The slice command, as the name suggests, can be used to slice a solid body. To start it, you can type the command name, SLICE (or just type SL), and then press Enter. Alternatively, you can click on the Slice button found in the Edit panel in the 3D Basics workspace, as shown in the following screenshot:

If you are using the 3D Modeling workspace, you will find the Slice button in the Solid Editing panel on the Home tab, or in the Solid Editing panel on the Solid tab.

The slice command is used to cut an existing 3D object using a slice plane or surface. In the following example, a plane surface will be used to slice a box as follows:

1. After starting the command, you will be prompted to select the object to be sliced. Click on the box and press Enter to end the selection stage.
2. The command bar will display different options for the slicing plane. Type S and then press Enter to select the surface option.
3. Now, you have to separate the objects. You will be prompted to either keep both of them or to click on the side that you want to keep. Click on the reverse side.
4. The selected part is kept, the other part is deleted, and the command terminated. Now you can delete the slicing surface.

The following diagram is an illustration of the previous steps:

If you select the sliced object, you will find no grab points, and this is the case even if you started with a primitive shape that had grab points before the slice, as shown here:

As mentioned in the previous example, there are alternative methods/options to specify the cutting plane. In this example, an existing surface is used as a cutting plane. The other methods will appear in the command bar, and these are as follows:

• planar Object can be selected by typing O and then pressing Enter. This option will align the cutting plane with a planar object you select. The planar object can be a circle, an arc, a rectangle or a polyline.
• Z-axis can be selected by typing Z and then pressing Enter. In this option, you specify a vector by choosing two points. This vector is normal to the cutting plane, with the starting point lying on the cutting plane.
• View can be selected by typing V and then pressing Enter. This option aligns the cutting plane with the view angle. You just specify a point that lies on the plane to specify the plane location.
• XY, YZ, and ZX options can be used to align the cutting plane with the any of the UCS three main planes. You choose the plane direction, and then specify the plane location by choosing a point.
• 3points can be selected by typing 3 and then pressing Enter. This option specifies the cutting plane by determining three points that lie on it.

The following diagram is an illustration of the planar Object, View, Z-axis, and 3Point methods:

That's it for the slice command. Now, let's have a look at the next command in our list, which is the Thicken command.