Doug Ramstad, a CADD technician and drafter, shares a tip for using an object with specific visual styles to hide 3D linework in an AutoCAD viewport.

"I don't know if this was originally intended, but I discovered by accident that if you place a circle in model space above your 3D model and set your shade plot in your viewport properties to Hidden, your top view model will not plot. If you move the circle down, only the portion of your model that's above the z value of the circle will plot; everything below the circle will not plot. This makes a simple circle into a cutting plane for plotting."

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Patrol: This is a cool tip if you need to make a drawing that only displays solid construction lines in your view, and it's simple enough to do. Create a model, make a viewport in paper space, then draw a circle. That circle is drawn in the top view (plan view) and should be larger than the linework. Move the circle up and down the z axis. If the circle is a region or a surface, then anything below it will be hidden if the viewport's visual style is set to 2D, 3D legacy, or any hidden style.