4D controls on the Format tab of the Ribbon

Click this dropdown control to hide or display certain 3D objects only in the 3D model that is currently open; this may be useful in order to focus on the particular objects in which you are interested at a certain time.

Hiding and displaying 3D objects in a 3D model

Click this dropdown control to take snapshots of the 3D model that is currently open, recording the current camera position as displayed in the IFC Model pane. You can also use this control to switch the display of a 3D model to that of a previously-taken snapshot.

Taking snapshots of 3D models

Click this control to toggle the IFC Model pane between the following modes of display:

• Orthogonal mode, in which the model is drawn with parallel lines (ie lines that do not converge at a distant vanishing point), meaning that products remain the same size regardless of their distance.
• Perspective mode, in which the model is drawn as it is seen by the eye, with products appearing smaller as their distance from the observer increases and with the size of the products' dimensions along the line of sight being relatively shorter than dimensions across the line of sight.

The actions of the mouse differ depending on the current display mode; you must turn on perspective mode if you want to be able to "walk through" a building.

Switching between orthogonal and perspective modes

Click this control to toggle between the following modes:

• Non-selection mode, in which you must hold down CTRL on the keyboard while clicking 3D objects one after another in order to select multiple objects in a 3D model.
• Selection mode, in which you can select multiple 3D objects by clicking them one after another without having to hold down CTRL.

Selecting 3D objects in a 3D model

With a 3D object selected in the IFC Model pane, click this control to access the Split Product dialog, which you can use to split the 3D object along a particular axis.

Splitting 3D objects along a particular axis

With a 3D object selected in the IFC Model pane, click this control to access the Split Product Manually dialog, which you can use to split the 3D object manually by clicking and dragging.

Splitting 3D objects manually by clicking and dragging

With a 3D object selected in the IFC Model pane, click this control to access the Split by Products dialog, which you can use to split the 3D object where it intersects with one or more other objects.

Splitting 3D objects where they intersect with one or more other objects

With one element of a previously-split 3D object selected in the IFC Model pane, click this control to recombine the previously-split objects into a single unsplit object - the object as it was originally before it was split.

Recombining previously-split 3D objects in a 3D model

With one element of a previously-split 3D object selected in the IFC Model pane, click this control to identify all the 3D objects that were created as a result of the split. All the resulting 3D objects are selected automatically in the IFC Model pane.

Specifying the build order of split 3D objects

With more than one 3D object selected in the IFC Model pane, click this control to merge the selected objects into a single 3D object.

Merging 3D objects in a 3D model