All helpMeshbex

View Panel

The View panel controls how the scene is displayed: camera, section cutting, helpers, lights, group selection, and preferences for the interface, GLB import, export compression, and PDF viewing.

Basic Controls

  • Fit View – Moves the camera so that all loaded models fit in the viewport.

  • Show hidden objects – Makes every currently hidden object visible.

  • Switch hidden objects – Swaps visibility: visible objects become hidden and hidden objects become visible.

  • Wireframe – Draws all meshes as wireframes.

  • X-ray on select – When on, the selected object stays visible through whatever is in front of it.

  • Selection box – Coordinate space of the highlight box around the selection. local follows the object's axes; world follows the world axes.

  • Model unit – Length unit of the coordinates already in the file: mm (default), cm, m, or inch. It does not scale the model. Area, volume, mass, BOM, and STEP export use this unit to interpret the numbers. Mass, the center of gravity, and moments of inertia are explained in Mass and inertia.

  • Background – Color of the scene background.

  • Persp. camera – Checked: perspective camera. Unchecked: orthographic camera.

  • Sharp edges – Draws crease lines on meshes in the viewport. Geometry is not changed.

  • Edge normals – Which normals decide whether an edge is sharp. Vertex normals (default) uses the stored vertex normals and falls back to face normals when that data is missing. Face normals uses the geometric face normals. Takes effect while Sharp edges is on.

  • Edge angle threshold – Minimum angle between adjacent faces, 1–45°, for an edge to count as sharp.

  • Outliner: overlays & tools – When on, the Scene outliner also lists section-mesh copies, sharp-edge overlays, and tool objects (measurements, dimensions, annotations). Off by default, so the tree stays on the model. Viewport display of those objects is separate (Sharp edges, Show Section Mesh, Tools panel).

  • World axes size – Screen size, in pixels, of the world triad toggled by the XYZ button under the orientation gizmo (bottom-right). Range 40–240, default 100. Independent of zoom.

Section view

Cuts the model with clipping planes so the interior can be inspected. Mode chooses a three-plane corner or a single plane.

  • Section – Turns clipping on or off. Turning it on also shows the section gizmo. Turning it off hides the gizmo and removes the section-mesh copy and the solid cap. Solid Section, Show Section Mesh, and Cross Section Lines keep their switches.

  • Mode – Corner (three planes), Single XY, Single XZ, or Single YZ. Rotation sliders, Gizmo mode, and Snap rotation appear only in the single-plane modes.

  • Flip side – Keeps the other side of the cut. Reset section turns this off.

  • Cross Section Lines – Draws colored lines where the cutting planes meet the surfaces.

  • Cross Lines Color – Color of those lines. Also used by the Cross Section Lines subfolder.

  • Apply to hidden – Includes hidden objects when computing cross-section lines. Turning it on also turns Cross Section Lines on. The same switch is in the subfolder below.

  • Solid Section – Fills the cut with a solid cap. Turns Section on if it was off, and turns Show Section Mesh off.

  • Cap Color – Color of that cap.

  • Show Section Mesh – Viewport copy of the cut surface, drawn so the opening looks filled. Separate from the Solid Section cap, and turning it on turns Solid Section off. It is listed in the Scene outliner only when Outliner: overlays & tools is on.

  • Gizmo – Shows the 3D gizmo used to drag the cut in the viewport. Section turns this on.

  • Gizmo mode – translate or rotate. Single-plane modes only.

  • Snap translation – Step in scene units (0.1–100) when the section gizmo is dragged with Ctrl held.

  • Snap rotation – Step in degrees (1–90) when the section gizmo is rotated with Ctrl held. Single-plane modes only.

  • Pick point – Click a point on the model and the cut moves so it passes through that point. Section must be on. Esc cancels. Selection is suspended until you leave this mode.

  • Pos. x / y / z – Position of the cut, from −1000 to 1000. In Corner mode each slider places one of the three planes.

  • Rot. x / y / z – Rotation of the plane in single-plane modes, from −180° to 180°.

  • Reset section – Moves the cut to the world origin (positions 0), turns Flip side off, and in single-plane modes clears rotation. Also sets the subfolder plane position to 0.

Cross Section Lines (subfolder)

A second set of lines on one world-aligned plane. It does not use the clipping planes above.

  • Show Lines – Draws that overlay.

  • Apply to hidden – Same switch as in the parent folder.

  • Update Section Lines – Recomputes the lines when the scene changes.

