Using this plugin, you can quickly cut a three-dimensional body (3D solid) into slices, or ribs. This is useful when you are designing products from sheet materials. For example, furniture, plywood frames, "blocks" for bending, puzzles, and models of buildings, ships, and aircraft. A single Chop command can replace dozens of calls to the _Slice command and do a lot more auxiliary work.
The main mode of the Chop (Ch) command is cutting a solid with parallel planes with a given step. The starting plane can be set by selecting a face on the solid as one of the planes of the coordinate system or by three points.
The second cutting mode is cutting along a curve along a given solid edge. In this case, the secant planes are placed perpendicular to the edge of the solid. The curved solid will be cut into pieces of the same length.
In addition, the Chop command can be switched to the mode of placing ribs on each section.
You can remove the inclined ends from the obtained slices—make them "stepped" for further 2D milling them from sheet material on a simple 2.5D CNC machine. Stair steps can be made inside or outside the original solid.
In addition, the program can:
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Cut with parallel planes many solids at once in 1 call of the "Chop" command.
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Cut with a clearly defined step. You will get a trim (stub) at the end.
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Cut into a given number of pieces (the program will calculate the step itself).
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Cut without a stub into pieces no more than a given length.
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The location of the starting section can be chosen by the user; it can be set at the beginning, end, or middle of the solid.
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Make gaps between pieces.
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Keep the original solid after slicing.
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Save or delete stubs.
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Assign special layers for pieces and stubs.
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Give pieces names. The name can be substituted with any properties of the original solid and the number of the piece in the order of cutting. To do this, the Numbering command is called.
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You can set up to 9 chop styles with different settings and quickly switch between styles right from the command line.
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You can switch to cutting mode along a curved edge without changing the chop style. To do this, there is a separate command: "Chop Edge" (ChE)
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There is a separate Stair-Step (StSt) command, which removes inclined ends from a flat part.
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All options are configured in the dialog box, in the AVC Options Palette, or in the Autodesk® AutoCAD® Options window.
The program works only with 3D solids and does not work with meshes, surfaces, and blocks. Just like the rest of the AutoCAD commands, in most cases the Chop command will not be able to work with solids imported from other programs.
Regardless of the AutoCAD localization language, you can switch the plugin to English, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese (PRC), Spanish, French, or Turkish localization.
Details
Operating system
Release date
Sep 27, 2016
Last updated
Jul 1, 2026
Version
2026.06.01
Language
Compatible with
ACD
2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027
AMECH_PP
2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027
Capabilities
Mechanical design
Interior design
Building design
Tags
Scheduling
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What else should I know about this product?
Usingthe command Stair-Step (StSt):
The command should only be used for sheet material parts like ply, MDF, chipboard, and sheet metal. Such parts always have 2 large flat parallel surfaces—those that remain from the sheet of the source material. Often such parts are made on CNC milling machines that cannot tilt the cutter. Therefore, the ends of the parts must be perpendicular to the main planes. This command is intended just for modeling such details. It works like this:
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We find the main (largest) plane.
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We lay out the solid with this plane in XY (as the part will lie on the CNC machine).
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We make two sections—one at zero in Z, the second at the very top of the solid (in fact, the program deliberately shifts the sections by 0.00001 inside the body, but this is almost not noticeable)
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We extend both sections into new solids towards each other.
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We find the intersection or union of these solids.
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Voila! We have a completely new solid body that can be machined on a router. All its ends are perpendicular to the main plane. And it nowhere stands for the dimensions of the original solid. Unless, in the middle of its thickness, the original solid could have convex ends or holes in the ends. They won't.
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We deploy a new solid brick to the place of the old one.
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We remove the old solid.
Understanding the principle of operation of this function will allow you to independently understand many oddities in the behavior of the program: why the end holes disappeared, why the inclined hole in the middle of the part began to look so strange, why the new solid protrudes beyond the original size on the convex end, why the grooves became through, why the segment of the sphere turned into a microscopic column, etc.
The current setting style of the Chop command determines which boolean operation the program will apply. If it is set to get a stepped solid inside the original one, then the operation of intersection (_Intersect) will be applied. If it is set to get a stepped solid outside of the original one, union (_union) will be applied.
The command takes into work not one detail, but everything that you have chosen. You can select parts before calling the STST command. The original solids are always removed.
Are there any known issues with this product?
If the base curve is more than a 180-degree arc, circle, closed curve, or winding spline, then in these cases the clipping planes will cut the solid in several places. This causes a lot of problems. Unfortunately, this problem cannot be solved even in theory. The cut plane is infinite. The first cut at the start of the solid may cut off its tail. The tail will record in stubs, and the last sections will have nothing left to cut. The program will attempt to miss sections that intersect the base curve several times. The program will first cut the solid in simple places and then return to the complex, in the hope that the large piece is not already so bent. But often such simple places do not exist. Then the program will alert you that something was wrong. And if you do not stop cutting, then inevitably extra slices and incorrect stubs arise. I recommend that in such cases, you make the first cuts alone, using the ordinary slice command. And then call ChopEdge for each piece.
Is there additional support information provided?
Support is provided by e-mail: avc.programming@gmail.com
You can ask any questions about the work of A>V>C> programs, their installation and configuration, optimization of the work of engineers, and setting up business processes in the exhibition business. Help is provided to all users, regardless of whether they made a donation or not. Any suggestions and comments are welcome for further improvement of the programs.
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