Control the color, grid spacing, and reflection of the ground plane.
Access
Ribbon: View tab 
Appearance panel Ground Plane command
Position
- Edit
-
Specify a point of reference on the model. If the ground plane is offset from the point, use the height offset to specify the value.
While the ground plane settings dialog box displays, you can reposition the origin. Use the Edit selection, or the 3D manipulator.
Note: Rotational transforms are not supported for the ground plane. - Height Offset
-
Specifies the distance from the origin point to the ground plane. Positive and negative real numbers are accepted as input.
Useful when the ground is not in contact with the model.
The ground plane is always parallel to the ViewCube Bottom. You redefine the ground plane orientation by redefining the ViewCube orientation. Pausing the cursor over the image displays a message about reorientation.
Appearance
- Plane Color
-
When selected, specifies the ground plane color is user-defined. The color displays within the ground plane boundaries.
Click the color button to display the color picker, specify the color, and click OK.
Grid lines display over the ground plane color as long as the two colors are not the same.
- Opaque
-
Specifies the color opacity percent value that you enter or specify by dragging the slider. The range is 0-100 percent. Values over 100 are set to 100 percent.
Grid Display
Grid lines provide a sense of model size or scale.
Grid line color comes from the active Application Color Scheme.
Boundary lines display only during the edit operation.
Grid line weight is fixed.
Check the box to display grid lines on the ground plane.
- Manual Resize
-
Manually resize the ground plane (default).
This interaction is similar to resizing a work plane.
Only boundary lines are accessible, and not grid lines.
- Auto-Resize
-
When checked, the ground plane automatically resizes to approximately 120% of the model footprint.
- Minor
-
A model unit value specifying the distance between minor grid lines. Valid input is a positive real number.
- Major every
-
Valid inputs are positive integer values ranging from 1 to 512.
Reflection
- Reflection
-
Percent of reflection seen in the ground plane expressed as a whole number.
Range: 0 - 100%.
Reflections display when ground reflections are turned on, and do not require the ground plane to be visible.
- Blur
-
Percent of blur applied to the reflection when visible in the ground plane. The value is expressed as whole numbers.
Range: 0 - 100%
Used with Blur fall-off to create a more realistic viewing experience.
- Blur fall-off
-
Limits the amount of reflection fading that occurs as the view angle of incidence becomes more perpendicular to the ground plane.
Simulates an angle at which the reflection lessens and falls off completely.