  • Plane – XY, XZ, or YZ.

  • Position – Offset of that plane along its normal.

  • Color – Line color. Shared with Cross Lines Color above.

Helpers

Debug aids. The world triad is not in this folder; use the XYZ button under the orientation gizmo. Its size is World axes size above.

  • camera persp – Wireframe of the perspective-camera frustum.

  • camera ortho – Wireframe of the orthographic camera.

  • lights – Icons for the scene lights.

  • lights size – Size of those icons, in scene units (1–5000).

  • raycast – Arrow at the last pick hit.

  • raycast size – Length of that arrow (100–100000).

Lights

One subfolder per light. The folder title includes the count. Each light has Color and Intensity (0–10). A hemisphere light also has Ground Color. Directional, point, and spot lights have Pos X / Y / Z (−1000–1000). A spot light adds Angle (°) (1–90) and Penumbra (0–1). Point and spot lights add Distance (0–10000; 0 means no limit) and Decay (0–5). 🗑 Remove deletes that light.

  • New type – DirectionalLight, PointLight, SpotLight, AmbientLight, or HemisphereLight.

  • ➕ Add Light – Adds a light of the chosen type.

Group Selection

Objects selected together.

  • Box select mode – How a drag box matches objects. Overlap (any part): any part inside the box. Fully inside: the whole bounding box must be inside. Center inside: the object center must be inside.

  • Box padding – Extra space around the group highlight, 0–200 scene units.

  • Add/remove selected (/) – Adds the current object to the group, or removes it if it is already in. Shortcut: /.

  • Clear group – Empties the group.

  • Add to history – Stores the current group in Group History.

Group History

Saved group selections.

  • Entry – Read-only index and name of the history entry on screen.

  • ← Previous [7] – Previous entry. Shortcut: 7.

  • → Next [9] – Next entry. Shortcut: 9.

  • Restore [8] – Makes the shown entry the active group. Shortcut: 8.

  • Remove from history – Deletes the shown entry.

Preferences

Settings kept for later sessions. Measurement, dimension, and annotation defaults are in the Tools panel.

Toolbar Preferences

  • Toolbar font size – Top toolbar buttons, 9–18 px.

  • Toolbar height – Top toolbar, 20–50 px.

  • Font size – Text inside GUI panels, 9–18 px.

  • Row height – Row height in GUI panels, 14–44 px.

  • Panel width – Width of the right-hand GUI panels, 200–500 px.

  • Set to default – Restores the toolbar sizes.

GLB import

Applied the next time a GLB is opened or imported. A model already in the scene is left as it is. All three switches are on by default.

  • Keep duplicate names – Keeps the names stored in the file, including duplicates. When off, opening the file asks you to continue, and duplicate names receive a numeric suffix (_1, _2, …).

  • Override depthWrite all to true – Sets depthWrite and depthTest on imported materials so surfaces that came in with depth writing disabled still hide what is behind them. Center-of-gravity helpers are skipped.

  • Merge same-name siblings – On each hierarchy level, meshes that share a name and the same local transform become one mesh. Colors stay as separate materials. Same-named parts in different places stay separate.

  • Set to default – Turns all three switches back on.

GLB Draco Compression

Geometry compression for GLB and HTML export.

  • Use custom settings – When off, export uses the encoder defaults and the values below are ignored. When on, export uses this folder.

  • Method – Edgebreaker (smaller, meshes only) or Sequential (broader compatibility).

  • Encode speed (0=best) – 0 is slowest and smallest; 10 is fastest and largest.

  • Decode speed (0=best) – 0 is smallest; 10 decodes faster and is larger.

  • Quantize position (bits), Quantize normal (bits), Quantize color (bits), Quantize texcoord (bits), Quantize generic (bits) – Bits per attribute, 1–16. Fewer bits make a smaller file and a coarser result.

  • Set to default – Restores the compression settings, including turning custom settings off.

Attachments Compression

Gzip for files embedded in a GLB. Lossless.

  • Compress attachments in GLB – On by default. Attachments are compressed when the GLB is saved or exported.

  • Min size to compress (bytes) – Smaller attachments stay uncompressed. Range 0–64000, step 1024, default 4096.

  • Set to default – Restores both settings.

PDF

  • Viewer – Browser (default) opens a PDF in the browser viewer. In-app opens it in the built-in viewer, with zoom and the hand tool. The choice applies the next time a PDF is opened.

  • Set to default – Switches the viewer back to Browser.