6

Piercing Points and Plane Intersections

We now consider problems that occur frequently in connection with the design of
objects composed of various intersecting parts. One of the more frequent examples in
architectural design is ‘roofscapes,’ which consist of several intersecting planes meeting
at possibly odd angles. The problem is to find accurate projections of these
configurations in various views. Such problems are solved using the basic techniques
and constructions previously introduced. Intersection constructions also form the basis
for depicting shades and shadows in orthographic views.

6.1 PIERCING POINT - INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN LINES AND PLANES

When a line neither on nor parallel to a plane intersects that plane, it does so at a point
called the piercing point. See Figure 6-1.

6-1
Piercing point B
Piercing point
F

Y
The piercing point for a given plane and line can be found by two alternative
constructions. The first of these finds an edge view of the plane using an auxiliary view
familiar from previous constructions.

Construction 6-1
Piercing point (edge view method)

Given a line and a plane in two adjacent views, 1 and 2, where the line is defined by
segment XY, and the plane by ∆ABC, find the piercing point by the edge view method.

There are three steps:

1. Use Construction 4-2 (on page 126) to find an edge view of ∆ABC in an auxiliary
view, 3.
2. Project ∆ABC into view 3. The point of intersection, P, of the segment XY and the
edge view of ∆ABC is the piercing point (Note that if either segment is too short,
extend them sufficiently to produce the intersection).
3. Project P into the other views; determine the visibility of the line with respect to the
plane at the piercing point by Construction 2-2 (on page 73). See also Figure 5-19.
The construction is illustrated in Figure 6-2.

3 1

C
X lines to test visibility of XY with respect to plane

Edge view of plane ABC

C
P is the percing point P X
B

P
Y
TL
B
Y
A
A

1
2
X
A

HL B
P

Y
C

6-2
Finding the piercing point by the edge view method

174
6.1.1 Cutting plane

Take, as an example, the familiar problem of finding the intersection between the
vertical edges of a chimney, given in top view in a roof plan and partially in front view,
with a sloping roof (see the left side of Figure 6-3).
The obvious approach is to take an auxiliary view as the figure below shows.

piercing point

6-3
Where does the chimney meet the roof?

However, there is a second method for finding a piercing point is particularly elegant
because it does not need an auxiliary view. It is based on the following observation.
Whenever we have a line, l, piercing a plane, p, and a plane, c, that contains l, c
intersects p at a line, t, that contains the piercing point. c is called a cutting plane and t
its trace on p (see Figure 6-4).

cutting plane

line
piercing point

trace

6-4
A cutting plane and its trace

175
6.2 PIERCING POINT – CUTTING PLANE METHOD

The following construction illustrates in very generally how one might solve such
problems.

Construction 6-2
Piercing point – cutting plane method

Given a line, l, and a plane in two adjacent views, 1 and 2, where the plane is defined by
∆ABC, find the piercing point by the cutting plane method.

There are three steps:

1. Select a view, say #1, so that a cutting plane perpendicular to view #1 appears in
edge view in #1 and coincides with the view of l in #1. This line must intersect with
two sides of ∆ABC in #1. Call the intersection points D and E.
2. Project D and E into view #2. DE is the trace of the cutting plane in that view. Its
intersection with l is the piercing point, X.
3. Project X into view #1, and determine the visibility between line and plane at the
piercing points using Construction 2-2 (on page 70). See also Figure 5.19.
The construction is illustrated in 6-5.

l
X E
A
D

1 1
2 2

A
X
E
DE trace of the cutting
l plane in view #2

Problem: Where is the piercing point? Construction

6-5
Piercing point – cutting plane method

176
6.2.1 Worked example – Back to the chimney problem

Lets get back to the chimney problem in Figure 6-3. We can use a simplified version of
the above construction to solve this. In the top view, every vertical edge appears in point
view, and every vertical plane is perpendicular to the picture plane of that view and will
appear in edge view in the top view. If we draw a line through the point view of a front
edge, e, that intersects the eave and ridge lines of the roof at points A and B,
respectively, we can immediately project points A and B into the front view. The line
through A and B in the front view is the trace of a vertical plane through e on the roof.
The point of intersection of the trace with the front view of e is the piercing point of the
edge with the roof plane. The construction is shown in Figure 6-6.

cutting planes

piercing point

trace of the cutting plane

6-6
Completing the chimney-roof intersection

6.2.2 Piercing point of a line with a plane not specified by a triangle

We can apply Construction 6-2 in a straightforward manner when planes are specified
by parallel lines or intersecting lines. The two cases are illustrated in Figures 6-7 and
6-8. P marks the piercing point in both views. In both cases, the visibility construction
is applied to the line l. In the lower diagram, note that the point of intersection of the
lines that specify the plane must correspond to the same point in both views. This can be
used as a check to verify that the lines truly intersect. The reader is urged to study this
example since the visibility of l with respect to the plane is not apparent from a ‘first
sight’ of the adjacent views.

