The Section tool cuts a vertical section through your model and turns it into a view you can open and place on a sheet in Present Mode. Use it to check heights and relationships while you design, and to produce section drawings for your sheet set.
Before you start
Sections are placed in Design Mode.
A section shows whatever the model contains, so set up stories, spaces and BIM objects before you rely on a section for drawings.
Place a section
Open your project in Design Mode.
Select the Section tool in the top toolbar, or press
S.Click in the model where you want the section to cut.
Find the section under Sections in the left panel. Sections are named automatically: Section 1, Section 2, Section 3 and so on.
Review a section view
Open the section from Sections in the left panel.
Review the cut. The section reaches 1 m below the lowest story.
Check colours. Spaces in the section use their department and tag colours, so program colour coding carries through to your sections.
Set the detail level
The cut hatch in a section follows the detail level, which you set in Settings (gear icon, bottom-left) under Detail level:
Detail level | How cut elements appear |
Coarse | Cut elements are filled with grey. |
Fine | Each layer of a cut element (for example, the layers of a wall or Floor Slab) shows its own hatch. |
Tip: Use Coarse for early massing and stacking studies, and Fine when you need to show wall and slab build-ups.
Place a section on a sheet
Switch to Present Mode.
Open the sheet you want to use, or create one with + New Sheet.
Open the Views tab in the left panel and drag the section view onto the sheet.
Section scale
All sections of the same building share one scale on sheets. When you change the scale of one section, the other sections of that building use the same scale, so your section drawings stay consistent across the set.
Update a section after design changes
When you change the model, views on sheets don't refresh on their own.
Switch to Present Mode.
Open the Views tab in the left panel.
Click Update all views.
Updating keeps the section's settings.
Note: Changes to a view's camera, view settings or visibility need to be saved in Design Mode before you update the view in Present Mode.
Troubleshooting
The section is grey and shows no layer hatching: Detail level is set to Coarse. Switch it to Fine in Settings (gear icon, bottom-left).
Section scales keep changing together: sections in the same building share a scale on sheets. This is expected.
The sheet doesn't show my latest changes: in Present Mode, open the Views tab and click Update all views.
Related articles
Views Panel and View Settings
Present Mode: Create and Export Sheets
Update Views in Present Mode
Stories and Buildings