Look inside with a section view

The section view cuts the model with a plane so you can see inside: holes, pockets, wall thicknesses, how parts in an assembly sit together. It works in every workspace and in an assembly. Open it from the View group's Views menu, Section view, or press XX. A card opens at the bottom left of the view.

Only the view is cut. The part, its volume, measurements and exports stay whole, and nothing is saved in the file.

Cut through the middle

1. Press XX. The part is cut by the front plane through its middle, and the cut faces are filled with a tinted colour.
2. Drag the Position slider, or type a distance in mm, to move the cut.
3. Choose another Plane: Front (XY), Top (XZ) or Right (YZ).
4. Tick Cut away the other side to keep the half that was cut away instead.

Cut on a face

1. Click Pick a face on the card.
2. Click a flat face in the view. The cut starts flush with it, with the plane on that face.
3. Move the Position to go deeper. The number is the distance along the face's outward direction.

Clicks and the cut

Clicks in the view go to what is left after the cut, so you can pick a face or an edge inside the part, start a sketch on it, or measure across it. Untick Fill the cut faces to see through the cut into the hollow parts.

Close it

Press EscEsc, press XX again, or click Close. Opening a sketch or the drawing sheet closes it too.