Viewport Overlays

Reference

Mode:

All Modes

Header:

Overlays

Clicking the icon toggles all overlays in the 3D Viewport. The drop-down button displays a popover with more detailed settings, which are described below.

Next to the Viewport Overlays popover could be a second popover. The availability of these options depend on the mode the 3D Viewport is in or what type of object is selected. These settings are described later on in this page.

General

The following options are always present, independent of the current mode. Some of the overlays can be customized in the Viewport Preferences.

Guides

Grid

Show grid in orthographic side view.

Floor

Show the ground plane in perspective view.

Axis

Show the X, Y and/or Z axis lines.

Scale

The distance between lines in the grid/floor.

Subdivision

The number of subdivisions between grid lines.

Text Info

Show various bits of information in the top left corner of the viewport.

• View Perspective – Name of the View Perspective, such as “Top Orthographic” or “User Perspective.”

• Playback Frame Rate (FPS) – Displays the Frames Per Second at which the animation is playing. By default, Blender goes through every single frame, which may result in an FPS that’s lower than intended (and the animation playing slower than realtime); the FPS turns red in this case. You can change this behavior in the Playback popover of the Timeline.

• Object Info – Shows the current frame in parentheses, followed by the names of the selected Collection and the active object. When applicable, also shows the selected Shape Key and (in angle brackets) the Marker on the current frame. If the object has a keyframe on the current frame, the Object Info is displayed in yellow.

• Grid Resolution – When the view is aligned to a world axis (see Viewpoint), the Text Info additionally shows the smallest distance between two parallel grid lines.

Statistics

Show information about the amount of objects and geometry. Note that the counters depend on the current selection. For example, selecting a mesh gives info on the number of vertices, edges, and faces, while selecting a light shows the number of lights in the scene.

• Objects – Number of the selected objects and the total count.

• Geometry – Displays information about the current scene depending on the mode and object type. This can be the number of vertices, faces, triangles, or bones.

HDRI Preview

Show two spheres, one glossy and one diffuse, to preview the HDRI that’s being used for world lighting. While HDRIs can be used in both the Material Preview and Rendered shading modes, the HDRI Preview overlay is only available in the former.

3D Cursor

Show the 3D Cursor.

Annotations

Show annotations.

Objects

Extras

Show objects that don’t have geometry (such as empties, cameras and lights).

Light Colors

Shades the outline of light objects to the color the light produces.

Relationship Lines

Show dashed lines indicating parent or constraint relationships.

Outline Selected

Show an outline around selected objects.

Bones

Show Bones.

Motion Paths

Show the motion path overlay.

Origin

Show the origins of the selected objects.

Origin (All)

Show the origins of all objects.

Bone Wireframe Opacity

The maximum opacity used for bones drawn in the Wireframe shading mode (or in Solid shading mode with X-Ray active). This is helpful when it is necessary to reduce clutter and focus on the mesh rather than bones.

Geometry

Wireframe

Display mesh edges. Similar to Wireframe Shading, but displays edges on top of existing shading. The value slider adjusts which edges to display: lower values hide edges on surfaces that are almost flat, while a value of 1 shows all edges.

• Opacity

  The opacity of the displayed edges, from 0 (invisible) to 1 (fully opaque).

Fade Inactive Geometry

In modes other than Object Mode, fade out objects that you’re not working on. The slider controls how much they’re faded out.

Face Orientation

Show faces whose normal is pointing towards the camera in blue, and faces whose normal is pointing away from the camera in red. This lets you quickly check for faces that are oriented incorrectly: the outside surface of an object should typically be all blue.

Viewer Node

Visualizes Attributes connected to the Viewer Node.

Viewer Node

Visualize the value of the attribute connected to the Viewer Node as a greyscale color.

• Color Opacity

  Opacity of the attribute that is currently visualized.

Attribute Text

Show attribute values as text in viewport.

Motion Tracking

Show the motion tracking overlay.

Camera Path

Show the reconstructed camera path.

Marker Names

Show the names for reconstructed track objects.

Tracks

Change the display of the reconstructed tracks: plain axes, arrows and so on.

Size

Change the display size of the reconstructed tracks.

Mesh Edit Mode Overlays

The following options are available when in Mesh Edit Mode.

Faces

Highlight selected faces. Affects all selection modes.

Center

Show face center points in solid shading modes. (They’re always shown in wireframe shading mode.)

Only affects face selection mode.

Creases

Display edges marked with a crease for the Subdivision Surface Modifier.

Sharp

Display sharp edges, used with the Edge Split modifier.

Bevel

Display weights created for the Bevel Modifier.

Seams

Display the UV unwrapping seams.

Shading

Retopology

Hide the solid mesh and offset the overlay towards the view. Selection is occluded by inactive geometry, unless X-Ray is enabled

• Offset

  Amount to offset edit mesh in front of other geometry.

