Working with the View Options

The view options allow you to control which objects appear in the display and how those objects are visualized.

Jump to:

• To hide and show parts
• To adjust the level of detail
• To highlight backfaces
• To highlight mesh edges
• To show the platform
• To show part names
• To show the triangle mesh

To hide and show parts

When you need a clear view of certain parts, it can be useful to hide other parts from view.

There are multiple ways to hide a part:

• Click View > Hide all Parts.
• Click View > Hide Unselected Parts.
• Select one or more parts and click View > Hide Selected Parts.
• Click the yellow lightbulb icon next to the part name.

To make hidden parts visible:

• Click View > Show all Parts.
• Select one or more parts and click View > Show Selected Parts .
• Tip: To temporarily preview a part in the background that is obstructed by parts in the foreground, select the part and press the H key on your keyboard.

To flip the visibility of all parts:

• Click View > Invert Part Visibility. This command makes the hidden parts visible, and the visible parts hidden.

To adjust the level of detail

A reduced level of detail may be necessary for projects containing many parts or complex parts. Netfabb operations run faster when parts are displayed with lower levels of detail.

1. Select a part.
2. Click View > Level of Detail and choose the appropriate level of detail.
   Note: If no parts are selected, the level of detail is applied to all parts. Also, when parts are created as duplicates, they share the same level of detail. This connection can only be resolved by overwriting the duplicate, such as by applying repair to it.

Left: Part with low level of detail. Right: Part with high level of detail.

Despite the coarse appearance of low-detail parts, the part attributes remain unchanged. The project tree reports the current level of detail for each part.

Part levels of detail, also illustrating the connection between duplicates

To highlight backfaces

1. Click View > Highlight Backfaces.

When enabled, the interior side (negative normal) of triangles are always colored red, even when the part is selected. It helps to detect inverted triangles, holes, and cuts.

Backfaces are marked as red triangles

Backfaces showing to the outside not always, but usually, require repair.

To highlight mesh edges

1. Click View > Highlight Edges.

When enabled, sharp edges (<135° between normals of adjacent triangles) on objects are highlighted with black lines.

To show the platform

1. Click View > Show Platform.
2. Tip: Hold the P key to display a local platform with the selected parts at the origin.
   

To show part names

If you have loaded several parts, Netfabb can show part name labels in the display.

1. Click View > Show Part Names.
2. Tip: You can also press Ctrl + L on your keyboard.
   

To show the triangle mesh

1. Click View > Highlight Triangles.
2. Tip: You can also right-click a part and choose Highlight Triangles to show the triangles for just the selected part.