You will be able to find the 3D viewer as one of the four main panels that can be opened on the top right of your screen. You can either press the 3D-icon to open this panel or you can press shift+2.

With a model loaded the 3D viewer can look like this:

The following topics will be described in this article:

It is possible to load models into the 3D viewer in several ways.
On the models you can click on 3D next to the model you want to open or select multiple models and click on 3D at the top of the list.

In the documents section you can open previews of ifc files and point cloud documents by clicking on 3D in the documents list view or in the right information panel.
You can also open the 3D viewer without loading any models by clicking on 3D on the top right to open the 3D viewer panel.

If you have not loaded any models yet you will be able to load and unload models by opening the revision selector dropdown list.
Click here to read more about the revision selector

If there are models in your projects that contain grids you will be able to load them in the viewer with this dropdown list.

Click here to read more about grids in the 3D viewer.

The visibility dropdown lets you show, hide and make objects translucent.

When you open the visibility dropdown it can look like this:

Here you will be able to perform the following actions:

Show all - Show all object(s)

This can be useful after playing a snapshot or bookmark that has hidden geometry you would like to see.

Show selected - Show the selected object(s)

If you hid a selected object it is still selected but hidden until you select something else and remove it from your selection.

In the information panel you will be able to select hidden objects from the object tree and the via selections.

In the content panel you will be able to select objects from property libraries and objects that are linked to either issues or documents.

It is not possible to select translucent objects by clicking on them in the 3D viewer.

Make translucent - Make the selected object(s) translucent

In the information panel you will be able to select hidden objects from the object tree and the via selections.

In the content panel you will be able to select objects from property libraries and objects that are linked to either issues or documents.

Selected translucent objects can be turned back to default visibility by showing selected or showing all.

Make others translucent - Make everything but the selected object(s) translucent

Show all to get the objects back to default visibility.

Hidden object(s) will still be loaded in your systems memory.

Hide - Hides an object from the viewer

Hide others - Hide all objects but the selected object

This is similar to isolating objects.

The hidden objects will still be loaded in memory.

The camera options dropdown lets you choose Viewpoints, Camera types and views.

When you open the Camera options dropdown it can look like this:

Home - Reset the viewer to the default position

This can help get an overview of all the models loaded in the viewer.

The following views let you see the model from different sides:

Back - View the model from the back

Left - View the model from the left

Front - View the model from the front

Right - View the model from the right

These views can be great for making sections by making vertical clipping planes.

Top - View the model from the top

This view can be great for producing floor plans by making a horizontal clipping plane.

Perspective - Default - Lets you see the model as a human does.

This camera type is great for understanding what it can be like to be in the model.

Because the camera is in the human's eye you can clip through walls.

The field of view for the perspective camera type can be adjusted in viewer settings.

Orthographic - Lets you see the model as if you were infinitely far away.

This camera type is great for planning as distances are easier to judge.

Because the camera is infinitely far away it cannot clip through objects and you will have to hide or make objects translucent to see what is behind them.

Regular - Thin lines of accurate object display. Great for measurements.

Contour - With this view Cell Shading turns lines on corners with angles facing away from you into thicker lines while lines on on corners facing towards you become thinner lines.

This creates an extra layer of depth but the thick lines might cover precise measurements.
Contour is a great view for exporting images.

Sketch - This view is great for meetings with external parties that need a simple display of the model.

Objects without color specified in the IFC will be colored with a gray tones and a texture so the surfaces do not look so perfectly flat.

Windows will stay their usual see-through blue color.

Click the third button on the top right of the 3D viewer to open the 3D viewer tools.

Note that this button will usually look like this but might change appearance depending on which tool you have selected.

Opening this menu will let you choose between the following tools.

This tool will let you select objects

The keybind for this is space

Click here to create a clipping plane that is parallel with the object you hover over.

Click here to learn more about how to make clipping planes.

Click here to create a measure plane that is parallel with the object you hover over.

Measure height between objects.

Click here to learn more about the laser measure.

The keybind for this is m

Measure distances.

Click here to learn more about the measuring tape

The keybind for this is shift+m

Measure coordinates

The keybind for this is ctrl+m

Click here to clear any measurements you might have in the viewer.

Clicking this button shows the joystick on the screen.

The joystick lets you smoothly fly through the model in perspective mode and rotate around a central point in orthographic mode.

If you turn the joystick on you will see that the button changes and gets a dropdown.

With the dropdown next to the joystick you can configure the joystick location:

Click this button to open the 3D viewer settings dropdown

Click this button to open the 2D viewer

By default a footer will show on the bottom of the viewer when you select an object.

This footer can contains information about topics and library items that are linked to the object.

Object name - Object entity - Object type

If multiple objects are selected this will say undefined.

Open

Amount of open issues (Red)

Click "Open" to see all open issues where this object is linked in the right panel.

Closed

Amount of closed issues (Green)

Click "Closed" to see all closed issues where this object is linked in the right panel.

If you have linked your selected object to any libraries on Catenda Hub, you will be able to see the library with the amount of links in the information footer.

SharePoint

If you have linked your selected object to any SharePoint documents you will see the name of the SharePoint library with the amount of linked documents here

Documents

If you have linked your selected object to any documents on the documents page you will be able to see them under documents and with the amount of linked documents here.

Classification

If you have linked your selected object to any classifications you will be able to see the name of the classification and the amount of linked classifications here.

Links

If you have linked your selected object to any links from the links library you will be able to see "Links" and the amount of linked links here.

Dropbox

If you have linked your selected object to any Dropbox documents you will see the name of the Dropbox library with the amount of linked documents here.

Click the x to hide the object information footer from the 3D viewer.

If you have chosen to close the information footer you can open it back up again with the i button below the 2D viewer or 2D button.

If you right click in the 3D viewer the options menu will show up.

The best way to export an image from the 3D viewer is to make a 3D snapshot.