177
 l P
piercing point

1 1

2 2

piercing point
P

l
l

Problem: Where is the piercing point? Construction

6-7
Piercing point when a plane is specified by two parallel lines

P piercing point

l l

1 1
2 2

P piercing point

l l

Problem: Where is the piercing point? Construction

6-8
Piercing point when the plane is specified by two intersecting lines

178
6.2.3 Worked example – Lines intersecting a pyramid

Consider the following problem. We are given a pyramid and two lines emanating from
the same point X. Determine whether the two lines intersect the pyramid and if so,
where.
The steps to the problem are straightforward. For each line from X we determine the
piercing points by constructing the traces of the cutting plane. The traces 12 and 23
determine the piercings points P1 and P2. Likewise, traces 45 and 56 determine
(apparent) piercing points P3 and P4, which lie outside the pyramid. Trace 67 determines
the piercing point point P5. Trace 47 determines the piercing point P6, which intersects
the base of the pyramid.

X X

P4
B B
7
3
A
P5
A
P2 6

D P1 2 D
P6
1

4
P3 C
C

D D
X X

6
P2 P4
P1 5

P5

A C B A 1 4 3 C P6 7 B

P3

Problem: Where do the lines meet the pyramid? Construction

6-9
Intersection between two intersecting lines and pyramid

179
6.3 INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN PLANES AND PLANES

The preceding problem suggests the following. Two planes either intersect at a common
line or are parallel. When planes intersect, the problem of finding the intersection of two
planes reduces to finding two lines in a plane and then the piercing points for each of
these lines with respect to the other plane; the piercing points define the line where the
planes intersect.

Line of intersection

6-10
Line of intersection of two intersecting planes

However, the intersection may fall actually outside a particular portion of the plane as
given, for example, by three non-collinear points. But, no matter how planes are
specified, it is always possible to find two distinct lines in each plane. The piercing
points for these lines can then be determined by applying either Construction 6-1 or
Construction 6-2 twice. The construction below demonstrates this for the cutting plane
method.

Construction 6-3
Intersection between two planes – cutting plane method

Given two planes in two adjacent views, where the planes are defined by ∆ABC and
∆DEF, find the intersection line by the two-view method.

The two planes are shown in Figure 6-11a. There are two steps in the procedure.
1. Apply Construction 6-2 twice for two different cutting planes to find two
intersection points, X and Y. In Figure 6-11b, the first cutting plane was selected in
the front view, yielding piercing point X in both views. The second was selected in
the top view yielding piercing point Y in both views. The line through X and Y is the
common intersection.
2. Determine the visibility between lines in each plane using by Construction 2-2 (on
page 70). See also Figure 5.19. See Figure 6-11c.

180
 top
front

a.

top
front

first cutting plane

X
Y line of intersection

second cutting plane

top
front

line of intersection

Y
X

first cutting plane

b.

6-11
Constructing the intersection of two planes: line of intersection

181
 X
Y line of intersection

top
front

line of intersection

Y
X

c.

6-11(continued)
Constructing the intersection of two planes: visibility

For reasons of completeness, Figure 6-12 illustrates the construction using the line
method. Here we find the edge view of one of the planes from which the line of
intersection of the two planes can be easily determined.

top aux

edge view of plane

line of intersection

top
front

line of intersection

6-12
Constructing the intersection of two planes by constructing an auxiliary view

182
6.3.1 Lines of intersection of a plane surface and the faces of a prism

The intersection of two flat surfaces is a line. Therefore, when a plane surface intersects
the face of a prism it does so in a line. The individual lines of intersection between the
plane and faces of the prism form the complete lines of intersection between the plane
and the prism. In Figure 6-13 plane ABCD intersects the prism along lines WXYZ.

C D
Intersecting plane
Y
Z
Piercing points

X W

B
A

6-13 Base plane

Intersection of plane and a prism Observers
line of sight

We can determine the piercing points either by taking an edge view of the intersecting
plane or by using the cutting plane method. Both methods are illustrated below in
Figures 6-14 and 6-15 respectively.

Edge view of plane

Piercing points

Edge view of base plane

6-14
Intersection of a plane surface with a prism (Line method)

183
 1 5 7

6 8
4 2

4 2 6 8

3
1 5 7
Edge view of base plane

6-15
Intersection of a plane surface with a prism (Cutting plane method)

Other the intersection of a plane surface with any polyhedron can be similarly
constructed. We revisit this construction in Chapter 8.

