or None.
• Properties:
  • By Output Layers: Display Color, Linetype, Print Color, and Print Width are controlled by the output layers described above.
  • From Input Objects: those properties come from the source Model layers instead; the output layers above still control visibility.
  • Use Source Layers: creates no new layers at all. Object properties are controlled entirely by the Model layers.

Output options

• Create Section Hatch: creates hatches controlled by each object’s Section Style. Section Style hatches always show in clipped Model Space views regardless of this setting.
• Create Section Surface: caps any open boundary created by the section with a physical surface; useful together with Project in Place for visualization.
• Add Background: shows detail behind the section slice, rather than just the cut itself.
• Tangents: shows the start and end of, for example, a filleted corner.
• Hidden: shows detail hidden behind the section.
• Silhouette: adds a thicker line around the outer perimeter of the 2D Drawing.
• Projection: choose Parallel, Perspective, Reflected, or Parallel and Reflected.

Because Clipping Drawings are block instances, all of this can be changed after the drawing is created. For example, start with Use Source Layers early in design, then switch to By Output Layers once the drawing set needs to become more formal documentation.