RKM - Clipping

With clipping it is possible to remove unwanted or invisible parts of a mesh. The selection of which areas will be clipped is based on objects and/or the scene camera's field of view.

Object Clip

You can use any geometry/object to clip a mesh, but simple primitives work best, because they do not require too much calculation time.

To clip a mesh, the RFRK requires at least one SD or ABC file. Please keep in mind that all objects inside the SD/ABC file will be used for the clipping process. If you only want to use a single object, you have to prepare an appropriate file. There is also an option to load and use more than one SD file with the “Add File” button (3DS, MYA, XSI) or a couple of predefined fields (C4D, HOU, LWV). The workflow is simple: 

• Check “Object clip”
• Load the desired SD and/or ABC file(s)
• Create the mesh during rendering

Camera Clip

In this case, everything that is outside the current camera view will be deleted, so you will get a perfect view-dependent mesh. “Object Clip” and “Camera Clip” can be used together.

Inside

Here you can choose whether you want to remove polygons from the inside or the outside of the clipping object (s).

Bounded (HOU)

When this option is active, a (virtual) bounding box is created around the SD file's object(s) and used for the clipping process.

Add/Add File (3DS/MYA)

This button opens a node browser to select the SD for the “Object Clip” mode. You can use this button multiple times to load more than one SD; the loaded files will be shown in the “Clip Files” field. Once an SD file has been loaded to your 3D program, a new field will be added for each SD showing its path and name.

Remove (3DS)

The loaded files will be displayed in the “Clip Files” field. If you want to remove them, select the desired file(s) and click on this button.

Clip Files (3DS)

Here you will see the SD files you have added with the “Add” button.

Clip File [n] (C4D, HOU, LWV, XSI)

This function opens a node browser to select the SD for the “Object Clip” mode. You can use this button multiple times to load more than one SD; the loaded files will be shown in the “Clip File” field. Once an SD file has been loaded to your 3D program, a new field will be added for each SD showing its path and name. In some RFRK distributions, the number of clipping files is limited to three and the parameters are labelled accordingly.

Clip Object Tmp Folder (C4D, LWV)

When you want to use objects from the viewport for clipping, they have to be converted into SD files. The folder determines where these temporary SDs will be stored.

Clip Object [n] (C4D, LWV)

It is also possible to drag and drop files from the viewport or "Objects" tree directly to the "Clip object [n]" slots.