Using the Clipping Frame

When most of the front view's background is of no use for the design, you can clip the 2D and 3D backgrounds of layout views using a rectangular frame. The clipping frame is composed of four planes that are parallel to the layout view axis, and makes all background elements that are outside of the frame's boundaries invisible.

Before you begin: Open a 2D layout representation of a 3D shape or assembly. Double-click Sheet.1 in the tree to open the layout in the 2D window.

See Also
About the Clipping Frame
  1. Right-click the front view in the tree or in the sheet and select Activate clipping frame.

    The front view now contains a frame that clips the background that is outside of the frame's boundaries.

    Note that all 2D elements of the layout view itself are still visible, independently of the frame's size and position. This lets you work in the layout view as usual, adding geometry, annotations and dress-up for example.



  2. You can now reframe, resize and/or move the clipping frame according to your design's needs (note that you can perform the following operations providing the view has been selected first):

    • To reframe the clipping frame on the view content: right-click the frame and select Reframe on view content. Thus reframed, the clipping frame is slightly larger than the layout view frame.

      Note: By default, this mode is selected when activating a first clipping frame on an existing view.

    • To reframe the clipping frame on the whole view background: right-click the frame and select Reframe on view background. Thus reframed, the clipping frame shows the whole 2D and 3D background.

      Tip: Prior to performing this operation, you may want to hide all elements on the sheet (views, geometry, annotations, and so on) from the view's 3D background. To do this, multi-select all views, right-click them and then select Visualization > Hide in 3D.

    • To resize the clipping frame: drag the manipulators at the four corners of the frame. If needed, you can resize the clipping frame beyond the layout view frame.

    • To move the clipping frame: drag the frame itself using one of its lines.



  3. To deactivate the clipping frame, right-click the front view and select Deactivate clipping frame.

    The front view's whole background is displayed again as the frame is de-activated.