Cutaway view in an assembly

[JamesBarlow]

I'm trying to create a cutaway view in an assembly and I wanted some opinions on how to perform this.

When working with a part I can create an offset plane, and link it to a feature to section a view in a specific place. I can't seem to do that in the assembly.

When I go to create the offset plane I can only input a distance. This will get me close, but I wanted to know if there is anyway to get the plane to link to a feature.

My assembly has a number of parts, one of which is a cylindrical grouping of parts that are off to the side of the main assembly planes. I am trying to section down the center of the cylinders but it won't give me a way to get the exact center, without measuring (I'm beaing lazy, I know).

Anybody have any ideas?

 

[fwc]

You can actually set the 'cutting view' plane to the centre of the cylinder by using 'parallel plane'.

There are 2 things I think you could have missed.

1. Activating the part.
2. Keypoints icon for parallel plane.

When creating the parallel plane in cutting view and after selecting the plane to copy (do not place the plane yet), you'll notice that the ‘keypoints’ icon appear in the ribbon bar. It’s located between ‘Plane by 3 Points’ and the word ‘Distance’. Click it (a drop down list will appear) and select the icon that has a circle with a red dot at its centre. This allows you to place the plane a centre point of a circle or an arc.

Hope this helps.