Mesh Visibility

Selecting part of the mesh. On the left: the Lasso is used to select the head. On the right: the result.

Selecting part of the mesh. On the left: the Lasso is used to select the head. On the right: the result.

You can show and hide parts of your mesh to make it easier to work with. For example, you might want to work on just the head of a character – it makes sense to hide the body so you can concentrate on what you are doing.

To hide parts of the mesh you hold the Shift+Ctrl keys. The different options are given below:

Partial Mesh Visibility & Clip Brushes Shortcuts

Pick a Selection or Clip Brush – hold Shift+Ctrl while selecting brush from popup
Show mesh portion – Shift+Ctrl+Click, release keys & drag (green selection area)
Hide mesh portion – Shift+Ctrl+Click, release keys & drag – press Alt (red selection area)
Move selection or clip area – press Spacebar without releasing mouse/pen
Show entire mesh – Shift+Ctrl+Click Background
Show only selected Polygroup (on fully visible mesh) – Shift+Ctrl+Click
Hide selected Polygroup (on fully visible mesh) – Shift+Ctrl+Click twice
Hide selected Polygroup (on partially visible mesh) – Shift+Ctrl+Click
Reverse visibility – Shift+Ctrl+Click & drag Background
Hide edge loop – with Lasso option selected, Shift+Ctrl+click on edge that crosses loop
ClipCurve add soft direction change – click Alt once
ClipCurve add sharp direction change – click Alt twice
reverse clip area – Alt (hold down)

Clip Brushes

The Clip brushes operate on the mesh to clip or slice it in various ways. To learn more see Clip Brushes.

Visibility controls

There are several options for controlling a partly visible mesh. These mesh visibility controls are in the Tool>Visibility sub-palette.