Control the display of design elements

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As your design develops, you'll typically have a lot of CVs.

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These subdivision shelf tools turn them on or off for all of the objects

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and they work well if we are, for example, managing the display with layers,

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and I can further simplify the view by using these visibility tools here.

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So I can say, Hide Unselected to isolate this and clear up the screen

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and then just Visible to bring the others back.

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But with subdivision modeling, even one object on one layer can have a lot of CVS.

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And so we've also got these tools up here for CV visibility.

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So let's say I just want to work on this front area here

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so I can select the CVS I want and then I can do maybe an Invisible first

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and then Toggle that visibility.

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So that significantly reduces the complexity on the screen.

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And I can pick the CVs I want more easily.

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And that works even if I apply symmetry, for example.

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So I can pick this CV here,

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and even though the corresponding one isn't visible,

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it's still selected and moved symmetrically.

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And then up here, I can use Visible to get all the CVS back again.

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But often we want to do our modeling with all the design components visible.

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So on the dedicated Control Panel tools,

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Clear All Objects works the same as Controls OFF up here.

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But these ones work on the active item only,

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and that means I've got a bit more control over which CVs are displayed.

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But the limitation of these is that they can't be

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hotkeyed or added to a shelf or marking menu.

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So most users will use a shelf or hotkeyed version

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or a marking menu version for speed.

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And all of these are actually instances of the Display Control tool

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and this lists all the control elements and sets

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their visibility on or off for different situations.

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But we almost never use it from the menu, instead

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it's added to shelves or marking menus as customized versions.

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So for example, if I double-click on here,

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it's just an instance of that tool set up for

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all objects to display the vertices and the hulls,

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which is also edges for subdivisions.

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So you could change that to Active if you prefer

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or alternatively add an extra instance of the tool on your shelf,

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so that you've got both All and Active as options.

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And don't forget that if you want to use these numeric hotkeys,

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then you need to switch to this mode on the prompt line.

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So 4 for all on

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and 5 for all off.

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And the default marking menus are the same tools set up slightly differently.

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So I've got Active here instead of All.

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So I'll just pick the object first and then turn the controls on just for that object

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and Controls OFF is set up for All,

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but also with isoparms

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on here, which I probably don't want for subdivision modeling,

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so I can change that or customize any of the settings.

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And then finally, you've got an alternative workflow here on Preferences > Hotkeys.

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And there's a special section for Display Functions.

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And this has got a list of predefined behaviors for CV display

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similar to the Display Control settings

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and some already have default hotkey assignments.

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So I'm just going to show you one way that you

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could use these efficiently if you like using hotkeys.

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So I'm just gonna add F3 for All Off,

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and then F4 for Active On.

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And obviously you could choose whatever hotkeys you like.

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But I have chosen these as being close together

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on the keyboard because I will use them together.

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So the workflow would be to pick the object I want to work on,

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hit Active On,

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do whatever I want to do with those CVs.

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And then when I want to work on something else instead,

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I don't have to worry about which CVs are currently displayed.

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I just pick the one I want,

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do an All Off and then Active On straight away

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to just swap the display of CVs to that object.

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So these are all methods of doing exactly the same thing,

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and it's up to you to explore the options and discover which one

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is the easiest and quickest for you in your day-to-day workflow.