Discover Object Focus in Topocad!

Activate the command

Activate the command by holding down Shift and selecting an object in the drawing. Pan or rotate the drawing to see that the camera is now centered in the object’s center point.

To shade or hide unmarked objects there are a number of different modes to choose from. You can find the settings for these by clicking Selection in the Snap panel and opening the dialog for the Selection settings. In the Selection Settings dialog, there is a drop-down menu with a number of choices:

Draw focus object only

This selection allows you to see only your selected object, and everything else is completely hidden. You can work on your object and make your changes without being disturbed by other objects in the drawing. Note that this selection will not allow you to snap or mark other objects.

Shadow Mode 1

If you select Shadow mode 1, your selected object is displayed as usual while everything else in the drawing is reduced to gray transparent objects.

Shadow Mode 2

This selection shows all objects in the drawing, until you start panning or rotating the drawing in 3D. Then all non-marked objects are reduced to gray transparent objects.

Shadow disabled

Shadow disabled means that all objects in the drawing are displayed. Object focus is still active: the camera is in the center of the selected object.

Work with object focus

When you work with object focus, you can hold down Shift to select and deselect an object to switch object focus from one object to another. Select from left to right to select everything inside, or from right to left for all intersecting objects.

Of course, you can have object focus on several selected objects. End object focus by right-clicking and selecting Delete Object Focus. You can also exit by clicking Escape when no object is selected. (If so, click Escape two times). The Object Focus function is included in Topocad from version 18.