by Garry Stockton
Revit has a great tool when viewing 2D and 3D content.
Near and far clipping planes are imaginary planes located at two distances from the camera along the camera’s sight line. They determine how much of a scene is seen by the camera in the viewport.
Clipping is a great way to gain flexibility when working in the 3D view or a 3D camera.
View clipping is the process of using virtual planes that run perpendicular to the camera or perspective view line of sight. When taking advantage of the clipping planes, you will have two of them that you can adjust independently of one another. The near plane will be closest to the camera in the foreground, while the far plane will be in the background, with the focal plane being in between the two.
Image courtesy of Autodesk
Use the far clip plane to cut an elevation, section or callout view, or to limit the depth of a 3D view.
The Far Clip feature defines the depth of a view. Use it to exclude from the view any model elements that occur beyond a certain plane.
2D views: You can cut an elevation, section or callout view at the far clip plane.
- Use the Far Clipping parameter for the view to activate the feature and to specify the clipping style.
- Use the Far Clip Offset parameter to specify the distance of the far clip plane from the elevation head or the section line. Elements beyond the far clip plane are excluded from the view. As an alternative, in a plan view that displays the elevation head or the section head, select it and drag the far clip plane to the desired location.
- For callout views, use the Far Clip Settings parameter to indicate whether a callout view inherits settings from its parent view.
3D views: You can cut a 3D view at the far clip plane.
- Activate this feature using the Far Clip Active parameter for the view.
- Use the Far Clip Offset parameter to specify the distance of the far clip plane from the camera. Elements beyond the far clip plane are excluded from the view. As an alternative, use the Show Camera tool to display the 3D view camera in a 2D view (such as a plan or elevation), and drag the far clip plane to the desired location.
2D views
The following image shows the clip plane for the model and the resulting elevation view representations for the Far Clipping parameter options: Clip without line,
Clip with line, and
No clip.