Viewport, materials & presentation

The viewport can draw the same model seven ways. Shaded is the default — a clean, lit solid with edge lines. Realistic switches to physically based shading so metals and woods read as the materials they are. Wireframe and X-Ray show what sits behind a face; Hidden line draws edges only, the way a technical illustration would; Illustration gives a toon-shaded look; and Clay is a matcap that strips out color so you can judge form alone.

Switch styles from the view puck at the bottom right (hover it, or click ⋯, for Display style), from the View capsule in the dock, or press ⌘K and type the style's name into Find anything.

Every project opens under a baked studio rig — a key, fill, and rim arrangement tuned so edges, fillets, and drafts read at a glance with no setup. Viewport appearance, in the unfolded view puck, is where you change that: pick a model color, choose a background (Graphite, Slate, Warm graphite, Studio light, White, or Black), and switch Lighting between the Studio rig and ten HDRI presets, each with an intensity slider and a Show as backdrop toggle that paints the environment behind the model.

The puck also holds the display toggles — Grid, Edges, Ground shadow, Vignette — and Seamless textures. Seamless textures switches material mapping to triplanar projection, which blends a texture from three directions so brushed and woodgrain finishes wrap curved faces without a visible seam.

For finishes beyond a flat color, the Render workspace's Appearance panel offers fifteen physically based material packs: bead blasted, brushed aluminum, brushed steel, carbon fiber 2×2, cast aluminum, cast iron, galvanized, MDF, oak, plywood (birch), powder coat black, bamboo, cherry, maple, and walnut. Each carries its own roughness and surface detail, so a brushed part catches light differently from a cast one.

Press Shift+P, or Present in the view puck, to enter Presentation mode: the dock, the Features lane, the orb and the filmstrip drop away, the model is framed in a chrome-free cinematic view, and after a moment of idleness it begins a slow turntable. Orbit whenever you like — the turntable resumes when you stop. Press Esc or Shift+P again to return to the workspace. If you want to keep modeling with a clear screen, use Focus mode instead (see below).

When a project has two or more bodies, the Explode slider in the view puck comes alive. Drag it from 0 to 100 % to separate the bodies; in the Assembly workspace, Explode and Collapse in the dock's Analysis capsule jump between the extremes, and Esc collapses. The explode is animated entirely in the browser — no rebuild is triggered and the model's geometry is untouched.

When you want to sketch and model without distractions, click Focus at the top right or press Z. The Features lane, the dock, the filmstrip, the status capsule and the top menus step away, and the model has the window. The AI orb stays in its corner and the view puck in its own; while you sketch, the sketch dock stays too, with Finish.

Rest the pointer on the top edge of the window, or click Show menus on the exit pill at the top, and the menus float back in over the model without moving it; move away and they slide off again. On a tablet, the exit pill's Tools button does the same. Ask HelioAI for a change from the orb without leaving focus.

The Render workspace is where a good-looking viewport becomes a deliverable image. Live Realism runs a path-traced preview directly in the viewport: bounced light, soft shadows, and reflections resolve progressively while you keep orbiting and adjusting materials, so what you watch converge is what the final still will be.

Composition guides help frame the shot, and saved camera shots let you return to an exact angle later — after a design change, for a second colorway, or to produce a consistent set for a listing. Output settings set the resolution along with sample and time limits, so you can trade a longer render for a cleaner image or cap it to fit a deadline. The Render workspace is available on the Maker plan and up.