In this video, we show you how to easily create cutting components that will work with Double-Cut.

We also demonstrate the basic workflow with the plugin.  Scroll down for the written version.

 

Getting Started Tutorial

This tutorial will demonstrate the basic workflow of using Double-Cut version 2, and cover the core features and functionality.

Intro

Let’s start with a basic introduction of how this extension works in the background, to cut through both sides of a wall.

With SketchUp’s native tools, when placing a cutting component onto the face of a wall, it will cut just that face.

When Double-Cut is installed and active, as long as components meet certain cutting requirements, they can cut through the other side of the wall as well, regardless of wall thickness. 

This is true for components created from scratch, or downloaded from the 3D Warehouse. 

Double-Cut works on components glued directly to faces, or glued to groups or components. The organization, or structure, of groups and components can affect results, as we’ll see farther on.

There are three ways to access Double-Cut functionality: via the toolbar, via the Extensions / Double-Cut menu, or via the right-click menu for a cutting component, under Double-Cut.

If you don’t see the Double-Cut toolbar after installing the extension, open the Extension Manager and verify that the plug-in is enabled. To display the toolbar manually, open the View / Toolbars menu. 

Basic Example

In this example, the walls and floor are each separate groups. Adding the Outliner to your tray of windows makes it easy to visualize the structure of groups and components.

 

Clicking the first icon on the Double-Cut toolbar attaches a simple, 1m square window cutting component to your cursor. This component aligns to any face it touches, and once placed, cuts through both sides of the wall. 

When you move a cutting component, the cuts follow. This also happens when you copy a component, rotate a component while the Move tool is active, or scale a component. 

Multiple components can be selected and moved at once, with all cuts following the move. 

When you delete a cutting component, the wall heals.

A cutting component must include, within its top level, a closed set of coplanar edges that define the shape of the wall cuts. 

To see what this means, place an example component in blank space, open the component for editing, and hide the window frame group.

What remains are the cutting edges, ungrouped and selectable. 

The cutting edges must form a closed loop, and be aligned with the red-green plane of the component axes. The blue axis points in the opposite direction of the cut, perpendicular to the wall.

 

You can modify the geometry of the component, and add sub-groups and components. As long as there is a closed loop of cutting edges at the top level of the component, it will still cut. 

When you close the now-enhanced component, any windows in the walls will still cut through. Any new components you add from the In-Model components collection will also cut. 

To disable cutting, select one or more components, and click Disable Double-Cut in the toolbar. 

To make a disabled component cut again, select it and click Enable Double-Cut. 

Creating and Editing a Cutting Component

Now let’s look at how to create a cutting component from scratch. 

On the outside face of a wall group, create a loop of cutting edges, and erase the face within the edges. Select the cutting edge loop, and create a new component.

In addition to component name, the first two requirements for any double-cut component are:

• Glue to is set to Any
• Cut opening is checked

To set the cutting plane, click Set Component Axes. 

In this example, the current red-green plane is parallel to the ground. To change this, keep the origin as is, make the red axis point right, and green point up. This means the blue axis will point away from the wall - the correct direction for a cutting component.  

When the component is saved, you’ll see a popup with a message that the cut was not executed because the component is not glued to a face. This is fixed by gluing, which will be the next step.

First, to verify that the blue direction is correct, double-click the component to open it again. Blue points out, which means the cut will go into the wall.

To fix the gluing issue, select both the component and the group or face to be cut. Then click Glue Component.

The component now cuts, as will any additional components inserted from the In Model component collection.  

Now let’s say you’ve created or downloaded a component, which you want to make able to cut. The arched window in this example is comprised of two identical mirrored sub-components..

When this component is open, and its sub-components hidden, there is no selectable loop of cutting edges.

This means that, when glued to a wall, the component will not cut through.

To enable this window to cut, trace a loop of edges around its perimeter, and delete any interior edges or faces. These edges should be selectable at the top level of the component, as shown here in Wireframe view.

Making this change will not affect any components already glued to the wall. To make the component cut, select it and click Refresh Cut.

This completes the cut-through. Any other inserted components will cut automatically.

Keep in mind: you may see components cut even when you don’t want them to. As long as Double-Cut is installed and active, any components that meet cutting requirements will cut. 

In this example, a painting component was inserted from the 3D Warehouse. This component’s red-green plane aligns correctly to the wall, but it was mistakenly set to cut openings.

This means that once placed, the wall behind the painting is cut through. 

This is an easy fix - with the component selected, simply disable Double-Cut. 

Component Cutting and Model Organization

As we’ve seen, a cutting component can be placed on a group or component to cut through. Cutting also works on loose geometry.

In Double-Cut 2.0, cutting also works on multi-layered walls. 

In this example, the outer wall group here is brick, and the inner group is plaster. While these groups are separate, a double-cut window will only cut through the group whose face you click. 

But if both groups are selected and nested within a larger wall group, the component cuts through all sub-groups.

Pay attention to your group or component nesting structure when using double-cut. The Outliner makes this much easier. 

In this example, if you add a shelving component to this room, separate from the wall group, a cutting component glued to the wall group will be limited to the walls. 

But if the shelving component is added to the group that contains the walls, the cutting component will cut through everything in the overall group, extending as far as its max cut depth, which is discussed in the next section.

So be sure to adhere to a proper group and component structure, to avoid cutting things that should remain whole.

Cutting Depths

New to Double-Cut 2.0 is the ability to control the max cut depth in both directions.

With no components selected, choose Extensions / DC / Set Max Cut Depth. The default is 1 meter, or the equivalent feet and inches, which you can change. 

This example will demonstrate Max Cut Depth for a selected component. 

The model in this example contains a house group, with subgroups for floors, roof, and walls. A loose-geometry chimney shape is off to the side.

First, make the chimney a component, which won't cut until we make some additional changes to it.

The cutting component requires the addition of the familiar loop of cutting edges along the bottom.

Make another component that contains the chimney component and cutting edges. This will be the chimney cutter, set to glue to any face and cut openings. 

Click Set Component Axes. The red-green plane is correct, along the bottom of the component, but the current blue direction is wrong - it should be opposite the cut direction. So keep the red axis the same, but reverse green, which also reverses blue. 

Move the chimney to the bottom of the ground floor, which glues the component to the house group. Because the default max cut depth is about 3’, the chimney only cuts upward through the floor but doesn’t reach the ceiling or roof. 

To change the cut depth, right-click the component, choose Double-Cut / Set Max Cut Depth, and enter 30’ to go through the whole house. 

Because this component was placed on the overall house group, it cuts through all sub-groups.

Edit the chimney cutter, edit the chimney sub-component, and pull it through. 

When you move the chimney, the cuts follow. 

Keep in mind: Max cut depth can have unintended consequences if set too high. If you add the basic cutting window, and set its depth high enough, it will also cut through the parallel wall.

Forward cut depth extends the cut in the other direction. 

The room group in this model includes a wall group and two groups for the base molding and chair rail. When the door cutting component is inserted, the wall itself is cut in the outward direction, but the moldings remain intact. 

With the door selected, use the right-click menu, or the Extensions menu, to set the forward cut depth to 2” to accommodate the moldings. 

Note that one or all of a component’s cutting edges can be hidden. For this door component, displaying hidden geometry shows that the bottom edge of the cutting loop was hidden.