And to add to it.....when a section line is not horizontal or vertical (let's say 30deg off either), the resulting section view is not aligned horizontally or vertically either. When drawing a rectangle for cropping purposes afterwards, it is no longer "square" as well. Any thoughts?
I'll try to take these one at a time. You can add relations between a section line and a model plane. I do it all the time. Sketch your line, then click on the line to highlight it. Hold down Ctrl, scroll through the tree to the desired plane and select it also. You should be able to set a relation (probably collinear in your case). Oddly enough, if I select the plane first then I can't set a relation; I have to select the sketch element first.
I'm fairly confident that a Section View will always be created perpendicular to the line, but since I don't believe I've ever created one that wasn't horizontal or vertical I'm not absolutely sure. If I'm wrong about that I'm sure someone will correct me.
I'm not sure I understand your last question. Are you cropping your section view?
Yes, that's right, it IS perpendicular. Think of a vertical tank where you want to show the internal details at orientation "30 degrees". When you make your section in the PLAN view, it comes off at 30 from the plan view. You then have to break the alignment and re-align to a FRONT or SIDE to the show the internal view "logically".
I should add, that at this point I am trying to crop the section view...I don't need to see the whole thing.
Regarding your observation about a rectangle not being "square", do you mean that if you rotate the section view, say 30 degrees, then when you draw a rectangle it will be aligned to the old vertical/horizontal? In that case I think you need to just remove the vertical and horizontal relations and instead use parallel/perpendicular relations to model edges.
See attached pic. The section is a "broken alignment, aligned horizontally to sheet". The blue rectangle is me trying to sketch my crop.
Your section view is aligned to the sheet, but SW is still rotated, make sense? So do what Jamil said, draw lines, not using rectangle tool, and make them parallel to model edges.
I'll try to take these one at a time. You can add relations between a section line and a model plane. I do it all the time. Sketch your line, then click on the line to highlight it. Hold down Ctrl, scroll through the tree to the desired plane and select it also. You should be able to set a relation (probably collinear in your case). Oddly enough, if I select the plane first then I can't set a relation; I have to select the sketch element first.
I'm fairly confident that a Section View will always be created perpendicular to the line, but since I don't believe I've ever created one that wasn't horizontal or vertical I'm not absolutely sure. If I'm wrong about that I'm sure someone will correct me.
I'm not sure I understand your last question. Are you cropping your section view?