6.3.2 Problem revisited

In a previous problem (see Figure 6-9), we had considered the intersection of two
intersecting lines with a pyramid.
The construction follows the same steps as before except here the two intersecting lines
specify a plane, in which case the pairs of points, (P1, P2) specify a line of intersection.
Likewise pairs (P2, P5), (P5, P4) and (P4, P1) specify lines of intersection. In fact, the
points P1 P2 P5 P4 define a quadrilateral plane of intersection.
The steps in the construction using the cutting plane method are shown below in Figure
6-16. The construction using the line method (constructing the edge view) is left to the
reader.

184
 X X

P1 is the piercing point in face ADC

P2 is the piercing point in face ADB

B B

3
A A
P2
P1
D 2 D
1

C C

D D
X X
2

P2
P1

A C B A 1 3 C B

a. b.

X
P1 is the piercing point in face ADC
P2 is the piercing point in face ADB

P6
B
7
3
A P5
6
P2
P1
2 D P4
1
5

4
P3
C

D
X
2

P2
P1
5 6 P6

P5

A 1 4 3 C P4 7 B
P3 is the piercing point in the plane of face ACD but not on it
P4 is the piercing point in face ABC
P3 P5 is the piercing point in face ABD
P6 is the piercing point in the plane of face BCD but not on it
c.

6-16
Intersection of a plane with a pyramid: Five steps

185
 X

P6 P6
B
7
3 P5
A P5
6
P2 P2
P1 P1
2 D P4 P4
1
5

4
P3 P3
C

D
X
2
P2 P2
P1 P1
6 P6 P6
5

P5 P5

A 1 4 3 C P4 7 B P4

P3 P3

d. e.

6-16(continued)
Intersection of a plane with a pyramid: Five steps

6.3.3 Worked example – Construction of a roof view

Intersections between planes have to be determined frequently in architectural design

and require usually that the techniques of descriptive geometry be used explicitly
because intuition fails to provide an efficient solution. The following example is typical.
Given are an incomplete roof plan and front elevation of a house with a sloped roof and
an addition at a 45° angle with lower ridge and eaves as shown on the left in Figure
6.17; such incomplete drawings are easy to produce and result immediately from some
basic decisions about heights and other dimensions of the objects under consideration.
The task is to complete both views, which will lead eventually to the projections shown
on the right in Figure 6-17.

186
6-17
(Left) Incomplete and (Right) completed roof views of a house with addition

The figures below show the steps in the construction using the two-view method for
finding the correct view.

The first cutting plane (1) was

selected in the top view through the 1 is the EV of cutting plane in top view
C is the piercing point
ridge of the addition; its trace in the
A
front view is the segment AB,
which intersects with the ridge to 1 C
give piercing point C between the
ridge and the main roof. B

Intersection of the ridge line

A with roof plane

187
A second piercing point, F, is
2 is the EV of cutting plane in top view
found by selecting a cutting plane F is the piercing point
CF is the line of intersection
(2) through the left-hand eve of the
A
addition. The two piercing points D

define the intersection between the 1 C

front part of the main roof and the 2

left-hand part of the addition roof. E,H G B

Note that because the eaves of the

two roofs are at different heights,
the roofs intersect only between
Intersection of two roof planes
points G and C (segment 3). This D A

completes the front view because

the right-hand side of the addition C

is not visible in that view. 3

E G B
H F

3 is the line CF on the roof plane

that intersects the eave line EB at G

H is where the roof plane of the addition meets the wall

HG lies on the roof plane of the addition

To complete the top view, we must

find the intersection between the 5 is the line LB on the roof plane that
intersects CK at L
main roof and the right-hand
A I
addition roof. Cutting plane (4) is D

selected in the front view. This 1 C

5

gives the trace IJ, and piercing 2 L

point K in the top view. E,H G B
K

J
The second piercing point for the
two planes is point C. Thus, CJ is
Intersection of the other roof plane
the intersection between the two of the addition to main roof plane
D A
planes, which is again shortened I
4 is the EV of cutting plane in
because of the different eve lines C
4 front view
K is the piercing point
and ends at L. It is not visible in CK is the line of intersection
3 K
the front view. E
L

G B J
H F

The complete construction is shown in Figure 6-18.

188
 5
1

6-18
Constructing the roof intersection

6.4 TRUE ANGLE BETWEEN PLANES

Finding the intersection between two planes is also the basis for determining the true
acute angle between the planes (provided the planes do in fact meet at a line); this angle
is called the dihedral angle between the planes.
The true angle appears in any view showing both planes in edge view.
This view can always be found if the intersection line, l, is known. Continue by
constructing a first auxiliary showing l in TL and a second auxiliary with folding line
perpendicular to l. In this second view, both planes appear in edge view and l in point
view. The true angle between the planes can be measured in this view. This method
might be needed to check whether two planes are perpendicular. Figure 6-19
demonstrates this construction for the two planes used in Construction 6-3.

