Showing and Hiding Specific Objects

You can hide and unhide objects individually, or use groups, scene layers, and partitions to control their visibility. Alternatively, if you want to display only specific objects in and hide everything else, you can isolate them.

NoteIn addition to what's described in this section, you can hide and unhide individual polygons on a polygon mesh object. See Hiding Polygons [Polygon Modeling].

Hiding and Unhiding Objects

You can quickly hide and unhide selected objects in the 3D views by pressing H.

Hidden objects cannot be selected in the 3D views. However, they can be selected in the explorer. They can also be selected in schematic views, where they appear as outlines instead of solid nodes.


Both View Visibility and Render Visibility off.	View Visibility on and Render Visibility off — or vice versa.

Hiding and unhiding objects affects their visibility in both the 3D views and the rendered output. It actually toggles the View Visibility and Render Visibility options in an object's Visibility property. This property exists locally on every 3D object in Softimage and cannot be applied or deleted. If one or other of these options are off, then a light gray H (for "hidden") appears on the object's icon in the explorer. If both are off, a yellow H appears. For a description of every option in this property, see Visibility Property Editor [Properties Reference].

To hide and unhide selected objects

Select the objects you want to hide or unhide. If the objects are already hidden, you can use the explorer or schematic views to select them.
Do one of the following:
- Press H.
  
  or
- From the main menu, choose Display Hide/Unhide Selection.

To hide and deselect selected objects in the viewports

From the main menu, choose Display Hide and Deselect.

The selected object is deselected and hidden in all geometric views but remains visible in the explorer (an H appears on the icon of the hidden node).

To hide unselected objects in the viewport

From the main menu, choose Display Hide Unselected Objects/Polygons.

Any unselected objects are hidden in all geometric views but remain visible in the explorer (an H appears on the icons of the hidden nodes).

To unhide all hidden objects in the viewports

From the main menu, choose Display Unhide All Objects.

Groups, Layers, and Partitions

You can use a group, scene layer, or partition to control the visibility of its members. You can show all members visible, hide all members, or use each member's own local visibility settings. Groups can override object visibility, layers can override group and object visibility, and partitions can override everything else when the corresponding render pass is current.

See Grouping Objects [Scene Elements], Scene Layers [Scene Elements], or Defining Partitions [Rendering].

Isolating Objects

You can isolate selected objects so that only those objects are displayed. Other objects are hidden (similar to using an object view which is described in Object Views). This is useful when you are only working on a few elements in a large scene.

Isolating objects affects the view, and does not change any property on the objects themselves.

To isolate the selection in a viewport

Select the objects to isolate.
Choose Isolate Selection from the view's camera icon menu.

To change which objects are isolated

When objects are isolated in a viewport, the following controls appear in the top left corner:

A	Add the selected objects to the view. Alternatively, you can choose Add Selected from the camera icon menu.
B	Remove the selected objects to the view. Alternatively, you can choose Remove Selected from the camera icon menu.
C	Update the view to isolate the current selection. Alternatively, you can choose Update Selected from the camera icon menu.
D	Display the scene normally. Alternatively, you can toggle Isolate Selection off from the camera icon menu.