It would be nice if the normals of a surface could have an ability to communicate to intersecting objects and indicate which side of a surface those intersecting objects will show

Restatement: Say you design a pipe, fuselage, hull, or a box. You want to display only the INSIDE contents of the above construction, not the items beyond. This would be a per-zone type of thing. So, it would be possible to draw multiple "containers" of objects and each would be "intelligent"

Use cases:

-- rapid drawing is often hindered by too much time spent/wasted perfecting a "container" and drawing the ribbing/internal stiffening.

When I draw ship hulls, I spend a lot of time trimming off surfaces to get weight approximations. That takes an inordinate amount of time. Drawing each stiffener, stringer, and girder should be a "macro" type of approach: draw a template, then tell the program to reproduce in the same manner along the selected paths. I should not have to draw each one or sweep each one just to maintain independent editability of a random stiffener/beam/stringer/girder.

Benefits:

-- It would make for much faster drawing if the user did not have to wait for the program to recalculate when moving intersecting objects.

-- If normals of surface of a hull or fuselage can be told "do not display material/geomety outside of designated surface/solid", then that could also be a step toward "ignoring" that excess or "green" or similarly viewed material. At that point, if it is ignored, then it is easier to do mass properties calcs without having to trim.

Even though through careful prep a user can use associativity to reshape an object, say, a bulkhead, the program bogs down and can take 5-10 minutes to redraw/refresh if some curves that shape the hull are edited, because they then cause all the splines related to stringers to update, and stiffeners update, and then the surfaces or related solids update, too.

Maybe when I get a 64-bit machine, many of my issues with memory efficiency will go away, but reportedly, 64-bit does not confer SPEED, just more ability to place more math or code or geometry into processing space.

Admittedly, I could also try to create more files and stop putting so much into one single file. I'm considering creating multiple files:

-- hull and decks file

-- hull and stiffening

-- decks and hull and internal compartments less detail design

-- decks and compartment partitions and compartment contents by zone

Hi rockyroad,

I use clipping planes, but I'm under the impression they only show/hide according to planar normals, based on planes provided by VCP/Shark, and not based on curved planes, such as pipes/tubes or convex/concave objects such as ship's compound-curvature hulls, or airplanes's fuselages, or autos' bodies.

Actually, cars might me more difficult in a larger view unless some sort of "plane boundary box" that has stand-offs according to thes eats, floors, windows, read deck, and other features.

I use transparency, too, but I've not figured out or seen how a large flat plate intersecting a hull can be invisible OUTside of the hull but remain visible INside of the hull, and be useable inside, but non-interferring outside (unless there is a mode to allow selection so the plate/bulkhead position can be adjusted).

Thanks for the reply.