189
 1 2

l in TL Dihedral
angle = 87°

Point view of
line of intersection, l
1
top

Edge view of the two planes

top
front

6-19
Finding the dihedral angle between two planes by showing them in edge view

6.4.1 Worked example – True angle between the front and side views of a
metal hood

A practical application of this construction is illustrated in Figure 6-20. The figure

shows the top and front view of a metal hood. The problem is to find the true angle
between the front and side panel, a and b, respectively.

l a
top

front

Edge view of b
l a

6-20
A metal hood

190
In this case, the construction is simplified because we know already the intersection, l,
between these planes. Figure 6-21 demonstrates how to solve this problem through two
successive views that generate first a view of l in TL and then edge views of the two
panels, which also depicts the true angle between them.

l a

top

front

Edge view of b
l a

Edge view of a
a

TL of l Point view of l

b
Edge view of b

6-21
Solving the metal hood problem

It is worth studying the auxiliary views carefully. Clearly, view 1 is a 'tilted' bottom
view (this can be gleaned from the position of the folding line relative to the front view).
View 2 is a side view perpendicular to the bottom view and therefore appears to show
the hood upside-down. In both views, we show hidden portions of segments by dashed
lines to aid the viewer's perception of the object (this was done by using construction
1.31 or 4.15). Readers are encouraged to try to visualize the fully three-dimensional
object in these views.
Alternatives to these views exist. For example, we could have used a tilted top view as
view 1 by placing the folding line on the other side of l in the front view. This would
have led to an oblique side view in view 2 that may be easier to understand because the
hood would appear in a more natural orientation. That is to say, the selection of auxiliary
views may influence how easy they are to understand. But this selection should make no
difference for the primary purpose of the auxiliaries: to show the true angle between
planes a and b.

191
6.4.2 Worked example (slightly harder) – Constructing a polyhedron given its
base and lateral angles of its sides

We can use the ideas developed in this chapter to construct a polyhedron given its base
and the lateral angles that its sides make with the base. In particular, we consider the
following problem:
Construct a plan and elevation for a pyramid with an equilateral triangular base, say 3"
with sides at lateral angles 45º, 60º and 75º to the base.
We describe the construction in stages.
The first step is to construct the base in plan (in true shape) and elevation (edge view) as
shown.

A B

A C B

6-22
Constructing a tetrahedron given its base and lateral angles of its sides
Step 1: Construct the plan and elevation of the base

The second step is to construct showing the base in edge view a side of the base in point
view and the edge view of a lateral side.

192
 BC AC

60° 45°

C B
A
C
Edge view of base and the 1 Edge view of base and the
lateral side inclined at 60° to it lateral side inclined at 45° to it
2

Edge view of base and the

lateral side inclined at 75° to it
3
75°

A B AB

3 The lateral sides are represented by

parallel lines 1 and AC; 2 and BC;
and 3 and AB.

In the auxiliary views 1,2,3 represent

the point view of a line respectively
2 parallel to AC, BC and AB

In plan and elevation 1,2,3 represent

1 lines respectively parallel to AC, BC
and AB

In elevation the transfer distance for

the line is determined from the
auxiliary views
A C B

6-22(continued)
Constructing a tetrahedron given its base and lateral angles of its sides
Step 2: Construct edge views of the lateral sides and project back into plan and elevation

The next step is to determine the line of intersection of two of the lateral sides, say,
bordering on AC and BC. For this we use a cutting plane to determine one of the
piercing points P. The other piercing point is C. CP lies on the line of intersection of
the two lateral sides. The vertex of the tetrahedron lies on this line.

193
 BC AC

60° 45°

C B
A
C
1

F E
P
3
75°

A B AB

–CP– is the line of intersection of the planes

specified by triangles AEC and BFC.
2 F
The vertex of the tetrahedron lies on this line

1 E

A C B

6-22(continued)
Constructing a tetrahedron given its base and the lateral angles of its sides
Step 3: Find the line of intersection of two of the lateral sides

The last step is to find the vertex of the tetrahedron, which is similarly determined by
using a cutting plane.

194
 BC AC

60° 45°

C B
A
C
1

P
3
D 75°

A B AB

–CP– intersects the third lateral side

at the vertex D of the tetrahedron
2

1 D

A C B

6-22(continued)
Constructing a tetrahedron given its base and lateral angles of its sides
Step 4: –CP– intersects the third lateral side at the vertex completing the construction

6.4.3 A note on the intersections between lines and solids

Intersections between a line and a solid can be constructed by the methods described
above when the solid is bounded by planar surfaces: a piercing point has to be found for
every surface pierced by the line. This is the problem most often found in architectural
applications. The basic technique is related to the notion of cutting away a section of a
solid by a plane, which is described in the sequel. But first, it would help to have some
preliminary notions about solids, their surfaces and points on solids and surfaces in
descriptive geometry, which are described in Chapter 8.

195