Surface States
Surfaces can be hidden or frozen.
A hidden surface is not visible in any viewport. This includes Matter viewports.
A frozen surface cannot be selected or modified.
In Shaper, a surface's state is listed:
As icons in the Surfaces box of the Geometry sidebar tab,
By checkbox in the tab Geometry from the editor Surface properties (keyboard shortcut: P).
In Matter, a surface's frozen state has no meaning. Its visibility state is listed:
As a check-box in the Surface Properties editor (right-click on the surface in a viewport and choose Edit properties).
You can use interaction modes to set the state of several surfaces by clicking on them. These are available from the Shaper > Mode menu or from the toolbar:
Icon | Description |
|---|---|
| Click to Hide |
| Click to Freeze |
| Click to Unfreeze |
You can set which surfaces are visible from the Shaper > Visualization menu:
Icon | Function | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Hide Selected | The selected surfaces are hidden. |
| Hide Unselected | The unselected surfaces are hidden. |
| Hide Frozen | The frozen surfaces are hidden. |
| Show All | All hidden surfaces are made visible. Tip
|
You can set surface states from the viewport context menu that appears when you right-click on a surface in a Shaper viewport.
Unfinished Surfaces
Patchwork 3D provides a tracking system for unfinished surfaces, surfaces you believe still need to be handled.
This system uses a specific tag assigned to surfaces marked as unfinished, then employs the Unfinished Surfaces tool to easily find and manage the marked surfaces.
For additional information on the surface tag system, please see the chapter Tag Manager.
Marking a Surface as Unfinished
By default, surfaces are not marked. To use the tracking system, you must mark surfaces that require work before they can be considered finished.
Marking surfaces is carried out in the Unfinished Surfaces window (Surface menu > Unfinished Surfaces) or from the Shaper interface. Marking is applied to all currently selected surfaces in the Shaper viewport.
Select the surfaces you would like to mark. The changes you make will be applied to all surfaces in the current selection. Mark the surfaces to be finished later using the Shaper viewport's context menu. Right-click to display the menu, then choose the desired action:
Icon | Action |
|---|---|
| Mark all selected surfaces as finished. |
| Mark all selected surfaces as unfinished. |
These two actions can also be carried out from the Unfinished Surfaces window by using the buttons at the bottom of the window.
Tip
Marking a surface — or all of the surfaces in a layer — as finished can also be carried out in the Unfinished Surfaces window by right-clicking on the listing for the surface or for the layer you want to mark. Then, select the option Mark this branch as finished.
Finding Unfinished Surfaces
Open the tracking tool for unfinished surfaces from the Surface menu > Unfinished Surfaces.
A window will open. This window contains the list of Shaper layers containing at least one unfinished surface. You can expand the layers to view the surfaces.
Two actions are available for each layer or surface listed:
Icon | Action |
|---|---|
| Select the corresponding surfaces in the Shaper viewport. |
| Make the corresponding surfaces visible and unlocked in order to allow them to be modified. |
If the row in the listing refers to a layer, these actions apply to all of the unfinished surfaces in that layer.
Some modifications will appear automatically in the list. However, it is recommended that you update the list manually using the button at the top right corner of the window.