Hide, isolate and see through elements

What you'll do

Clear the view down to what you are looking at: hide elements that are in the way, show only the ones you picked, or keep everything else on screen as a faint outline so you still know where you are.

Steps

1. Open an IFC model. See Open an IFC model and look around in 3D.
2. Click an element to pick it. To pick more, hold ⌘Ctrl or ⇧Shift and click each one. Clicking a picked element that way takes it out again.
3. Open Show in the toolbar and choose what to do, or press its key:
   • Hide (HH) hides the picked elements.
   • Isolate (II) shows only the picked elements.
   • See-through (TT) shows the picked elements as they are and everything else see-through.
4. Click Show all in the same menu, or press ⇧HShift+H, to show every element again.

What you should see

• With several elements picked, Properties says how many and lists them by class. Click one on its own to see its properties.
• Hidden elements cannot be picked: a click lands on whatever is behind them.
• See-through elements cannot be picked either, so you can click straight through walls to what you isolated.
• Edges hide with their element, and turn faint with it.
• Hiding, isolating and see-through stay as they are while you edit, place library items or cut the model with a section plane. Opening another model shows everything again.

Common mistakes

• The menu items are greyed out. Nothing is picked. Click an element first; point at an item to read why it cannot act.
• Isolate showed a wall I had hidden. Isolating shows exactly what you picked, hidden or not.
• A whole storey is missing. That is the Storeys list, not Show all: tick the storey again.

Next

• Show and hide storeys, spaces and edges
• Cut an IFC model with a section plane