Using the clipping box to see inside a structure
Some things cannot be seen from outside: the underside of a deck, the inside of a box girder, a joint buried behind other structure. The clipping box hides everything outside a region you define, so you can look in.
Open it with the Clipping box button in the toolbar at the bottom of the 3D view.
Two switches, two different jobs
They are easy to confuse, and they do different things:
| Switch | What it does |
| Enable clipping | Hides everything outside the box. This is the effect you actually want. |
| Edit box | Shows the box's handles so you can move and resize it. |
They are independent. In practice:
- Enable clipping on, Edit box off is the usual working state. The model is cut away, you can navigate without knocking the box out of position, and the drawing tools stay available.
- Both on while you are setting the box up.
- Enable clipping off, Edit box on lets you see and move the box, but nothing is hidden.
So if you turn on Edit box and nothing gets cut away, turn on Enable clipping too.
Shaping the box
With Edit box on, drag the handles on each face to move that side in or out. Turn Edit box off when you are done, so navigating does not disturb it.
Reset returns the box to its starting size and position. Available whenever clipping is on.
Drawing while clipping is on
Picking up a drawing tool switches Edit box off. Enable clipping is left alone, so your cut-away view stays while you work.
Save for all users
Save for all users stores the current box on the project, for everyone.
Ordinarily, your clipping box is yours: it lasts your session and nobody else sees it. This button is the exception. Use it when a project should always open cut away in a particular manner. Do not use it to save your own working position, because everyone else gets it too.
Why is the Clipping box button greyed out?
| What you see | What it means |
| The button is greyed | The model has not finished loading. Wait for it. |
| Nothing is hidden although I switched something on | You turned on Edit box but not Enable clipping. |
| The box vanished when I started drawing | Picking up a drawing tool switches Edit box off. |
| Reset is greyed | Clipping is off. Turn it on and Reset becomes available. |