Clipping & Ortho Planes

The Clipping & Ortho Planes section provides tools that let you clip, or hide, portions of the displayed volume. These tools are especially useful for visualizing interior regions of datasets.

Interface

The Clipping & Ortho Planes tool is found in 3D Display Options panel. The table header contains controls for adding, removing, and resetting planes as well as toggling and setting the color of Clipping Caps. Each clipping/ortho plane has its own table row with tools and options for the specific plane. An example of the Clipping & Ortho Planes table is shown below.

Table header

The table header contains descriptions for each column in the table as well as global options for adding, removing, and resetting planes as well as toggling and setting the color of Clipping Caps. The buttons in the table header are described in the table below.

Name	Icon	Description
Add Clipping Plane		Adds a new clipping plane to the display
Add Ortho Plane		Adds a new ortho plane to the display
Reset Plane Position		Resets the position of the selected plane back to the center of the scene
Delete Selected Plane		Removes the selected plane from the display
Delete All Planes		Removes all planes from the display
Toggle Clipping Caps		Toggles the display of Clipping Caps, which are colored areas where mesh interiors intersect the plane Clipping Caps cannot be used with transparent meshes.
Set Clipping Caps Color		Opens a color picker from which the color of the Clipping Caps can be selected

Table row

Each clipping/ortho plane on the displayed image has a table row. Options in each row (see the table below) can be used to independently control the behavior of each clipping/ortho plane. The effects of clipping planes are cumulative when multiple planes are toggled on. 

Name	Icon	Description
Show Expanded Options		Shows expanded options for precise positioning of the plane
Show/Hide Clipping Plane		Toggles the display of the plane; when the plane is hidden, it is not used for clipping away portions of the displayed scene
Flip Clipping Plane		Flips which side of the clipping plane is shown and which side is clipped away
Plane Orientation		Specifies the translation axis for the plane; there are four (4) options: Along the X axis Along the Y axis Along the Z axis Advanced or free orientation
Toggle Volume Clipping		Toggles clipping of the volume rendering (i.e. channel display) by the plane
Toggle Mesh Clipping		Toggles clipping of the mesh/surface rendering (i.e. objects) by the plane

Additionally, a slider is provided in each table row that lets you adjust the relative position of the clipping/ortho plane along the specified axis.

On-view control

Each clipping/ortho plane can be adjusted in the Image Viewer with a control widget that lets you move the plane along the specified axis. The clipping/ortho plane must be selected in the Clipping & Ortho Planes table for its widget to be shown. The row of the selected plane is blue in the table, and the selected plane has a red border in the Image Viewer. Deselect a plane in the Clipping & Ortho Planes table to hide its widget and border. Basic Widgets with one (1) control are available for planes with the Plane Orientation set as X, Y, or Z, and Advanced Widgets with nine (9) controls are available for planes with the Plane Orientation set as Advanced. When you mouse over a widget control, it turns white to indicate the selected control.

Basic Widget

The Basic Widget allows you to translate the clipping/ortho plane along the axis that is orthogonal to the plane, which is the same as the axis indicated in the Axis column of the Clipping & Ortho Planes table for the selected clipping/ortho plane.

Basic Widget

Advanced Widget

The Advanced Widget allows you to set the position and orientation of the clipping/ortho plane when its Plane Orientation is set as Advanced. 

Using clipping and ortho planes

To add a clipping plane, click on the Add Clipping Plane icon  in the table header. The clipping plane is added to the display with portions of the scene clipped away (see right, click to enlarge).

To add an ortho plane, click on the Add Ortho Plane icon .

Adjust plane position

If the Plane Orientation of the clipping/ortho plane is set as X, Y, or Z, the position of the clipping/ortho plane can be adjusted using the on-view Basic Widget, slider in the plane's table row, or Position textbox in the expanded plane options.

If the Plane Orientation of the clipping/ortho plane is set as Advanced, the position of the clipping/ortho plane can be adjusted using the on-view Advanced Widget or Position textboxes in the expanded plane options. There is no slider in the plane's table row when the Plane Orientation is Advanced.

Ortho-plane thickness can be adjusted using the Thickness textbox in the expanded plane options.

Toggle mesh and volume clipping

You can toggle clipping of the displayed channel, objects, or both by clicking on the Volume icon  and/or Mesh icon  in the table row of the clipping/ortho plane. A comparison of the clipping modes is shown below:

You can specify the clipping mode for each clipping/ortho plane independently to customize the display of the clipped scene in 3D View.

Flip display clipping

You can specify which side of a clipping plane to clip away by clicking on the Flip Clipping Plane icon . A blue bounding box surrounding the Flip Clipping Plane icon in the table row indicates that the clipping plane is flipped from its default orientation. By default, the clipping plane hides the portion of the image that is closer to the image origin (see the figures to the right for a comparison between flipped and non-flipped clipping displays).

Toggle Clipping Caps

You can toggle Clipping Caps using the Toggle Clipping Caps icon  to fill the regions where meshes intersect the clipping/ortho plane with a solid color (see the figure to the right). You can specify the color of the Clipping Caps by clicking on the Set Clipping Caps Color icon  and then selecting the desired color from the color picker. You may not show Clipping Caps while any meshes have greater than 0% transparency.