Construction plane

Overview

The grid shown in the viewer is the construction plane. Many modeling operations, such as creating a new objects using the tools in the Create shelf tab, are relative to the construction plane.

You can change the display of the grid on the construction plane, or move/reorient the construction plane to make it easier to model in an area not centered on the origin, or in a space other than the XZ ground plane.

How to

The viewport options menu has three items for editing the construction plane.

Construction plane parameters

This window lets you control how grid lines are drawn along the construction plane:

The spacing (in Houdini units) between grid lines.
The number of grid lines to draw.
How often to draw thicker grid lines (“rules”).
The center point for the grid.

Construction plane handle

Turn on this option to show a handle that lets you quickly move and orient the construction plane in the viewer.

Set construction plane

This sub-menu contains many commands for snapping the construction plane to common orientations, re-centering the construction plane, and flipping the plane.

To return the construction plane to the default, open the viewport options menu and choose Set construction plane > Rever to defaults.