Better Section View gizmo & toggle / exclusion controls

Feature requests
1

This is a roundup of several discussions regarding the section view. I started searching for answers because I was very confused about the gizmo. It never showed up for me. Turns out the way I was turning on section view was “wrong.” What I eventually figured out: select a face, and then turn on Section View to get the gizmo; aligning your view to a face and turning on section view doesn’t show the gizmo - I, “wrongly” was mousing over a face, then pressing spacebar then turning on section view.

The section view feature is amazing, but it feels half baked. Here’s what I think it needs to round out its capabilities:

The problem that this feature will solve

When using Section View in Shapr3D:

  • The gizmo (drag handles / arrows to reposition the cut plane) only appears under very specific conditions (selecting a face/plane before enabling is the only way to get it to appear).

  • Once I start rotating, zooming, or doing other work, the gizmo disappears, so I can’t adjust the cut later without resetting it.

  • I can’t simply turn Section View off and on again - instead, after turning it off, to turn it back on in the exact same plane, I have to re-find the face I used to define it before, select the face, then turn section view back on, then navigate back to where I was working.

  • In assemblies or complex models, I often want certain parts excluded from the section (i.e. remain solid), but that control doesn’t exist

This disrupts the workflow: I end up fiddling with the section setup repeatedly, losing time and flexibility when trying to validate tolerances, layer behavior, or seeing internal details.

My use case is 3D printing and one key use case I often want is to validate the layers of my object to make sure it’s all 3D printable.

Brief description of the outcomes that I expect from this feature

With these enhancements, I (and other users) should be able to:

  • Leave Section View active and always see the gizmo so I can adjust slicing depth at any time, even after panning/rotating or editing the model. It would be best if the “gizmo” wasn’t attached to the 3D scene but instead was permanently, for example, in the lower left-hand corner, so it would be accessible without needing to navigate the scene.

  • Toggle Section View on/off (show/hide) without resetting or losing the last cut plane - could be attached to the “gizmo”

  • Mark some bodies or parts as “immune to section” so they remain fully shown while others are cut - maybe an icon next to the show-hide “eye” icon in the item list?

These capabilities would let me fluidly inspect internal geometry, validate tolerances across layer heights, and more reliably work with multi-part assemblies without losing context or repeatedly redoing section setup.

What I can’t achieve (or what is blocked) without this feature

  • Right now, I’m forced to pick a plane, position it just right, then lock myself into that view because the gizmo disappears once I move.

  • If I want to momentarily hide the section to see the full model, I have to reselect everything again.

  • In assemblies, I can’t easily inspect internal parts without slicing through everything — I can’t selectively exclude what I don’t want sliced.

  • It’s a real friction point when iterating — frequently I have to redo tedious work just to preview internal details from slightly different heights.

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Hey Shane, sorry I haven’t seen this sooner. Many of your concerns are already addressed, without seeing your specific workspace and case, I cannot debug it

There are 2 ways to make Section View (SV) understand which plane would you like it to cut along.

  1. You have a planar object (face, plane, sketch) already selected when starting SV. Aligning the camera to a face normal (hover+SPACEBAR) also counts. If you do the former, you will get the gizmo after SV starts. With the latter (view alignment), no gizmo will be visible. Maybe this is something we can change?
  2. You start SV without any selection or view alignment, and click on a planar face AFTER starting SV. You will get the gizmo immediately.
  • Once I start rotating, zooming, or doing other work, the gizmo disappears, so I can’t adjust the cut later without resetting it.

No you shouldn’t, navigation won’t make gizmo dispappear, selecting an object for manipulation obviously does make it disappear.

  • I can’t simply turn Section View off and on again - instead, after turning it off, to turn it back on in the exact same plane, I have to re-find the face I used to define it before, select the face, then turn section view back on, then navigate back to where I was working.

Actually you can, SV remembers your last selected plane (complete with gizmo transformation), if you experience the contrary, please share a screen capture of your process, it might be a bug/edge case.

  • In assemblies or complex models, I often want certain parts excluded from the section (i.e. remain solid), but that control doesn’t exist

We don’t support partial SV yet, but as some people requested it, it is in our backlog as a potential future improvement.

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What I found out is I was “using it wrong.”

I was pointing my pointer at a surface and pressing space-bar to orient my view, then I turned on SV.

This has a number of problems:

  1. no gizmo! I watched so many videos and tutorials that all said “just use the gizmo” - there is no gizmo the way I was doing it
  2. toggling the SV on and off resets everything

I’ve since learned I need to SELECT a surface, then turn on SV. Then it does work much better. I found the gizmo! Still, I hate that the gizmo disappears as soon as I do any manipulation. What I’d really prefer is a fixed tool on the left with a forward/backward slider that moves the SV back and forth perpendicular to the plane. I often need to zoom in on something in order to see what I need to see, and then the gizmo is off-screen so I can’t adjust it. It’s awkward AF ;).

Still, now that I’ve found the gizmo, it is MUCH more useful than it used to be. I do love most of it. I just wish it wasn’t fixed in view space and didn’t disappear as soon as I do anything. It’s a view control, not a manipulation tool. It should be always visible no matter what I do while SV is on.

Thanks!

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