Hi
Trying to show a cut through slice using sketchup’s section tool but it shows black in Enscape - any reason why?
Thanks
Hi @vgeorgiou , the blackness you’re seeing is the shadow which is cast from the project section/floor above.
The reason behind this: SketchUp, unlike Revit, doesn’t give us “cut” geometry for those section cuts, the camera is in fact able to render the “cut” model, but we can currently only render the shadows of the “closed” geometry.
Support for an option to choose whether or not shadows should update according to section cuts is a topic on our agenda though which just received a further upvote through your voice. 
I think an option is the better way to upgrade this feature.
I personally like the fact that the section doesn’t affect the lighting of the rooms
(I hate when the sun come in the room by the ceiling)
Point taken regarding lighting not affecting the section in the real world without any windows, which is the case for me. An option as a feature would be useful I agree though.
It was just to get a render of the plan in general. Does that mean I need to cut an actual section using a plugin tool?
@vgeorgiou , even through the use of an additional “section cut” plugin, Enscape would probably still not receive the mentioned cut geometry, so the shadows would be cast anyway.
In this case, I’d advise you to temporarily remove parts of your project until you have the same output you’d get as if you were to use a SketchUp section cut. I’m sorry that this may cause some extra effort, but that would allow you to take a plan rendering.
I think you could put all the ceilings in a specific layer that you can enable or disable.
Enscape doesn’t consider disable layers
What I have done in the past is…
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set up a plan view with a section
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Adjust the lighting/contrast for inside (White external areas) & render
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Adjust the lighting/contrast for outside (Black internal areas) & render
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use photoshop (Gimp/PhotoPaint…) to combine the two images and get the best of both.
And/or you could adjust the time to night and set up the internal lighting properly.
There is also a trick you can do to generate floor plans from sections, but Enscape does not show line-work so it requires a bit of colouring-in to work:
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- Create a section
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- R-click on the section plane and ‘create group from section’
- - move this group so that it’s away from the model (The group automatically becomes selected when generated, so then I hit [M], {click}, [up], 10000, [return])
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- Turn off the section (because if it’s moved up 10000, the group is now hidden by the section.)
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- draw a rectangle over the top of the section line group so that it is fully contained within it
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- select the new rectangle and all the section group, then group these together and enter the group
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- Explode everything - if something is still selected, it’s a group and it needs to be exploded; explode again - and again - and again… (You need to do this so that the rectangle you drew breaks into sections to colour in)
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- Now pick a colour and fill-in the internal walls, floors, etc. (This may need you to draw over some lines again to get it to recognise the shapes.)
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- (Note that this new group is perfect for adding dimensions into because all the end points and lines are easily snapable.)
Some great tips from both - thank you.
Hi,
I am using the trial version of Enscape with Sketchup. I have various Section cuts activated but they are not active in the render view? Does anyone know how I can fix this please?
thanks
I’m not 100% sure, but I think it only recognises section cuts from the primary geometry: any cuts within groups are ignored.
Hmm, could be I saw Kaj do a workaround in the webinar last week. I think the webinar was recorded so it should be out there somewhere. If I remember right it was something involving creating a white skybox in order to override the sun shadows…