Vertex Groups Weights

Display weights in Edit Mode.

• Zero Weights

  Display unreferenced and zero-weighted areas in black. This helps to identify areas with very low weights that have been painted onto.

  • None:

    Vertices are displayed in the usual way.

    Active:

    Vertices are shown in black if they have no weight in the active vertex group.

    All:

    Vertices are shown in black if they have no weight in any vertex group.

Mesh Analysis

Show the Mesh Analysis overlay.

Measurement

Show numerical measures of the selected elements. The Units can be set in the Scene properties.

Edge Length

Show the length of selected edges.

Edge Angle

Show the angle of selected edges between two faces.

Face Area

Show the area of selected faces.

Face Angle

Show the angle of selected face corners.

Tip

Geometry connected to the selection is shown while transforming, allowing you to move a vertex and see the connected edge lengths for example.

Note

These values respect the Transform Space in the Sidebar. Use Global if you want the object’s scale to be applied to the measurements.

See also

The Measure tool for measuring arbitrary distances and angles.

Normals

• Display vertex normals

• Display face normals at vertices (split normals)

• Display face normals

Size

The size to show the selected normals.

• Constant Screen Size Normals

  Keep the size of normals constant in relation to the zoom level.

Developer

These overlays are only available if Developer Extras is enabled in the Interface Preferences.

Indices

Display the indices of selected vertices, edges, and faces.

Freestyle

These settings apply to the Freestyle line art renderer.

Edge Marks

Display Freestyle edge marks.

Face Marks

Display Freestyle face marks.

Sculpt Mode Overlays

Mask

Show Masks as overlays on an object. The opacity of the overlay can be adjusted.

Face Sets

Show Face Sets as overlays on an object. The opacity of the overlay can be adjusted.

Vertex Paint Overlays

Stencil Mask Opacity

Does nothing. (Stencil masks are only available for texture painting.)

Show Wire

Display mesh edges in white (unlike the Wireframe overlay which shows them in black).

Weight Paint Overlays

Opacity

The opacity of the overlay.

Zero Weights

Display unreferenced and zero-weighted areas in black. This helps to identify areas with very low weights that have been painted onto.

• None:

  Vertices are displayed in the usual way.

  Active:

  Vertices are shown in black if they have no weight in the active vertex group.

  All:

  Vertices are shown in black if they have no weight in any vertex group.

Show Weight Contours

Show contour lines formed by points with the same interpolated weight.

This visualizes weight variations too small to be seen from colors and can be useful for judging the smoothness and consistency of gradients, e.g. when using smoothing tools and brushes.

Show Wire

Display mesh edges in white (unlike the Wireframe overlay which shows them in black).

Texture Paint Overlays

Stencil Mask Opacity

Opacity of the stencil mask overlay.

Pose Mode Overlays

Fade Geometry

Show the bones on top and face other geometry to the back. The opacity can be controlled with the slider. Only available in Pose Mode.

Grease Pencil

These overlays are available when a Grease Pencil object is selected.

Onion Skin

Show ghosts of the keyframes before and after the current frame. If Multiframe is enabled, ghosts of the selected keyframes are shown instead. See Onion Skinning.

Canvas

Display a grid over the Grease Pencil drawing plane. The opacity of the grid can be controlled with the slider. When using the Canvas X-Ray option, objects are drawn behind the canvas grid.

Fade Inactive Layers

Decrease the opacity of all the layers in the object other than the active one. The opacity factor can be controlled with the slider.

Fade Inactive Objects

Cover all of the viewport except the active Grease Pencil object with a full color layer to improve visibility while drawing over complex scenes.

• Fade Grease Pencil Objects

  Include or exclude Grease Pencil objects.

Edit Lines

Show edit lines in Edit Mode.

Only in Multiframe

When Multiframe is enabled and keyframes other than the current frame are selected, strokes on those keyframes are displayed as just their edit lines – the strokes themselves are hidden. Note that this does not affect Onion Skinning.

Stroke Direction

Toggle the display of the selected strokes’ start points (green) and end points (red) to visualize their direction.

Material Name

Show material name next to the selected strokes.

Vertex Opacity

Opacity for vertices (points) and edit lines in Edit and Sculpt Mode.

Vertex Paint Opacity

The opacity of the vertex color overlay in Vertex Paint Mode and Draw Mode. Note that in Draw Mode, vertex paint is only visible in the Material Preview and Rendered shading modes by default. To see it in Solid mode, you either need to use Vertex Paint Mode, or set the Color shading setting to Attribute.

Handles

When Curve Editing is active, this option controls how curves are displayed in the 3D Viewport.

• None:

  No handles are displayed, only the control points.

  Selected:

  Only handles for selected control points are displayed.

  All:

  All the handles are displayed.